The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his107/answr15.arj/ANSWR15.TXT

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EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS 6:1-6

Oh, goodie!

All right, I'll read it through one time like a Holiness, and then
I'll read it through one time like Scofield, and then I'll read it
through one time like Dr.  DeHaan--then we'll get it right.

All right, Hebrews 6, beginning at verse 1.  First of all, we'll come
through like the Church of God and Assembly of God and the
Pentecostal:

6:1--Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let
us CHRISTIANS go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the
doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection
of the dead, and of eternal judgment.  And this will we do, if God
permit.  For it is impossible for those SAVED PEOPLE who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, WHICH IS ETERNAL
LIFE, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If THOSE SAVED
PEOPLE fall away FROM SALVATION, to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him
to an open shame.

So, Holiness people teach that it's a person who was saved and then
lost it.  And, of course, it's kind of a foolish thing to teach,
because verse 6 says if they shall fall away, it's impossible to renew
them again to repentance.  And all Holiness people believe you can get
saved again and again and again.  And whoever that is there, they
can't get saved again!

So, that won't work.

All right, Dr.  DeHaan does it this way:

Verse 4:  It is impossible for THE CHRISTIANS who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost (SAVED PEOPLE), And have tasted the good
word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall
away (IN THE SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE), to renew them again unto
repentance (TO SERVE THE LORD); seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.  THEREFORE, THEY'LL
SUFFER LOSS AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.

That'll be in M.R.  DeHaan's books.

Now, of course, that overlooks the fact that the Judgment Seat of
Christ is not in the book anywhere.  It also overlooks the fact that
the name of the book is Hebrews.

All right now, Scofield has it this way:

Verse 4:  It is impossible for THOSE HEBREWS (JEWS) who were once
enlightened (KNEW ABOUT THE GOSPEL), and have tasted of the heavenly
gift (IN THE SENSE OF KNOWING ABOUT IT), and were made partakers of
the Holy Ghost (IN THE SENSE OF GOING ALONG WITH THE CONVICTING OF THE
HOLY GHOST), And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of
the world to come (IN THE SENSE OF SEEING MIRACLES), If they shall
COME RIGHT UP TO CALVARY AND THEN REJECT CHRIST, THEN THEY CAN'T
REPENT AGAIN, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh.

The Scofield note makes that the unpardonable sin.  You know, coming
up, and then coming short of it.

Now, there's one more that I've heard recently, that the evangelists
are using.  And they call this a hypothetical case.  They say, "It is
impossible for those IF they shall fall away..." So, they're teaching,
If a Christian could fall away, he couldn't get saved again--
hypothetical, see.  Not that he will.  But if he could, then he
couldn't get back.

And all that's very fine, but it has nothing to do with the Bible.

Now, let me show you something here.  Turn to Hebrews 3, and let me
show you the characteristics of the book of Hebrews.  You notice that
every one of those interpretations that I gave, I had to stretch
something?  Now, if you really want to see it stretched, you get the
"Greek nuggets" by Kenneth Wuest or Zodhiates, and you watch those
fellows go to the Greek and spend fifteen pages trying to change your
King James Bible to make it teach what they believe.  Because they
couldn't understand the verse!
All right, now let's look at Hebrews 3 for a minute.  Then I'll try to
nail that thing down.

Now, this is going to be a tough session.  I mean, I get more
criticism for what I'm getting ready to show you now than anything I
do in the ministry.  Because it isn't very good Baptist doctrine.  But
I'm not a very good Baptist where the Baptists cross the word of God!
I tend to be kind of a heretic along those lines.

All right, Hebrews 3:6:  "But Christ as a son over his own house;
whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end."

Do you have to hold fast your confidence and rejoicing firm to the end
to become a member of Christ's house?

No!  Of course you don't!

Now, of course, there's all kinds of ways around it.  You say, "Well,
obedience," you know, or, "It isn't our salvation; it's the assurance
of our salvation." I mean, Christian colleges have all kinds of ways
to pervert the word of God.  Look at verse 14; you can't mess with
that thing!  That doesn't even say a house.  It says, "For we are made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
stedfast unto the end."

Now, how many of you people have received Christ?  Now, do you know
when you became a partaker of Christ?  The moment you trusted Him as
your Saviour!  And you did more than partake.

Somebody says, "Well, that means the Judgment Seat of Christ," and all
that bunk.

When you got saved, you became bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh,
and a member of His body.  You couldn't partake any more if you tried!

And when Paul prays, Paul prays for the fellowship of His sufferings,
"that I might be a partaker of the fellowship of His sufferings." But
that verse in Hebrews 3 didn't say "partaker of His sufferings." That
thing said, "Partaker of Him!"

All right, now let me show you another one like it.  Come to Hebrews
chapter 10.  Hebrews is a rough book!

Did you ever wonder why so many denominations teach you could lose
your salvation?  I mean, we know they're wrong.  But don't you know
they had some basis for doing it?

How do you account for the fact that the Lutherans, the Episcopalians,
the Methodists, Church of God, Assembly of God, Pentecostals,
Nazarenes, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Campbellites,
Catholics--how do you account for the fact that they all teach you can
lose your salvation?  Now, I don't believe you can.  But don't you
know they had something to go by when they taught that?  They didn't
just make that thing up!

There are scores of passages in there like that!  I mean, they're
rough!

Now, here's a real rough one.  Hebrews 10:26:  "For if we sin wilfully
after that we have received the knowledge of the truth..." Any of you
folks ever sin willfully after you got saved?  How many of you have?
Well, I'm glad to see we've got an honest congregation!  Now, the
"Holiness" people never sin willfully!  Because if they did, they'd
lose it!  Did you ever stop to think about the mess people get into?

I was talking to a Holiness preacher one time, and he said, "He that
is born of God does not commit sin, because his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."

And I said, "Well, are you sinless?"

He said, "I was eradicated.  Had the old nature eradicated and
sanctified and purified with fire." And he gave the experience.

I said, "Well, was that when you were saved?"

He said, "No, that's the second work of grace, brother."

I said, "The passage didn't say the second work of grace.  The passage
said whoever is born of God does not commit sin.  He didn't say
whoever is sanctified.  He said whoever is born of God!"

See the mess folks get in?

That guy would get that thing there, "Whoever is born of God does not
commit sin."

I said to one fellow one time, "Well, have you sinned since you've
been saved?"

He said, "I haven't committed a sin for eight years!"

And I said, "Brother, am I glad to meet you!  Take my hand, brother!
I sure am glad to meet you.  The first man I ever met in my life who
hasn't sinned for eight years!"

When I had him by the hand, I held on to him and I said, "You mean to
tell me you've never overslept one time in eight years?"

And he said, "B-b-b-b-ut...but..."

And I said, "You mean to tell me you've never underslept one time in
eight years?"

And he said, "But...but..."

I said, "You mean to tell me you've never overeaten one time in eight
years?"

He said, "Well, I didn't mean that!"

I said, "Oh, yeah, I know what you meant.  You meant your standards
are lower than mine; that's what you meant!"

All that stuff!

I said to a fellow one time, "Are you sinless?"

He said, "Yeah, I haven't sinned!  I'm perfect!"

And I said, "I sure would like to believe that, but I just never met
anybody who was perfect."

And he said, "Well, I am!"

And in the back seat, his teenage daughter laughed and said, "Oh,
Daddy, you are not!"

I mean, with a lot of these folks, the trouble isn't in their
theology, the trouble is in their head!  They're about half crazy!

Let me read you "the Holiness nightmare." I wrote down a whole list of
sins here, and drinking, dancing, fornicating, perversion, lying,
swearing, killing, cheating, and stealing aren't even on the list.  I
call this "the Holiness nightmare:"



What is sin?



Sin is to feel a secret pride in success, training or appearance.



Sin is to feel an important, independent spirit,

to feel bitter over what somebody has told you about the success of
somebody else.



Sin is a harsh, sarcastic, unyielding spirit,

a touchy, bitter, sensitive spirit,

a desire to attract the attention of the opposite sex,

to say and do things to attract attention to self.



Sin is a constant complaining and desire to quit trying to do right.



Sin is unnatural or abusive acts to self or others.



Sin is a deceitful spirit that seeks to create false impressions,

to pick flaws and criticize when set aside unnoticed.



Sin is lustful and wandering eyes,

a shrinking from duty and reproach,

a tendency to retaliate when crossed,

permitting things you would not permit in your idea of a consecrated
Christian.



Sin is a shallow, stingier uncleanness in thought or desire,

a joker or jester, vain or light in manner of conversation or life,

unwilling to put out for others unless personal advantage is involved,

partiality to certain people, classes, or denominations,

always thinking of what might have been if things hadn't happened the
way they did.



Sin is being unthankful and unappreciative of your lot in life,

in constant fear of failure and taking an unmerciful attitude toward
those who do fail,

or taking an inferior attitude toward those of wealth or position.



Sin is putting on a false or exaggerated humility,

imagining how others are praising you or speaking well of you.



Sin is straining at the truth and showing an "I don't care" attitude
toward being caught in sin,

or shirking responsibilities.



Sin is the feeling of nervousness you get when you see somebody doing
something you think you could do better.



Now, that's the Holiness nightmare, see?  And you never heard a
Holiness preacher even mention those things.  And those things are
sin!  That's sin!  That's where the trouble comes from.

All right, now Hebrews 10:26:  "If we sin willfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins.  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.  He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:  Of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath
done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  For we know him that hath
said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.
And again, The Lord shall judge his people.  It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God."

Now, I don't care what you do with that verse.  But that thing, as it
comes out right now, as it stands right there, is somebody who has
"trodden under foot the Son of God," and they're God's people!  "The
Lord shall judge his people."

Now, Dr.  DeHaan will make that the Judgment Seat of Christ.

It won't work!  It will not work!

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It
isn't for me.  I'm in His hand!  And no man can pluck me out of His
hand!  It isn't a fearful thing for me to fall into the hands of the
living God.

As a matter of fact, I'm one of His hands!  First Corinthians 12 says
I'm bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and one of His members,
like an eye or a foot or a hand!

So whatever that thing is, it isn't me!

All right, now, I'll show you how folks read the Bible.  Look at verse
30:  "We know him that hath said..." Do you know Him that hath said?
"We know him that hath said--" He said it in the past.  'Way back
someplace.

Where did He say it?  Where'd He say it?  Where?  Whereabouts in the
past?

Deuteronomy 32.

Now, do you see how folks are?  They just go through the Bible and
say, "Well, that means, Look out or you'll lose it!" Why, it has
nothing to do with you at all!

Go back to Deuteronomy 32.  That wasn't given to any Christian in Los
Angeles.  And the verse told you it wasn't!  The verse said, "We know
him who hath said," and then gave you the reference.  But who ever
checks the references?

All right, Deuteronomy 32.  Now look at this context, where this
quotation came from.  Deuteronomy 32:35:  "To me belongeth vengeance."
Verse 36:  "For the Lord shall judge his people." Who are His people
in Deuteronomy 32?  It's the Israelites!  Israel!  It's the Jews!
That's not talking about Christians.

Look at the time of this thing here.  Verse 29:  "...their latter
end!" Verse 41:  Armageddon!  Verse 42:  Armageddon!  Verse 43:  the
Millennium!

It's talking about a Jew in the Tribulation!

All right now, back in Hebrews, you find verse after verse after verse
that keeps indicating that you can lose your salvation.  And the
reason why you can is because, in the Tribulation, you can!  And the
biggest argument for a pre-Tribulation Rapture is the fact that, in
the Tribulation, if you were there, you could lose your salvation.
That's the greatest argument for a pre-Tribulation Rapture anywhere in
the Bible.

And you've got a bunch of folks saying, "Do Christians go through
Tribulation?" They couldn't if they tried!  If they did, they would be
liable to lose it!

All right, now I'm going to draw something for you here.  And it's
going to be wild.  I know some of you are going to raise an eyebrow at
this.  And the reason is, Dallas, Moody, Fuller, Wheaton, Springfield,
Arlington, Bob Jones, Biola, Midwestern, Mid-South, Northeastern,
Southeast by Northeast, don't even get into these kinds of things.
All they do in these Christian schools is make the Bible teach what's
in the Scofield reference notes.  And those were out in 1909.

All right, lookie here.  Watch this thing here.  God puts Adam down in
that garden, and He tells him, "Don't eat of that tree." And he does!

Puts ol' Adam down there, and he puts him down there on a works basis.
All Adam has to do to be saved is just don't eat of that tree. Pure
works, if you ever saw it!  And when He runs him out there, He covers
him with clothes and kills a lamb; covers him with clothes of a lamb's
skin--pure grace!

All right then, back in the Old Testament, from Adam up here until the
time of Moses, you find, "By faith, Enoch did this..." "By faith,
Abraham did this..." "By faith, Isaac did this..." "By faith, somebody
did this..."

Then along comes Moses, and the children of Israel say, "All the Lord
God says unto us, we'll do!"

Paul says, "The man that doeth those things shall live by them under
the law."

So, from Moses until the time of Christ, you have a setup of faith and
works--and there isn't any way you can cut that thing with a knife.
It's faith and works--isn't any doubt about it at all!  "Don't touch
this." "Don't touch that." "Wash over here." "If you don't do this,
the soul will be cut off from the people." "If you don't do that, the
soul will be cut off from the people." WORKS, WORKS, WORKS, WORKS!

When you get to talking like this, then somebody says, "Well, Ruckman
doesn't believe in salvation by grace." I believe every person who
ever got saved got saved by grace!  That hasn't got anything to do
with what I'm talking about.  I'm not talking about grace; talking
about faith and works. It's the grace of God that any of us get to
heaven!  Always has been!  I believe anybody who was ever saved was
saved by grace.  But the grace is negative.  God will give grace to
anybody.  He caused the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.  God
is merciful to a lot of people who aren't saved.  God's grace is
sufficient.

All right, you get up here to the time of Christ.  Then, after Christ
dies on the cross, He comes up from the dead.  When He comes up from
the dead, Simon Peter gets up in Acts chapter 2, and somebody says,
"You want to get saved?" And he says, "Yeah.  How do you do it?"

Peter says, "You gotta get baptized!"

Somebody says, "Oh, no, he was saying, `Be baptized because your sins
have been forgiven.'"

Yeah!  But he said, "You can't get the Holy Ghost unless you're
baptized in water." Acts 2:38:  "Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Right?  Isn't that Acts 2:38?

That's Acts 2:38!

Take your Bible and turn to Galatians 3.  You didn't get the Holy
Spirit by getting baptized.  If you get into that baptismal and you
get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins
until you're red, white, and blue, you'd still go to hell!  You can't
get the Holy Spirit by getting baptized in water.  Turn to Galatians
3.  The Bible says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth." All right, in Galatians chapter 3, let's see how you got the
Holy Spirit.  Verse 14:  "That the blessing of Abraham might come on
the Gentiles through Jesus Christ:  that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through..." what?  FAITH!  There's no water baptism to
it.

You got the Holy Spirit before you got baptized in water--just like
Cornelius did in Acts 10.  In Acts chapter 10, he's preaching,
Cornelius and his house believed, and they received the Holy Spirit
before they were baptized in water.  So, in Acts chapter 2, Simon
Peter is still preaching a faith-and-works setup.  The gospel of the
grace of God hasn't yet been revealed.  It isn't revealed unto you get
around to chapters 8, 9, and 10 of the book of Acts.

All right then, you go on here, and you're saved by grace through
faith.  Then the Holy Spirit takes the body of Christ out, and the
Great Tribulation starts.

How is a man saved in the Great Tribulation?  He's saved by faith and
works. Turn to Matthew 24.  Faith and works.  Without the works, he'd
go to hell, just as sure as he's standing there.  When the Holy Spirit
leaves and takes the body of Christ out with Him, in Matthew chapter
24, look how a man is saved.  Matthew 24:13:  "But he that shall
endure to the end, the same shall be saved." Now what are they doing
in the passage?  All right, look at the passage.  Verse 14:
"...gospel of the kingdom..." Not the gospel of the grace of God.
Verse 15:  worshipping in a temple.  Verse 16:  in Judea.  Verse 20:
keeping the Old Testament Ten Commandments.  See the Sabbath?  Verse
20.  Faith and works.  Faith and works.  Faith and works.

Take your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 14.  In the
Tribulation, a man is saved by faith and works.  Without the faith,
he's not saved.  Without the works, he's not saved.  That's what James
is about.  Revelation 14:12, right in the middle of the Tribulation.
Notice the mark of the beast, right in the context.  "Here is the
patience of the saints:  here are they that keep the commandments of
God..." WORKS!  "...and the faith of Jesus." FAITH AND WORKS!

Chapter 12, verse 17, right in the middle of the Tribulation.  Faith
and works.  "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God..." WORKS ..."and have the testimony of Jesus Christ..." FAITH.

FAITH and WORKS.

Now, you ask about the passage in Hebrews.  I'd say this.  I'd say
that Hebrews 3, Hebrews 6, and Hebrews 10, where those passages are
aimed, are aimed at a Hebrew in the Tribulation.  And, in the
Tribulation, he has to endure to the end to be saved.  He has to put
off the mark of the beast to be saved.  And he has to go by the Mosaic
Ten Commandments to be saved.  And if he endures to the end, he's
saved.  If he doesn't, he loses it!

And I'd say the passages in Hebrews that deal with losing salvation
refer to a man losing salvation in this age.

Let me show you a clincher.  Revelation 22:14, which all the scholars
have changed.  They will not believe what God says.  That's true of
all the scholars.  Any fundamental scholar or premillennial scholar in
America will change the verse, because he can't understand it.
Revelation 22:14:  "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that
they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through
the gates into the city." Salvation by works!  "Blessed are they that
do his commandments."

Now the modern scholars--any of them, all the same crew--say, "Blessed
are they that wash their robes," you know, that kind of bunk.  They
can't believe a man can be saved by keeping commandments.  They're
going to make the Bible say what they believe.

All during the thousand-year reign of Christ upon this earth, nobody
is saved by faith!  You couldn't even have any faith.  Come to Hebrews
chapter 11.  When Christ is on this earth, nobody could be saved by
faith if they had the faith to do it!  Hebrews 11:1:  "Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Will we see Christ in the Millennium?  Will the people on the earth
see Christ in the Millennium?  Will He be here in the Millennium?
Then there's one thing you won't have in the Millennium--and that's
faith!

Make sure you don't have it.  If you do, you get stoned.  Turn to
Zechariah.  You'll get your brains knocked out.  Anybody who goes
around preaching "faith" in the Millennium gets their brains knocked
out by their mothers and daddies.  Turn to Zechariah.  And here is
Christ on the earth in the Millennium.  Zechariah 12:10:  "And I will
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications:  and they shall look upon
me..." look upon me ..."whom they have pierced." Chapter 13, verse 3:
"And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his
father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt
not live:  for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord:  and his
father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he
prophesieth." Context?  Verse 6:  "And one shall say unto him, What
are these wounds in thine hands?  Then he shall answer, Those with
which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

All right, in the Tribulation a man is saved by faith and works; in
the Millennium a man is saved by works.  You can't beat that thing
with a stick, folks!  There's no faith to it!  "Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And in the
Millennium, Christ is right there, with a hole right there, and a hole
right there, and a hole right there--and if that weren't enough, there
will be about three million exact replicas of Christ out across this
earth--from the Church Age--reigning with Christ.  There's no faith to
it!

A man in the Millennium gets saved by keeping the Sermon on the
Mount--which is pure works, from start to finish.

In the Tribulation, you know what happens to a fellow who doesn't
visit folks in jail?  He goes to hell!  Did you ever read Matthew 25?
"I was sick; you didn't visit me.  I was in prison; you didn't come to
see me.  I was naked; you didn't clothe me.  I was hungry; you didn't
feed me.  Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels." Pure works!  Pure works!

So, although anybody who's saved is saved by the grace of God, God
doesn't save them the same way in each dispensation.  Noah was
certainly not saved by "looking forward to Calvary," like the pretty
little sermons say.  He was saved by building a boat!

In each age, the Lord says to a guy, "Do you want to be saved?"

The guy says, "Yes."

The Lord says, "OK, you do this."

The Lord said to Noah, "You wanna get saved?"

"Yep."

"Build you a boat."

The Lord said to Abraham, "You want to get saved?"

"Yeah."

"All right, I'm going to give you as many children as there are stars
up there.  Do you believe it?"

"Yep."

"OK.  Imputed righteousness."

At Pentecost:  "Do you want to get saved?  Turn and get baptized."

You know what the message is now?  "You want to be saved?  Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

You know what the message is in the Tribulation?  The message in the
Tribulation is, commandments of God AND faith in Jesus Christ.

They differ.

So concerning your question about Hebrews chapter 6, if I'm going to
answer that thing right, I'd say this:  I'd say the Bible is not just
written for Baptists in the Church Age.  I'd say the Bible is written
for people in all ages.  And the book of Hebrews and James, in
Tribulation epistles, you'll find verses aimed doctrinally at a man in
the Tribulation, and in the Tribulation a man can lose it.  He can
lose it.