Transcript

Hebrews chapter 6, would you turn there?

We come to Hebrews 6:4-6. We’ll begin a series of messages on this text of scripture that will be at least two messages long, maybe more. One of the most challenging, possibly the most misunderstood, misinterpreted, perhaps one of the most difficult texts of scripture to interpret. Before I look at it I want to say that I know there are good brothers and sisters in Christ who interpret this differently than I’m going to preach it to you. I don’t think their interpretation is right, but this is not a personal attack on them in any way. I don’t think this passage is teaching that a truly saved believer can lose his salvation. However, I know good brothers and sisters who believe that’s what it says, and they love the Lord like they love the Lord. And I love them. They love me. But I disagree with that conclusion. And I think, and here would be my challenge to you if you’re here and you lean in that direction is to give me a fair hearing. Say, “Lord, teach me. Show me if there’s something I need to see here.”

Because here’s how the text reads. Hebrews chapter 6 beginning in verse 4: For in the case of those who have been”, or who have once been “enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come and have then fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame”.

Now I want to start, and this series is gonna be called “The Pretenders”, because that’s what I am convinced he is pointing out here. As I’ve shared with you numerous times already through the book of Hebrews, the Hebrew church had a lot of folks attending with it or even in the church who were not yet truly saved. They’d taken some steps. They had some understanding. They had some illumination. They maybe intellectually assented to truths about Christ, but they’re pretenders. They’re hypocrites. Hypocrite means to play the part and not have the substance. And that’s what he’s pointing out here. He’s illustrating what these pretenders are like.

Now to introduce the whole series, and we may not get past the introduction this morning, but first of all, I want to give you five reasons why I believe this is not speaking of truly saved persons. Why this text is not referring to truly saved persons. When he makes those phrases like, “if you’ve been once enlightened. If you’ve tasted the heavenly gift. If you’ve become a partaker of the Holy Spirit.” Then he continues, “If you’ve tasted the good Word of God”, and “tasted the powers of the age to come.” Now I will admit a first reading of that sure looks like they must know the Lord, sure looks like they must have been genuinely converted. But I am convinced that’s not the truth.

Now let me give you five reasons why I believe that. First of all, the Bible does teach that there is a non-saving repentance. There is a repentance that happens in the heart and in the life of men or people, but it’s not a repentance that is part of salvation. I just call it a non-saving repentance. Do you know what repentance means? It means to change the mind. In your mind you make an about face. And there’s a type of repentance taught in the Bible where people radically change their mind and have a different view even toward Christ but it’s not a saving repentance.

Judas Iscariot’s a good example of this. I’ll begin with John 6:70-71. “Jesus answered them, did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him. Now that’s a powerful statement. “I chose you,” now He’s not talking about His choosing of the elect at large. He’s talking about His leadership team, the twelve disciples, and He said, “I’ve chosen you, and even in the fact that I’ve let some of you turn from the walk or the way you were going and become a part of My group,” that’s a picture of repentance, “yet one of you is a devil. One of you is not truly a child of God.” So there was something of a repentance in his heart, but not a saving repentance.

John 13:27: “And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him”, that’s entering into Judas Iscariot. “Jesus therefore said to him, What you do, do quickly.” Shows he obviously was not savingly converted. Matthew 27:3, “Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him saw that he had been condemned, he felt remorse, same word for repentance. He felt a repentance, you could translate it that way, and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. I believe he wept. I believe he was broken. I believe he was emotional, and he turned and went back and said, “Here’s the money.” But it wasn’t a saving repentance. It’s a non-saving repentance.

And then Acts 1:20, I don’t think this one will be on your screen. It says, “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead be made desolate and let no man dwell in it, and his office let another man take.’” God giving His final declaration concerning Judas that he was not a child of God. Well, Judas is a good example of a man who had a repentance, a turning in his heart, even away from the walk he was on and toward the Lord, but it wasn’t a saving repentance.

So there are things that can look like and sound like, to some degree feel like true repentance that is a part of salvation, but is not. For example, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:17, concerning Esau after he sold his birthright he changed. He repented of that. But notice what it says. “For you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance.” He had a repentance, but it wasn’t a God-ordained, God blessed repentance. “Though he sought for it with tears.”

That’s one of the challenging things to be a pastor is to love and have compassion for people so much that when they are broken and with tears you lovingly counsel them to make sure it’s not from a self-perspective and a self-preservation perspective and a self-help perspective, but it is a God honoring, Christ honoring repentance. That is the true repentance unto salvation, not repentance unto ultimately condemnation.
Paul words it another way in 2 Corinthians 7:10. “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret.” A true repentance, that is a part of true conversion. “But the sorrow of the world produces death.” There is a type of sorrow and heartbrokenness that can cause one to change or turn, but it’s the sorrow that leads to death. It’s not a saving repentance.

Now I’m gonna lay on you some things during this message that you have never thought about, never thought about. And you know why I’m gonna do it? Because I’m gonna take it verse by verse and teach what the text says and not skim over it and give you the typical Baptist line. And by the way, I have lots of great, conservative Baptist scholarship backing me up. So lest you think I’m departing from the faith, I’m not. I can give you stacks of solid, good men, most of them are dead, but the best commentary writers are dead men. And it’s gonna stretch you a little bit. It’s gonna show you that it is true on one hand, now listen to me, a five year old boy or girl may be genuinely be converted. I don’t think it happens often. That’s why Dr. W.A. Criswell, the great patriarch of evangelical Baptist would never baptize a child before nine, and not many of them at nine. He said, “They just, it’s just rare that that would happen.” But it can happen. In a sense, salvation can be that simple but God’s gonna show us also there’s a lot to true conversion that requires introspection, study, examination, and looking at well so that you’re not deceived. Can you handle both of those? Are you learning that in the Bible there are a lot of balancing truths? And you know what we’re supposed to do? Teach all of it. The whole counsel of God.

Well, the first reason why I believe this text, though it seems so strong, that this must be a Christian who’s losing his salvation is that the Bible has already been teaching that there is a repentance that looked real but it’s not true, saving repentance.

Number two, another reason is, there is a non-saving faith. There is a type of belief in Christ. There is a type of trust in Christ that’s not saving faith. John 3:2, we have Nicodemus. “This man came to Him by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher”.” That’s faith. He comes to Jesus. “We know You’re from God.” It’s a faith. It’s a belief. “For no one can do these signs you do unless God is with them.” But Nicodemus was not converted at that point. Jesus makes it very clear in the following verses as He talks to him about the necessity of the spiritual new birth in the heart. So this trust came only from Nicodemus, his ability intellectually to examine Christ and intellectually decide I think He’s really from God. It’s not a saving faith.

Acts 26:2728: “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do.” And Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.” Now there’s some debate about all that Agrippa meant in that phrase “for in a short time you’ll persuade me to become a Christian.” But whatever else it says, it does day in some degree he was believing what Paul said, but saving faith was not there yet.

1 Corinthians 15:2: “By which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain”. There is a believing, probably has some effects. It, it looks like something went on. But Paul said you can believe and it be in vain.

Makes us squirm in our seat a little bit, doesn’t it? You know what it ought to do? Make us get on our face and cry out to God with a humble heart and say, “Oh, dear God in heaven. Save me by grace, for I am lost forever. Change my heart and make me Yours. Don’t let me trust the stuff that I might could do. I throw myself on You, Lord.”

James 2:19, “You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder”. There is a demonic faith, a faith like the demons have. They believe in Christ more than you do, probably, but it’s not a saving faith. You know there are some people, like Simon the magician, who put real faith in Christ because they want the power He has, not because they need Him as Savior. It’s a real faith and a real belief. Just like the folks in the villages of Papua New Guinea put their faith in the witch doctor for the power he can give them, but it has nothing to do with saving faith.

So the reason I believe this text that looks like it’s teaching these are really saved people, but they fell from their salvation is because the Bible’s already teaching there’s a non-saving repentance and there’s a non-saving faith. It can look like it and sound like it and not ever have been the real thing.

Number three, a third reason I do not believe this text is teaching that these are Christians who lose their salvation is because the terms used here are not the normal terms to describe the saved or to describe salvation. The terminology is very, very different from the regular repeated terms that you would find in the rest of the Bible concerning salvation. Now here are the terms used. “Enlightened”. Those who were once enlightened. Then he uses the word “tasted”. Tasted the heavenly gift. Tasted the good Word of God. Tasted the power. Now think about that. He didn’t say swallowed or digested or possessed. He just said tasted. A “partaker” of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t say indwelt by, which are words used in other places. But a partaker, which has the idea in the original Greek of associated with or being around, not necessarily possessed by or possessing.

Remember when Jesus said, “I am the bread of heaven. I am the bread come down out of heaven.” And then He gave the memorial Lord Supper. And He said, “Take this bread and taste it.” No. “Take this bread and eat it.” There’s a real difference between just getting a taste. Matter of fact, you can taste it and spit it out. But if you eat it, it goes down into the innermost being.

So it seems a strong effort is being made by the author here, which I believe is Paul to show that this is one who is close to conversion. He’s tasted the heavenly gift. He’s tasted the good Word of God. He’s tasted the powers of the age to come. Close, but not yet truly converted. Typical terms that you find throughout the Bible for conversion are just not used here. Terms like “saved”. He didn’t say, “Those who are saved and then fall away.” And by the way, he could’ve done that and made it real clear for all of us, couldn’t he? Because we’d know what that meant. It’s used too much in the Bible.

He didn’t say, “Those who salvation then fall away.” He didn’t say that. He didn’t say, “Those who believed.” He didn’t say, “Those who trust.” He didn’t use the God oriented words about God’s truly saved children like those who are the called or those who are the elect or those who are the chosen or those who are born again. That’s Jesus’ phrase. He didn’t say, “Those who have been made alive from the dead,” Ephesians 2:5. He didn’t say, “Those who are a new creation fall away.” He didn’t use those terms. I think that is very, very significant. The terms where we know He is for sure talking about truly saved, converted people speak of a whole, radical, thorough transformation from the heart out. That’s not what this says.

Here’s a good cross reference. Matthew 4:16, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned”. Now here’s talking about a light that covers everyone. But this enlightenment light of Christ that came into the dark world, though it touched everyone to an extent, not everyone was saved. They may have tasted it, but they weren’t converted by it. For everyone who was around Christ sensed something of the light of God. But not that they were all saved. That’s universalism, and that’s heresy. You see, seeing the light and receiving the light are two very different things.

Number four, a fourth reason why I believe this is not speaking of Christians who then lose their salvation because the context is clearly talking about the unsaved. The context points out this is really the unsaved. Now if you’re gonna interpret a passage of scripture, you interpret it in the flow of its context. You don’t pull it out and then take it over here and say it means this and this. You think, “What’s the author saying? What is he saying before he gets to those verses? What is he saying after those verses? And what makes sense in the flow of the context?”

Well, look down, if you will, at Hebrews 6:7-8. It says, “For the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God.” Now that’s one kind of ground. God’s rain comes, and it works in the ground. The vegetation is nourished. It comes up. He said, “That’s a picture of the one that God blesses.” And I think that’s a picture of conversion. Verse 8: “But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and ends up being burned.” Again the rain came. The ground tasted the rain. The ground, if you will, was enlightened by God’s rain. But it didn’t produce the fruit that shows that it was truly of God. It brought forth thorns and thistles, and was therefore considered worthless. I think that’s powerfully, clearly a picture of one who’s lost. Felt God’s rain. Was not truly transformed and changed for God’s glory.

And number five, a fifth reason why I believe this text is not speaking of one who’s saved and then loses his salvation, or he is speaking of just the unconverted only. If they are saved and then they become unsaved, they can never be saved again. The text makes that very clear. The text points out if they were saved, if you have that position, then you held, “Well, they lost their salvation,” the text is also saying they can never possibly ever be saved again. There’s no possibility. Notice how he words it there in verse 6. “And then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” Now you can’t make those words mean anything else. It will be impossible to renew them again to repentance.

So I think that is an application for these people, though, the people that taste what these people tasted, the people who have the life that these people had, the people who understood as these people understood, and then turn away and not truly come to faith, they crossed God’s deadline. They sin away their day of grace. And by the way, just as God elects those who are gonna be saved, but we don’t know who they are, you don’t know who’s sinned away their day of grace, so you keep witnessing to them and you keep urging them, you keep pleading with them, you keep praying for them, you keep telling them to come to Christ because we don’t know who they are, but it does happen. They can sin away their day of grace.

Now let me go to my first main point here. That was all introduction. All right?

Main point number one, this text is speaking to those who have enlightened minds but unchanged hearts. Enlightened minds with an unchanged heart. And I’m telling you, to those around, it will be hard to discern. You remember those people that Jesus said will face Him on the judgment and they’ll say, “Lord, we did miracles in your name. Lord, we cast out demons in Your name. Lord, everybody knew we were Your children.” And He says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Wow. That’s why, can I say something to moms and dads. I am one of those dads. Urge your children to call on Christ to save them. Tell your children He’s mighty to save. Tell your children He will save. Tell them to cry out to Him for salvation. Tell them to pray and ask Jesus to save them, but never, ever say, “If you just did that, you’re automatically saved,” ‘cause you don’t know that, ‘cause you don’t know the heart.” Amen? You could give them a false assurance. When we have so many texts like this that cause us to humble ourselves and very soberly and thoroughly investigate our hearts again, “Are we really of God’s children.” You say, “Brother Jeff, but that might upset my child, and that may frustrate them. And they may lose sleep.” Good, but they may go to heaven! I’m telling you what we’ve done in our Baptist churches and in evangelical churches, we’ve given people a false, simplified, easy believism. They jump through hoops and are going to hell because God’s never truly changed both the mind and the heart. And the heart.

Now when you look at this first verse here, verse 4, “in the case of those who have once been enlightened,” I think there’s something you need to understand. This is a Jewish audience. And the Jews believed God was sovereign over everything. Everything He controlled. Everything. Every tiny atom of every tiny molecule in your body God sovereignly controls. Now the Jews believed that. You say, “Well, of course God’s totally sovereign.” No, but they really believed it. And what I’m leading up to is this. They, they could understand what Paul is saying, when he says, “You’re enlightened but not God’s child because they would understand that anything that happened to make you know more of God’s true way or of God’s true Son, Jesus Christ, was the work of God. Anything and everything that happened that caused anyone to take any step toward Christ would’ve been God. So when he says, “God’s enlightened you,” I don’t think in the Jewish mind they thought, “Oh, he’s saved.” They wouldn’t have thought that. Now we do because we’re coming from this Bible-belt, Baptist viewpoint. We would kind of have that perspective, but a Jew wouldn’t. They would just think, “Well, a sovereign God works in all men’s hearts in varying ways. And whatever illumination they have, whatever understanding that is they have of the things of God and the true way of salvation God gave them that.” Doesn’t mean they’re saved yet, but God did that work.
You see, friends, you can resist the general call of God. You can harden your neck against the general call of God. You can bow up against the general call of God on your soul.

So, whether it’s a general, intellectual, non-saving enlightenment, and that’s the truth of this group or an effectual saving enlightenment of both the heart and the mind, God does it all. God does both of them.

Now the original Greek word here for enlightenment is phótizó (φωτίζω). Phótizó is not used anywhere else in the Bible to speak of salvation. I think that’s interesting. Nowhere else is this word enlightenment used to speak of a converted or saved soul. Now this word enlightenment does not mean that they could hear the gospel and they believed it from their heart. It does mean they were enlightened so that they could hear with understanding it. They could hear and understand, but they hadn’t heard and believed. Very different. Hearing and understanding some things about Christ, and even agreeing with them is not the same as hearing and believing. Now you can describe to me how something on maybe an automobile works. And I can hear it and I can understand that. But it doesn’t mean I could make it. Doesn’t mean I could do it myself. It’s not real to me. It’s just in my mind right now.

John 1:9 is a good cross reference here. John 1:9 says, “There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.” Now here the same word is again. But what happens? He enlightens who? Just God’s children? Just the saved? Every man. There’s a sense in which God’s gospel truth and the message of His Son went out to all people. And so to some degree God illuminated or enlightened the understanding of all people. And that’s a generic term. I’m sure there are people in corners somewhere who haven’t heard. But generally speaking, that’s true. But it doesn’t mean they were all saved, not in any way, shape, or fashion.

Matter of fact, in Ephesians 1:18, the word enlightened was used to gain knowledge, where he talks about “I want your knowledge to be increased.” So it means an increase in knowledge or an increase in intellectual understanding. So the text is telling us that a work of the Spirit has occurred whereby a man’s mind is made capable of understanding the things of God. Now listen to me. It is a work of God. It is supernatural. It is beyond the natural realm of man. But it’s not conversion. There is a work of the Spirit when the pastor’s preaching the Word, and it can help a man, help a woman, help a young person understand more of the greatness and the glory of God, even that you sort of marvel over it and to some degree embrace it and are drawn to it. But it’s not salvation. It’s just enlightening of the mind.

Have you ever been taught this before? This is new to me. I mean kind of sort of I’ve preached it, but I’ve never preached anything like this before. It’s a grace gift but not salvation. It’s a grace gift of a mind enlightened with knowledge. I believe this teaches that there is a step beyond natural knowledge. That means the natural knowledge you can get by looking at creation and think, “There is a God,” and have something of an esteem for Him or a respect for Him or the natural knowledge that you have in your conscience because you, God’s written His law, the Bible says, in every man’s conscience, and you have an awareness that there’s a great moral lawgiver. And you have a conviction that that’s the best way to live and that’s the way society ought to be with laws and truth to build it on. And there’s a grace knowledge beyond that that God gives men and that’s what the word enlightens means here, but it’s not conversion.

It takes the Spirit of God to understand anything about the things of God. First Corinthians 2:13-14 tells us, “which things we speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit,” combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words, “but a natural man,” a man left to himself with no working of God’s Spirit in him, “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraise.”

You see, the Word of God is like a blazing light. But to the unenlightened it’s like a blind man standing before the sun. It still doesn’t do any good. But if God’ enlightens, then they can begin to understand the mysteries or the truth of God’s Word specifically concerning Christ. But a person can be significantly enlightened and yet be lost and unconverted.

I’m telling you I am convinced in the age in which we live in because of the methods of evangelism that are so popular, I’m not necessarily against them all, but because the methods of evangelism that are so popular, and by the way, if you study church history, the methods that are so popular today are very, very new. They were not used during the Great Awakening when literally Europe and America, the American colonies were shaken for the glory of God and untold thousands came to Christ, churches being built everywhere. They used none of our methods that we use today. But the methods we use today, I believe what happens a lot of people go through some motion in the enlightenment period, somebody says, “That did it. You’re saved.” And that’s where they stay. “Pastor, why would you say that?” Can I say it again? 16.3 million Southern Baptists, six million are in church every week. Where’s the other ten million? They ain’t got it. Something’s missing. They walked somebody’s aisle. They prayed somebody’s prayer. But, brothers and sisters, if you’re saved for the most part and the great majority of those who are saved live something like they’re saved including going to church.

Now let me give you some conclusions for practical application. And I’m aware of our time, and I’m sorry. All right? Knowing the difference between the enlightened and lost and the enlightened and saved. “Pastor, help me. How can I get some grasp on what a person who’s enlightened but still lost, how that’s different from the one who’s enlightened but fully saved.” Let me give you three things here.

Number one, the enlightened and lost have only a general knowledge of the Word. It’s just kind of the general stuff. They know it’s true, but to them it’s general in their knowledge and it’s not experiential. And that’s why I teach that there’s got to be some emotion in religion. There, there’s got to be. It can’t affect, you can’t experience repentance, your sinfulness, your lostness, and the rescue and the release and the forgiveness of Christ and your emotion not be stirred. It’s got to be there. I’m not saying, I’m not talking about emotionalism. But as the mind is informed and the heart is penetrated, there should be experience. We’re not, we’re not Catholics. We’re not sacramentalists where you just go through some cold motion and you get into heaven. We ought to counsel compassionately with our children and with people who are coming to Christ to see if it’s more than just general knowledge or there’s an experiential element to their repentance and their faith, ‘cause it ought to be there.
The power of God that transforms the heart, they experience something of that power. The wisdom of God, they experience the wisdom of God. The mercy of God that’s been bestowed on them, they experience something of that. The meaning of Christ’s death, it’s, it means, there’s an experiential aspect to that. “He died for me and I feel it and I sense it.” Our sinfulness, it, it’s not just known generally. It’s experientially known. And those who are savingly enlighted there is an experiential knowledge.

Ephesians 1:18-19 is a good cross reference here. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know”, notice what he says, you may know. Notice what he says there. “The eyes of your heart”. Not just the intellect. “The eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness toward us who believed. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might”. Then Romans 7:24, sense the experiential aspect of Paul’s heart: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” He’s experiencing His wretchedness. That doesn’t mean every moment of every day, but it should be real at the moment of conversion, and it should be abiding in your heart throughout your life. In varying degrees of discernment, perhaps, but it ought to be there.

Well, number one, the enlightened lost has only a general knowledge of the Word. Roman numeral two, or number two under CPA’s, the enlightened and lost have the Word swimming in the mind only. Swimming or in their mind only. What I mean by that the, the Word is swimming in the mind, but it’s never dived into the heart. It’s never gone deeper. The heart needs to be deeply affected. The heart needs to be humbled. The heart needs to register a fear toward Him, a trust in Him, a desire to know Him, a walk in His truth, a, the truthfulness of His Word. In John 17:3, John said, “And this is eternal life that they may know Thee from the heart, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

Roman numeral three, this is, this is, to me, when you’re counseling with someone, this one’s probably the clearest if you’ll pray for God to give you discernment. The unenlightened, or rather the enlightened and lost have a knowledge that makes them proud. Brothers and sisters, in our conversion, there is no room for pride. There, it is the most humbling thing that can happen in the universe is conversion. It fills our hearts with humility and gratitude. But the enlightened but still lost congratulate themselves that they have this understanding. They’re proud that they did what other men won’t do. They had the virtue to receive Christ and they’re proud of it. It’s a conceitedness about it. I’m not saying a truly saved person can’t fall into pride. But I’m saying the foundation, the innermost core of their being, there’s a humility and a gratitude and a sense of their wretchedness and God’s holiness and the wonderful gift of Christ.

The church at Laodicea was very wealthy and the church at Laodicea carried the pride of their wealth into their Christianity. Revelation 3:17 is a good cross reference here. Paul says, or the writer, rather, John says, “Because you say, ‘I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.’” They were so proud of their Christianity.

Now Judas is a good example of the enlightened and lost man. Judas gave a good testimony of faith in Christ. Judas was esteemed honorable and trustworthy. The other apostles made him the treasurer of the group. Judas could teach the things of Christ and did on many occasions as they went out teaching and preaching. But he was a hypocrite. He was full of pride. Judas was in it for what he could gain for himself. Judas had an agenda for himself in following Jesus. This was his deepest driving motivation.

Now, now you can be truly saved and let some fleshly pride agendas come in. But down in the core of your being, you might call it the deep valley of your soul, it’s humility and gratitude, and, “Jesus, I’m unworthy.”

Judas had the idol of unmet expectation. He signed up with Jesus. He pledged all to Jesus because He thought Jesus was gonna usher in a physical kingdom. And when He did, he was gonna have a rank and position and authority and power and wealth. And when Jesus died on the cross or He told Judas He was gonna die, Judas said, “That’s not what I expected!” And he turned against Him. It’s an idol of unmet expectation.

If you work anywhere very long or you own anything and have people working under you very long you’ll find out there are always employees who have that idol. They’re your best workers until you don’t come through on what they were looking for. And when you don’t sacrifice to their idol, they turn on you and become your most vicious enemy. And that’s what Judas did to Jesus. He signed on to get what he wanted, and then when he did not get it, it wasn’t gonna work out, “This Jesus isn’t gonna build a physical kingdom. He’s gonna die, then I’m gonna turn on Him and get what I can out of it.” All the enlightened and lost will finally be exposed and be damned.

Now let me conclude with these thoughts. This enlightenment that is experienced in the mind but yet reaches beyond the mind and into the heart is this same enlightenment that does not produce pride, but it produces humility. It’s just the old protestant evangelical, even Baptist doctrine that’s been taught for years. And we need to get back to lovingly, compassionately counseling each other to look for this true biblical evidence of conversion in the lives of our children, in the lives of our young people in the lives of one another as we’re seeking the Lord for the assurance of our salvation.

Job is a good example of the enlightened and saved heart. Judas, the example of the enlightened and lost. Job, the example of the enlightened but saved. Job said in Job 42:6, “Therefore I retract and I repent in ashes.” What humility. I’m just ashes. God is my all, and God is my everything.” Now here’s my question, church. Is the deepest foundation of your heart humbled, broken, grateful, dependent on Christ and thankful to Him? Or is it proud and conceited and all of self?

You might picture your soul as a valley. And in that valley there are a number of streams. And all the streams eventually run to the one stream in the middle and all flow together. In the enlightened and saved man’s heart, the valley of his heart, the fountainhead that produces the stream in the middle is the presence of God. There’s a stream flowing in the heart that comes from the presence of God. Now other streams sometimes flow into that. Kind of like the streams around my house. In the summer they dry up. Sometimes they’re there. Sometimes they’re not. And those are the streams of pride and conceit and self and self-centeredness. Those streams flow sometimes into the major stream, but sometimes they dry up. But the one stream that continues to flow in the innermost deep valley of the heart is the stream that comes from the fountainhead of the stream of the presence of God. Is that stream there? Other streams are there at times. We know that. But the main stream in the valley of my heart is my Lord. And because of that stream that flows in the deep valley of my heart, it produces a self-denying, self-abhorring, Christ-loving, Christ-treasuring, Christ-trusting, Christ-exalting stream that is weak at times? Yes. Is polluted by those other streams at times? Yes! But it never runs dry. It keeps coming back up and coming back up and coming back up. Progressive sanctification means that as I go along in Christ I drop those other streams more and more and more, it’s just the stream of God becomes the major stream of my life.

Where are you today with God? Do you know that you’re truly a child of God? Are you enlightened and lost or enlightened and saved? I wish I could say, “Do this, and it’s over.” But would say this. Cry out to Him. The Bible does say “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Call on Him. Ask Him to save you. He says, “If you’ll come to Me I’ll in nowise cast you out.” Seek Him. Ask Him. Cry out to Him. Tell Him you need Him. Tell Him you’re lost. Tell Him you believe He died for you. Tell Him you want His hope, His forgiveness, His new life. Call on Him. Call on Him from your heart.

Could we bow in prayer for just a solemn assembly time?