BOOK OF HEBREWS
FOUNDATION OF THE FAITH
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 1, 1984
HEBREWS 5:11
Everybody needs milk. That is one of the slogans of the American Dairy Association and certainly it is true that every child needs milk. Milk in and of itself is not sufficient to sustain us to adulthood, but milk does provide a necessary foundation for physical growth and God wants us to understand that what is true physically is also true spiritually. Every Christian needs spiritual milk. And this morning I would like us to discuss spiritual milk. What are the basics of the Christian faith? What are the foundations of the Christian faith, the elementary doctrines of Jesus Christ? In our passage of scripture for today, the Bible list six elementary doctrines of the faith and I feel compelled to share those with you this morning. First of all, we are told that repentance is an elementary doctrine of faith. Without repentance, it is impossible for anybody to become a Christian without repentance. It is impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven without repentance. I think we live in a world that does not understand the concept of biblical repentance. It is said that a few years back a letter was sent to the Internal Revenue Service. In the letter read, Dear Sirs, I am riddled with guilt. I cannot sleep at night. I cheated on my income tax and enclosed you will find a check for $50. I will remit the balance.
That is the world’s concept of repentance. It is halfhearted. God looks for a repentance that results in a changed life. Years ago during the Carter administration, a man named Larry Flint who was the publisher, or I guess is publisher of Hustler Magazine, said that he had become a Christian. He had accepted Jesus Christ. He had been born anew. He had been converted through the evangelistic efforts of Ruth Stapleton Carter, the president’s sister. He said there would be changes in his life and Hustler Magazine would not be the same. Many years have passed, and it has said that today Hustler Magazine is just as pornographic as ever it was. And this past year in interviews with major newspapers, Larry Flint has said that it was all a misunderstanding. He never became a Christian. He was never born anew. He never embraced God.
Of course now is not for any of us to judge Larry Flint or any other man. All judgment is given to Jesus Christ. And yet it should not surprise any of us that Larry Flint now denies Christianity because rebirth requires repentance and above all else repentance issues in a changed and transformed lie. The biblical word for repentance is the word metanoia. And it means to turn and to walk a new direction. Repentance means to turn from sin. It means to turn from self-reign and to turn to God. The biblical essence of repentance is portrayed in the story of the prodigal son. The prodigal son took a great portion of his father’s wealth, and he left his father’s house, and he went to a distant land. There he wasted his money on riotous living and on a sinful life. But he became despondent, and he came to a state where he was broke and penniless and he found himself eating corn cobs in a pig pen.
And the Bible says that he came to a moment of repentance, and he came to his right mind, and he said, I will return to my father, and I will say to my father, “father, I have sinned against heaven and before you before men, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired servants.” And so he returned to his father. The Bible tells us that every person in this world is like the prodigal son. We have all left our father’s presence and the only way to get back is repentance. We must acknowledge that we have sinned against heaven and before men we are no longer worthy to be called God’s children. And so in repentance we humble ourselves and we turn from sin, we turn from self-reign, and we turn back to go up.
The second elementary doctrine of faith listed in this passage of scripture is the doctrine of faith. We are saved by faith. The Bible says by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not your wrongdoing is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. Faith and repentance are joined. Repentance is turning from sin; it is turning from self-reign and faith is turning to God and turning to the reign of Jesus Christ. And faith is a major commitment in one’s life. It is no casual step in a person’s life when they become a Christian because true faith, the Greek word past does not simply mean intellectual assent, but it means relinquishment of life. If we have truly come to that point where we have made Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and we have come to that point in our life where we have relinquished our life, we said, Lord Jesus, come into my life. I want to live for You. I want You to be my Lord and Savior.
Most historians agree that the greatest tight rope walker in history was a man named Charles Blondin. In the year 1860, he stretched tightrope across Niagara Falls, a thousand feet in length, 160 feet above the raging water. And many times he crossed that tightrope. He brought a chair out and he set it down on the rope with two legs and he sat in the chair 160 feet above the water. He took a wheelbarrow, and he took it all the way across that thousand-foot rope. And it is said that he actually took a stove out to the middle, and he cooked an omelet, and he ate it there. That is what historians say. And he also did a flip in the middle of the rope above the raging waters. He one time returned from that rope to the dry lands and to the applause of thousands of people, he asked the people if they thought he could carry someone on his back who had crossed that rope and they all applauded.
They were enraptured by his gifts and by his talent and by his skills. And then he asked for a volunteer and there was silence. And in the biblical sense of the word, there was not a single person in that crowd that had faith. They all had intellectual ascent, but they did not have faith. They were not willing to relinquish their life into his care. You see, Jesus Christ does not ask for a mere intellectual assent. He asks, He demands relinquishment of life that you would submit your life to His lordship. Obey the words of His voice that you would trust all of your tomorrows. To Him that is faith. And that is why Jesus said “He would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. For he would save his life shall lose it, but he would lose his life for My sake and the sake of the gospel shall surely find it.” Jesus said,” I know My sheep, they hear My voice, they follow Me, and I give them eternal life.” Repentance and faith to elementary doctrines of Christianity.
Thirdly, we are told that baptism is an elementary doctrine of the faith. Actually the Greek word here is not the normal word for baptism, which is baptism. In this passage of scripture, the Greek word is baptismo and it is the plural form, and it is used to refer to baptisms or abolitions. It was used to refer to the Old Testament purification rights. It was used to refer to the cleansing rituals of the Jews. It was used to refer to their ceremonial washings. Now in Christianity in the New Testament, there is only one purification, right? And that right is called baptism. But I do not think any teaching of Christianity has been more misunderstood than the biblical teaching regarding water baptism.
It is said that a few years back in a little country store in Nebraska, a little boy went into the store, and he bought some detergent, and he came to the clerk and the clerk said, “What do you want to buy the detergent for? And a little boy said, “Well, I want to wash my dog. And the clerk said, well, detergent is a little strong for your dog. You might hurt your dog seriously; I would not recommend you do that. The little boy said, no problem. He took the detergent and went home. Two days later he came back to the country store and the clerk said, “How is your dog? And the little boy said, well, he died. And the clerk was just horrified. He said, “Son, didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I tell you that the detergent was too strong? Don’t you remember me telling you that? My little boy said, actually, sir, I do not think it was the detergent that did it. I think it was the wash cycle that did.
Now that is a dumb story. But it is a tragic truth, and it is a tragic truth that most of the people in this world know no more regarding how to cleanse their soul or spirit than that little boy knew about how to wash his dog. Millions of people in this world believe that through water baptism, they can cleanse their soul. They can receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life. But that is not true. We only find forgiveness of sin. We only find cleansing of the soul. We only find eternal life through repentance and through faith in Jesus Christ. For adults water baptism is simply meant to be an outward sign of an inward reality. It is a sign of death and resurrection with Christ. It is a sign of cleansing and forgiveness of sin. It is a sign of entrance into the covenant community and the household of faith. And if that has not become a reality, if we have not truly received Jesus Christ in faith, then that outward sign accomplishes nothing.
We could be baptized with water a million times. We could be baptized on Easter Sunday in the River Jordan by the Pope, and it would not do any good at all. We are saved by faith. Now in this church we oftentimes practice infant dedication, and we sometimes practice infant baptism in accordance with the will and the wishes of the parents. As we did this morning with Don and Marin, little Cherise, infant baptism is an expression of the truth that that child has entered into the nurture of the covenant community and the household of faith. It is an expression of the confidence that God will draw that child in a special way by his spirit through the faith of the parents. It is an expression of the hope that that little child will one day confess Jesus Christ as his own, as her own Lord and savior of life.
But we should never make the mistake of thinking that water baptism in and of itself provides salvation. It does not. It is simply a sign in the case of infant baptism, it is given before the reality in the case of adult baptism, it is given after it, but it does not save us. Faith saves us. We practice water baptism in obedience to the scriptures and as a public testimony of our faith. Fortunately, we are told that there is the elementary doctrine of Christianity that is called the laying on of hands. Now this might seem like a strange ingredient and a list of six essentials of fate, but the laying on of hands was practiced in the New Testament community for the purpose of impartation or the purpose of imparting the Holy Spirit’s power for ministry. The laying on of hands was practice for the purpose of symbolizing the impartation of the Holy Spirit’s power and healing.
It was practices in an effort to symbolize the impartation of the Holy Spirit’s power for in gifting with the gifts of the Spirit. We still practice the laying on of hands in the Christian Church today. In fact, only a few weeks ago at this very service we called the elders forward and we had a prayer with a laying on of hands and we prayed for Lou Deacon and for Mary Bodecker that the Lord might anoint them in ministry as they go forth to China and India as ministers for Jesus Christ representing this community and this fellowship, the power of the Holy Spirit is not dependent on the laying on of hands. God is capable of anointing for ministry without the laying on of hands. God is capable of gifting the gifts of His Spirit without the laying on of hands, God is capable of healing without the laying on of hands.
But throughout the Christian centuries, the laying on of hands has been a beautiful symbol of the flow of the spirit’s power from one Christian to another person in prayer. Now we should understand that it is not the laying on of hands itself. That is the elementary doctrine here. The elementary doctrine here is the necessity of the gifts of the Spirit and their employment in ministry in this world that is what is elementary. We need to be open to the gifts we need to seek to discover our gifts and we need to employ them in ministry in the world. We have been saved for a purpose. We have not passed through repentance, faith, and baptism simply for the purpose of our own salvation. But we have been saved in order that we might now serve the kingdom of Jesus Christ in this world. And for that purpose, we need gifts in ministry.
We need to discover our call and purpose in this life. There is an old story that is told of a farmer who lived in Iowa, and he was out in the field one day and suddenly he looked up at the clouds and noticed the clouds were coming together in a unique way so as to form two letters. And he thought it was a mystical experience and a communication from God and the letters were P and C. And he took those letters to mean preach Christ. And so he quit his job and he went to seminary, and he was trained theologically. And then he began to go out and preach. But as he preached all around the country, nobody listened, but he did not have the gift of preaching. He had a great ministry unto himself. And after a while, some of his friends came up to him and suggested that maybe PC did not stand for preach Christ, maybe it stood for plow corn.
And so as the story goes, he went back to his farm, and he continued his great work of feeding this nation. Most Christians undergo a similar struggle in their effort to discover their gift and their calling and that is good. What is tragic is when a Christian is not willing to seek to discover their gifts and their call and lives. We have been saved for a purpose. And that purpose is that we might serve the great kingdom of Jesus Christ in this world. We need to discover our gifts and employ them in ministry.
Paul said, by the grace given unto me, I bid each one of you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. But to think with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith which God has assigned you, as in one body, there are many members and all the members do not have the same function. So we though many are one body in in Christ and individually members of one another having gifts which differ according to the measure of grace assigned you let us use them if prophecy and proportion to our faith. He who serves in his serving, he who teaches in his teaching, he exhorts in his exhortation. He who contributes with liberality, he who gives aid with zeal. He who performs acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Paul wrote to the Christians and Ephesus, and he said his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers for the work of the ministry, for the equipping of the saints, for the building up of the body of Jesus Christ. And so we have this fourth elementary doctrine. We are to seek our spiritual gifts and employ them in ministry in this world.
Now fifthly, we have the elementary doctrine called the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the hope of the Christian world. Indeed, it is the hope of our own resurrection. Four hundred years before Christ, Socrates was dying. And it has said that he drank the poison hemlock, and his friends asked him, Socrates, if we die, shall we live again in another world? And Socrates said, I hope so, but no man can know. He was wrong. There is one person who knows, and that person is Jesus Christ. He has risen from the dead and He has told the world that all who believe in His name will indeed rise to life in another world. And that other world is glorious. There is a world of new heavens and a world of a new earth.
In the 15th century, the Spaniards minted coins, and on those coins they portrayed the straits of Gibraltar and they portrayed the Pillars of Hercules and beyond the Pillars of Hercules they portrayed an endless sea. And on those coins, they printed three Latin words, “Ne Plus Ultra;” no more beyond. Because as far as the Spanish were concerned, beyond the straits of Gibraltar, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, there was nothing but an endless sea beyond the sea. The world just dropped off. There was no life, there was nothing. But in 1492, Columbus went beyond those seas, and he discovered life beyond and he came back, and he bore testimony to the world that indeed there was life beyond the sea. Jesus Christ has done a similar thing. He has died and he has risen from the dead and he has come back and proclaimed to the world that there is indeed life beyond and that life for the Christian is salvation. It is heaven, it is paradise. It is eternal life in indestructible resurrected bodies. According to Muhammad in the Koran, when a faithful Muslim dies, the Muslim goes to heaven and heaven begins immediately with a 300-course dinner. The 300th course must be spelled R O L A I Ds.
But immediately after that great feast, the Muslim is treated to his own palace. He has given a palace so large that it requires 80,000 slaves to run it. Each Muslim is given 80,000 slaves. Then they are given seventy-two wives. All of the wives are eternally young and eternally beautiful. Now this is a chauvinistic heaven. 72, yes, eternally young and eternally beautiful wives. It is no wonder that an Olympic boxing champion named Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. And the Koran also says that for the faithful Muslim, if they desire children through one of those 72 wives the child will be born and will grow to adulthood within one hour. That can solve a lot of child rearing problems. But you see, Muhammad knew nothing regarding the life to come. Muhammad did not come from heaven, and Muhammad did not rise from the dead. All the teachings of the Koran are nothing more than mythology.
They are simply the wishful thinking of mankind. But Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He rose from the dead and He was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses. And we have the testimony of eyewitnesses in the Word of God, the Bible and the spirit of God bears witness with the hearts of men that Jesus Christ is alive, and he is the hope of the world. Resurrection comes only through Jesus Christ. Paul said our commonwealth is in heaven. From it we await to savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body but of power which enables him to subject all things unto himself. The sixth and final elementary doctrine listed in his passage of scripture is the doctrine of eternal judgment. As Christians, we acknowledge that there is accountability built into human existence. One day every person in this world will stand before the living God or judgment.
The Bible says judgement is appointed unto men when they die. After World War II, the western world made an amazing discovery. They discovered the German Nazi master files. They found the master files which contained the names of eight million Nazi party members. There was a time when all of those people, all eight million of them, rejoiced that they belonged to the Nazi party. It gave them power, it gave them prominence, it gave them prestige. But now those very files would be used in judgment and many of them were sent to prison and others were executed. The Bible wants us to understand that God has master files and when this world is done and when your life is done, he has a master file on you. There is no one in this world that is hidden from him. Everything that you and I have ever done has been recorded in his books and one day we will stand before him.
Before him, no creature is hidden but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of God. Only God is capable of judgment. None of us are. We are not capable of judging one human life, but God is only, God is able to look down and see and understand the interplay of heredity and environment and how they have influenced our life. Only God can understand the genetic structures of each of us individually and how they have influenced our personality, makeup, and behavior. Only God can understand the interplay between our emotions and our decisions and our actions. Only God can look through all of that and understand. When Heather and Drew were born, they were very different. Heather, when she was born, she was wired from the word go. She just wound really active. We put a pacifier in her mouth, and she just clamped on it, and she began to pump it and she did for two years until we took it away.
When Drew was born, he was very mellow, just kind of cool and laid back. We put a pacifier in his mouth and just kind of dangled there. He never took it and they have been different as they have grown up and the difference in their personalities affects the way they interact with their environment. There is not a single person in this room was qualified to judge Drew and Heather when their life is done and there is not a single person in the world who is qualified to judge you, only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He alone has the wisdom for judgment.
There is a mystery to God’s judgment, much that we do not understand, but this much we do know. He told us one truth regarding his judgment. It is really all we need to know. He has told us that He as the Son, as light, he has told us that if we believe in his son Jesus Christ, we will not perish, but we will have everlasting light. God loved the world so much that He gave his only begotten Son, but whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. This is the judgment of God. He who has the Son has life. And so we have these six elementary doctrines of Christianity, the doctrine of repentance, of faith, of baptism, of the laying on of hands for the impartation of gifts and ministry, of the resurrection of the dead and of the eternal judgment. Shall we pray.
Father, thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your words, the holy scriptures, which teach us, father, we acknowledge that in Your word, You have spoken to us, You have communicated with the world, You have told us what is essential for salvation. You have spoken of repentance and faith. Lord, if there is anybody in this room who has never received You as Lord and Savior, has never turned from sin and turned towards You, I pray Lord Jesus, that they might do that even now in this moment. They might invite You into their heart. They might receive You as Lord and Savior Lord Jesus. For those of us who believe, who have committed our lives to You, who have repented, have come to faith and have been baptized, help us to seek our gifts for ministry in this world. We love You Lord Jesus, and we want to serve You in this life. We thank You for the great hope of the resurrection of the dead, and we praise You that because of faith in You, we shall never die, that we will have eternal life. We pray these things, Lord Jesus, in Your great and matchless name, Amen.