For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, 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 they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Hebrews 6:4-6
Yikes! Ever wonder about that scripture? That’s pretty stiff. We usually hear about how loving God is and how He will always forgive us, and we have a tendency to build that idea into our personal theology. But there is a certain line that we can cross over from which there is no coming back. And this is not the only scripture that alludes to that, either. But how does one get to such a drastic point?
How this could happen to somebody? How does someone get so far from the simplicity of the Gospel to allow themselves to fall so deeply into the chains of sin? Especially when they know better. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s here a little, there a little. Ignore a little conviction from the Lord here and there, and it is not long before they allow themselves to lean more and more into what they really want to believe in their heart.
My Bible says that the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. We’re not supposed to trust in our hearts, but in the Word of God. The thing is, everybody has a little different take on the Bible. It’s often not a matter of what we read, but a matter of what we want to believe. Flesh has a tendency to choose its own delusions. Faith, however, comes by hearing the Word of God. That’s hearing, as in, having your ears open to hear the Truth.
It’s a fierce war out there, kids – a spiritual war. Over a period of time, if we do not have ears that will hearken to the Word of God, we can fall into that deceptive, smooth doctrine that will tell us all the things that our flesh wants to hear. In the depths of our souls we may be able to detect the ring of Truth, but, if we are not careful, we can ignore it so we can believe something else that is more palatable to our personal tastes. We end up, as it says in 2 Timothy 4:3, heaping up teachers to ourselves, having itching ears. Keep sliding in that direction, and there comes a point when you just totally give yourself over to your delusion, and that is when you cross that line.
Now you know why I make such a strong stand for the importance of the real chilling fear of the Lord. You can also see why the enemy of our souls has done his best to extract that message out of the pulpits for the last couple of generations. Or at least water it down as much as he can. He is pretty slick. Satan knows that when you leave the fear of the Lord, you will forget your reading, prayer, and fasting. When you forget your reading and praying, you lose your power in God. It is not by your power or might, but by the Spirit of the Lord that we are able to overcome.
It’s a simple formula. There’s no magic to it. You don’t choose to go to hell. Either you choose your own deceptions, or you choose to crucify that old flesh and submit to the Word of God.