The Basis of Our Spiritual Security

In one paragraph

This message worked through Hebrews 5:11 through 6:20, covering the diagnosis of spiritual immaturity, a serious warning about falling away, and then landing on the basis of spiritual security that the passage is ultimately building toward. Pastor Warren had planned to cover only through verse 12 the previous week, but brought the whole section together here because, as he put it, it needs to be...

Read together

1. Hebrews 5:11 Starting point of the review, diagnosis of dullness of hearing
2. Hebrews 6:1-3 The remedy: leave elementary teaching and press on to maturity
3. Hebrews 6:4-6 The warning about those who have tasted and fallen away
4. Hebrews 6:7-8 Ground drinking rain, thorns and thistles, close to being cursed
5. Hebrews 6:9 Encouragement: beloved, convinced of better things that accompany salvation
6. Hebrews 6:10 God is not unjust to forget your work and love shown toward His name
7. Hebrews 6:11-12 Desire for full assurance of hope, not sluggish but imitators of those who inherit the promises
8. Hebrews 6:13-14 God made promise to Abraham, swore by Himself, I will surely bless and multiply you
9. Hebrews 6:15 Abraham patiently waited and obtained the promise
10. Hebrews 6:16 Men swear by one greater than themselves, oath ends every dispute
11. Hebrews 6:17-18 God interposed with an oath, two unchangeable things, impossible for God to lie, strong encouragement for heirs
12. Hebrews 6:19-20 Hope as anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, entering within the veil, Jesus as high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek
13. Genesis 22:16-17 God swore by Himself to Abraham because he did not withhold his son, promising blessing and multiplying his seed
14. Galatians 3 Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness
15. Psalm 51 Closing song Cleanse Me drawn from David's prayer not to remove the Holy Spirit
16. Hebrews 7:1 Introduction to Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, pointing to next week's study

Talk about it

1. Pastor Nathan spent time on the four symptoms the author of Hebrews observed in those first-century believers: dullness of hearing, failing to teach others, needing milk instead of solid food, and not walking out the word of righteousness. Which of those symptoms, if you are honest, do you recognize most easily in yourself, and why?
2. The warning in Hebrews 6 is described as the strongest in the New Testament, and Pastor Nathan asked the congregation to do a self-evaluation rather than dismiss it based on their systematic theology. What does that kind of honest self-examination actually look like in practice, and what makes it hard to do?
3. Pastor Nathan drew a distinction between knowing the right answers about Jesus and knowing Jesus in a way that works itself out in your life. He used the image of ground that drinks in rain and either produces good vegetation or thorns and thistles. Where do you see evidence of fruit in your life, and where do you see thorns and thistles?
4. The sermon described biblical hope as an absolute certainty that has not yet come to pass, and pointed to Abraham as someone who waited roughly twenty five years for God's promise to be fulfilled. How does that definition of hope change the way you think about something you are currently waiting on God for?
5. Pastor Nathan said the basis of our spiritual security rests on two unchangeable things: God's promise and God's oath, and that it is impossible for God to lie. He also said the anchor of the soul is Christ, who has entered within the veil as our high priest forever. In practical terms, what does it mean to you to take refuge in that anchor when you are doubting whether you are truly saved?