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The book of Hebrews was written to explain to Jewish Christians how the Laws of Moses foreshadowed and teach us about Christ and Calvary and salvation. It is what we would call "a deep book" and covers such subjects as the "priesthood of Melchizedek" and "propitiation for sins" and "typology and symbolism of the tabernacle and sacrifices." For Gentiles like you and I who have not grown up under Moses law, it takes quite a bit of Old Testament study to understand and apply these teachings to our life.

Such topics are not my aim in this lesson, but rather I want to take the first few verses of chapter 6 of the book and use that as a springboard to teach on some more familiar territory. In our text, the writer of Hebrews is explaining that he is writing to cover some "deeper" subjects. He is explaining that he is going to "get beyond the basics" and is not writing about the "basic principles of the doctrine of Christ." He then lists what he considers are those "basic principles" that the Christians should already fully know and have been taught on. Let me read the first three verses in the New Living Translation to you:

He was writing to people of whom many had received the Holy Ghost twenty and thirty years earlier and so I understand his frustration at wanting to get beyond some of the basics and delve off into some of the "deeper things" of scripture. But I would like to use his scripture for the opposite reason that he originally wrote; because these verses give us a list of what the early apostolic church considered to be the "basic doctrines of Christ." And so I would like to begin this year by returning us to the basics to make sure that we understand them fully and apply them to our life. I believe this year that God wants some of us to grow beyond the basics; to get beyond "baby level" Christianity; to stop struggling with new convert issues over and over again; to get beyond the foundation and begin building the temple of God within our lives and church. But we can only move beyond the basics if we have grasped the basics. And so let's take a few lessons to get back to what the Bible calls the "basics of Christianity." It will help solidify us and get us ready for a great harvest and besides -- you might learn more than you think!

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The very first principle of the kingdom of Christ -- according to the writer of Hebrews -- is "repentance from dead works." This is the first thing that you have to grasp in order to move on to the great and deeper things of God. It must be the first block in your doctrinal foundation. If you don't grasp this, then everything else will be for naught.

"Repentance" here is metanaeo in the Greek which means "to think differently, to change one's mind, purpose, or opinion, to make an 'about face' and walk a different direction." There is another word for repentance that is used elsewhere, metamellomai, which means "to feel sorry for." That word is not used here. True repentance is more than just feeling sorry for what you have done and asking for forgiveness, but true repentance is taking action and making a change and thinking differently about what you have done so that you make an "about face" and act differently and live differently. If you feel sorry for your actions and you ask God to forgive you and go out and keep doing them, then you have not truly repented and are not saved, and that is a basic concept that many Christians seem to not understand. True repentance is a turning away from willful sin.

The term "dead works" refers to sin, or sinful actions. Sin is misunderstood today. Some people think that "sin" refers to a list of rules that was designed to keep them from having fun. That's not what sin is, though. Sin is actions that bring death in your life. Sin is actions and thoughts that bring death to your relationship with God. It kills your sensitivity to the Spirit of God. It kills your future in eternity and it kills hope and joy and true happiness while here on earth. The NIV says here "repentance from acts that lead to death" and that's a good description of sin. The Bible says that there is a brief pleasure in sin at first, but when it is finished it brings forth death.

So when the Bible lists things that are sin; when the scriptures say do this or don't do that; when God draws a line and says, "My people need to live this way," then understand God is revealing things to you that we need to change from doing because they hurt us. It hurts God, sure, but it hurt Him because He loves us and so by hurting ourselves, He hurts. Sin primarily brings pain to our own walk.

And so according to the writer of Hebrews, one of the most basic concepts of Christianity is "repentance or turning away from dead works." We must turn away and stop doing things that bring death and destruction in our life. That can be destruction physically or mentally or in our relationships with other people, or with God. We must, to live for God successfully, turn away from willful sin.

And let me say this: some people seem to have to learn the hard way that the scriptures are right about sin. Some people have to drink until their marriage falls apart, and their life is ruined to realize that the dangers of strong drink so clearly outlined in scripture are true. Some people have to give in to lust until they are lonely and their life is torn apart before they can admit that God was right. Some people have to learn the hard way. But don't be that person. Don't be the person who tries everything else except obedience to God's Word and then finally after everything is dead and dried up admits their need for God. Thank God that He is often merciful in such cases, but don't be that person. We need to grasp that the things that God has outlined in His Word as "sin" are actions that are leading us to death and hurt and pain. And that pain is real. And that pain hurts us more than anybody else. Serving God is not just something great that you can do for Him, but it is the best thing that you can do for yourself!

One of the worst things that a Christian can do is to try to live for God while at the same time continuing in willful sin. If the first stone of the foundation is off and weak then the entire structure will be off and weak, and so remember that repentance from dead works is the first of the basic principles of living for God. If you don't turn away from willful sin in your day to day life, then it doesn't matter how many scriptures you can quote or how many hours a day you spend talking in tongues. If you don't turn away from willful sin, then it doesn't matter how many advanced things in God you grasp, you will always be unbalanced, and eventually your walk with God will crumble because you failed to place solidly the very first principle upon which everything else is laid upon.

I've known people who claimed to be "Christians" but who were not interested in obeying all of the scripture. They believed in Christ but they wanted to avoid this verse or that verse and not obey that or not submit to this. "Oh, I'm a Christian, but I'm not going to change that area of my life." And so they continue in willful sin; they continue doing things that lead to spiritual death. But let's get back to the basics: if I am truly a Christian then I want to be Christ-like, therefore I must be very interested in all that the Bible has to say. Turning away from dead works begins with "giving a rip" what the scripture says. I've known some people to hear a verse and say, "but I'm saved, I don't need to do that." And so they turn again to their "dead works" and they wonder why they end up far away from God and they wonder why they aren't blessed and they wonder why their family is never saved and they wonder why everything seems to only get worse. But it's because they turned to their dead works and so destruction and pain was the result. We must care what the Bible says. We must be concerned with whatever the scriptures say. Instead of looking for loopholes so that we can stay in sin, we must look for more things that we can do to please God. Living for God is a relationship not a contract. It is a commitment not a bargaining table. It's all or nothing. He is either Lord of All or He is not Lord at all in your life. Therefore we must be willing to turn from every sin and dead work that the scriptures reveal to us. We must care what the Bible says in every area of our life.

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I mentioned that the word for "repentance" here refers to an action taken of turning away from something. Implied is that we must be the ones to take that action. God does not take that action; the preacher cannot do it for us; other people do not take that action for us, but we must be the ones willing to turn away. God will not make you change, but rather gives you the choice. But if that is so, then you can change your behavior. That is, you can if you really want to do so.

Right about now all the commercials and billboards are for fitness equipment and diet plans. I saw a person at the youth convention last week that I had not see in a year and very much did not recognize them. Somebody had to tell me who they were for me to say hello. This person had lost like two-thirds of their size since the last time that I had seen them. I was amazed and even shocked. But that person was getting married and had decided that they wanted to look good for their wedding and they had decided to exercise and eat right and lose weight and they accomplished their goal!

Everyday people get fit, stop smoking, change jobs, stop swearing, go back to college, and break old habits simply because they wanted to -- and they change their behavior without God helping them. They do it without the Holy Ghost strengthening them. But they all had one thing in common, they got "fed up" and frustrated with their situation enough to act and turn away from those things.

So it is with willful sin and turning from dead works. You can give up anything if you get frustrated enough with it. And the reason that God lets sin work in our lives is in the hope that we get frustrated enough to repent and turn away from those things. You can keep on doing what you want to do -- that's your right. But doing things your way will continually lead to unhappiness and a lack of joy and a lack of fulfillment and pain and eventually death to whatever area of life it is and eventually eternal death and separation from God. So God allows your marriage to fall apart, or your happiness to be destroyed in the hopes that you will get up and turn away from the dead works and trust in Him to lead and guide you to life. If people are going to live for God, then they must be frustrated enough with sin and their lifestyle to desire a change!

Some of you need to be reminded today of just how fruitless and empty your life was before the Holy Ghost came into your life! Some of you need to remember just what a shell of a human being you were before God found you. That was what sin did. That was what sin brought. Some of you need to remember some of the pain of your past and realize that you brought it upon yourself by turning over and over again to "dead works." But thank God that you got frustrated enough that when the light of truth was offered to you, you were willing to turn away from those things! And yet the numbers say that I am doubtlessly preaching to somebody who is trying to live for God and still turn to sinful devices on the side and let me ask you: "how long will it be before the realization sets in that doing things your way and against the Word of God always brings pain and destruction?" Why don't you get frustrated and fed up with your situation enough that you are willing to discontinue your actions and do things God's way? Why don't you get unhappy enough with your situation that you are willing to do as God's Word says and "turn from dead works?"

You may remember the story about the blind man, Bartimaeus, who as Jesus passed through Jericho began to scream for mercy and attention. We all know that he eventually got his healing, but the scripture in Mark records an interesting extra fact:

Before he ever was healed, Bartimeaus discarded his beggar garments. He threw away the cloak that identified him as a blind man. He cut himself loose from his present situation and turned from it completely before he ever got healed in the first place. He said, "I'm not going to be needing that anymore." And he said that even before his eyes were opened.

We come to Jesus with hurts and wounds and pasts that need to be healed, but that healing will only take place if we are willing to turn loose of the identity that sin has placed upon us. There is an identity that the past has brought to us. There is a cloak of who we have always been and how we have always acted that is wrapped around us as Jesus is passing by. And like Bartimaeus, Jesus is calling us to come closer to Him. But you will only receive a complete healing if you are willing to let go of some things and let go of you have always been for the hope of who He can make you become! We have to take that cloak of our past actions and our past viewpoints and our past lifestyle and leave it behind. We can't live as we have always lived, but our very lifestyle must be transformed.

Some of you know from Tuesday night Bible Study that in Matthew 20:29-34 we find that it was two blind men here that actually began to cry out to Jesus as He left Jericho. Matthew was an eye witness so no doubt there were originally two that cried out to Jesus that day for help. But Mark who was writing by interviewing people in the apostolic church decades later, only found Bartimaeus still serving God. Apparently, for whatever reason, the other blind man was no longer around. When you contrast the two accounts, you will find that they are identical except one thing. Both Bartimaeus and the other blind men called out to Jesus. Both of them approached Jesus when called. Both of them were healed. It is said in scripture that both of them then "followed Jesus." But the difference is that it is said that Bartimaeus "cast away his garment" and then rose and came to Jesus. The difference between the one who lasted and the one who did not was not in the initial supernatural experience, because both were the same, but rather that one was willing to let go of the old actions, the old lifestyle, and to embrace the new!

We must turn from the dead works of what we have always done. We must be willing to get willful sin out of our life and out of walk with God. We must turn from the actions that lead to death. We must have our minds renewed. We must follow in His path in every way for every footstep. Because it is the first principle that we must grasp if we are to make it in living for Him. Our goal is not to have a supernatural touch and serve Him for a little while and then return, but rather to serve Him for forever! And therefore we must turn from who we always have been and turn to His Word for our guide for living! We must have "repentance from dead works!"

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I continued reading on to verse six in our text for a reason: those last few verses are considered by many to be one of the "hard passages" of scripture. They are often misquoted and misapplied, and so since we are on the subject, let's finish this study by
"rightfully dividing" this and another "hard scripture" in Hebrews and let's correctly apply them to our life.

Let me read you Hebrews 6:4-6 in the English Standard Version:

Now some have tried to interpret this to mean that if a person backslides they are eternally lost, but when we take it in context with the entire Word of God we find that other scriptures declare that it is possible to backslide and still be saved. Listen to these scriptures:

And my personal favorite which we read as our text:

The Apostle John wrote this in a letter that was addressed to the church people:

Understand what the scriptures are teaching us. You will never in this life overcome accidental sin. You are human. You are not perfect. And on this side of the Rapture, you will never reach perfection. In order to make it in the kingdom of God, you will have to ask God to forgive you from attitudes and thoughts that were not like Christ. All of us will slip and fall in trying to live for God. But the difference is that the righteous man may fall seven times, but he gets back up and keeps trying, whereas the wicked stay down! Understand that you will accidentally sin even if you have the Bible memorized and the Holy Ghost because you are still human (even though the more scripture you know, the less accidental sin that you will commit, which is why David wrote: "thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee). But whatever you do, get back up when you fall! Don't let an accidental sin keep you down, but get up and ask for forgiveness and turn from that action and keep serving God. Only the wicked stay down when they fall. The righteous man falls seven times, but he just keeps getting up!

Let's take a quick detour to another "hard scripture" in Hebrews:

Notice that it does NOT say that if a person sins deliberately after coming to truth that there is no longer "a place of forgiveness." What it says is that in such a case "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." To understand this scripture you must understand that the writer is referring to a specific "red heifer sacrifice" in Numbers 19 and applying the concepts to grace (we know this from specific references in Hebrews 9:13). I'll just give you a quick lesson on this sacrifice enough so that you grasp what the writer is saying.

In Moses' Israel, if a person died, then if an Israelite touched the dead body or even walked through the room where the dead body was, they were considered "unclean." In order to become "clean" again or "right with God" they had to take a red heifer -- a red-colored calf -- and sacrifice it to the Lord. The ashes of the red heifer were then mixed with water and on the third day after becoming defiled, the "unclean" person had to wash themselves in this ashy water. When they did so, they were pronounced "clean" and were able to come before God and worship and be saved as before. If the person refused to wash with the ashy water, then they were cut off from the people and were not allowed to come to the temple or live in Israel.

The important concept to grasp was that it was NOT when they touched the dead body that they were cut off, but when they refused the sacrifice. If they refused the sacrifice of the red heifer, then there was no other sacrifice that could cleanse them.

Many scriptures teach that when we come to Christ, we put off the old man and become a new creature in Jesus. Jesus referred to being saved as a "new birth" and so when we repent, are baptized, and are filled with the Holy Ghost, that old man is cut away from us and what we used to be becomes a "dead body." Paul said that at baptism there is a spiritual circumcision where the dead body of our sins are removed from us (Colossians 2:12). So when you go back and touch the old man after you have been a new creature, or you go back and sin as you did before, you become spiritually unclean and that is what the writer of Hebrews is meaning by applying this sacrifice to teach about Grace. So catch this: it is not when we sin again that we are cut off and become lost again, but when we refuse to do anything about our sin. When we refuse to confess and repent and turn away from that sin. When we refuse to go back to Calvary and let His blood wash us and His Spirit remove that old desire. When we stubbornly refuse to leave the place of our old man but embrace it and touch it again and again. When we do that, there remains no more sacrifice for that sin. In other words there is nothing else that you can do to get rid of the uncleanness. Paying extra tithes won't help. Spending more time at the church won't change it. Giving to the poor won't cleanse you. No other sacrifice can substitute for true repentance and the blood of Calvary. There simply is no other sacrifice for sins!

You will accidentally sin and may accidentally find yourself touching the old man, but understand that only if you do nothing will it be fatal in your spiritual life. Get back up, and go find a place at Calvary. The same sacrifice that washed your past away is the same sacrifice needed to wash you again. Confess your sins to Him! Let His Spirit and blood cleanse you again. But whatever you do, don't stay in the room with your past and just remain there and not wash yourself. Because then you will be unclean and cut off from the people of God!

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Now go back to the "hard scripture" of our text in Hebrews 6. If other scriptures teach that a person can be restored even after they have returned to willful sin and backslid from God, then what is this verse saying? What does it mean that "if they fall away" it is impossible to renew them to repentance? Catch this: there must be a difference between "falling" and "falling away." Falling is messing up and God can forgive that. Even if it is willful, God can restore the backslider. But what does it mean by "falling away." We must take the scripture in context with the verses after it and so turn your attention to the next two verses:

Here is presented two lands. They both receive the same rain and the same sunshine. Both receive the same things from God, but one land takes what God has given it and turns it into a useful crop while the other bears thorns and thistles. God has done all that He can do, but the land no longer responds properly to His blessings and rain.

Rain is a type of the Holy Ghost in scripture and it is obvious that the lands represent people. If God rains His Spirit upon somebody and blessed them and allows the light of truth to shine upon them and places His good seed of His Word within their lives and yet that person refuses to respond to those blessings and Word and instead produce the thorns and thistles of sin, then what more can God do? As God said in Isaiah 5:4:

What more can God do in your life that He has not already done to bring about good fruit? If He has shone the light of truth into your heart; if He has given you the Holy Ghost; if He has washed your sins away; if He has given you a pastor to preach and teach to you the Word of God; if He has given you promise after promise that are there to be possessed; if He has done all of these things, and yet a person chooses to continue to live in sin, then what else can God do? That is what these "hard scriptures" are saying. If a person ever reaches a place where the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the man of God cannot move them to change, then it is impossible for them to recover from their sin, because what more can God do? He has done all that He can.

And so therein lies the danger of continuing in willful sin and not turning from dead works in your walk with God. Because to continue doing things that you know are wrong; to continue to willfully sin, means that you must ignore the voice of the Holy Ghost speaking to your conscience and deaden yourself to that voice. If you have the Holy Ghost and you want to continue in willful sin, then you must harden yourself against that voice that tells you what is right. You must also harden yourself against the Word of God that you know and you must learn to ignore it and not respond to it. And you must harden yourself against the man of God in your life who keeps trying with great anointing and passion to stir you to a place of total commitment. To continue in willful sin, you must resist and bring up briars and thorns despite all that God has done in your life, and if you are ever totally successful: if you ever reach the place where you have successfully hardened your heart so that sin no longer bothers your conscience, and that the Holy Spirit moving in a service no longer moves you, and that the Word of God means nothing to you, and the man of God can no longer speak to you -- if you ever are completely successful at deadening and resisting all that God brings in your life -- then you become a God reject and there is no hope and it is impossible to restore you to repentance because you have resisted all that He had done. And what more can God do in your life? Without His Spirit, Word, and messenger in your life, you are beyond hope.

If I am preaching to someone who has yielded to willful sin today, then know that there is still hope for you. You are hearing a message once again giving mercy and permission to repent. God is still reaching for you and He wants you to come back to Him. But hear His word today: you must be willing to repent and turn away from dead works. You must come to this altar and respond to His Spirit and Word by asking Him for a change and then leaving this place and turning away from some things. You can't go back even in the same room as the old man, but you must stay cleansed. And when you accidentally sin, get back up, ask forgiveness, and keep serving Christ, but for God to do what He wants us to do, willful sin needs to be eradicated from our lives. These altars are open. Let's begin the new year by getting back to the basic principle of Christianity. Let's repent from the dead works of sin!