Hebrews 6: The Six Great Doctrines

All right, with that, now we're ready for the main message today.

And since we have been covering in the Bible study the book of Hebrews, it struck me as we got to Hebrews 6, which is the one that we're going to be studying this coming time, God willing, that most commentaries, when you look at Hebrews 6— and let's turn there to Hebrews 6, verse 1.

These are the six fundamental doctrines of Christianity, as they were taught by Jesus Christ. And it says in Hebrews 6, verse 1, And therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. So here are six fundamental doctrines of Christ. And yet, when you look at the different scholars and what they write in their commentaries, almost all of them mention that actually these aren't the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. That this has to do more with the Jewish view, as they came into Christianity, but this wasn't the general teaching of Christianity up to today. Now, how is that going to match what you're reading here? It says they are elementary doctrines of Christ. So I'd like to read to you from one of the famous scholars, F.F. Bruce, in his New Testament international commentary. He says, we are thus given some insight into what was regarded as a suitable foundation of Christian teaching in a non-Pauline church. In other words, this was a church where the Apostle Paul and his teachings were not applied. So what he's saying is that, oh yes, we Protestants, we're the Pauline church, so this isn't our foundation. But this was what some of the Hebrew Christians believe, but that of course doesn't apply to us. And I was struck by one after another of these different commentaries denying that these are fundamental beliefs. Also, the Catholic Church doesn't have these as fundamental doctrines for their teachings as well. He goes on to say, we are thus given some insight into what was regarded as a suitable foundation of Christian teaching in a non-Pauline church and one which had a Jewish basis. So what were there? Two churches? At the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles? No, it was one church. But here they're dividing it, and I'm going to show you why. What is the motive behind such an explanation? He says, when we consider the rudiments one by one, it is remarkable how little in the list is distinctive of Christianity. So here they're denying the basis because they have a different foundation. So they have to choose this other one. Whereas here we have the biblical inspired word, and they're saying this is not Christianity's basis. Doesn't that get your attention? Let me read to another one. The Believer's Bible commentary basically says the same thing. Quote, this is on Hebrews 6.1. It says, we understand this to mean the basic doctrines of religion that were taught in the Old Testament and were designed to prepare Israel for the coming Messiah, prepare Israel, not Christians. As we shall seek to show, they are not the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, but rather teachings of an elementary nature which formed the foundation for later building. They fell short of Christ risen and glorified. They fell short of the risen Christ and the glorified Christ. This is what you read today.

Now, this is based on preconceived ideas.

From the Protestant and evangelical point of view, they can't accept this foundation because they believe in faith alone. And so they can't have these practices as something that are needed for Christianity because then they would be a requisite. There would be a requirement. So they say, no, no, no, this isn't the true foundation because we have this by faith alone. Are we saved? There can't be any works quote. And then for the Catholics, they established that the works are established by the church councils, not by the Bible. So this isn't the foundation of the Catholic Church as well. I want to read to you the basis for the Catholic Church. It's very easy. You just you can type in the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. These are the seven works that are required for salvation. And they are baptism. And by this, they mean infant baptism, penitence, which is different from repentance.

Number three, communion of the Eucharist.

Number four, confirmation at the age of 12. By the way, I went through most of these when I was a Catholic. I was baptized as an infant. I also went through communion at seven. I also went through confirmation at 12.

I did penitence because I'd confessed to a priest. But since I had as a little child, which sometimes you had to concoct things and invent things.

And then you have the fifth one is the only real biblical one out of the seven, which is marriage. But there they say that celibacy, which is not marrying as a priest, is a higher order. It's better than marriage. So that sinks that ship as well. And then you have number six, holy orders, which is the priests and the bishops and the popes. They say, you've got to believe in all of that. Well, where in the Bible do you find that? Yet they say that is necessary for salvation. And the seventh is extremum, which is that before a person dies, a priest comes and pours some oil and says goodbye, prays over the person. And that extremum is not biblical because you're supposed to be anointed to get better, not to die. So they just, they have a priest in just about every hospital that every Catholic they go through. And the priest is just saying goodbye to everybody in extreme function. But that's one of the sacraments. If you miss one of them, they say you can't be saved. Notice here in the Council of Trent, which was the one where they really established this as necessary for salvation, the Council of Trent took place from 1545 to 1563, over 400 years ago. And these were the different decrees approved by the Pope and taught for the past 400 years. This is still what the church teaches. Canon, which is the decree number one, it says, if one says that the sacraments of the new law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, or that they are more, more than seven, or less than seven, and then they go through the seven, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extremum, order, and matrimony, or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament. Let him be anathema, which means excommunicated, expelled. You become a heretic, if you don't believe, any of these seven. This is still in the books. It has, it's just not enforced, but that's the great danger, that that is a law in the church, and if they could enforce it, they would. Canon 5, I mean Canon 4 of the Council of Trent says, if anyone says that the sacraments of the new law are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous, which means unnecessary, and that without them, or without the desire thereof, men obtain of God through faith alone the grace of justification. Though all, talk about the sacraments, if they say they're not necessary for every individual, let him be anathema, condemned as a heretic, separated. You would end up in the Inquisition, and with all death sentence on you. In January 1564, when the Council of Trent was finished, and the papal bull, which is the decree Benedictus Deus, which enjoins strict obedience of these decrees upon all Roman Catholics, and forbids, under pain of excommunication, all unauthorized interpretations, reserving this to the pope alone, and threatens the disobedient with, quote, the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul. Curiously, he left Jesus Christ out, and Peter and Paul have been dead for thousands of years.

The Encyclopedia Britannica on the Council of Trent mentioned no attempt was made to introduce this decree into England. Pius IV sent the decrees to Mary, Queen of Scots, with a letter dated June 13, 1564, requesting her to publish them in Scotland, but she dared not do it in the face of John Knox and the Reformation. And later would be Elizabethan England, which would completely reject it. But in the rest of the continent, that was imposed, the decrees. And that led to wars for a hundred years, which the last 30 years of that century was called the Thirty Years' War, and millions of people were killed. And finally, exhausted, neither side could defeat the other. So in 1648, they had what they called the Peace of Westphalia, which was the one where they just said, well, we're going to split Europe into different spheres of influence, Catholic and Protestant. And so these different foundations of Christianity have been taught up to the present. The Catholic Foundation with the seven sacraments, the Protestant, that it's by faith alone that you have salvation without works.

But here in Hebrews 6, we're going to go into the foundation of our belief. The Church is founded not on Protestant ideology, not in Catholic ideology, but on biblical ideology, what the Bible teaches. Very few churches on earth use this as a foundation for its teachings. We do a hundred percent. And I'm going to show you each one of these and how they are the basis for our way of life.

And so there are many excuses that you will find in different commentaries because they can't accept these six foundational teachings. And so they have taught the world a bucket of lies.

Because this is what God says. This is an inspired Christian writer. And we certainly believe the evidence points to the Apostle Paul writing this. It mentions about Timothy being the beloved Timothy and others, the companion about it. Paul had to be careful, though, mentioning his name because it was going to the Hebrew Christians. So he wanted to just send it to them in a more anonymous way for them to listen to this. But here are the six foundational doctrines. And there's so much material. I can only cover half of it in this sermon, the first three of these doctrines. And it's a good time for us to examine our foundations. How is our faith founded? Is it based on this? Is some of our faith cracking? Is a foundation cracking underneath? Or is it solid and strong? The Bible tells us to examine ourselves to see if our faith is sound or not. So I'd like to go over, first of all, an overview of what Hebrews was getting across here from Hebrews chapter 5, all the way to Hebrews chapter 9 and 10. It is basically teaching the six foundations, the six doctrines, which are the basic structure. And then over this is the seventh structure, which is Jesus Christ as our high priest, our king, our mediator, our personal savior. That is what the true church has as its edifice, as its building. But these six fundamental doctrines are the ones the building is set upon. You cannot understand Jesus Christ's true role until you have these seven teachings by Jesus Christ. See, this is one of the things I realized very seldom is it taught that it says in Hebrews 6, not that these are six fundamental doctrines of Christianity. It says the elementary principles of Christ, because He taught every one of them. He is the cornerstone, and then the apostles built upon. But He is the originator of these six basic doctrines, which traditional Christianity has rejected the great part of it. And so if you read some commentary, you just find these men tripping over themselves in these chapters, because they know it doesn't jive, it doesn't fit with what they teach.

So the foundation is solid, and then the building of our relationship with Jesus Christ as our High Priest, and He established a new order in the ministry. He established a new ministry and order. It's very important to understand that a new system and access to God.

It's a new and better and living way. Notice in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, He explains this very clearly. Hebrews 10 verse 19, it says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So you see how the book of Hebrews just fits, just like a hand and glove, that before you understand the full dimensions of what Jesus Christ does, you need to lay the foundation. If it's a sound foundation, it's going to last you throughout your life. And so we have these six different blocks that are laid there. This is the house built on a rock. This is solid, stable, and unfortunately you can't find this foundation virtually in every place you look in traditional Christianity because they set up a different foundation. So let's go and cover the first three of these, which has to do with repentance, faith in God, and baptisms. The first one it mentions in Hebrews chapter 6. This is good preparation for baptism. It's good preparation in our life because the first stone that is laid of the foundation is called here the repentance from dead works. This was taught by Jesus Christ. It was taught by John the Baptist, and it was taught by the apostles. Virtually, all of them, this was the first doctrine that is taught. And incidentally, it's the first one that is taught to somebody that is preparing for baptism. Repentance of dead works. What does that mean? Well, let's look in the Bible. Let's see what Christ taught in Mark chapter 1 verse 14 and 15. Mark chapter 1 verse 14 and 15. It says, Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent. Talking about repentance. That's the first thing he said. What does the word repent mean?

It comes from a Greek word, which means a change of thinking, a change of mind. The term has to do with a change in the way your outlook, your attitude toward life. Do you remember when that first happened to you? I do. I remember. It only took about two weeks for me to go from going to Mass as a Catholic to start attending a small church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I begged the minister, please let me come. And I was still in high school at that time. And with a friend, he had been baptized shortly. He was a little older than me. He was 18. But I wanted to go to services. Why? Because I realized what I had been taught was false and that the Bible had the answers. Here was the fountain of truth. I wanted to imbibe. I knew this was not created by man. I knew this was the Word of God.

By the way, Hebrews 6 mentions the Word of God here and the Word of God, which is good to cover it, where it talks about, therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. And he goes on later on talking about verse 5, having tasted the good Word of God. I tasted that!

I could understand it. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. All the parts fit. And of course, the most important part was when I had to face that spiritual mirror of God's Word, look into it and say, guilty. I am guilty before God. I have broken His holy and righteous law, and I was dead to God. I was condemned to death. Notice in Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6 and verse 20, it says, Paul speaking, for when you were slaves of sin, when you were just following along, breaking God's laws, you were free in regard to righteousness. You didn't even know what righteousness was. I had a wrong foundation. In my former belief, I didn't know what true righteousness was. He says, verse 21, what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. That's what makes you guilty before God. Repentance of, it says there, of dead works. Why? Because those works produce death. And so you are faced with God's law, and you realize that all we deserve is to be condemned. We don't deserve to be resurrected into a future kingdom. We are guilty. And so I repented. I turned my mind. I said, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to continue with dead works. I want living works. I want works that please God. I want to start obeying His law. And of course, it was kind of a whirlwind type of thing because I was breaking the Sabbath, and so I had to quit working on the Sabbath day. I started tithing. I didn't know what that was before. I started tithing, taking 10 percent of what I earned and giving it to God. I had to change what I ate. I ate pork and all of these things. See, I realized this I did in my ignorance. These things were not what God taught in His Word, but what did I know until I saw it for myself? I read Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14. God says these are the foods that you should eat, and believe me, everything that God says you shouldn't eat is bad for you. Even fat. God said you won't eat fat out of the meat, and what do we find out? That's cholesterol. That clogs up the arteries. There is not one animal that God pronounces. That we should not eat that doesn't have some toxic effects on our system. I remember one gentleman whose wife had been converted, and he said he went on a trip to Alaska, and he said, oh, my wife says all this thing. I shouldn't eat pork. And he said, ah, I'm just going to show her. And he ate all these spare ribs. He said he was sicker than a dog. He came home. He started coming to church. He said he was taught a lesson about eating some of this stuff. And he said, I know God had a hand in that because I almost died from it. I shouldn't have had that type of sickness, but that happened to me. And so we see repentance of good, of wrong way of life, and we have to change. We can't have one foot in the church and one foot in the world. Either way, have two feet in the world, and we keep our bad and dead works, or we put both feet in the church and start following the way of righteousness as God defines it in His Word. Notice what it says in James. Let's go to James chapter 1.

James chapter 1. It says in verse 21, again talking about what dead works are, he says, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your soul. It takes meekness, it takes humility. One of the hardest things for a human being to do is to admit error. Admit you are wrong. I tell you, once you get into the church, we're going to be admitting we're wrong because it's a way of life. We always have to say, look, I made a mistake here. I didn't do what I should have, God. Please forgive me. But we have to have that meekness and humility. We can't be there with the pride and the vanity that, oh, I'm not going to ask God for forgiveness. That all has to go. Those are works of the flesh. Those are dead works. It says here, we have to let the implanted Word of God go into us. He says, verse 22, but be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. It doesn't do any good if a person doesn't apply it. If they say, well, I know I shouldn't do these things, but I'm still doing them. Well, that's what is called here, a hearer and not a doer. He says, verse 23, for if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. So it doesn't do any good if a person looks at the mirror of God's Word, says, yeah, I'm dirty. I'm not going to do anything about it. I know us men, sometimes the wives, have to look at us and say, hey, wait a minute, you're not combed, or you forgot to do this or that, because we can be forgetful. Well, God's Word is that way. It tells us, wait a minute, let's straighten ourselves out before God, before going out. Continuing on, it says, verse 25, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, God's Word is not distorted at all. It is a pure and perfect mirror. It shows us all our faults, all our wrong attitudes, all our dead works. And if he continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. God is going to be with them. So you see, this isn't complicated. This isn't rocket science. It's a matter of applying. God says to do something. You don't question it. You don't try to figure out and excuse your way around it. Just say, yes, sir, I will do it, and you will see how you are blessed, because it's the doer and not the hearer that is blessed by God.

Let's look at two more scriptures in Acts 20, verse 21. Acts 20, verse 21. Paul was here teaching about the Christian life and also about these foundational teachings or doctrines. Acts 20, verse 21. He's speaking here. He's talking here. He says, how I kept back nothing that was helpful. He's talking to the Ephesian elders, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. What did he teach? Testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance. That's where it starts. That's why Christianity, as its traditional mode, they can't teach this because they've got to baptize little children. What do little children know about repentance? What do people know about facing God's laws and breaking it? They can't do it because they've got their church laws that have substituted God's laws. So, of course, they have to deceive and to Him and hall and try to go around these scriptures to us. Notice in Acts 26 verse 19.

This one is very reminiscent of what John the Baptist, when he came up and he talked about repent and do works of repentance. Fruits of Paul said the same thing here in Acts 26 verse 19.

It says, therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. So, yes, it's talking about applying God's Word. The results of repentance, they have to be shown. You can't just say, oh, I just believe. And then you go on and you keep breaking all of God's laws. That's not going to show any results. So he talked about here the need to have works befitting repentance.

So it's very clear the first stone that we have to lay on this foundation has to be, yes, we're going to give up that former life. We're not going to go back. We calculate, we have to count the costs. And it says, once you put your hand to the plow, you don't look back. You don't want to go back to those dead works ever again. And I know it's not easy plowing. In the Church, sometimes it is challenging. You have all kinds of different tests and trials. You can have health trials. You can have even people and family members that try to persecute you or some people in the Church that can offend you or some things that people teach that are not according to what we have. But again, once you put your hand to the plow, don't look back. You have to continue looking toward that kingdom of God. We cannot let go of that plow. We have to go forward, doing what? works befitting repentance. Or else all we claim to be is not genuine, because this is the first stone that we have to lay. Genuine repentance. I always bring that up in baptism, that God looks at the heart. So you can fool the minister. You can even fool yourself, but you can't fool God. He knows exactly when that person has turned away from the works of death and from the false ways. You don't have to worry about putting a spotlight on the person. He's going to be the same in the spotlight as outside of the spotlight. He's given up. And this is a much better and enjoyable life, believe me. I've been blessed so much because of following God's ways, doing things the right way, not inventing my own way of life, applying God's words. I just this week came up with just real quickly, I know it's a little bit off subject, but the seven ways to express love to your spouse. And the first one, it has to be a genuine love. That's the basis for a good marriage. You also have to have mutual respect. It's based on respecting each other. Thirdly, it has to be unselfish. You can't be thinking of yourself first. You got to think about the other person first. Fourthly, it's an expression of mutual pleasure. You enjoy both. It's not one or the other. You're thinking about the other person as such. You also have the points of persevering. You have to continue through life. It's not easy sometimes, but it's persevering. Also, the sacredness. God gave us the power of sex, not to use it as recreational sex. Well, it feels good. I'll just go ahead and do it. It's fun. And no, it isn't. This is very serious stuff. God did not create that to be recreational, because from the 1930s on, from Rudolph Valentino on, they just had all these girls, and the guy would just go with each one and have recreational sex, and the girls too. Well, before that, that wasn't the case. People had a lot more respect, but now in our generations, every TV program that deals with this subject, it's all recreational. It's just, let's have fun. There's no sacredness to it.

And so these are important aspects to keep in mind. Well, I'll go on. I can maybe in a study with the kids or the young adults, we can discuss these things deeper. But let's go to the second doctrine, which is faith in God. So once you've laid the repentance, you've turned around, you've got a new way of thinking and acting and attitude toward things. Faith in God. Notice that it doesn't say faith in Christ. Like a lot of the Protestant churches would like to say, you just need faith in Christ. Now, faith in God includes faith in Christ, but it's more than that. It means walking by faith, trusting in God. When I focus and address God in prayer, I'm not thinking just of Jesus Christ. I'm thinking of God the Father first, and Jesus Christ at His right hand. My faith is toward both of them, and God the Father first, and then Jesus Christ. Yes, I worship and honor both, but God the Father is the head of Jesus Christ, as it says in 1 Corinthians 11. It's a life of trust, of obedience, and trusting God. It is faith and works. They go hand in hand because works just means results from what a person does.

It includes a faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but it's more than that. This isn't some magical, emotional, or mystical experience. It is a practical thing. You walk by faith as the trials come, you are tested. Are you going to have faith in God? Are you going to trust in what He says? Or is this just the fair weather Christian? You know, everything's going well. Oh yeah, I trust in God. And then the first time you get in trouble, oh boy, you leave God out of the picture, or you put Him in the back seat of the car. I'm going to drive now. No, you've got to put God first. That's where the testing is done. Notice in chapter 11 of Hebrews, it explains what this faith in God is all about. Hebrews 11, verse 1, and I'm going to read it to you in the complete Jewish Bible. It says, trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. So it uses the term not faith, but trusting, because that's more understandable. It says, trust me, trust this person. You can also say have faith in the person, but faith becomes more of a religious term. It means trusting in God. It was for this that scripture attested the merit of the people of old. See, the merits, they walked in faith, and that faith was shown by their actions. By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena. So what we see didn't come from the matter, physical matter we see. In this universe, things are either made out of matter or energy, and they're actually interchangeable in such a way, but these are physical things. They're based on atoms and molecules and all kinds of energies, photons, and others. But by faith, God said, matter did not create itself.

It came from something superior to matter, which we know is spirit. God is spirit. So this is by faith. We believe in this. We trust God. And by the way, all the scientific evidence in the past 30 years has been pointing more and more to the spiritual dimension, what they call the black matter. Why? Or dark matter, because they don't know what it is, but it's a force that sustains the universe, and then they call it dark energy. And when you ask them, what is that? He says, well, we don't know, but we just call it that because we don't have another name for it. But it's not physical. We can't detect it through any instrument. Well, it shows, it says here that it was, the universe was created by, it came into being not out of existing phenomena. Continuing on, it says, by trusting Abel offered a greater sacrifice than Cain. Because of this, he was attested as righteous, with God giving him this testimony on the ground of his gifts. So again, he trusted in God, but he brought the best before God, the gifts that he offered. He showed an attitude. Cain, ah, he didn't care. He just brought whatever he had at hand. Why? Because he disregarded God. He wasn't a person that feared and deeply respected God. He goes on to say, through having trusted, he still continues to speak even though he is dead. Verse 11, chapter 11, 6, and without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist and that he becomes a rewarder to those who, other translations say, diligently seek him out. So faith is one that you believe. God's going to respond. He listens and he acts on things. Verse 11, 7, it says, By trusting Noah, after receiving divine warning about things as yet unseen, was filled with holy fear and built an ark to save his household. Through this trusting, he put the world under condemnation and received the righteousness that comes through trusting. Yes, he trusted, but he also built the ark. He just didn't say, oh, I believe in you, but don't ask me to build something like that. No, he had works of repentance. He wasn't following the way of death. He was following God. That's what we're doing today in the 21st century. We don't care what the rest of the people do. We've got God's Word that teaches us what we should do. That's good enough.

That takes us to the third and last doctrine that we'll be covering today, which is the doctrine of baptisms. Again, it's almost humorous to listen to the commentaries because in the Protestant world, they say, well, you don't really need baptism if you accept Jesus in your heart. That's why they have these altar calls. Many times, whether you get baptized or not, they say that's not necessary because that would be, quote, works. So they don't use it as something necessary. But it says here in Hebrew 6 and verse 2, the doctrine of baptisms.

Most commentators say, oh, that's just the Old Testament washings, the ablutions, and things like that because, you see, if they used it as something necessary to lay a foundation that is something solid and some act that you have to do, then they would say, oh, well, salvation is necessary if you have baptism. They don't want to say that.

And so this is the point here, but it is a fundamental doctrine of Christ. Christ taught baptism. Notice in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 11.

Matthew chapter 3 and verse 11, here are His teachings, which the entire Bible is based on each one of these teachings. You can go back.

Yes, to the washings that were necessary in the temple.

Matthew chapter 3 and verse 11, He says, this is John the Baptist. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the shaft with unquenchable fire. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me. John recognized Jesus Christ was far superior to him. And so he says, I'm the one that I've sinned. How can you be baptized? And what did Christ answer? But Jesus answered and said to him, Permitted to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him. When he had been baptized, Jesus came out up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Jesus Christ humbled himself, even to the point of being baptized, when he had no sins to be forgiven. Why? Because he set an example. We were to follow in his steps. And so he says, I'm going to go ahead and set the example. Although I don't need to do this, I'm going to do it because that way it's a teaching of mine. Everybody goes through baptism if they want to follow me. Notice a little further in John chapter 1, in verse 31. John chapter 1, verse 31. Again, John saw Jesus Christ and said, This is the Lamb of God in verse 29. Verse 31, he says, I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him. It should say it, like the King James version. There's no he there. He says, I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God, the Messiah.

And so we actually have three different baptisms taught in the Bible. That's why it's a doctrine of baptisms, not baptism. There are three types. The first one is a baptism of water, which is the repentance of dead works. John the Baptist said, I came baptizing with water, but there's one that's going to baptize you with the Spirit.

And so that is the first baptism. It is for the repentance of dead works. But that is not enough. Notice in Acts chapter 19 verse 1, John's baptism was not sufficient. That's why he said the one who's coming is going to do it in spirit. And then he said, and in fire.

John chapter, Acts chapter 19 verse 1, it says, and it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus and, finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, remember, repentance of dead works, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. And so they now received God's Holy Spirit.

So we see here that baptism by water was the one that John the Baptist did. That was the preliminary baptism. That was preparing people for the next, which would be the baptism where you would receive God's Holy Spirit, which is the second baptism in the Bible. This was not done by John. It was done by Jesus Christ. And so John the Baptist prepared the way. But if people are baptized by the baptism of just John, that is not enough. You need the baptism of God's Spirit to receive it. And so the second one is the one that we do, where it's baptism in the name of Jesus Christ and then the laying on of hands to receive God's Spirit. That is a complete baptism. Now there are churches that just baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ. That's not enough. You need to also have the laying on of hands, which is the following doctrine that is taught in the church that goes along with baptism. It's actually two steps that take place. One is to the removal of sins and the other one, once the person is clean and pure before God, then, just like the temple is symbolic of a person's body, then it can receive God's Spirit in them. It cannot receive them before that time. And so that is the second baptism. But there is a third one, which Jesus Christ is also going to be in charge of, and that is the baptism of fire. This we do not want. We do not want to have the baptism of fire. Notice in Malachi chapter 4. Malachi chapter 4.

It says in verse 1, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yea, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you, fear my name, the Son of righteousness, because it's going to be like the sun. When Jesus Christ comes back, a great light shall arise with healing in his wings, and you shall go out and grow fat, like stall-fed calves. It means you'll be so happy, be just like little calves, when they're just jumping around in the pasture land. You know how thin they are, and those stringy, springy legs, and they're just so happy. That's the way people are going to be.

Notice in Hebrews chapter 10 now, since we've been covering Hebrews 6, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 26 and 27, talk about this baptism of fire.

Hebrews 10, verse 26, it says, for if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. So baptism of fire means when you are thrown into a lake of fire and you are immersed into that fire where it destroys every part of the person. That is called the second death. Notice in chapter 12 in Hebrews, verse 28 and 29, it says, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Yes, if we turn back, if we give up the race, then what awaits us is that baptism of fire, the fiery indignation of God upon the person.

Revelation chapter 20, verse 15, gives us a picture of actually people being thrown in that lake of fire. Notice this is looking into the future. It says in Revelation 20, verse 15, it says, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So people resurrected, they're going to face the judgment and then they're going to be thrown and burnt completely up. Baptism means immersed, fully immersed. You want to be in water, but not in fire. Also, Revelation 21, verse 7 and 8, explains again this event. Does he who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, saucers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So of course, this is one of the teachings that Jesus Christ mentioned. In Matthew 25, he talked about that burning fire. He talks about the lake of fire as Gehenna, and so it is one of the fundamental teachings of the Church.

So we've covered the first three of these fundamental doctrines. It's also a symbol similar to the tabernacle that had seven parts to it. It's very interesting how the tabernacle, the access to God in the Old Testament, is very similar to these six doctrines and the seventh one at the end. And so the repentance of dead works is just like a person that is outside the curtains in the tabernacle.

Only those who were Israelites could enter. No one else, no stranger. At that time, it was uncircumcised. It was a person that is following the world. So in order to enter the curtains, to go into the holy place of God, we have to repent of dead works.

God looks at the heart. He accepts you. He forgives you if you turn, if you change. And so then you enter through the curtain, the atrium area with all curtains. And what do you find in front? You find the altar of sacrifices. And so just like after repentance, we have to go before God and have faith in God. What is in that altar? Christ's sacrifice. We have to accept it in faith that He died for us.

That is our perfect sacrifice. Once and for all, it's applied in our life. And so that's the second step along the way. And so we can advance getting closer to God, having access to Him. And what else was there? It was called the laver, which was this large bronze water receptacle. And so you had to wash. You had to clean your whole body. And just like it says here, the doctrine of baptisms, where you have to go and immerse yourself.

Clean yourself if you're going to go before God. And that represents what we have left behind. Dead works. Now we have faith in God. We have Christ's sacrifice that forgives us. And so now we are washed. And then we are ready to enter the tabernacle. And there are three elements there that I want to be covering, God willing, the next time. So these are the foundations of our faith to examine ourselves. How are we doing?

How is our faith? Do we have a healthy foundation? Are we still applying these principles? Or does it have cracks? God tells us we have to be working on these foundations, just like a house. Sometimes it has to be retrofitted, especially where we live, earthquake country. We had to have our houses retrofitted.

Everything had to be tied and strengthened and bolted down to the foundations. Retrofitting. Well, sometimes we have to look at our foundation and retrofit it, strengthen it. Don't just take it for granted. Don't let the cracks start appearing. And the four ways to repair and strengthen are the same ones you've heard. Prayer, study of God's Word, meditation, and fasting. That's the way to repair and strengthen that foundation. To gain spiritual strength. To fill in the cracks. To spiritually renew ourselves. And so let's go to the last part here of the message, Hebrews chapter 6, starting in verse 4. After we've covered these six foundational points, which we've only covered three, but notice how fitting, how appropriate, is what is mentioned afterwards.

Hebrews chapter 6 verse 4. Because if we don't have that firm foundation, this is what can happen. It says, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened. The word there has to do with false, where we get the word phosphorous, where we get photon. It has to do with light. It's like the light bulb turns on. We understand things now.

We became enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If they fall away to renew them again to repentance, this is a foundation that is laid once. Since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame, God is not going to come down and crucify Himself twice for us.

He did it once. It's going to be lasting. It has to be that way. He says, and put Him into open shame. Here's a person that Christ did so much for, and then a person turned their back on Him. And Christ is ashamed of that person.

And then He goes on with the analogy now. He says, For the earth, which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. Good fruits! But if they bear thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. The baptism of fire. And so again, there's a warning, but at the same time there's encouragement. He doesn't end with that. Notice verse 9. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation. Though we speak in this manner, sometimes it was pretty tough, the warnings. He said, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Again, emphasizing that we have to work at this. We have to put effort into it. He says, for when... And so that's where he ends with an encouraging word. And that's the way I want to end. Brethren, we have a wonderful foundation. It's built upon God's word, upon Christ's six basic teachings, which all of us have to go through to later build upon it. I'm so thankful. I don't have to go back to those six foundational teachings. I'm working on the relationship with that high priest, my older brother, my soon-coming king. I have koinonia, which means fellowship. I enjoy being with them. Just like a child with their parents, I enjoy that relationship. And they are there for me. They are there to walk and help us go through life. Win that race that we are headed toward that kingdom of God. Brethren, these are the six foundational doctrines, which next time, God willing, will cover the last three. But let's check on our faith. Let's examine if we are setting a sound foundation for our faith, because that coming kingdom of God is going to be worth it. Just like it was mentioned by Graham in his first message about belonging to this community of faith and how blessed we should be to have God's truth guiding us throughout our lives.