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Hebrews 6:1-8 - How to Achieve Spiritual Maturity · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello there, faithful listeners. This is Jen with
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Explained Podcast on this lovely Tuesday morning. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: we've got a great topic today. We're doing a deep
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  Speaker 1: dive into Hebrew six one through eight today. I am
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  Speaker 1: very much looking forward to this topic. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be a great one. But before we get
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  Speaker 1: into today's episode, here is a message from a sponsor or. Two. Alrighty,
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  Speaker 1: hopefully you have your Bible out of the version that
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  Speaker 1: you prefer, and also your a cup of coffee or
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  Speaker 1: your cup of tea for you crazy tea drinkers. Let's
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and turn our bibles to Hebrew six one
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  Speaker 1: through eight. And if you're not able to read the
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  Speaker 1: Bible with me this morning, I encourage you to try
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  Speaker 1: to read this later on tonight. Let's read Hebrew six
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  Speaker 1: one through eight together. Therefore, leaving the teaching of the
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  Speaker 1: first principles of Christ, press on to perfection, not laying
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  Speaker 1: again a foundation of repentance from dead works of faith
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  Speaker 1: toward God, of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on
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  Speaker 1: of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
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  Speaker 1: This will we do if God permits for concerning those
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  Speaker 1: who are once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift,
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  Speaker 1: and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted
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  Speaker 1: the good work of God and the powers of the
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  Speaker 1: age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible
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  Speaker 1: to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify the
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  Speaker 1: Son of God for themselves again and put him to
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  Speaker 1: open shame. For the land which has drunk the rain
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  Speaker 1: that comes often on it and produces a crop suitable
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  Speaker 1: for them, whose sake it is also tilled, receives a
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  Speaker 1: blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles,
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  Speaker 1: it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is
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  Speaker 1: to be burned. You may remember a couple weeks ago
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  Speaker 1: when we discussed Hebrews three, I actually talked a lot
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  Speaker 1: about Hebrews six. So if you listened to that episode,
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  Speaker 1: you might already know some of the stuff I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to say today. But I don't want to just rehash
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  Speaker 1: what I talked about previously in Hebrews three. Instead, I
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  Speaker 1: want to look at all of the different things this
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  Speaker 1: passage we read today could be talking about, because there
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  Speaker 1: are many different arguments that could be made regarding today's passage.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll go through a few of them today, first
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  Speaker 1: and foremost, Starting in verse one, it says, therefore, leaving
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  Speaker 1: the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let's press
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  Speaker 1: on toward perfection. If you go back to Hebrews five
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  Speaker 1: and read the very end of it, he basically lectures
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  Speaker 1: the readers, and he's like, you guys are babies. You
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  Speaker 1: are eating baby food. You are not eating the true
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  Speaker 1: mature meat that we are offering you. You guys already
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  Speaker 1: know all of this. You should be teachers yourself, and
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  Speaker 1: yet you're still drinking spiritual milk, is what he told
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  Speaker 1: the readers. And so now in verse one of this chapter,
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  Speaker 1: he says, leaving the teachings of the first principles of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: let's press on to perfection. In other words, get past
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  Speaker 1: the ABC's. You should already know the fundamental principles of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: You don't need to be explained these things every single
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  Speaker 1: time they pop up. And yet that's where you guys are.
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  Speaker 1: He says, instead, press on to perfection. And a lot
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  Speaker 1: of different versions will actually translate Hebrews six, verse one
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  Speaker 1: as let's press on to maturity rather than perfection, because
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  Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense in this particular case, which,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, the Greek word here for perfection, which
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  Speaker 1: I think is tell a tooye. I'm pretty sure it
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  Speaker 1: can also mean maturity. By the way, it doesn't always
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  Speaker 1: mean perfection. So there's that as well. He says, we
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't have to lay again a foundation of repentance from
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  Speaker 1: dead works, or of faith toward God, or of the
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  Speaker 1: teaching of baptisms, or of the laying on of hands,
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  Speaker 1: or the resurrection from the dead, or of eternal judgment.
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  Speaker 1: Now those things listed out are generally considered to be
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  Speaker 1: the basic foundations of Christianity. The first one, which is
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  Speaker 1: repentance from dead works, that would mean anything either evil
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  Speaker 1: or our own righteousness, you know, thinking that we can
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  Speaker 1: work our way into heaven, which we cannot. We have
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  Speaker 1: to repent from those things. That is principal number one
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  Speaker 1: of Christianity. The second principle is faith toward God. Obviously
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  Speaker 1: we have to have faith if we're going to be
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  Speaker 1: a Christian. We have to have faith in Jesus and
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  Speaker 1: faith in God the Father, faith in the Trinity. And
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  Speaker 1: then the third point is the teaching of baptisms. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: told his disciples. At the very end, he said, go
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  Speaker 1: out into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature,
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  Speaker 1: baptizing them. It's a fundamental part of Christianity. It is
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  Speaker 1: the first step of obedience once you become a Christian.
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  Speaker 1: The fourth basic principle is the laying on of hands.
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  Speaker 1: So this would be choosing pastors that are good for
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  Speaker 1: the church, theologically sound teachers and pastors that you can
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  Speaker 1: listen to, and even if you yourself are not, like
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  Speaker 1: laying your hands on a pastor to ordain him into ministry.
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  Speaker 1: You have a choice of who and what you consume.
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  Speaker 1: You can consume theologically unsound teachings or you can consume
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  Speaker 1: theologically sound teachings in the churches that you go to,
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  Speaker 1: the teachers that you're listening to, the music you're listening to,
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  Speaker 1: the podcasters you're listening to, including myself, quite honestly, which
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  Speaker 1: is why I tell you, guys, you got to read
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  Speaker 1: the Bible for yourself. I am a human being. Last
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  Speaker 1: week I had to correct myself like three different times.
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  Speaker 1: I make mistakes. You guys must have the Bible to
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  Speaker 1: be your firm foundation, not any individual human being. But
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  Speaker 1: teachers are important. There's nothing wrong with teachers. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: that's also part of the Great commission. Jesus told his
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  Speaker 1: disciples after baptizing, make sure you teach them to obey
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  Speaker 1: the commandments they are found in the scriptures. So teachers
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  Speaker 1: are good, God ordained them. But you got to find
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  Speaker 1: the ones that are actually the true teachers, because we
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  Speaker 1: do know that wolves in sheep's clothing will try to
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  Speaker 1: infiltrate the church, and we know that the church offers
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  Speaker 1: a lot of benefits for wolves in sheep's clothing. They
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  Speaker 1: can gain some fame for themselves by pretending to be
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  Speaker 1: a great preacher or prophet. They can gain money by
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  Speaker 1: extorting or alying to their people, or sometimes you'll just
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  Speaker 1: find a genuinely bad actor. He goes into the church
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  Speaker 1: specifically to cause chaos. That can happen too. So there
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  Speaker 1: are teachers out there who are wolves in sheep's clothing,
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  Speaker 1: which is why you've got to be very careful on
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  Speaker 1: who you lay your hands on, or rather who you
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  Speaker 1: are listening to. That's a basic principle of Christianity, is
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  Speaker 1: what the author of Hebrews says. And then the fifth
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  Speaker 1: one is the resurrection of the dead. So we know
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  Speaker 1: that someday we are going to be resurrected. All the
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  Speaker 1: Christians who have died believing in Jesus, some day they're
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  Speaker 1: going to be resurrected. Jesus is going to come back
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  Speaker 1: one day, and it says that when he comes back,
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  Speaker 1: he's going to call us to him, call that the rapture.
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  Speaker 1: That word rapture is not found in scripture. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't know that it's going to look like how everybody
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  Speaker 1: thinks it looks. You know, everybody has that picture of
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  Speaker 1: the Left Behind series where people leave their clothes behind,
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  Speaker 1: and it's sort of like the secretive thing where all
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  Speaker 1: of a sudden they were there and then the next
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  Speaker 1: minute they're gone. I don't know if that's what it's
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  Speaker 1: going to look like. It kind of doesn't seem like
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be this big secretive thing. It kind
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  Speaker 1: of sounds like Jesus is going to make a public
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  Speaker 1: display of himself when he does this. So I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what the quote unquote rapture is going to look like.
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  Speaker 1: But we do know, based upon what scripture says, the
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  Speaker 1: dead who died in Christ will in fact be resurrected.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good thing, and it's a basic principle of Christianity.
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  Speaker 1: And then the last basic principle of Christianity is eternal judgment.
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  Speaker 1: That's talking about anybody who does not believe in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: There is such a thing as hell. Jesus mentioned hell
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  Speaker 1: more often than he mentioned heaven. Jesus told the people
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  Speaker 1: you have to repent from your sins or you're going
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  Speaker 1: to experience eternal judgment. It is a real thing. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: all of us deserve eternal judgment. At one point in time,
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  Speaker 1: every single person on this earth was destined for hell,
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  Speaker 1: myself included before I knew Jesus, I was going to
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  Speaker 1: go to hell. Every person, no matter how good you are,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to go to hell unless you believe in Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: the one who took that punishment away from you. So
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  Speaker 1: these are all the fundamental principles of Christianity, and we
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  Speaker 1: should know all these These are talked about so often
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  Speaker 1: in the scriptures. But we need to move past these
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  Speaker 1: fundamental principles and move more into spiritual maturity. And how
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  Speaker 1: do we do that. We don't just sit in the
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  Speaker 1: sidelines and say, Okay, now I'm saved, and that means
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  Speaker 1: I don't have to do anything else, I'm done. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the price has been paid for me, and I'm good
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  Speaker 1: to go, and you just keep on living your life.
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  Speaker 1: That is not a spiritually mature person. And actually, my
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  Speaker 1: husband did a whole series on this because he's the
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  Speaker 1: youth leader at our church, and we talked about what
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  Speaker 1: it means to move into spiritual maturity, and he gave
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  Speaker 1: everybody this graph, and basically it was showing how you
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  Speaker 1: move into these different phases as you become more and
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  Speaker 1: more mature. The first phase is basically the baby Christian,
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  Speaker 1: kind of like what the author of Hebrews here is saying,
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  Speaker 1: the baby Christian who just accepted Jesus yesterday, essentially, and
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  Speaker 1: in this phase, this is where you really don't understand
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  Speaker 1: a lot about Christianity. You might not understand the difference
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  Speaker 1: between right and wrong. You might have questions as to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, why Christians believe certain things, and some things
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  Speaker 1: seem really unfair that Christians do or question aspects of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible. But a baby Christian is one that should
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  Speaker 1: have a solid faith in Jesus. You believe that Jesus
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  Speaker 1: is God, that he exists in heaven, that he came
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  Speaker 1: down to earth, he died on the cross, rose again
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  Speaker 1: on the third. As long as you believe that fundamental
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  Speaker 1: truth about Jesus being the Messiah, then you're a Christian.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of people stay at the baby Christian phase. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: they don't really move past it because they think that
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  Speaker 1: they're good to go. Paul talked about this, I believe
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  Speaker 1: in First Corinthians was it. He talked about how some
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  Speaker 1: people abuse God's grace. Essentially, they're like, I can do
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  Speaker 1: anything I want because I'm saved and because God has
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  Speaker 1: grace for me. But Paul says, no, just because God
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  Speaker 1: is gracious doesn't mean you can abuse that grace that
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  Speaker 1: He gave you. But there are a lot of Christians
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  Speaker 1: that stay in this particular phase. Now, the next phase
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  Speaker 1: after being a baby Christian is being a teenager Christian.
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  Speaker 1: And these are the people that have moved past the
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  Speaker 1: baby phase. And how they do that is they start
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  Speaker 1: needing more, They start wanting to understand more. They might
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  Speaker 1: start attending a good church that is theologically sound. They
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  Speaker 1: might try to, you know, do Bible studies somewhere. They
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  Speaker 1: might try to read the Bible on their own or
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  Speaker 1: prey on their own, and they're just having this like
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  Speaker 1: deep hunger for more. They're trying to be fed with
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  Speaker 1: things that are not just the basic fundamentals of Christianity,
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  Speaker 1: but more things, asking questions why do Christians believe these things?
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  Speaker 1: A spiritual teenager might also, you know, begin turning away
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  Speaker 1: from things they used to believe in the past to
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  Speaker 1: follow a new way of life. Perhaps they've been convicted
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  Speaker 1: on something and they're beginning to you know, turn away
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  Speaker 1: from that lifestyle. And then the third phase of maturity
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  Speaker 1: is the spiritual adult, and that is the person that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't just go to church to get fed, but he
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  Speaker 1: or she goes to church to also feed other people.
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  Speaker 1: They also have a deeper understanding of the Bible, and
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  Speaker 1: if somebody asks them a question, they're able to answer
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  Speaker 1: it in a theologically sound way. They're not asking as
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  Speaker 1: many questions themselves. In this phase, they're exercising the love
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  Speaker 1: and kindness and maybe even a spiritual gift that the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit has given them. They are mature adults. And
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  Speaker 1: then the last stage of spiritual maturity is I can't
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  Speaker 1: remember what my husband said it was. Actually maybe it
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  Speaker 1: was like spiritual grandparent or something like that. I can't remember,
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  Speaker 1: something along those lines, but let's just say it's spiritual grandparent.
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  Speaker 1: When you enter that phase, that is when you're really
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  Speaker 1: utilizing your spiritual gift on a day to day basis.
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  Speaker 1: You are showing love and compassion to other people, not
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  Speaker 1: responding in anger when people anger you, genuinely rejecting the
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  Speaker 1: sins that creep up in your own life. Maybe not
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  Speaker 1: always because nobody is perfect, obviously, but to truly follow
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  Speaker 1: the ways of Jesus in your day to day life,
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  Speaker 1: not just when people are looking at you, but the
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  Speaker 1: times when you're at home as well, and you're feeding
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  Speaker 1: into other people through prayer, through maybe teaching, through utilizing
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  Speaker 1: your spiritual gift on a day to day basis. So
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  Speaker 1: that is the stage of spiritual maturity that every Christian
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  Speaker 1: should be striving for. So, going back to Hebrews six,
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  Speaker 1: the author says this we will do if God permits. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that's a really bizarre statement because it kind of sounds
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  Speaker 1: like God doesn't want certain people to move into spiritual maturity.
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  Speaker 1: But as we know that is not the case. God
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  Speaker 1: wants everybody to move into spiritual maturity. God also doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want anybody to perish. He says that many many times
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible. He says, turn away from your sins.
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  Speaker 1: Do not die in these sins. These sins are bad
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  Speaker 1: for you. You should not do them. They are not good.
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  Speaker 1: It also says in the Old Testment that God does
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  Speaker 1: not rejoice in the death of somebody that is evil.
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  Speaker 1: He hates it. He just wants that person to turn
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  Speaker 1: to him. So God doesn't want anybody to die. He
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  Speaker 1: doesn't want anybody to have a hard heart or rebellion
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  Speaker 1: against him. He doesn't like any of these things because
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  Speaker 1: they're not good for the individual. And he loves us
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  Speaker 1: and he wants to have a close relationship with each
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  Speaker 1: and every one of us. So what does this mean. Well,
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  Speaker 1: the author goes on to explain in verse four, concerning
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  Speaker 1: those who are once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift,
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  Speaker 1: and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit and tasted
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  Speaker 1: the good work of God and the powers of the
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  Speaker 1: age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible
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  Speaker 1: to renew them again to repentance, seeing that they crucify
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  Speaker 1: the Son of God for themselves again and put him
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  Speaker 1: to open shame. No person will move into spiritual maturity
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  Speaker 1: if they reject God's grace, just like these people talked
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  Speaker 1: about right here in verse four, those who were once
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  Speaker 1: enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made
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  Speaker 1: partakers of the Holy Spirit and tasted the good work
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  Speaker 1: of God and the powers of the age that come.
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  Speaker 1: But then they fell away. It's impossible to renew them
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  Speaker 1: again to repentance. That is what the scripture says. And
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  Speaker 1: when I talked about this passage in Hebrews chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: which I will link that episode in the description so
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  Speaker 1: you guys can go over and see what I initially said.
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  Speaker 1: In a nutshell, I basically said, these are the people
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  Speaker 1: that are toe dippers. They partake of the Holy Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: they taste to the good things of God, but they're
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  Speaker 1: just tasters. They're toe dippers. They are not truly jumping
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  Speaker 1: in to Christianity, not fully accepting the gift that God
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  Speaker 1: gave them. I believe that is who the author is
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  Speaker 1: talking about personally. And unfortunately those people know the truth
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  Speaker 1: because they've heard it their entire lives, but they fall
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  Speaker 1: away from it because they don't have a genuine faith
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  Speaker 1: in God. And when these people fall away, having tasted
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  Speaker 1: of all of these good things, they will not be renewed.
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  Speaker 1: Again to repentance. In fact, it says it is impossible
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  Speaker 1: to renew them again to repentance. Now this is not
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  Speaker 1: to say that somebody backslides. That's an old fashioned Christianese
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  Speaker 1: word to mean that somebody falls into sin. Essentially, because
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  Speaker 1: there are people that fall away from church, fall away
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  Speaker 1: from Jesus, come back again later on in life. That
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  Speaker 1: is not who the author is talking about. He is
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  Speaker 1: talking about those who have fully turned their back to God,
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  Speaker 1: to faith, to Christianity. Those are the people who it's
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  Speaker 1: impossible to bring them again to repentance if they've tasted
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  Speaker 1: of it, if they understand the truth of it but
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  Speaker 1: reject it, they are not going to come again to repentance.
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  Speaker 1: They're just not. And unfortunately, I've seen this in my
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  Speaker 1: own life. I have seen people who understand and know
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  Speaker 1: the truth, but then they reject it. And some of
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  Speaker 1: these people, unfortunately, can still claim to be Christians while
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  Speaker 1: they are rejecting Christianity. They say, oh, there's many different
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  Speaker 1: types of Christians, or oh, I'm not one of those
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  Speaker 1: types of Christians that believe the Bible, or you know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm just a cultural Christian. That's what these people will say,
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  Speaker 1: and Unfortunately, though, they are doing what the author says
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  Speaker 1: right here. They were once enlightened, they tasted of the
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  Speaker 1: heavenly gift. They are made partakers of the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, they shared of it. They tasted the
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  Speaker 1: good work of God and the powers of the age
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  Speaker 1: to come. But then they fell away. It is impossible
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  Speaker 1: to renew them again to repentance, seeing that they crucify
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  Speaker 1: the Son of God for themselves again and put him
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  Speaker 1: to open shame. In other words, these people are putting
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  Speaker 1: Jesus back on the cross because they're redoing all of
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  Speaker 1: the sins that they had supposedly repented of. They're doing
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  Speaker 1: them all over again, and they're putting Jesus to open
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  Speaker 1: shame as well. It is a bad look when somebody
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  Speaker 1: who once claimed to be Christian now says I am
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  Speaker 1: not Christian, or I don't follow the principles of the
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  Speaker 1: Bible anymore because they are not good. They are bad
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  Speaker 1: for me, or they are bad for other people, or
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  Speaker 1: something along those lines. That is putting Jesus to open shame.
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  Speaker 1: Because this this is God's word. These are the words
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  Speaker 1: of God here inspired by the Holy Spirit. And if
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  Speaker 1: you're saying that the Bible is no good. That means
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  Speaker 1: you're saying that the things that the Holy Spirit inspired
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  Speaker 1: people to say are not good, that the words of
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  Speaker 1: God himself are not good, and that of course is
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  Speaker 1: putting Jesus to open shame. These people will not be
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  Speaker 1: renewed again. Now, granted, some people say that this is
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: talking about those who once were saved and lost their salvation.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I think there's too much evidence in scripture to say
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: that that can't happen. You know, Jesus himself said I
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: know my sheep, and my sheep know me, and no
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: one can pluck them out of my hand. So once
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: somebody is saved, once somebody truly knows Jesus, that means
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: they're not going to lose their salvation. So personally, I
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: don't think that the author is talking about those who
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: truly once were saved. I think he's talking about once again,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: either the toe dippers or people who are saved and
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: are going to lose their reward, not their salvation, their reward.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: We know that Jesus when he comes back, it says
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: in Revelation twenty two, verse twelve through sixteen, Jesus says, behold,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I am coming soon. My reward is with me to
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: repay each man according to his work. I am the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: beginning and the end. Blessed are those who do his commandments,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: that they may have the right to the Tree of Life,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and may enter in by the gates into the city
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: outside of the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: the idolators, and everyone else who loves and practices falsehood.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I Jesus have sent my angel to testify on these
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: things to you for the assemblies. I am the root
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and the offspring of David, the Bright and morning Star.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: So yes, when Jesus comes again, it says he is
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: going to judge the earth, and some people are not
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: going to receive a good reward, or they'll lose their
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: reward entirely, because Jesus is a righteous judge. You know,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: our works can't save us, but our works are still
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: going to be judged. So good works are not completely
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: unnecessary in the Christian faith. They don't save us by
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination. But we also can't claim
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: to be Christian while doing terrible things to other people
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: or not doing good works. Obviously, so our works are
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: going to be judged. In fact, if you turn to
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: one Corinthians three eleven through fifteen, here's what it says
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: about a Christian who has bad works. Here's what it
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: says in verse eleven. For no one can lay any
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: other foundation than that which has been laid, which is
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each man's work will
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: be revealed, for the day will declare it because it
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: is revealed in fire, and the fire self will test
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: what sort of work each man's work is. If any
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: man's work remains which he built on it, then he
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: But as through fire. Now the Catholics take that verse
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to say purgatory. I do not believe that purgatory is
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: scriptural personally. What I do think this is talking about, though,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: is two camps of Christians, one who has bad works.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: In other words, in this analogy, the wood, hay, and straw,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you know, not very nice materials. I guess some would
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: could be nicer than other woods. But hey and straw.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Those are not great building materials, as we know. But
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the other camp of Christians are those who are going
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to have works made of gold and silver and costly stones.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Those people, their works are going to withstand the test
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: that God gives them. And it actually says that this
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: test includes some sort of burn. Some people might interpret
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: that as the Holy Spirit, who oftentimes in scripture is
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: talked about as being a flame of fire. Right, I
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: don't know what this burning is. Doesn't sound super pleasant,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: but every single person will experience whatever this is. But
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: during this fire, some people's work is going to continue
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to stand, and it says those people will receive a reward.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: But anybody whose work is burned, it says, will suffer loss,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: but he himself will be saved, but as through fire,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: so that person will be saved, but he receives zero reward.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: So it could be that Hebrew six is talking about
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: those saved Christians who turn their back on faith for
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: whatever reason. Going back to Hebrew six Versus seven and eight,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: it actually states something sort of similar to what we
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: just talked about In First Corinthians. It says, for the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: land which has drunk, the rain that comes often on
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: it and produces a crop suitable for those whose sake
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: it is also tilled, receive a blessing from God. But
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: near being cursed, whose end is to be burned. That
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: actually sounds very similar to First Corinthians three in my estimation,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: because it says right here that God is going to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: bring rain on his Christians, And that's just an analogy
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: right in this, like farming analogy that is given right here.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: The rain will come often on the Christian and produce
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: a crop suitable for them, whose saked is to also
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: be tilled. Those people receive a blessing from God. So
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: anybody who receives God's rain right and produces a good
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: crop with it, those people will be blessed. But anybody
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: who receives that rain and produces thorns and thistles, it
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: says those people are rejected and near being cursed, whose
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: end it is to be burned. It does not say
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: that they are fully cursed. It says they are near
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: being cursed, whose end is to be burned. Now, that
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: could be taken in two different ways. It could be
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: taken as the burning that every single person has to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: go through when we are judged by God. Or it
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: could be talking about the burning of the hell fires.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: We don't know exactly, but it is interesting to me
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: that the analogy is very similar to the one we
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: just read about in First Corinthians three. Every Christian is
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: going to experience some sort of burning, and if we
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: can withstand that burning, then that's a very good thing.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we can. But some people will not withstand whatever
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: this burning is, and their works will be burned up.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: They'll be saved, just barely. They'll be saved. They'll be
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: near being cursed, but they'll be saved as though through fire.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: So that's what I think Hebrews six is talking about here.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Either people who just refuse to have faith after truly
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: partaking in Christianity, they just flat out reject it. It
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: could be talking about them, but it could also be
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: talking about saved individuals that lose their reward. Either way,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: you don't want to be one of these people that
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Hebrew six is talking about. Okay, fath for the listeners.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: As usual, I'm gonna have a couple closing notes right
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: after this last sponsor for today. So after reading this passage.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to challenge you, guys to take some inventory
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of where your faith is. Are you one of these
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: people that go to church and you know, maybe even
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: volunteer at your church, or listen to Christian podcasts or
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: try to do good works, but you haven't taken that
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: step to truly believing what is taught to you from
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: these things that you consume. And we talked about the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: fundamental principles of Christianity at the beginning of this episode.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Actually we've discussed a lot Like man, we talked about
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of different topics today on the podcast, we
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: talked about the basic fundamental principles of Christianity. Do you
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: believe those things? If you don't, or if there's one
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: of those those principles that you don't believe, it's definitely
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: good to ask yourself, why why don't I have faith
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that one of these basic principles is the truth? If
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: you have any questions about that, I talked to actually
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: just recently on the podcast about how you can know
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: you're saved and also what the Bible says about being saved.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Those are probably some good resources for you if you
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: are still questioning your faith in any particular way, but
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: there's also plenty of other resources you can find about
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: how to be saved. Got questions dot org is one
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of my favorite places for some of the harder questions
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: when it comes to faith topics in the Bible. Mike
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Winger his website Bible Thinker, is also fantastic. It talks
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: about so many different things. You can type in the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: question box about pretty much any topic and something will
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: come up anything that you have questions about. And you
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: can do the same thing on my website as well.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: If you have a question about something in the Bible,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: all you have to do is search it on my
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: podcast page and probably something about it will come up.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I've done over thirteen hundred episodes at this point,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: so I've covered a lot of different topics over the years.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: So these are all great resources for you if you
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: have any questions about salvation or any other hot button
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: topic honestly that the Bible covers all. Right, faithful listeners,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I hope you all have a fantastic and wonderful rest
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of your Tuesday. I will see you guys bright and
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: early tomorrow for an episode from Second to Chronicles. Happy
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: listening and God bless I just want to take a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: second to thank the team at Life Audio for their
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.