Andrew Fountain - Can a Christian fall away? - Hebrews pt.4

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Sermon notes - Can a Christian fall away? - Hebrews pt.4

1. The Story so far

• This is a 3-part talk, put down in writing. Not originally a letter.
• Extremely polished Greek. Clearly not Paul, but very possibly Apollos

• We ended last time with

• Tim Hortons garbage illustration

2. Now we move into the first intermission

• So here’s a problem

• On the surface this seems to teach that you can become a Christian and fall away
  • Even worse, that once you have fallen away, you can no longer be forgiven
  • Let’s look at whom this is talking about”
• received light
• tasted supernatural power
• were involved with the Holy Spirit
  • It’s possible to have the power of the Holy Spirit on you and not be truly saved
  • Jesus said “did we not cast out demons in your name...” “I never knew you”
  • I think this is talking about people like Judas
  • The Spirit came on King Saul, prophesied but we know his heart was never changed
• saw “heaven come down” in miracles
  • but rejected it
• “Eschatological Intrusion” (The age to come, breaking into this age)

3. The Unforgivable Sin

• Have you heard of this term?

• Here is the principle:
• Whenever the age to come breaks into this age with extraordinary miracles, we also see judgement breaking it
• It’s like time fast-forwards to the end
• What were the periods of greatest miracles in the Bible?
• plagues in Egypt
  • Pharaoh
  • It’s like God said “I’ve given you my best shot” If you don’t believe now, there’s nothing else, so we may as well cut to the judgement
• miracles in the wilderness
  • Korah & others who rebelled
• miraculous works of Elijah & Elisha
  • similar judgements
• Jesus shows the most extraordinay & explict hand of God
  • Some call it the work of the devil —If they don’t believe that, there’s nothing more
• Early church miracles
  • Ananias & Sapphira lie against the Holy Spirit
• Summary:
  • When someone has seen the most explicit supernatural power of the Spirit in front of their very eyes
  • And they turn their back on it
  • There’s nothing more because they’ve quenched the Spirit
  • It’s not that they can’t come back, it’s that the Spirit has already done everything for them that he’s going to do
• So here’s the question:

• +Many other verses
• Can you be united with Jesus and separated?
• New life, which then dies?
• But on the other hand, we do have the parable of the four kinds of seeds, which he alludes to:

• Jesus is not talking about Christians who fall away, but people who were never truly saved, yet looked good

4. Conclusions

• It depends on your perspective
  • From God’s perspective, the ones he has saved cannot ever fall away
  • From our perspective we see people who look like Christians, but they do fall away

• There are people who fall away
  • Story of Paul Washer at youth conference see 11min mark
  • more info here
• So is there any way of telling?

• Those who’s salvation is secure
  • have demonstrated love for one another
  • but need to be eager, not sluggish
  • What is needed: persevering faith in the promises

Our response:

• People who have severe depression frequently believe that they have committed the “unforgivable sin”.
• However, the very fact that they are even concerned about it is proof that they cannot have committed it:
  • the Spirit stops working in such a person
  • they therefore lose all spiritual concern
• So what is the purpose of this passage?
  
  1. To be a wake-up call for people who are good at acting like a Christian, but whose hearts are not renewed
     • If you are at all concerned about whether you are a Christian, please come and talk with me.
  2. To help us know where the edge is to keep away from it

• If you are afraid of heights, do you need a warning sign to keep you from the edge?
• If nobody has ever actually fallen off, does that mean the sign was a waste of time?
• This passage is a warning sign to keep away from the edge
  • None of God’s people will every fall off, but that’s partly due to the warning signs!
• Part of the purpose of talking about the drop is to drive you closer to Jesus

• The focus in the surrounding passage is not on your weakness, but his power
• The danger is not that you sin too many times, and eventually Jesus will turn you away and stop forgiving you
• No, it’s about turning your back on Jesus, and saying all you have seen of his supernatural power is just a delusion
• Two points for next week:
  
  1. The person who is truly saved but is a deep backslider
  2. The Christian walking in darkness, and thinking it’s because of sin

Updated on 2017-02-07 by Andrew Fountain