Taste Testers

Hebrews 6:4-8

. Intro: On Sunday, August 16,1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport. One hundred fifty-five people were killed. One survived: a 4-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name. Cecelia survived because, as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go. Nothing could separate that child from her parent’s love — not tragedy or disaster, not the fall or the flames that followed, not height nor depth, not life nor death.” This is the kind of love our heavenly Father has for us. We are secure in the fact that he will do whatever is necessary to keep us near his heart. He will wrap himself around us and never let go. We are safe in him.

. We are back in Hebrews this morning as we travel through the book together.

. When I looked back to see where we were in the process I found that we are at one of the most difficult passages in the bible to understand.

. For just one minute, I thought of just skipping over this difficult passage. After all, nobody would notice.

. I had a come to Jesus meeting with me and Jesus and He reminded me that I was to preach the full counsel of God. Not just the scripture that is easy.

. Many believe that our passage this morning undermines our belief that once you are saved, you are always saved and there is nothing you can do to lose that salvation.

. In theological circles it’s called the eternal security of the believer.

. The bible has much to say about our salvation and security in that salvation.

. The most well known passage is found in Romans 8: 35-39

. 35Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?..

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37No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

38And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

39No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

. I want to start off this morning by assuring you that if you are here this morning and have truly accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and have given your life to Him, You Cannot Lose Your Salvation.

. We have that assurance.

. With that being said, let’s look at our scripture.

Hebrews 6:4-8

4For it is impossible to bring back to re-pentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit,

5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—

6and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

7When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing

.8But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.

. Verse 5 talks about those who have tasted the goodness of the word of God.

. As I read this verse an image came into my mind.

. Have you ever saw those people who taste wine for a living?

. The first thing they do is take the wine in a wine glass and swirl it around, looking for I don’t know what. Then they will bring the glass up to their nose and smell the wine. I’m told that they are getting a sense of the bouquet when they smell it.

. Then they take a sip of the wine and they swirl it around in their mouth and then they spit the wine out.