"Not Laying Again The Foundations" Hebrews Part 11 - Jason Willis

Lesson Transcript

Welcome back to Sunday School. This is going to be part 11 of our study of Hebrews. Today we're looking at chapter 5, verse 12 through 6:6. This will actually be two—we will get through most of this today. This will be a two-part—two parts to this. We'll look at the tail end of this next week. Let's read it together. Verse 12: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracle of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

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 towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms and laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits.

For it is impossible for someone who has once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gifts and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good works of God and the powers of age to come, if they fall away, impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame." Before we get into the lesson today, I would like to take a few minutes and talk a little bit about John Chrysostom.

I've got some open conversations with some people on the internet, and so this is kind of connected to some of that. This is just a reminder for those who may have a question about why it is that I've been quoting him so much. John Chrysostom was born in 347 AD, which is about 22 years after the Council of Nicaea took place in the year 325. This makes him either a Nicaean church father or a post-Nicaean church father. I'm not exactly sure how that cutoff date works.

I believe the majority of his life he would have been considered a Nicaean church father, and then the last decade or so, I think that would have crossed him over into being a post-Nicaean church father. So he was born in 347, and he died in 407, which made him—which brought him to the age of 60. He was an important early church father who served as the archbishop of Constantinople in Antioch.

Over the course of a 12-year period from 386 to about 397, John gained popularity because of the eloquence of his public speaking at the Golden Church in Antioch Cathedral, especially his insightful exposition of Bible passages and moral teachings. He did a lot of expository-style preaching where he taught verse by verse through much of the New Testament. He probably went through all of it during his lifetime. The majority of it has been actually documented and has been preserved through the ages.

To my understanding, he either wrote down his sermons or there were maybe some scribes who were skilled in a form of shorthand who dictated his sermons as he spoke them, and then they transcribed them afterwards. When studying the meaning of a passage, we often turn to the writings of the early church fathers with the following question in mind: How did the very early—how did the very early Christians understand this passage?

And what you will find when you start studying these early writings is that very often the passage that is being mentioned, the author is not explaining that passage. Instead, he is using that passage as an illustration to maybe explain something else or another passage. And this is the reason why Chrysostom is quoted so much, because he was so methodical in his teaching, going verse by verse.

Not that he—not that he was the only one that taught on these things, but a lot of his teachings are the ones that have been preserved through history. And so when you go on the mission to find the earliest document in church history that's teaching on a particular passage, many times you end up with Chrysostom. In this case of the study of Hebrews, I found that no one before him taught so exhaustively on it. That being said, let us remember that he was a fallible man. He is capable of error.

We need to keep this in mind. But also keep in mind that he was not born in a vacuum. He did not spend his life stranded on some desert island with a Bible and come up with all of this stuff by himself. He's just like us. He was influenced by his own teachers and his own leaders, and he had mentors of his own.

In the same way that the big names in the evangelical circles were influenced by Luther and Calvin, and in the same way that future Protestant leaders will be heavily influenced by names like possibly John Piper or John MacArthur or Woody Buckham, John was influenced by his teachers and his mentors. This is how the world works, and this is how knowledge is passed through generations. So keep this in mind as we look through these next passages.

Chrysostom may have been wrong in his interpretations, but even if he is wrong, his teachings pull back the curtain and give us an invaluable look at the church of his age to have an understanding of how his teachers and how his mentors were teaching him about these scriptures and what he heard being taught around him, as well as his own ideas. So that's enough about John Chrysostom. Now let me tell you a little bit of story about this passage. I can remember back sometime towards the middle of about 2021.

I had already made my commitment to Daniel to move up here to PA to attempt my abandoning of my life of sin.

And it was late one evening, and I read this passage: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good work of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame." I'll admit, I was—I didn't know what to make of this.

Had my decision—I was wondering, was my decision to move up here, was it all a waste of time? You see, I had been a Christian practically my entire life. I was baptized in high school. And then I dove headlong into a life of sin for over two decades, alcohol and all sorts of wickedness I don't even need to mention. I had been enlightened. I had tasted the heavenly gifts. I had partaken in the Holy Spirit, and I had clearly fallen away.

And here I am reading in God's word that it's impossible for me to be renewed again to repentance? Maybe I hadn't fallen away, I thought to myself. Maybe I just slid back, whatever that means. Not likely. Not unless we were not talking about a season of sin. Not unless somehow a season can be more than two decades. Reading this passage just about tore me in half. What was I supposed to do with this? I couldn't stand it. Did this mean that I was hopelessly lost?

Now I watch a lot of spiritual and religious videos for fun and for education. And whenever I hear this, "Today we're going to be talking about the scariest verses in the Bible." When I hear this, immediately, immediately I know exactly the next words that are coming out of their mouth. It's either going to be Matthew 7:22-23, "Lord, Lord, do we not cast out demons in your name and prophesy in your name? And the Lord says to them, 'Get away from me.'" I don't know who you are, you who practice lawlessness.

Or they will say, or it's going to be Hebrews 10:26, which we will be looking at not next week, but the following week. "For if we go on willfully sinning after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a terrifying expectation of judgment." Or they will refer to this passage in Hebrews, "For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened to have tasted the heavenly gift that they fall away to be renewed again to repentance." Now why?

Why do these verses make the short list of the most scary verses? Because they seem to imply that somebody who has been born again may possibly fall away. There is a great debate in the world, the debate over, is it possible to lose your salvation? And the side that says that you can lose your salvation, they point to these verses in Matthew and Hebrews as their evidence. Now for me, back in July and August of 2021, when I read these verses, I was terrified, horribly terrified.

Even as I was doing this study for Sunday School on Hebrews, I was nervous. Because as I got to the end of chapter 3 and then to the end of chapter 4 and then halfway through chapter 5, I knew what was coming next. I knew where these verses were. And in my experience in reading the early church fathers, it's a coin toss. Half the time they're going to teach exactly what you hear preached out of the pulpits today.

The other half of the time they will be teaching something that is the opposite of what is preached in the churches, many of the churches today. And I had done my research. I already knew how the Protestant and evangelical world taught on these passages because back in 2021, when I read these verses, I was freaked out. So I'd done a lot of research on this, hours and hours of watching videos, every blog that I could find or article I would read about it.

And to my relief, and to my relief, or I was relieved in the way that I found that it was explained. It was explained very the same way all over the place, not verbatim, but very similar. They all have this line, the explanations, they all contain this line. "Well, you really want to understand this passage, you have to understand the context." And then they would go on to explain the context.

That Paul is talking to the Hebrews, that these people he's talking about were not actually saved, or that the Hebrews were falling back into this system of sacrifices and going back under the law. I won't explain how it's explained today. If you want to know, you can just go to Google and type in this passage. You can watch hundreds of hours of the way that it's explained in the Protestant world. And these explanations were a great relief to me, seeing how I'd personally lived elbows deep in sin for two decades.

So I was somewhat comforted. On the top of that, on the top of that, the fact that most everyone was teaching the same thing, I felt pretty sure that those teachings must have some root in reality. I liked what I heard. Not at the same time, I had not yet at that time of my life been exposed to much or any of the teachings of the pre-Nicaean fathers. I didn't even know that they existed. Since then I have.

And so as I mentioned, as I approached chapter 6, I was nervous, wondering what side of the coin the early church was going to land. Fortunately for me and for us, Chrysostom not only gave a sermon on this passage, as he often did, he breaks it down verse by verse. So what I'm going to be doing this week and next week is presenting his sermon to you. We will look at his teaching from chapter 5, verse 12 through chapter 6:6.

Now again, I'm not saying that his view is correct and that the interpretations of today are not correct. I'm simply going to be a messenger here, presenting to you one of the earliest, if not the earliest sermon that was both given and preserved through history on this particular passage. In the end, if you decide to accept both views, that's perfectly fine. If you decide to abandon one for the other, that's up to you. I'm just a messenger.

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracle of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food." You have heard how much Paul found fault with the Hebrews for wishing to always be learning about the same thing. And with good reason.

He points out the good reason by reading verse 12, "For the time you ought to be teachers, you need again someone to teach you the elements of the first principles of the oracle of God." Now before continuing, Chrysostom turns his attentions to his listeners and he rebukes them. You need to remember that in this context, he is actually giving a sermon. There are people in the congregation that he's speaking to. He says, "I am afraid that this passage might fitly be said about you.

That for by this time you ought to be teachers, but you do not maintain the rank of a learner. You are forever hearing the same teaching on the same subject, but you are the same—you are in the same condition as if you heard nothing at all." And so he refers to the students as learners. He says, "Someone who is a learner should be learning something, but you do not even maintain the rank of a learner. You hear the same thing taught over and over, but it's in one ear and out the other.

After the sermon, if any man asks you a question about what was taught, you're not able to give him an answer. You are unable to answer a single question about what you just heard." Now next, in an effort to show that he's not rebuking every listener in his audience, he says this to them. He says, "But there are some of you who are not this way." He continues, "But this is no trivial loss. Oftentimes we teachers, we wish to go on further and to touch on higher and more mysterious things of God.

But we can't because the attention of those who are teachable is left wanting. For example, in the case of a grammar master, if a boy continually hears the first elements of writing but does not master them, it will be necessary for that teacher to continually be pounding the same teachings into that boy. The teacher will not move on to other teachings until the boy has first been able to learn the basic elements accurately.

For it is a great folly to lead him into other things without establishing the basics first. And it is the same way in the church. If we consistently teach the same thing over and over, but you do not learn it, then we shall never stop teaching the same things. For it would be a mistake to move on to greater things of God if you do not know the first elements.

For if the purpose of our teaching were merely a matter of display and ambition, if it were nothing more than to seek your applause, then it would be perfectly fine to be jumping from subject to subject, changing the topics continually, not taking into account what your soul actually needs. But since this is not—but since we have not devoted our zeal to this, instead our labors are all for your profit, we shall not stop teaching on the same subjects until you succeed in learning them.

For I might have said much about the Gentile superstition and about the Manasseans and about the Marcionists, and by the grace of God had given them heavy blows." So here Chrysostom is giving examples of the deeper things that he would love to teach them about. He says, "If I were not still here teaching you the basic letters of the alphabet, I would be teaching you about Gentile superstitions and about these other groups.

And by the grace of God, I would have torn them to shreds." Now in comparison, if you think back to the last verse that was—we taught last week, it says, "Called by the God as the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say and is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing." So in this verse, this was Paul talking about what he was wanting to get into, the deeper thoughts that he wanted to get into with the Hebrews.

But he was unable to because they had become dull of hearing. So back to Chrysostom's example, "For I might have said much about the Gentile superstitions and about the Manasseans and about the Marcionists, and by the grace of God have given them heavy blows. But this sort of discourse is out of season or out of place.

For those who do not yet know how to order their own affairs and those who have not yet learned that to be covetous is evil, it would be out of place to teach on such topics and lead you on to other subjects before the proper time." Now before he continues, he knows that he's being harsh on the audience. And he once again turns his attentions to the listeners of the audience who are actually listening.

This time he's encouraging them and stressing to them that though they have already learned these things that are being taught, he's about to teach them yet again that to hear them is actually still a benefit to them. He says, "Don't misunderstand me. I'm not speaking to all of you. For I know that many of you benefit from coming here. You might justly cry out against those who insidiously injure you by their ignorance and by refusing to pay attention. But in reality, you are not injured by them.

For hearing the same things continually is useful to those who already know them. Since by often hearing what we already know, we become more deeply impacted. We know, for instance, that humility is an excellent thing and that Christ talked about it all the time. But when you listen to the same words themselves as well as the thoughts of the teacher, these things affect you even more, even if you have heard them 10,000 times." So back to our text.

"Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ," let's go on to perfection. Now in this sermon, you will hear Chrysostom refer to this term elementary principles two other ways. He will call them the beginning, and he will also refer to them as the foundation. So what exactly are these elementary principles? Paul tells us in his very next breath.

He says, "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us move on to perfection, not laying again the foundation." Now notice here we have Paul describing these elementary principles as the foundation. "Let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation." And then he lists what these elementary principles are.

"The foundation of repentance of dead works and faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment." We are told that these are the elementary principles that make up the foundation of the Christian life. Chrysostom next turns back to his illustration of the schoolmaster who's teaching the grammar school, who's teaching the grammar student.

He says that these foundational principles, he says, "Before a person can begin to live a strict Christian life, the beginnings or elementary principles," he says, "is nothing more than this. For in the same way that it is necessary to instruct one who is entering into the study of grammar the alphabet first, so also the Christian must know these things accurately and have no doubt concerning them. These things create the foundation.

If a man should learn these things and then afterward need to be taught them again, he does not yet have a foundation." Again, he's referring to these elementary principles that we just listed: repentance and baptism and the resurrection and the judgment. Now before we continue on with his sermon, let's define the term, the term catechize. Chrysostom is about to use it a few times, but I wasn't able to determine if we really have a good equivalent in the English language.

It means to instruct someone in the principles of Christianity. It is where we get the word catechumen from. You can think of it as formal Christian training. In Chrysostom's days, when someone wanted to be baptized, they first were catechized or formally trained about what it means to be a Christian. He continues, "For one who is firmly grounded ought to be fixed and to stand sturdy and not be moved about.

Even if he has been catechized and baptized, but then ten years later needs to hear about the faith and that we ought to believe and in the resurrection of the dead and about judgment and baptism and the repentance of dead works, then he is not yet have a foundation even though ten years have passed by. For he is again seeking after the beginning of the Christian religion, for these are the foundation and the rest is the building." So now he's moving on in his illustration.

He says it's not enough to just be catechized and baptized. He says that this foundation is something that must stick with the man. He must be firm in it. "For these things are the foundation and the rest is the building." Now I really like this next connection that he makes. He ties this teaching of the foundation and with 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 10 through 15. Let's read them. "I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed to what he builds on it.

For no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become clear. For the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, yet so as through fire." So some people will build on this foundation. In the end, what they build will be burnt up and they will suffer loss. But they will be saved, not because of what they built, but because they laid the proper foundation. Because of these elementary principles, these are the—because these elementary principles are that which they're building on. So back to our text.

Let's leave the discussion of the elementary principles and let's move on to perfection. What is this? To move on to perfection. "If we are to build on this foundation, let us have the best life." That is, let us build all the way to the roof. "For as in the case of the letters, the alpha involves the whole. And as the foundation, the building, the whole building, and also does full assurance concerning the faith involve purity of life." Now that's confusing. Let me explain what he's saying here.

He's giving three illustrations. So the term alpha, that's the first letter of the Greek alphabet. What he is saying is he's saying, "You cannot have a letter, a written letter, without the letter A, without the alpha. You cannot have a building without the foundation. In the same way, you cannot have full assurance concerning the faith without purity of life." And he continues with this. "And without this, without purity of life, it is not possible to be a Christian.

As without foundations, there can be no building, nor be skillful in literature without the letters. But if someone is always going round about the letters, about the foundation, not about the building itself, then he will never gain anything. So let us move on to perfection. Let us build to the roof." Now before he continues, he takes a step backwards to address the elementary principles and the way that they are referred to as milk in the previous chapter in chapter 5.

He says, "Do not think, however, that the values of the faith is diminished by being called elementary principles. For when Paul says, 'For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe,' it is not the elementary principles that he is calling milk. He is saying that to still be doubting these things is a sign of a feeble mind, needing to be taught many times over." Chrysostom says, "Look, it is not these basic principles of Christianity that Paul is calling milk.

He is saying that to be continually doubting these things after being taught them so much, this is evidence that you have a feeble mind." Now take close notice to the way he uses the word doubting. And it's very important to him that his audience understands what he means when he says doubting. So he continues with this. He says, "These doctrines, talking about the elementary principles, are wholesome. For when we say that a man is of full age, we are calling him a perfect man.

In saying this, we are referring to a man who because he is in the faith, he lives a right life. But if anyone has faith yet does evil, this shows that he actually has doubts concerning the faith itself." Notice that he says that the evil done is the evidence that the doubt exists. This doubt brings disgrace on the doctrines. And this is the reason we call him a babe. He is a babe because he has gone back to the beginning.

Even if a man has been taught in the faith for 10,000 years, when he shows that he is not living a right life, when he shows that his life has not been conformed to these elementary principles, when he is still laying the foundation, this indeed shows that he's still a babe. So question, how do we know if we're still laying the foundation? How do we know if we still need milk? Chrysostom says that when he shows that he is not living a right life, this indeed shows is the evidence that he is still a babe.

He said on the previous slide, "But if anyone has faith yet does evil, this shows that he actually doubts concerning the faith itself." He says, "Listen, if you really have faith in the resurrection of the dead and the coming eternal judgment," we're talking about eternal judgment here. We're talking about being cast into an unending, unquenchable fire, a fire that has a nature that consumes the body while at the same time it nourishes it.

As it is eating away at your body, it rebuilds it and restores it so that your body never dies. Death no longer becomes an option for you. If you had faith in this, and if you had faith that this hellfire is because of your rejection of God as displayed by your evil deeds, if you really had faith in this, if you really had faith in what happened in baptism and in the laying on the hands, that your guilt was removed from you, that it was washed from you, that you were washed clean.

And if you truly grasped the nature of faith in God and repentance of sin so that you can maintain your standing as innocent before the Holy Creator, if you truly believed these things and you had no doubt about them whatsoever, no doubt, then you would no longer be practicing evil deeds. But your evil deeds show that you do not have true faith in these things. You doubt them. Your evil deeds showed that you really doubt that you're actually going to hell. Or maybe you really doubt eternal judgment.

Or maybe you doubt that repentance is necessary. You can say, "I believe all these things," but your evil deeds expose that doubt exists in you about the faith. Therefore, we will not stop teaching and saying these same things, whether you are persuaded or not. We fear, however, that by continually saying the same things, that if you do not take heed, we may make the condemnation heavier for your disobedience. This is a very interesting thought to me. I think it's one that leaders and teachers need to think about.

We fear, however, that by continually saying the same things, if you do not actually take them to heart, we may be bringing a greater condemnation on you if you remain in your disobedience to the things that you've been taught so many times. To leaders and teachers, it is right and proper for us to teach these elementary principles as long as they need to be taught. The feeble mind needs the milk.

But let us pray diligently that the Spirit will open up the hearts and the minds of those who are listening to take in the milk and produce a faith that produces righteousness. For those who hear over and over and over again, but never get off the milk, there may be greater condemnation for them in the end for their disobedience. So this gets us to the end of chapter 5 and through the first three verses of chapter 6. Next, we will be looking at the scary verses, verses 4 through 6.

And you will see next week how they are tightly woven into what we taught today. So before we wrap this up, though, I'd like to assign some homework for the week. I know this has not been my normal practice. But I would like everyone to read Romans 6, verses 1 through 11. Next week's verses are going to be tied into these passages very tightly as well. And it's not mandatory if you're not spiritual. You don't have to do the homework. But yeah, thank you all for listening today.

If anyone has any thoughts or questions, I'll be glad to answer them. We have just a couple of minutes here. I have a correction. Yes, sir. Pretty sure you were talking about 2020 because you moved here 2020. 2022. August. Yeah, correction. Thank you. Yeah, so 2020 was the halfway through 2020, I was shaking in my boots. Yeah. Yeah, I want your hand. Yes, sir.

Involving from a babe to a perfect man, Luke tells us, obviously Jesus, in Luke 14:25-35, and he lays it down exactly in a very harsh way what he requires of us if we want to be his disciples. Never mind his future. So yeah, I think it really ties in with God and moving from a babe to a perfect man. Sure. Thank you. Any other quick thoughts? Awesome. Do like the idea of what we do or how we live, if we don't walk in obedience or don't respond to God properly, that it's actually evidence of our doubt.

I found that very inspiring, actually, because I think it gives us something to actually pursue, to walk in obedience, to pursue being righteous. And if there's things you don't understand, you don't have to really worry about it. You can walk in the obedience, you know. But if you find yourself walking in sin, it's evidence of your doubt. That's a motivator to me. It is a motivator for me too. And the idea of believe on Jesus, believe on Jesus. We're told to believe on Jesus.

And what exactly does this believe mean? And the flip side of that coin is doubt. And so it is nice to know it does help me as well. It motivates me to be obedient because when I'm about to choose to not be obedient, to know that this is actually me saying, "I don't believe." It's a horrible thing to be called an unbelief.