Falling from the Faith - Heb..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Let's read carefully the Word of God, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17. This is the glorious, perfect, sufficient Word of God.

And we're going to be reading, paying attention to each one of the words with a reverent heart. I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. Holy Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that a man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Amen, brothers and sisters, this is the glorious word of God. And as I said, the topic that we're going to be covering this evening is the topic of false conversion of those people who profess to be in the faith, those people who profess to be Christians, but they are not truly, by grace, through faith, vitally united to the person of Jesus Christ.

We are not talking, beloved brothers and sisters and friends, about people who are outside of the church, and who are clearly enemies of the faith and who are clearly against the Christian faith and the Lord Jesus Christ. But rather, we are speaking about people who are within the context of the Christian church that profess faith with their lips. But they are not truly united by the spirit and by faith, saving faith to the person of Jesus Christ. And as you can see, this is a serious topic, even a difficult topic to address. This is not a popular topic to address from a pulpit.

This is not what people sometimes want to hear. But it is the truth of scripture. And because it is the truth of scripture, it has to be addressed. those who fall away from the faith or those who were never in the faith. You might have heard the word apostate or apostasy, those who were within Christianity, who were within the context of the church, but truly, deeply, spiritually, in their heart, in the depths of the soul and of the spirit, they were not truly in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now, beloved brothers and sisters and friends, This topic is important because in the context of the local church, we ought to know what biblical salvation is and what biblical salvation is not, so that we as a body, even if we're a small body, we may protect from false brethren coming into the church. The church is not the place for the lost. The church is the place for the one who is saved. The church goes into the world to evangelize the lost and then to make disciples in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they are added into the body and their disciple and conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

The church is not a club. The church is not a place where you run different programs and then you want to attract people to fill seats. The church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore it is the duty of the church to know what biblical salvation is and what is not, so that we may protect the church from false conversions. But not only for that, it is important to understand false conversions. It is also important, my dear brothers and sisters and friends, because the Bible, through the Holy Spirit in the authority of Paul, 2nd Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 and 3, or 3 and 4, calls us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

to examine ourselves, to test ourselves, to see whether we are in the faith. 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 3 and 4. This is the utterance of the Holy Spirit. This is what God says to his people to test yourself, to examine yourself, to see whether you are in the faith of Christ Jesus. It is not only to protect the church from false brethren.

It is not only to protect the church from the apostate, from the false teachers, from the false prophet. But it's also for the church as a body to examine herself to see whether we are in the faith. And that is the reason why I have called your attention to the passage that you have in front of you. Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16 and 17. Because the way that the Christian is to examine him or herself is through the Word of God.

You see, the wisdom of men, the opinion of men, the intellect of men, the traditions of men. are of no value when it comes to the glorious reality of eternal life. The only thing that the person and the soul and the heart should look on to is the words of God as they have been given to us in the Bible. My opinion is irrelevant. Your opinion is irrelevant.

What matters is if your opinion or my opinion are in a strict alignment to what God has given to us in his precious word. With his word, the Lord created everything out of nothing. And with his word, he gives life to the one that is lost. That's why the Christian and the believer is to examine him or herself. through the power, the sufficiency of the word of God.

And that's why we have these passages that said you have it there in front of your Bibles or your funds in which the Holy Spirit says through the writings of Paul to his disciple and therefore to the church that all scripture, beloved brethren, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It comes from the holy heart of God and is given to the church. And that word of God is what we call sufficient for everything that the Christian, for everything that the believer needs. There's no other place where the Christian should go. Where shall we go to find the words of eternal life?

Only to the Lord Jesus Christ and his words. Why? Because his words are sufficient for the men of God to grow in completeness or imperfection into every good work. But the Apostle gives a qualifier to the sufficiency of the Word to bring the Christian into completeness of what we ought to be. The word is the means by which God works within us so that we will be complete and perfect.

We will be full in the image of Jesus Christ. But the apostle gives qualifiers to that process of bringing the Christian into that completeness. And if you put your eyes in the text, the apostle gives us four different words that are the means by which the word of God operates within the Christian to bring the Christian to completion or completeness because and says that the Word of God is profitable initially for teaching. That is that the Word of God is the means that informs us of the things that we are supposed to know. But after telling us that is sufficient and profitable for teaching, brothers and sisters, pay attention to these two words that if you actually put them in your mind, These are negative words in a sense.

The word of God brings the Christian to completion by bringing reproof to the Christian and also by bringing correction to the Christian so that this Christian might be trained in righteousness. That means, beloved brothers and sisters, beloved of Christ, that if you are going to grow in your faith, Then, as you are walking in your Christian life, you are going to be reproved and you're going to be corrected, not by the wisdom of men, not by the words of men, but by the word of God. You see, when you become a Christian, you are not Christ already. You're growing in conformity to Jesus Christ. And as you grow in conformity to Jesus Christ, there is the glorious need of reproving, which means to convict you of your sins.

And not only to convict you of your sins, but also to bring correction to your ways. That is the job. That is the work of the Word of God. This is very important, beloved brothers and sisters, because this speaks of the discerning power of the Word of God. You see, within you, if you are in Christ, within your heart, within your soul, there is a battle between the passions of the flesh, and Christ's passions.

There is a battle between that which is of the world and that which comes from above, that which is of Adam and that which is of Christ. If you are truly in Jesus Christ, that is the battle that Peter in his first epistle calls the passions of the flesh making war within yourself. And the role of the Word of God, when it's administered with power through the Holy Spirit, is to discern the flesh from the spirit. It is to remove the flesh from the thing that is being conformed, or the nature that is being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the discerning, that is the dividing power of the Word of God that the author of Hebrews, you might remember the verse in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, says that the Word of God is a two-edged sword.

that penetrates, that goes deep, that divides and separates the spirit from the soul, the intentions of the heart. It separates and penetrates. That's the power of the Word of God to discern darkness from light, the flesh from the spirit. But the Word of God, brothers and sisters, does not only discern your flesh from that which is spiritual in you. The Word of God also discerns those who belong to the system of the flesh and those who belong to the system of the spirit.

The word of God is the means by which a person when is lost is brought into salvation. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The word of God is the power that brings a lost soul and captures the soul into the kingdom of life. So the word of God is the means not only to divide you and see flesh from spirit, but also to see those who are slaves still to the flesh and those who have been captured by the victor, Jesus Christ, unto eternal life. That's why he came.

God, the logos, the light came to this world, people did not like the light, but they prefer the darkness. Why? Because their deeds were evil, and they remove themselves from the presence of the light because darkness cannot be in the presence of light. Brothers and sisters, if we are going to understand false conversion, we are to do it within the fundamental, important, vital context of the Word of God. Because brothers and sisters, the terrifying thing about this reality of false conversion, it is not only that the Word of God is the means that divides and separates the flesh from the spirit.

But it is that through and by the Word of God, we know of the reality of false conversion. It is through the Word of God, it is through the utterances of God, it is through the statutes of God that we know of the reality of false conversion within the context of the church. This is terrifying. There are people within the context of the church that can say, speak, even do things that seem to be Christian, yet they are not truly in Christ. And this is not the testimony of the preacher.

This is the testimony of The Word of God. The Word of God does not only discern the flesh from the spirit, as I said, beloved brothers and sisters, but also ratifies, confirms the reality that there will be false converts within the context of the church. that there will be false professors of faith within the context of the church. When Jude is writing his letter in verses three and four, he says, Beloved, I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, but I found it necessary. I was going to write about our common salvation, but I found it necessary to write to you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Why the saints were supposed to contend earnestly for the faith? Because some men have crept in and noticed among you who have been long ago prepared for this condemnation. This is what Jude says, verses 3 and 4 in his letter. that God, before time, had predetermined that there would be some people among the context of the Church, not outside of the Church, who were long ago prepared for the condemnation of being rejecters of the Gospel. 2 Peter 2, verse 2, from verse 1 to 3, it says that as there were false prophets in the people of the Old Covenant, there will be false teachers also among you in a parallel passage to what Jude says.

Brothers and sisters, this is the reality by the Word of God of false conversions. And as I said to you, the Spirit of God calls us to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, not because this is something that happens from time to time within the context of the church, but rather because God himself in his wisdom and perfection has determined that that's going to be the reality for the new covenant church. that there's going to be false prophets but you may say okay this is just speaking about false prophets right it is not about false believers these are apostates in the sense that they are false prophets then you have to read titus chapter 1 from verse 10 through 16 and in verse 16 in titles it says that there will be among you those who confess to know god but with their deeds they deny God, not speaking of whose prophets, but speaking about believers within the context of the church. And the same Paul in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 from verse 1 through verse 7, the same chapter that we have just read in the beginning of that chapter, he speaks that in the last days there will be lovers of themselves. Proud men, arrogant, pride in their hearts, lovers of self and lovers of the flesh rather than lovers of God.

And then you might say, well, those are clearly not believers. Then the apostle continues saying that they have an external appearance of godliness. that they have an external appearance, that when you see them with your eyes, that there is an external appearance of Christianity. Yet, within themselves, they deny the power of true godliness in the Holy Spirit. A couple of verses down, it says the apostles, that these people are always learning, but never reaching the knowledge of the truth.

Brothers and sisters and friends, this is not the testimony of the Colombian speaking from the pulpit. This is the testimony of the Word of God. This is the testimony of what is written in our Bibles. This is the testimony of what the Holy Spirit has given to the church, that in the last days there will be people who profess to be in Christ, who are not in Christ. There will be many who call Him, Lord, Lord, right?

This is Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 to 23. Not everyone who calls the Lord, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But those who do the will of the Father, the same Lord Jesus Christ says in that day, many people will call me Lord, Lord. Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do mighty works in your name?

Didn't we perform many miracles in your name? Didn't we do many Christian things? Didn't we speak Christian language? Didn't we show Christian deeds? And then all of those things, because they were done not in the spirit, but in the flesh, he becomes lawlessness to the Lord to such a point that he says, I never knew you.

Depart from me, ye workers of inequity. Depart from me, you lawless, because the things that are done in the flesh, not in the power of the spirit, it does no matter how good they look in the outside, if they lack Christ, in the soul, then they are lawless before the eyes of the Lord. Brothers and sisters and friends, this is not a reality only for the New Covenant Church, but it is a reality also for the end times, that when the end times is approaching, the Lord is going to find faith when he comes? That's the question that he asked himself. And there's going to be so much wickedness, wickedness, and so much filthiness, and sin, and unrighteousness that is going to be in the world, that the love of the Christians is going to grow cold.

Matthew chapter 24, verse 12. That the love of the Christians, the many Christians who had been taken by the teachings of false prophets, the love of those Christians is going to grow Cold. This is the great falling away of 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4, that there is going to be an apostasy, that there is going to be a falling away before the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the testimony of a scripture, brothers and sisters, just reading Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the virgins, five foolish, five wise. These are not speaking of people outside of the church.

This is speaking about people within the context of the new covenant church. And this is fearful because there's nothing more important in the life of a human being than what is going to happen with his or her soul. It doesn't matter how successful you are in this life. It doesn't matter how good your kids are. It doesn't matter how many of them you have.

It doesn't matter what type of car you drive, or how many houses you have, or how happy you are in this world. What really matters in the soul of a person is what is the eternal destiny of that soul. That's why the Lord came to the world to die upon the cross 2000 years ago. Not that we may have a good life, but that we may have eternal life. John 17, 3, and that eternal life is that we may know Him, the one who sent the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we may know Him intimately.

We may be persecuted, we may die for the faith, we may have to quit and give up everything in this life, but if we have Christ, then we have all brothers and sisters. This is the fearful reality. This is the sovereign reality of the Word of God, that there will be people that profess to be in Christ. And they are not. But the most terrifying thing about this is not that God is just seen into the future and that he's just seeing that there will be people among the church who are not Christians, but rather that this God from eternity past has decreed, predestined of himself as the triune God of heaven, that there will be.

this type of people among the church. That this type of people had been foreordained, Jude 1 or 2 Peter 2. These people had been foreordained by God himself to be among the context of the church that he has allowed for these people to be within the context of the church. And this is terrifying. Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these things in your name?

Didn't we preach? Didn't we go to that place? Didn't we care for the poor? Didn't we did that or do or that or this? I never knew you.

Depart from me the testimony of the righteous judge of the universe to those who were lovers of themselves rather than lovers of Christ. Thank you. Now, brothers, there's even something more terrifying than this, because if the Lord is the one that predestines and decrees that these people will be within the context of the church, the Lord also works in these people for them to be within the context of the church in such a way that the people of the church will be unaware, as Jude says, as 2 Peter 2 says, that we will not be aware of these people getting into the church. So I want to show you a terrifying passage, a very convicting passage in Hebrews chapter 6 that speaks to us about the reality of false conversion, the reality of the absence of Christ in the soul of a person within the context of the church. Go please to Hebrews chapter 6.

Hebrews chapter 6. brothers and sisters, and many people try to take this passage and to explain it around. But I want us to see plainly what the Word of God says about these type of people, just by what the Word of God says in Hebrews chapter six, after the author of Hebrews has given an explanation of what faith is and then what the lack of faith is for the people of Israel. He's given a warning against apostasy, that is those people that are within the church who are not Christians. But then he's going to speak to us about the extreme of those false converts.

He's going to speak to us about the extreme of those false believers, false Christians. In verse four, he's going to give us the reality of these people, the workings of God in the life of these people. Hebrews chapter six, verse four, he says, 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, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, just as in Matthew 24 or in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, to be restored or 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. Brothers and sisters, beloved of Christ, pay attention to the words that the author of Hebrews has given us here and see the terrifying truth of these people who are not outside of the church, but who are in the context of the church. And what the apostle starts saying in verse four, it is that it's impossible.

That is, that is not possible, that it is impossible to restore them. That means that they were within the context of the church, that were within the context of Christianity, and they have fallen away. And the Bible says that it is impossible to restore these people. But the second thing that I want you to pay attention is to the workings of God and the workings of the spirit. upon these people who are within the context of the church, who are within the context of Christianity.

These are the workings of the Spirit upon these people. It's a in those who once have been enlightened. These people have been enlightened in the midst of the darkness of the flesh. The Spirit worked in them a type of light that is not natural for those who are fallen and who are in Adam. Yet the Spirit of God work in them light, a temporal light, but the Spirit work in them light.

Not only that, but they have also tasted the heavenly gift. The fleshly, carnal, lost man who is perhaps a reprobate or an apostate has tasted that which is unreachable and approachable, and it is in the heavens. The ones that it is impossible to reach and approach God have tasted the heavenly gift. Man is utterly unable in and of himself to taste that which is of God in heaven. Yet, for these people, the Bible clearly says that they have tasted the heavenly gift.

Not only that, they have shared in the Holy Spirit. These people for whom it is impossible to restore them again, who have fallen away, they have not only tasted of the heavenly gift, they have not only been enlightened in a supernatural way, but also they have shared in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, the one that when the gospel is preached with power, speaks grace to the soul in order to save them. This spirit has been shared by those who have fallen away, whose future is impossible to restore. Not only that, beloved brothers and sisters, but they have tasted the goodness of the Word of God. It's not that they came to the book and they opened the book and they understood it intellectually as if you go and take commentaries or books written by men, and then you have certain level of intellectual understanding.

They have tasted the goodness of the Word. The goodness of the word that is not given by a good commentary that you have in your library, but a goodness that is given by the Spirit. These people for whom it is impossible to be restored, who have fallen away, they have tasted the goodness of the word of God. And not only that, he continues and give us the fifth one, that they have tasted the powers of the age to come. They have been partakers of the glory that is to come, the glory that is reserved for the children of God, those who are in Christ Jesus.

They have tasted of that glory also. And the sixth one, and the number six, I don't want you to miss that one. Restore them again to repentance. To restore them again to repentance. You see, brothers and sisters, the weight and the difficulty of this passage and of these truths.

You see how heavy are these words that these people are impossible for them to be restored. They have fallen away. They had a type of repentance. They have a certain form of repentance in and of themselves that was worked by the Holy Spirit. They have fallen away and it's impossible to restore them.

The question that the soul then needs to ask for our own sake is then, how can we know? How can we know then if the Holy Spirit can work in such a way in a person? that it is falling away or that will fall away. How can we know? How can we have certainty that we are not the people that is described in Hebrews chapter 6?

How can the soul of the Christian or the soul of a person have certainty and peace when we read and go through these things? Well, brothers and sisters, I started reading 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, saying that all scripture is sufficient for everything that the Christian needs. And it is the means that discerns the flesh from the spirit, because it's not the words of men that give either assurance of salvation or the words of men that remove the assurance of salvation that a person should have. but are the words of God." 1 Corinthians 2, the Apostle speaks of the depths of the wisdom of the word of God.

And he says that for the person who is spiritual, he understands the things of the Spirit, because he is the Spirit of God searching and inquiring of the things of the Spirit. That the man that is natural cannot understand the things of the Spirit. The things of the Spirit are only available and open for the one who is of the Spirit. Because, brothers and sisters, we cannot know in and of ourselves. The question starting from that question is wrong.

How can we know? You cannot know. In and of yourself, you don't have the ability to know those things. But it is the glorious Spirit of God. given by the graces of Christ to your soul and to your spirit, the one that testifies to you that you are the children of God."

Romans chapter 8. We have not received the spirit of slavery to go back into fear, but we have received the spirit of power of Jesus Christ by which we cry, Abba, Father, It is the Spirit of God working within us, the one that testifies to our own spirit by the two-edged sword, the Word of God, that we are indeed children of God, and if children of God, heirs with Christ of the inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven. Amen. is unable to reach certainty in the flesh of the workings of the Spirit, it's only the Spirit of Christ. And that happens naturally by the mighty powers of saving faith.

Beloved brothers and sisters, Out of those six things that you have read there in Hebrews chapter 6, there's one that is missing, and that is faith. The Spirit has worked in the life of these people upon them, has done different things. They have tasted of the Word. They have tasted of the powers. They have tasted of illumination and many things, yet faith is not in them.

The faith like that of a child, The faith that starts not only by understanding a set of doctrines, not only by acknowledging the person of Jesus Christ, but apprehending those things in the heart. And more importantly, beloved brothers and sisters, pay attention to this. More importantly, giving up to self. That is faith. It is that you turn from self, you turn from self to the person of Jesus Christ.

It is not you and Christ anymore. It is Christ Jesus and what he accomplished the glory of saving faith. It is that your eyes and completely turn from yourself from your abilities, from your works, from your deeds, from your powers, to the mighty works of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as when a child jumps from a place into the hands of a father or a mother, putting entirely his and her life in the hands and in the arms of his father or his mother. turning completely to the Lord Jesus Christ and looking to Him. Because when you read the exhortations of the Word of God and then you say, what am I going to do?

Then that speaks something wrong of your soul, because there's nothing that you can do. The only thing that needs to be processed or done, it is to turn to Christ and say, Lord, apart from you, there is no hope in my soul. And that's the glory of saving faith. That is just simple and easy to turn our eyes to the Savior. And brothers and sisters, this is the wisdom of God that is foolish for the world.

This is the wisdom of the Spirit, that it is foolish for the wise and the debaters of this world, because it's just turning the eyes of your spirit to the crucified, risen and reigning Jesus Christ. And that saving faith has two components that the other Hebrews will speak in the next verses that these apostates lack. Because if you go then to verse 7, If you go to verse seven, he's going to give us an analogy of what happened. Oh, speaking of these people from Hebrew chapter six, he says, 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. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Brothers and sisters, these people had all the workings of the spirit that they may desire, yet their saving faith did not produce good fruit. The seed of the word of God had fallen either on the way on a stony ground or thorny ground. And because it did not have depth, they did not produce the fruit, fruit of the spirit. They did not produce Christ in them. It was still living by themselves in their own power and in their own flesh.

It was about them. It was not about Christ. The word of God did not produce fruit in them. brothers and sisters, saving childlike faith. It is a faith that necessarily will be a faith that produces fruit and good fruit.

But not only that, the second thing that good saving faith has is what apostle or what the author of Hebrews will continue to say, endurance. Continue reading there in verse nine through verse 12. It says, Though we speak in this way, the way that he has just spoken, very difficult verses that we have just read. Yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust as to overlook what is here, your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.

the fruit of saving faith, when in Galatians he is summarized in love and work for the saints. That happens the same in Colossians chapter one. The fruit of saving faith is love towards the saints and prayers and spreading the gospel. This is the fruit, verse 11. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of the hope until the end, so that you may not be a sluggish but imitators of those who through, now he mentions, those who through faith and patience inherit the promises, because brothers and sisters, The ultimate proof of saving faith is in time the fruits that we produce in Christ, but it's in the ultimate time the endurance, those who endure until the end, those who persevere until the end.

If you don't believe that, just go and read through Revelation because it's the one that endures until The end. It is the one that is not taken away by the deceitfulness of riches. Luke chapter 8. He is not the one that is taken away by the tribulations and the difficulties of this world. Same parable in Luke chapter 8.

He is the one that with the eyes put in Jesus Christ. count us all lost and ravished and dung in this life for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and with our eyes set in the one that endure all, we endure until the end. Beloved brothers and sisters, this is because salvation is something more than justification, that righteousness given to you. Salvation is more than temporal sanctification. Salvation is more than a glory that is to come.

Salvation, the substance and the glory of salvation, is what the Apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, that Christ is our life. That is not I who lives anymore, but it's Christ who lives in me. And the life that now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So then in me is not Nelson anymore, but is the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

It is not the righteousness of Nelson anymore, but is the righteousness of Christ. Philippians chapter 3, it is not the love of Nelson anymore, but it's the love of Christ. Ephesians chapter 3 and 4, it is not the love of Moses anymore, but it's the love of Christ. Galatians chapter 6, it is not who I live anymore, but it's the life of Christ. And then the word of Christ dwells in the soul of the Christian richly, Colossians chapter 3.

So are not my words anymore, but are his words. And there is not a countenance of my face anymore, but is the shining glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Because that's salvation. It is giving up to self and going to the person of Christ. And then in Christ, abiding in Christ, we give fruit unto eternal life.

And then is the Lord the one that sustains and keeps us, but is also the one that purifies his church by removing those who have not given up to self and who have not gone to Jesus Christ, but remain staying in themselves. May the Lord give us grace. Amen.