The Fallen

In August 1954, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave an address at the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which was meeting in Illinois. There, he shared a quote which he said came from a former president of a college, and with which he sympathized. The quote was this: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

He went on to talk about what he referred to as “a dilemma of modern man.” We give an inordinate amount of attention to things that don’t matter in the long run, and we don’t invest enough time to plan and think about long-term matters.

This principle went on to be popularized in a 1967 essay called “The Tyranny of the Urgent” by Charles Hummel. He warned about urgency’s power to deceive us and to jumble our priorities, and he shared the wisdom of waiting.

There is a lot of value in what Eisenhower and Hummel expressed, but there’s a caution to be aware of. We don’t want to put urgency and importance at two opposite ends of a spectrum, because if we did that, we’d be saying that they can’t both be true at the same time. It’s better to think of them as two different spectrums altogether.

This idea of urgency and importance as two distinct characteristics came to be popularized in 1989 by Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He used a simple grid—a 2x2 matrix giving us 4 possibilities with 4 appropriate responses.

One section of that grid was known as “The Quadrant of Waste,” and it included things that were not urgent and not important. These are things, he said, we should seek to eliminate.

A second section was “The Quadrant of Deception,” which included things that were urgent but not important. These could be things that others tried to press on you, but don’t really align with your personal ambitions. These things, Covey said, should be delegated whenever possible.

A third section he referred to was “The Quadrant of Quality” which are things that are important but not urgent. These are the things we need to be proactive about and to schedule.

The final quadrant was for those things that are both urgent and important. He called this “The Quadrant of Necessity” and it included critical deadlines and crises. These would be issues that demand our immediate attention.

The message we have this morning is in that fourth quadrant. We have a message that is critically important and also absolutely urgent.

In the first three verses of chapter 6, we saw a call to leave the inadequate, ineffective, and incomplete Old Covenant by coming to Jesus Christ. We don’t need generic faith, or religious rituals, or impersonal doctrines; we need to come to, and surrender to, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

That is the truth for every single person in every generation, but there is a distinct urgency in our message today for a particular set of people.

The exhortation of verses 1-3 comes with the warning of verses 4-6. There is a certain class of people who can no longer repent and turn to Christ. There are certain kinds of people for whom, although they are still alive, it is too late to come to salvation.

The main part of this sentence is split between the beginning of verse 4 and the beginning of verse 6. Cutting out the middle section, and a final section, the sentence reads: “It is impossible… to restore them again to repentance.”

Who are those people? Let’s look at how these verses describe them. What does it take to be someone who can no longer turn to Christ?

First of all, number 1, we have intellectual comprehension. This has to be someone who understands the message. . Verse 4 says these are people who have once been enlightened.

Light is a metaphor for truth. To be in darkness, or to be blind, is to be ignorant, to not know.

These are people who, to a sufficient degree, have heard and understood the truth about Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death, and His glorious Resurrection. They know the significance of Jesus. They know His place in the eternal story of God. They know the gospel. They have heard enough to know what it teaches and what it means in their lives. They understand the gospel intellectually.

Number 2, we have an emotional reaction. This goes beyond the intellectual into the experiential. They felt something. Verse 4 continues saying they have tasted the heavenly gift.

These people have understood and experienced the truth. It doesn’t say here what the heavenly gift is, but I think we can take it in the most general way of describing church life.

In the example of the early church, and in the example of many churches today, what would this include?

It includes the joy of being with others who profess faith. I think it would include seeing money or goods being given and received. It might include being in other people’s homes, or having them in your own home. There’s camaraderie and unity.

God designed the church to be a beautiful family that puts Christ’s love on display. These people, who cannot be restored to God, have seen that. They experienced it for themselves. Maybe they have experienced joy and happiness and hope in a way they never had before. Maybe they wept with those who wept and rejoiced with those who rejoice. They have felt the impact of a spiritual family.

So, we’ve got an intellectual comprehension, and an emotional reaction. Number 3, as a result of understanding and feeling the truth, there was some kind of meaningful decision. A meaningful decision. At some point in their life, in some visible way, they responded to the truth.

This attribute isn’t mentioned directly, but it’s included in the phrase of verse 6. If it’s impossible to restore them again to repentance, then, at some time in the past they expressed repentance, right? I think that makes sense. I think that’s fair to this passage.

At some prior point in their life, they had repented. They had expressed faith in some way and made changes in their life. It’s not mentioned here explicitly, but in the early church, and in most churches today, this would include baptism. These are people who had made a public profession of their faith and their repentance. They understood what they were signing up for, and they went through with it, from a human perspective.

These first three components focus on the earthly side of things—we understand, we feel, and we respond. The next set of components look at their life from the standpoint of what God has exposed them to. As we continue the list, we see that they’ve been exposed to three things.

Attribute number 4 for this group of people is exposure to the Spirit. Exposure to the Spirit. This is at the end of verse 4, where it says they have shared in the Holy Spirit.

The truth they’ve understood and assented to, and the emotional responses they’ve had, and the responses they made, were a result of the Holy Spirit. They felt the sting of truth and the of conviction of sin. That was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Attribute number 5 for these people is exposure to the Scripture. They have been exposed to the clear and faithful teaching of God’s word. Verse 5 says they have tasted the goodness of the word of God.

I think the meaning here is pretty obvious. This is what led to them to understand the truth, to have an emotional response, and then have a volitional response. They’ve sat under the proper teaching. They’ve even enjoyed it and benefitted from it. That’s why it says they tasted its goodness.

Attribute number 6 is a final exposure. They were exposed to the Spirit and exposed to the Scriptures. Finally, there has been an exposure to the supernatural. Exposure to the supernatural. Verse 5 says these people have tasted…the powers of the age to come. What does that mean?

I think it’s a reference to the signs and the wonders that had been done among them. This also overlaps with the spiritual gifts that were on display among them.

Back in chapter 2, verse 4, it mentions God bearing witness to His message with signs and wonders and miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. There were internal affirmations that the Spirit brought, and there were external affirmations in the signs and wonders and gifts on display. More than simply being affirmations, the healings that took place were previews of the coming age, when sickness and death would be completely eradicated.

Even if those things aren’t happening for us today in the same way they were happening during the time of the Apostles, we still see God working through the spiritual gifts He gives to people. We see lives being transformed for holiness and for bold proclamation. That’s a sign from God of the truth of the message.

So, who are these people who can no longer turn to Christ? They’ve got intellectual comprehension of the message. They’ve had an emotional reaction to the message. And they’ve made a meaningful decision. And it’s all because they’ve been exposed to the Spirit, exposed to the Scriptures and exposed to the supernatural signs of God.

There’s one final attribute, and this is the critical one. Number 7, they’ve fallen away. They’ve fallen away. That’s the to who this group really is.

These aren’t people who’ve simply been evangelized a couple times. These aren’t people who have simply sinned against God in the ways you and I do every day. This is a person who has walked away from the faith. They didn’t trip up in the race; they walked away from the race altogether. Theologically, this person is known as an apostate. They’re not just an unbeliever. They are someone who has apostatized from the faith. They’ve fallen away.

The Greek word here is only used here in the New Testament, but it’s also used in the Greek version of the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel. And there, our English translations equate it to “acting faithlessly” or “dealing treacherously.” It was a word that meant treason, and in this case, it’s treason against God. These are people who know and have accepted the truth about Christ, but have walked away from it. They’ve abandoned the faith.

Don’t the things on this list describe me and you? We’ve heard the truth. We know the truth. We’ve been affected by the truth. We’ve made a decision because of the truth. We’ve seen the power and the goodness of God through the Spirit, the Scriptures, and the supernatural. Does this mean that if we walk away from Christ, we can’t come back? That’s what it says. That’s what it means.

There comes a point in life for some people, where they have seen and heard and done enough about Christ that if they walk away, they’re not coming back.

How could that be? What does that mean theologically? Does this mean that it’s possible for someone to lose their salvation?

No. It doesn’t mean salvation can be lost. Salvation is a gift of God. Salvation is ultimately something God does. We can’t save ourselves, and we can’t un-save ourselves. True salvation cannot be lost. You need to know that. But you also need to know that it’s possible to be deceived about salvation. It’s possible to be deceived about someone else’s salvation and even about your own salvation.

Although the list we read includes things that apply to most of us, those aren’t things that apply only to genuine Christians. They also apply to people who have spent time in the church. They’ve expressed faith and experienced some of the temporal benefits. But salvation was never genuine.

You see, these are kinds of people that the author of Hebrews had in mind. These people had come to the church earlier in life, and there was joy and energy, but now that persecution is coming, they want to walk away. They want to go back to Old Testament Pharisaical Judaism. And so, the urgent message to them is: Don’t do that! Don’t walk away now! You’ve seen it all. You’ve heard it all. If you leave now, there will be no coming back.

Why not? Because what else is there to bring you? You’ve already been touched by the Spirit. You’ve already been exposed to the word of God. What else is left? Your eyes are completely open, and you’re turning your back on the truth, and on the Lord Himself. To use the image from Hebrews 2, they’ve started to drift, and eventually, they’re going to fall off a cliff.

You see, these people never took Christ for themselves. They never fully received Him.

If you look back at verses 4 and 5, there’s a word that’s used twice there, once in each verse. The word is tasted. Tasting is not the same as eating or drinking. It’s not the same as fully receiving into your life.

This is like a guy standing around at Costco eating the free samples. He asks questions about the product. He talks to the people there. He reads the nutrition label. He compares prices with other products. He likes the product. He might even put it in his cart. But he never pays for it. He never buys it for himself.

This is like the guy who likes walking around his block during Christmas because of all the decorations. He likes the lights and the music, but once he gets home, there’s nothing there. There is light all around him, and he enjoys it, but by himself, all he has is darkness.

That might be you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of this church or not. If you’ve been around long enough to know the truth—if you’ve been connected enough to see the church and the truth in all its glory—do not walk away from it.

Do not abandon the faith, either doctrinally or practically, because there may be no coming back. And, again, if a member of our church abandons the faith, does that mean they lost their salvation? No, 1 John 2:19 says: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Sometimes, we see someone taking steps in coming to Christ. And it’s a challenge, but we praise God for growth. They say they’re coming to church, and they don’t show up. But after some time, they come. And they hit and miss, but slowly God s bringing them around. And one day, they make a public profession of faith. And we praise God for that. We should.

But the same thing can happen in reverse, can’t it? People start drifting little by little. They fall into sin, like we all do. They stop attending regularly. Maybe there’s even challenging circumstances that come into their life and it makes sense to them that they should stop coming for a while. But all this time, they’re drifting away. And eventually, we see that this person is more committed to their sin, or to their own comfort, than to Jesus Christ.

Can they come back? Sometimes they can. Sometimes they can. Just because we know this is a spiritual reality doesn’t mean we know exactly when someone has reached this point. Just because we know that apostates exist doesn’t mean we can immediately know if someone is one or not. But we need to be careful, particularly for ourselves. Every day, and every Sunday message comes with the responsibility to respond appropriately, otherwise, we’ll be hardening our hearts.

In 2 Peter 1, we’re told to make every effort to keep growing in our faith because that’s how we confirm our calling, our election. It says there: if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

The apostate’s inability to repent isn’t a lack in God’s power or mercy. It’s an act of judgment on them. And it’s because they’ve developed a heart that is completely hardened against Christ and against the truth.

If you don’t respond appropriately to Jesus Christ today, you are hardening yourself against Him. And you might be hardening yourself so much that one day you cross this line, and there will be no turning back. One day, it will be too late.

A little later in Hebrews 10:26, we get the same kind of warning. And in chapter 12, we get the example of Esau who couldn’t undo what he had done. It was too late for him.

That’s why this message comes with such urgency, and that’s why this message is so important. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not something we’re supposed to play around with, or delay on.

This is why God says, “Today is the day of salvation!” Today, you can bow before Him in prayer and humble confession, and say, “Jesus, save me! Forgive me. I need you. I’m doomed without you. I deserve your judgment, but have mercy on me! I want to serve You!”

God will have mercy on you because of what Jesus has done. But we all need to respond today.

This idea of an apostate and of self-deception is not isolated to Hebrews 6. We have related warnings in other books of the Bible—even Jesus warned about it. We’ll continue on this topic next week as we move to verses 7 and 8, but as we close, I simply want to expose you to one other passages that touch on this very same topic. And I share this, again, not just as a theological truth, but as a warning for all of us.

Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 2, just a few books over, near the end of the Bible. Second Peter chapter 2, verse 20. Peter is talking about the enslavement that sin brings apart from Christ, even for those who have been exposed to the truth. Adn here’s what he says.

Second Peter 2:20—For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. [21] For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. [22] What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Don’t let that be you.

If you want to come forward to talk to someone, to confess sin, to ask questions, I’ll be here, and we can step into the back prayer room, if you like. Or you can find any other trusted brother or sister in the Lord and pray with them. Share with them what’s on your heart.