{"id":19132,"date":"2016-12-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-041\/"},"modified":"2016-12-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T06:00:00","slug":"soteriology-041","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-041\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 041"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[103],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19132","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-hebrews","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 041","sermon_date":"20161211","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":5070,"sermon_slides":4136,"sermon_mp3":4140,"sermon_id":"121116102025","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":103,"chapter_and_verse":"6:4-6","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 41, Hebrews 6:4-6\n\nDecember 11, 2016\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open them to Hebrews 6:4-6. I went to the pre-trib conference this week so we did order some videos for the church; they should be accessible probably in a month I guess, something like that, but there\u2019s a lot of good things that were spoken of.\u00a0 My favorite speaker was David Farnell of Master\u2019s Seminary who did an expos\u00e9 of all of the compromises on inerrancy.\u00a0 Inerrancy, of course, is the belief that the Bible doesn\u2019t have any errors in it.\u00a0 Right\u2026 inerrancy.\u00a0 So he did an expos\u00e9 of all of the compromises on the doctrine of inerrancy within our own circles.\u00a0 So most people don\u2019t know this but our seminaries are basically started to get away from liberalism and lo and behold a few generations have passed and the very things we broke away from start to percolate in our own schools.\u00a0 So I really appreciated what he had to say.\n\nAnd Paul Wilkinson and Thomas Ice did a response to a four hour video that was unleashed on the internet, and in this day and age if people see something on the internet they believe it\u2019s true.\u00a0 So it was a hit piece on the pre-trib rapture and they try to say\u2026 and first of all, it\u2019s not really good marketing to make a video over four hours, so I\u2019m glad these guys aren\u2019t marketers, but it\u2019s basically trying to link the pre-trib rapture back to John Nelson Darby and then they say all these terrible things about John Nelson Darby and they try to develop this link that the pre-trib rapture is really a demonic doctrine.\u00a0 So they take a lot of historical license when they do this and so for two hours Thomas Ice and Paul Wilkinson just did a point by point rebuttal, and they are going to put that up on their website, the pre-trib website, so that\u2019s available.\u00a0 And you have to do that this day and age because if a critique goes unchallenged people will believe it\u2019s true.\n\nSo there\u2019s people out there that it\u2019s almost like their whole life revolves around debunking the pre-trib rapture.\u00a0 And the guys that put this together, Joe Schimmel, he\u2019s a pre-wrath rapturist, he believes the church will be here for most of the tribulation period. \u00a0Interestingly his church is called Blessed Hope Chapel; I don\u2019t know how he named it that, I would call it Coming Wrath Chapel or something.\u00a0 So Joe Schimmel, another guy named Jacob Prasch, if you get on the internet you\u2019ll see this thing floating around.\u00a0 And so I was happy that we had some people with historical credentials\u2026 you know, Paul Wilkinson did his doctoral dissertation at Manchester, I believe, on the subject of John Nelson Darby.\u00a0 So I\u2019m always happy when we\u2019ve got some good scholars doing a refutation or rebuttal.\u00a0 So that will be available on their website.\n\nSo those are two things that really stand out in my mind, the David Farnell talk, which I\u2019ll make available to you and then the refutation to the Joe Schimmel video.\u00a0 There were a lot of other really good papers as well.\u00a0 So I\u2019ve philibustered as long as I can do it I guess.\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to Hebrews 6:4-6 and we don\u2019t have a handout today because I was gone this week but I\u2019ll have all of this stuff available for you next week as a handout.\u00a0 As you know we\u2019re doing this study on eternal security and we\u2019re trying to argue that once you\u2019re saved\u00a0 you\u2019re permanently saved, end of story; the grace of God that saved you is the grace of God that keeps you.\u00a0 And we\u2019re kind of moving through problem passages that seem to deny that doctrine and I\u2019m trying to give you a response to each passage.\u00a0 And what we come to today and probably next week as well\u2026 and by the way, did\u00a0 you all know that on Christmas morning we\u2019re not meeting.\u00a0 We\u2019re having our regular church service at 10:00 a.m. so there won\u2019t be any Sunday School on Christmas morning.\u00a0 We do the regular thing, we just start at 10:00 instead of 11:00 with no Sunday School, except for the kids, I think we\u2019re doing Jr. church for the kids.\u00a0 Just a word to the wise.\n\nBut we come to this passage which is probably the most debated passage in the book of Hebrews and I would say this: this is probably the most debated passage in the whole Bible.\u00a0 And anybody that wrestles with eternal security eventually hits this one in Hebrews 6:4-6.\u00a0 So notice what it says.\u00a0 It says, \u201cFor in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, [5] and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,\u201d so it kind of looks they\u2019re saved, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 [6] \u201cand then<\/em> have fallen away,\u201d oh my gosh, what does that mean, \u201cfallen away\u201d?\u00a0 Then it says, \u201cit is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.\u201d\n\nThere are four major views on this passage and I\u2019m not going to give you all of the major views first; I\u2019m going to give you what I think is the correct view, which is number 4.\u00a0 This is speaking of not a loss of salvation but a loss of blessings.\u00a0 And it\u2019s going to take me a couple of sessions to develop the loss of blessing view and once we\u2019re rooted and grounded in what I think is the right way to understand Hebrews 6 (and the whole book of Hebrews for that matter) I\u2019m going to cycle back around and give you the other views that people espouse and why they\u2019re, I believe, inaccurate in comparison to what I think is the correct view.\n\nWhat is the key to the book of Hebrews?\u00a0 The key to the book of Hebrews is not Hebrews 6 but it\u2019s Hebrews 3.\u00a0 If you understand Hebrews 3:7-11 and you understand the historical circumstance that the author, we don\u2019t know who wrote this book, is dialing back to suddenly the book of Hebrews will make sense to you.\u00a0 And we\u2019re kind of living in this age of time where people are trying to interpret the New Testament without the light of the Old Testament.\u00a0 In fact, Jim McGowan and myself, we do a live feed on Fridays typically and the last one we did, which you can find on our Facebook page if you\u2019re interested, the last one we did is a response to a very well-known pastor who is telling other pastors not to teach the Old Testament.\u00a0 He\u2019s saying what\u2019s in the New Testament is the message of God and everything the New Testament wants you to know about the Old Testament is repeated in the New Testament.\u00a0 So he just shrunk the canon from 66 books to 27 books.\u00a0 And the only word I have for that is tragedy, tragedy, because there are passages in the New Testament which will remain an inexplicable mystery to you your whole\u00a0 life if you don\u2019t analyze those passages through the light of the Old Testament.\n\nSo Hebrews 3:7-11 is taking us back into the Old Testament.\u00a0 And to be honest with you, for years and\u00a0 years I did not understand the book of Hebrews because I\u2019d heard one view on the book of Hebrews; I had drilled into my head the Reformed view or the Calvinistic view, and that\u2019s the only view that I really knew.\u00a0 And God did a God-thing (as only God can do) in my life; I was sitting in a classroom and the professor, this is during my doctoral studies at Dallas Seminary, the professor was Dr. Ronald Allen, and he was doing an analysis of the Kadesh-barnea generation and he was making some points out of Exodus 14:30-31, which I\u2019ll show you today.\u00a0 And at the same time, that was in the morning, at the same time I was taking an afternoon class with Dr. Pentecost and I needed two units to graduate, and I asked him if I could take his class.\u00a0 And it was not a doctoral class, it was a master\u2019s class.\u00a0 He said\u00a0 yeah, you can take it but you have to write a bigger paper.\u00a0 So I took it and I was sitting there listening to him speak and he began to say\u2026 and I said what do you want me to write my paper on, he said I want you to write your paper on why the Kadesh-barnea incident unpacks the meaning of Hebrews, or unfolds it.\u00a0 And when he said that I had no idea what he was talking about; I just, like a good student, said okay, no problem, pretending like I understood.\u00a0 But I really didn\u2019t understand.\n\nAnd so I was sitting there listening to his lecture and he started to explain how the Kadesh-barnea incident explains the book of Hebrews.\u00a0 So I had Dr. Allen explaining the Kadesh-barnea incident and some related incidents in the morning and I had Dr. Pentecost explaining how Kadesh-barnea (which I\u2019ll share with you what that means in just a second) explains Hebrews.\u00a0 And it was a class I wasn\u2019t supposed to take and it was one of those things that God did in my life that was a paradigm shift.\u00a0 I believe it was God that was guiding these two people and they weren\u2019t even talking to each other but they were both, I believe, under the Spirit\u2019s guidance teaching on things I needed to understand and God sovereignly, (as God is my witness, had me in those two classes, which I didn\u2019t even plan on being in, I just wanted to graduate and get out of there, quite frankly) to alter the way I thought.\u00a0 It was a God moment!.\u00a0 It was a paradigm shift moment!\u00a0 And as I look back on it the only way I can explain it is God set the whole thing up.\u00a0 And so as I sat under that that shifted me, that semester, more than any other thing in my life I could think of, shifted met away from a Reformed view, not just on Hebrews but really the whole Bible.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice that when I teach I\u2019m not Arminian or I\u2019m not Calvinist, I\u2019m somewhere in the middle because I don\u2019t think Calvinism answers the question; I don\u2019t really think Arminianism answers the questions.\u00a0 I think this loss of rewards view, which I teach over and over again in this class and I\u2019m sure it comes out in the sermons, which I think the loss of rewards view really explains the Bible better than anything else.\u00a0 And as God is my witness, had God not orchestrated my steps\u2026 you know, the Bible says even the steps of the godly are ordained by God, right?\u00a0 So if you\u2019re open to what God wants He\u2019ll guide your life in a way where He can show you things that\u00a0 you never thought you could learn, and you probably couldn\u2019t learn any other way.\u00a0 And if God had not orchestrated that I would be here today, standing in this pulpit, expounding Reformed theology; that\u2019s all I knew.\n\nSo the paradigm shift that I went through I actually wrote into a paper, which Dr. Pentecost made me write, and it got published in the year 2006 (I think it is) in the Chafer Theological Seminary Journal which you can find that paper online if you\u2019re interested.\u00a0 It\u2019s called The Kadesh-Barnea Incident as the Paradigm for understanding Hebrews 6.\u00a0 So here we go!\n\nI don\u2019t think Hebrews 6 is talking about a loss of salvation, Arminianism.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s talking about people that never had salvation, Calvinism.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s talking about people that are on the precipice of losing something from God that\u2019s temporal; in other words, it\u2019s not a heaven or hell issue.\n\nSo we\u2019ve read Hebrews 6, now notice Hebrews 3:7-11.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that this is a quotation and this is what it says: \u201cTherefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, \u2018TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, [8] DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,\u00a0 [9] WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me<\/em> BY TESTING Me, <\/em>AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.\u00a0 [10]\u00a0 THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, \u2018THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS\u2019; [11] AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, \u2018THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.\u2019\u201d\n\nSo the author of Hebrews, at the very beginning of the book, quotes Psalm 95, that\u2019s a citation from Psalm 95.\u00a0 [Psalm 95:6, Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.\u00a0 [7] For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.\u00a0 Today, if you would hear His voice, [8] Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, [9] When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. [10] For forty years I loathed that<\/em> generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. [11] Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.\u201d]\n\nPsalm 95 says I was angry with that generation or this generation.\u00a0 Now what generation is he talking about?\u00a0 Psalm 95 in turn is going back to the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14.\u00a0 Numbers, chapters 13 and 14 is a pivotal time in Israel\u2019s history.\u00a0 If you look at the map I have on the screen the nation had come out of Egypt, probably close to two and a half million if we take the numbers in the book of Numbers literally\u2026 people are debating that today, are the numbers in the book of Numbers really literal?\u00a0 Why call the book the Book of Numbers; numbers means numbers, right?\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 You guys with me on that?\u00a0 Do you agree with that thinking?\u00a0 Okay.\n\nSo they were coming out of Egypt, two and a half million people, and they went to Sinai, they received the Law of God.\u00a0 Now according to Deuteronomy 1:2 they only have to travel eleven days; think about that.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 1:2, \u201cIt is eleven days\u2019 journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.\u201d]\u00a0 They\u2019ve been in bondage for 400 years, you just have to trust God for eleven days and you\u2019re in the Promised Land.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the distance from Sinai, sometimes called Horeb, up to Canaan, and the place of geography there is the southern border of the land of Canaan or Israel, where they\u2019re headed, a place called Kadesh-barnea.\n\nAnd you know the story, it\u2019s all recorded in Numbers 13 and 14; they got to the border of Canaan, they got to Kadesh-barnea, they looked into the land and what did they see in the land?\u00a0 Giants, and they went into fear.\u00a0 And God, who had been so faithful with the ten plagues (which brought them out of Egypt), the parting of the Red Sea, the sustaining them with miraculous provisions, like manna and water, the revelation of the Mosaic Law, I mean God had done everything He could do to get these people to trust Him.\u00a0 And all they\u2019ve got to do is to trust Him for eleven days; that\u2019s it, you\u2019re in.\n\nAnd they got to the border of Canaan, they looked in, they saw the giants in the land and they went into fear.\u00a0 It says in the book of Numbers, chapter 13, they became like grasshoppers in their own eyes; they quit trusting God. \u00a0[Numbers 13:33, \u201cThere also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.\u201d]\u00a0 And so God said\u00a0 you\u2019re done, I\u2019m finished with this generation.\u00a0 And He shut the door and He told them you cannot enter Canaan, and all you guys are just going to wander around out here in the wilderness for forty years, until you\u2019re dead. \u00a0And I\u2019m going to start working with your children because they\u2019re going to believe Me.\n\nSo God cut off a whole generation of Israelites.\u00a0 And He worked through the children and two people from the first generation that trusted God, Joshua and Caleb, and they entered the land with the forty year olds, Joshua and Caleb did when they were eighty, because they trusted God, they kept believing God.\u00a0 So God allowed only two people from that prior generation to enter; the rest of them were shut off.\u00a0 This is why the author of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 95; he\u2019s using the Kadesh-Barnea incident as a paradigm for what these New Testament believers in the book of Hebrews are about to do.\u00a0 And that is the key to understanding Hebrews.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand what I just said you will spend your whole life scratching your head as to what is going on here in the book of Hebrews.\n\nAnd this is why New Testament scholars who specialize in the New Testament, I mean, they can parse all of these Greek words and do all this stuff, and they\u2019re totally focused on the New Testament and they\u2019re trying to analyze this from the point of view of the New Testament.\u00a0 And beloved, this is just a situation where you cannot\u2026 I don\u2019t care how much Greek\u00a0 you know, most of these people have forgotten more Greek than I\u2019ll ever know, but little old me understands this and they don\u2019t.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because I\u2019m paying attention to the road map; the road map is if you want to understand these warning passages you have to go back to the Kadesh-barnea incident.\n\nSo this chart here is something that I created that maybe will help you understand the parallel that the writer of Hebrews is using to explain something to the audience of the book of Hebrews.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kadesh-Barnea\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hebrews\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Source of fear: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Giants\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unbelieving Jews\n\nDisobedience:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Occupy Canaan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do not lapse back into Judaism\n\nConsequence:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Loss of Canaan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Loss of maturity; divine discipline\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nFirst of all, in both generations, the Kadesh-Barnea generation and the Hebrews generation in the New Testament there\u2019s a source of fear.\u00a0 For the Kadesh-Barnea crowd it was the giants; that\u2019s what caused them to fear.\u00a0 For the New Testament Hebrews generation the source of fear was the unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 Hebrews, does that sound kind of Jewish to you?\u00a0 It\u2019s a Jewish book.\u00a0 Who are the Hebrews?\u00a0 The Hebrews are Jews, Hebrews that got saved.\u00a0 Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people got saved.\u00a0 Every single believer in Acts 2 is Jewish.\u00a0 In fact, the whole early church is Jewish; in fact, you don\u2019t even have a Gentile convert into Christendom, the age of the church, until Cornelius in Acts 10.\n\nAnd the church really doesn\u2019t start to become predominantly Gentile until Paul\u2019s first missionary journey in Acts 13 and 14 when he goes outside the borders of Israel into southern Galatia and the Gentiles start getting saved like crazy.\u00a0 But prior to that point in time the early church is Jewish and they are what we call Hebrew Christians.\u00a0 The unbelieving, non-Christian Jews hated the conversion of Hebrews, just like today, if a Jew comes to Christ the biggest flack they get usually is from their own community, sometimes from their own family, sometimes they\u2019re shut off from their family, sometimes they\u2019re looked at by their own family as if they\u2019d never been born.\u00a0 I mean, a Jew coming to Christ pays a huge price.\u00a0 And that is the pressure that the audience is under in the book of Hebrews.\u00a0 These are all saved people but they\u2019re being persecuted.\u00a0 And you go through the book of Acts and what you\u2019ll see is the villains are always, not always but almost in every case unbelieving Jews persecuting Hebrew Christians, trying to get them to renounce their faith and come back to the institutions of Judaism.\n\nNow the Hebrews were, and I think you can understand this if you just jot down Hebrews 2:3-4. [Hebrews 2:3, \u201chow will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, [4] God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.\u201d]\n\nThey are not the first generation, they are second generation in the church and the second generation is not the apostolic generation so they\u2019re a little bit weaker in the things of God and they\u2019re being pressured, pressured, pressured, and the temple, by the way, is still standing; the temple was not destroyed until which year?\u00a0 A.D. 70.\u00a0 So the unbelieving Jews are pressuring the Hebrew Christians to go back to the temple.\u00a0 Now you have to put yourself in their shoes; what would you be tempted to do?\u00a0 Well, okay, if that\u2019s what\u2019s going to get you all off my back I\u2019ll just go back to the temple.\u00a0 I\u2019m still a believer in Jesus or Yeshua, but I\u2019ll celebrate a few feast days, I\u2019ll participate in a few of the sacrifices if that\u2019s what you want if that\u2019s what it takes to get you off my case.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you think of a Jew that gets saved today and their family gives them grief all the time, what would you be tempted to do?\u00a0 Okay, I\u2019ll go back into the family, I\u2019ll go back into the traditions of Judaism, I know what I believe but just to keep peace in the household I\u2019ll capitulate.\n\nSo the source of fear for Kadesh-Barnea was giants; the source of fear for the Hebrews in the New Testament was these unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 The disobedience for the Kadesh-Barnea generation is they did not do what God said; they did not occupy Canaan when God told them to.\u00a0 They capitulated to fear.\u00a0 The disobedience that the Hebrews are contemplating is lapsing backward into Judaism.\u00a0 The consequence for the Kadesh-Barnea generation was a loss of Canaan.\u00a0 The consequence for the Hebrews is a loss of maturity and also becoming a prospect for divine discipline, because every second of your life you stand under false teaching or incomplete teaching is a moment that you cannot grow as a Christian.\u00a0 So if\u00a0 you go back to the temple, you go back into Judaism, you go back into the legal system\u00a0 you\u2019re going back into a shadow, is what you\u2019re going back into, which was designed to prefigure the coming reality which you now possess.\u00a0 So if you shut yourself off, in the New Testament, if you shut yourself off from the writings of Paul, for example, you have no knowledge of New Testament grace, you have no knowledge of New Testament riches, and every second you divorce yourself from that and go back to an incomplete revelation you can\u2019t grow.\n\nSo in both cases there is a very real consequence that both audiences are facing.\u00a0 So to explain their predicament what does the author of Hebrews do?\u00a0 By the way, we don\u2019t know who wrote the book of Hebrews.\u00a0 A lot of people say it was Paul but the fact of the matter is we don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen all the debates on this, what I know is I don\u2019t know and no one knows.\u00a0 And it doesn\u2019t matter; what matters is the message.\u00a0 The author, for whatever reason, wanted to be anonymous so I respect the author\u2019s anonymity, and who wrote it, whether it was Barnabas or Paul, or Apollos, you get into all these debates, it doesn\u2019t have any bearing on how the book is interpreted.\u00a0 So rather than trying to figure out who wrote the book a much better use of your time is try to figure out who was the book written to?\u00a0 Believers or unbelievers?\u00a0 And I\u2019ll be showing\u00a0 you that this book was written to very clear believers because what you believe on that controls your interpretation of Hebrews 6:4-6.\u00a0 But anyway I\u2019m getting ahead of myself here.\n\nThe point is, the author of Hebrews is using Kadesh-Barnea as a paradigm to explain the consequences of unbelief and these are very real consequences they knew Hebrews were going to experience if you disobey God the way the Kadesh-Barnea generation went into unbelief and disobeyed God and capitulated to the fear of man over the fear of God.\n\nNow if\u00a0 you go to Hebrews 6:9 it becomes apparent that the audience had not crossed the point of no return\u00a0 yet.\u00a0 The folks in the Kadesh-barnea generation went so far in their unbelief that they crossed the point of no return.\u00a0 The author sees the Hebrews in the New Testament reaching that point but they haven\u2019t crossed the line yet; they haven\u2019t crossed the line yet where they\u2019re going to experience something irreversible.\u00a0 And you see that in verse 9 when it says \u201cBut, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you,\u201d in other words, I warned you, I warned you about the consequences of unbelief but unlike the Kadesh-Barnea generation you haven\u2019t yet crossed the line.\u00a0 But the fact that you\u2019re even thinking about crossing the line merits a very strong warning from me as the author and I\u2019m using the history of the Kadesh-Barnea generation as a basis for that warning.\n\nSo that was all introduction.\u00a0 So here is the outline and I\u2019m just going to make three major points, I won\u2019t be getting through all these today but for the first two bullet points, Roman numeral I and Roman numeral II there\u2019s just two points under each and it\u2019s the same two points:\u00a0 Number 1, both the Kadesh-barnea generation and the Hebrews were believers.\u00a0 There is not a non-regenerate unbeliever in the crowd; all of them are saved.\u00a0 That\u2019s point 1, and that\u2019s the point that\u2019s been missed.\n\nNumber 2, just as the Kadesh-barnea generation, or the Exodus generation went into unbelief and lost something, the Hebrews if they capitulate to unbelief are in the process of losing something.\u00a0 The loss that they are going to experience is not a loss of heaven but it is a loss of a blessing which they could have had but didn\u2019t get a chance to experience.\u00a0 So for both generations there\u2019s just two simple points: believing status, loss of a blessing.\n\nSo if you believe that the Kadesh-barnea generation had a believing status and they lost a blessing it starts to make sense why the author would use that historical circumstance as a paradigm for warning the Hebrews concerning what they were about to experience if they went into unbelief.\u00a0 So the better you understand what the Exodus generation had in terms of their believing status and forfeited, if you understand that then all of a sudden the book of Hebrews starts making sense to you.\u00a0 But because most people are not connecting the dots back into the Old Testament they\u2019re at a loss as to what was happening and these very difficult passages in the book of Hebrews, like Hebrews 6:4-6, remain a mystery to them.\n\nSo let\u2019s start off here and let\u2019s just put out of our minds the book of Hebrews for a minute and let\u2019s go back and let\u2019s study the Exodus generation and what they lost.\u00a0 Now we have basically two simple points to make, the first of which is the Exodus generation consists all of believers.\u00a0 Why would I say that?\u00a0 We have two lines of evidence, Old Testament evidence, what the Old Testament itself says and number 2, New Testament evidence.\n\nSo let\u2019s look at some Old Testament evidence; you might want to just travel with me back into the book of Exodus, chapter 4, verses 22 and 23.\u00a0 The first thing that God says about Israel while they are in captivity in Egypt is He says there in verse 22, Israel is My firstborn son.\u00a0 [Exodus 4:22, \u201cThen you shall say to Pharaoh, \u2018Thus says the LORD, \u201cIsrael is My son, My firstborn.\u201d]\u00a0 So obviously the nation of Israel is very special to God, He even looks at the nation of Israel as His firstborn son.\n\nNow go, if you could, to Exodus 12:27, this is right after Passover, and look at what it says there at the end of verse 27, \u201c\u2026And the people bowed low and worshiped.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cthe people\u201d meaning all of them, bowed low and worshiped,\u201d I think that would be sort of difficult, wouldn\u2019t it, for an unbeliever to do that?\n\nAnd then take a look, if you could, this is probably the key piece of evidence, Exodus 14:30-31.\u00a0 Now what happened is they were in Egypt for 400 years, God parted the Red Sea, they walked through two walls of water, they got to the opposite side of the Red Sea and the Egyptians were pursuing and then what happened?\u00a0 God closed the walls of water drowning the Egyptians.\u00a0 And after seeing all of this this is the response of the generation that had just experienced the Exodus, it\u2019s right there in Exodus 14:30-31, this is the response after God drowned the Egyptians.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. [31] When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD,\u201d look at this underlined part, \u201cand they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.\u201d\n\nNow this was what Ron Allen pointed out to me in the morning, which was the seed that the Lord planted in my mind to help make sense of the lecture that was coming in the afternoon, and he just made a simple point in class.\u00a0 Ron Allen is what you would call an expert in languages, in Hebrew, and he made this simple point and it was like a light bulb went on.\u00a0 He said the Hebrew construction here \u201cthey believed in the LORD\u201d is identical except for the switch between singular and plural nouns.\u00a0 It\u2019s identical to Genesis 15:6.\u00a0 Have you read Genesis 15:6 lately;\u00a0 It says Abraham or \u201cThen Abram believed God and it was\u201d what? \u201ccredited to him for righteousness.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s the verse Paul uses all of the time to defend the idea of justification by faith alone.\u00a0 That\u2019s probably Paul\u2019s favorite verse; he used it in Romans 4, he used it in Galatians 3, he used it in a number of places to defend the idea that we\u2019re saved completely on the basis of personal faith in Christ.\u00a0 And he\u2019s saying that it was no different than Abraham; this is an old plan and program of God.\n\nNow Ron Allen points out that that\u2019s the same construction that you have related to the Hebrews when they passed through the Red Sea; they believed in the Lord.\u00a0 So if that verse doesn\u2019t say \u201cthey\u201d all of the nation was saved at that point then no verse could ever say that; this is as strong as it gets.\u00a0 And Ron Allen also wrote in the New Illustrated Bible Commentary<\/em> \u00a0put out by Thomas Nelson, and he made a comment about Exodus 14:31, [Exodus 14:31, \u201cWhen Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.\u201d] It says, \u201cWhen we read so the people feared the Lord<\/em> and the words that follow, we are meant to understand that the community had come to saving faith and so were a reborn people.\u00a0 They believed the Lord<\/em>,\u201d and then notice what he says, \u201c(the same wording is used of Abraham\u2019s saving faith in Genesis 15:6; read Paul\u2019s comments in Romans 7) \u201c\u2026The people were transformed spiritually even as they were delivered physically.\u201d [Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary<\/em>, 113]\u00a0 God saved Israel that day, not just from the pursuing Egyptians; He saved them spiritually because that\u2019s the identical Hebrew construction used as Abraham\u2019s saving faith, Genesis 15:6.\u00a0 [Genesis 15:6, \u201cThen he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.\u201d]\n\nSo what did the people do when they got to the other side of the water and looked back and saw all of their pursuers were dead?\u00a0 They worshiped God.\u00a0 And Exodus 15 is a record of their worship.\u00a0 If you\u2019re into music and worship and have to lead worship Exodus 15 becomes a really key chapter for a music leader\/worship leader.\u00a0\u00a0 Unbelievers don\u2019t worship God; unbelievers deny God.\u00a0 That\u2019s their basic core makeup.\u00a0 Paul says that in Romans 3:11,none seek God, concerning the unbeliever.\u00a0 [Romans 3:11, \u201cTHERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;\u201d]\n\nAnd they didn\u2019t just worship the Lord once, over in Exodus 33:10, just a little bit later, this is following the events surrounding the giving of the Mosaic Law,\u00a0 it says, \u201cWhen all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people\u201d notice how it keeps saying all, \u201call the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent.\u201d\u00a0 Once again it\u2019s only a believer that has the desire and even the capacity to worship God.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to fake worship.\n\nAnd even beyond that these people, as they received the law of God promised to submit to God.\u00a0 Now they didn\u2019t get too far in that but the heart was right.\u00a0 And over in Exodus 19:8 it says this: \u201cAll the people answered together and said, \u2018All that the LORD has spoken we will do!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 And over in Exodus 24:3 it says the same thing, \u201cAll the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!\u201d [Exodus 24:3, \u201cThen Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, \"All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!\u2019\u201d]\n\nWould an unsaved person even think that?\u00a0 Would an unsaved person even say that?\u00a0 No, because Paul in Romans 8:7-8 says because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,<\/em> [8] and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.\u201d\u00a0 An unbeliever wouldn\u2019t believe God to begin with; an unbeliever wouldn\u2019t praise God.\u00a0 An unbeliever wouldn\u2019t even have the desire to submit to God so what is being demonstrated here is all of these signs are signs of a saved nation, not just physically but spiritually.\n\nNow you say well, wait a minute, isn\u2019t this the crowd that build the golden calf?\u00a0 How could a saved person build the golden calf?\u00a0 Remember what Aaron said.\u00a0 You know, Aaron was supposed to be the high priest and he\u2019s leading the charge; everybody, grab your metal and let\u2019s melt it and let\u2019s make ourselves a calf and this is what\u2026 behold Israel, here is what actually brought you out of Egypt, not Yahweh but this golden calf.\u00a0 And it\u2019s kind of funny that when Aaron is confronted on this, I think by Moses later, Aaron says well you know, we just threw our metal in the fire and this calf jumped out.\u00a0 He did basically what Adam and Eve did, you know, Adam, when he sinned who did he blame?\u00a0 First of all God because God gave him Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent, remember this, Genesis 3, and as the saying goes the serpent \u201cdidn\u2019t have a leg to stand on\u201d so he couldn\u2019t blame anybody.\u00a0 But that\u2019s part of human nature, we don\u2019t take responsibility for our actions.\n\nSo people say are you telling me that these people are saved?\u00a0 These are the people that built the golden calf.\u00a0 Well, I would challenge you to read the book of 1 Corinthians sometime, and don\u2019t stop with 1 Corinthians, read 2 Corinthians.\u00a0 Do the Corinthians look saved to you?\u00a0 1 Corinthians 1:2 says, \u201cTo the church of God which is at Corinth, \u2026 sanctified in Christ Jesus,\u201d don\u2019t they looked saved?\u00a0 Called to be what, \u201csaints\u201d together with all of those who in every place call on the name of the Lord, \u201cour Lord\u201d not their Lord, Paul says, \u201cour Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:\u201d\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 1:2, \u201cTo the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:\u201d]\n\n2 Corinthians says, \u201cTo the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.\u201d\u00a0 Don\u2019t the Corinthians look saved to you?\u00a0 But are they acting saved?\u00a0 Chapters 1-4 they\u2019re divided in 1 Corinthians over their favorite teacher.\u00a0 Chapter 5 they\u2019re involved in incest that\u2019s so bad that Paul says the pagans don\u2019t even act like this.\u00a0 Chapter 6 they\u2019re involved in lawsuits, suing each other and discrediting the gospel in front of unbelieving judges.\u00a0 Chapter 6 they\u2019re sneaking out at night and getting their sexual needs met through temple prostitution.\u00a0 Chapter 7,\u2026 how would you like to be the pastor of this group?\u00a0 Chapter 7 you\u2019ve got rampant divorce and remarriage.\u00a0 Chapters 8-10, the believers that understand their freedom in Christ are flaunting their freedoms to the detriment of the weaker brother.\u00a0 Chapter 11 they\u2019re showing up at the Lord\u2019s Table in a state of inebriation.\u00a0 Can you imagine showing up to communion wasted?\u00a0 That\u2019s what you\u2019ve got going on there in Corinth.\u00a0 Chapters 12-14 they are taking people that speak in tongues and putting them on some kind of pedestal without any interpretation.\u00a0 So Paul says you\u2019re just babbling about something that has no edification value whatsoever.\u00a0 And then chapter 15 they\u2019re denying a doctrine, just a little doctrine, the doctrine of resurrection.\n\nAnd I challenge anybody to find me one statement ever in this book where Paul reverses what he just said in verse 1.\u00a0 \u201cTo the church\u201d \u2026 \u201csanctified in Jesus Christ,\u201d \u201csaints,\u201d they have called \u201con the name of our Lord Jesus, their Lord and our Lord.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Paul establishes at the beginning of the book that positionally they\u2019re saints but they\u2019re not acting very saintly.\u00a0 So what they need is not to get saved, they already had salvation.\u00a0 They needed their practice to catch up with their position.\u00a0 And so the book of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians is tremendous evidence that a believer can sin up a storm\u2026 in fact, this group was even outdoing the unbelievers.\u00a0 Paul says the pagans don\u2019t even act this way.\u00a0 It\u2019s astonishing what an out of fellowship Christian can do in terms of sin.\n\nAnd so since the Bible doesn\u2019t say this is good but it opens it up as a possibility I have no problem with a saved group manufacturing a golden calf.\u00a0 So the fact that they manufactured a golden calf does not in and of itself prove that they were unsaved.\u00a0 In fact, to the Corinthians Paul says, when they\u2019re visiting temple prostitutes, he says in chapter 6 verse 19, \u201cOr do you not know that your body is\u201d the what? \u201ca temple of the Holy Spirit\u201d he never says you all don\u2019t have the Holy Spirit or if you had the Holy Spirit you wouldn\u2019t act this way.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to contain myself, I\u2019m going to start preaching here\u2026 I\u2019m supposed to do that next hour, right?\u00a0 He says when you commit sexual sin you\u2019re dragging the Holy Spirit with you into that.\u00a0 They obviously had the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[1 Corinthians 6:19, \u201cOr do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?\u201d]\n\nAnd I don\u2019t have time to go through all these verses but if you look at all these verses in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians you\u2019ll see Paul is reaffirming their regenerated status all the way through the book.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:1, 5, 6:11, 19-20; 2 Corinthians 1:1, 21-22, 24; 3:2-3; 6:14-16; 8:9; 10:15]\u00a0 What he\u2019s condemning is not their status but their conduct.\u00a0 Their conduct is unbefitting of a child of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Paul\u2019s doing.\n\nSo when you look at all of the Old Testament evidence, including the manufacturing of the golden calf what you see very clearly is the Exodus generation was regenerated, they were saved.\n\nNow it\u2019s not just the Old Testament that makes commentary on this, it\u2019s the New Testament.\u00a0 For example, notice if you will, 1 Corinthians, now we are going into the New Testament, chapter 10:4-6, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll read all of those verses but here Paul analogizes the Exodus generation to members of the New Testament church.\u00a0 In fact in this passage Paul even says that the water from the rock that the Exodus generation drank from typified spiritual drink offered by the spiritual rock, Jesus Christ. \u00a0[1 Corinthians 10:4-6, \u201cand all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. \u00a0<\/strong>[5] Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. \u00a0[6] Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.\u201d]\n\nFor Paul to make such an analogy it\u2019s obvious that that Exodus generation is regenerated.\u00a0 Take a look, if you could, at Hebrews 11:29, \u201cBy faith they\u201d who\u2019s \u201cthey\u201d?\u00a0 The Kadesh Barnea generation.\u00a0 \u201cBy faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.\u201d\u00a0 What is the author of Hebrews quoting here, whoever that was?\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about the hall of what?\u00a0 The hall of faith.\u00a0 Did you know that the entire Kadesh Barnea generation that built the golden calf, that never entered Canaan, is in the hall of faith along with all the other saved people in the hall of faith?\u00a0 Is that not very powerful New Testament evidence that the Kadesh Barnea generation was clearly in faith and regenerated.\n\nThis is the crowd that trusted God as they went through the Red Sea.\u00a0 By the way, this is the crowd that\u2026 what did they do with Passover?\u00a0 They took the blood of the Passover lamb while they were still in Egypt and did what with it?\u00a0 Applied it to their doorposts and if they didn\u2019t do that all of their firstborn would have died.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t that require faith for that generation to do that.\u00a0 So you start looking at all these facts and there\u2019s almost no doubt in my mind that these people were all saved and regenerated and we\u2019re going to see them all 2.5 million of them in heaven one day, when the Lord brings everything together.\n\nNow people say well, hold the phone here, Moses didn\u2019t enter Canaan.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to argue that those that didn\u2019t enter Canaan were unsaved then who else was unsaved?\u00a0 Moses himself.\u00a0 Do we realize that Moses died on Mount Nebo,\u00a0 having only seen Canaan from a distance?\u00a0 Moses, because he stepped out of the will of God which to me looks almost like a minor incident, to God it was a major incident, God shut off Moses from entering Canaan.\u00a0 So if\u00a0 you\u2019re going to argue that these two and a half million people, 2.5 million people were unsaved you\u2019ve got to argue Moses was unsaved.\u00a0 That\u2019s a hard argument to make because when the Lord appears on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17:3, who is right there with Him.\u00a0 Moses and Elijah.\u00a0 [Matthew 17:3, \u201cAnd behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.\u201d]\n\nObviously Moses was saved.\u00a0 In fact Moses is also, along with that generation, mentioned in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11:23-28.\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:23, \u201cBy faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king\u2019s edict. [24] By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh\u2019s daughter, [25] choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, [26] considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. [27] By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. [28] By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. [29] By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing<\/em> through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.\u201d]\n\nIn the book of Revelation there\u2019s two witnesses, one of them shuts up the sky so it doesn\u2019t rain for three and a half years, that kind of sounds like Elijah to me.\u00a0 The other one strikes the water so that they become blood, that kind of sounds like Moses to me.\u00a0 So in the providence of God what I believe, and it\u2019s too long of a subject to develop but what I believe is God is going to allow Moses to come back in the Tribulation period to complete what he left incomplete in the Old Testament, because God is a God of what?\u00a0 Second chances.\u00a0 Some of my favorite words in the whole Bible is right at the beginning of Jonah 3, where it says \u201cThe word of the Lord came to Jonah the\u201d what? \u201csecond time\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The first two chapters the man is a total screw up, and God is so gracious that He actually\u2026 now he had to go through a little discipline if you know the story, he had to be put in a fish and barfed out on dry land, that\u2019s a pretty good attitude adjustment, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But God allowed Jonah to complete his ministry.\u00a0 God is going to allow Moses to complete his ministry because Moses is saved; Moses is regenerated.\n\nTo argue that these people were unsaved means that God sent two and a half million of them to hell. I don\u2019t think God did that.\u00a0 I think what they lost was a blessing of Canaan but they did not lose salvation; they did not lose heaven.\u00a0 Now notice, if you will, Numbers 32 and verse 12.\u00a0 Why did God allow Joshua and Caleb to enter.\u00a0 It says, Numbers 32:12, everybody is going to be cut off, and then it says in verse 12 except Caleb, the son of\u201d and I can\u2019t even pronounce that name, \u201cand Joshua the son of Nun, for they followed the LORD fully.\u201d\u00a0 [Numbers 32:12, \u201cexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the LORD fully.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 Why did God allow Joshua and Caleb to enter Canaan as older men and the rest of the generation to be cut off?\u00a0 Not because Joshua and Caleb were believers and the rest were unbelievers.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that they were believers but they were followers of God.\u00a0 There\u2019s a big difference between being unbelieving and being just an unbeliever.\u00a0 Joshua and Caleb were both believing and believers.\u00a0 They were believers when they got saved just like everybody else, but they kept trusting God through problems.\u00a0 They kept trusting God through crises.\u00a0 They kept trusting God through emergencies.\u00a0 They kept trusting God through exigencies.\u00a0 And they looked at the giants and unlike the rest of the regenerated folks said well, if God brought us this far what\u2019s a few giants.\u00a0 The rest of them didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 And so God removed from that generation, not heaven but a blessing they could have had which was entrance into Canaan.\u00a0 See the difference.\n\nAnd so it\u2019s very important to understand that according to Numbers 32:12 Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan, not because they were saved and everyone else was unsaved.\u00a0 They entered Canaan because unlike the rest of the crowd they kept trusting life through life\u2019s problems; the rest of them wouldn\u2019t do that even though they were regenerated.\n\nSo what I\u2019ve hopefully tried to establish is the believing status of the Exodus generation, now the second point, I can make this quickly and then we\u2019ll stop, is what did that Exodus generation lose.\u00a0 They lost the promised land, they didn\u2019t lose heaven or else you have to say Moses didn\u2019t go to heaven, we know he did.\u00a0 They lost a blessing which they could have had flowing from their justification.\u00a0 Notice Numbers 14:22-23, God said, \u201cSurely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, [23] shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.\u201d\n\nAnd what you have to understand is once the land was removed from that generation, that was a blessing that they could not get back.\u00a0 At that point it became what we call in law irrevocable; it\u2019s where an offer is made, the other party responds to it, and I can\u2019t withdraw my offer legally, it\u2019s irrevocable, it cannot be revoked.\u00a0 And so this forfeiture of the land could not be corrected.\u00a0 All of these people went to heaven but they permanently lost a blessing which was in their grasp.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s being said here.\n\nNow how do I know that this was permanent?\u00a0 Because the next day they all got brave, remember?\u00a0 In Numbers 14:40-45 they all of a sudden got brave and God said you\u2019re not going to enter the land so what did these people say?\u00a0 Well, we\u2019re going to enter it anyway.\u00a0 I mean, where was\u00a0 your courage 24 hours ago.\n\n[Numbers 14:39-45, \u201cWhen Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly. [40] In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, \u201cHere we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised.\u201d [41] But Moses said, \u201cWhy then are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD, when it will not succeed? [42] \u201cDo not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the LORD is not among you. [43] \u201cFor the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the LORD. And the LORD will not be with you.\u201d [44] But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp. [45] Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.\u201d]\n\nNow it\u2019s like God says enter the land, they don\u2019t do it, then God says you\u2019re not going to enter the land, all of a sudden they want to do it.\u00a0 And how did that go for them?\u00a0 It was a total catastrophe and they were beat back by the giants as far as Hormah, which wouldn\u2019t have happened if they had trusted God 24 hours earlier.\u00a0 So what they lost in terms of a blessing could not be restored.\u00a0 See what\u2019s going on here?\u00a0 All these people went to heaven, just like Moses went to heaven.\u00a0 But they lost an additional blessing that God wanted to give them.\u00a0\u00a0 Do you see the history here of the Kadesh-Barnea generation?\n\nNow the author of Hebrews skillfully reaches back into history, takes that identical circumstance and applies it to the Hebrews and he says to the Hebrews two things: number 1, you all are saved, but number 2, you\u2019re being pressured by the fear of man to leave the full revelation of Christ and go back to the institutions of Judaism.\u00a0 And if you do that you all will go to heaven but your growth and maturity in Christ is shut down, in fact, it\u2019s going to be shut down so severely that you\u2019re going to be stuck in a permanent place of infancy and just as your maturity cannot be regained that is in the same way that the Exodus generation could not get Canaan.\n\nNow had the Hebrews generation crossed the point of no return, like the Kadesh-Barnea generation?\u00a0 The answer is no; that\u2019s why he says in chapter 6, verse 9, we have better things to believe concerning you. [Hebrews 6:9, \u201cBut, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.\u201d]\u00a0 But you\u2019re getting awfully close and I\u2019m going to reach back into history and use something from your Jewish history that you can relate to and understand to explain to you the predicament that you\u2019re in.\n\nSo next week I\u2019m going to make those identical two points, believing status, loss of a blessing, that the Kadesh-barnea generation experienced and I\u2019m going to show you the exact same thing is happening in the book of Hebrews.\u00a0 And this is a different interpretation of Hebrews than what you\u2019re getting from Reformed circles because what they\u2019ll say is problem passages like Hebrews 6, oh that just applies to the unbelievers in the group.\u00a0 Yeah, most of them are believers but there\u2019s a few unbelievers and let\u2019s just apply the warning passages to the unbelievers.\n\nLook at this from a pastoral ministry point of view.\u00a0 If I stand up here and say these warning passages don\u2019t apply to you, they only apply to unbelievers in the midst what are you going to do as I\u2019m teaching?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to mentally check out, this doesn\u2019t apply to me, I\u2019m a Christian.\u00a0 But if I start applying it the way I\u2019m applying it now, that you as a Christian are on your way to heaven but there\u2019s additional blessings God wants to give you now, that you\u2019re going to cut yourself off from, I\u2019ve got everybody\u2019s attention, don\u2019t I?\n\nSo when you start applying these warning passages to believers suddenly the believer starts to understand that there is something in this life they can lose.\u00a0 And from a pastoral ministries point of view that\u2019s a great way to get the attention of the church, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Including Yours Truly. I\u2019m a believer too and I could stop trusting God through the emergencies of life and miss heaven.\u00a0 So anyway, are you all comfortable with what I\u2019m doing here with this?\u00a0 It\u2019s past time, my verbosity has allowed me to escape interrogation. \u00a0Just a quick question, anybody have one?\u00a0 I\u2019ll try to leave room for more questions next week.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t