Does My Sexual Past Make Me Unsavable?

00:00:04.000 | Well our inbox holds at least 50 questions already about Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 to 6

00:00:10.000 | because we get a lot of questions about falling away and losing salvation like this question from Josh.

00:00:15.000 | Pastor John, a couple of years back I heard you speak on Hebrews 6, "I fear a lot."

00:00:20.000 | And your words have not helped my fear because you talked about what it would look like if you, John Piper, were to fall away.

00:00:27.000 | "I have professed faith and I have been dealing with sexual sin for a long time.

00:00:31.000 | It manifests itself in my marriage as I acted out on fantasies and committed adultery multiple times.

00:00:37.000 | My sin was found out of my wife who left me. I spent last summer living as one with the world.

00:00:43.000 | I slept around and was one of the guys in every respect.

00:00:47.000 | Nothing could distinguish me as a Christian.

00:00:50.000 | I've repented and I'm trying to overcome the root sexual sin that caused my downfall.

00:00:55.000 | I'm getting back into the Word and praying daily.

00:00:57.000 | I know that my salvation depends on Christ, but would what I have done count as falling away in the context of Hebrews 6 verses 4 to 6?

00:01:07.000 | Does my sexual sin mean I cannot be restored to repentance?"

00:01:13.000 | Well the short answer is, I don't know.

00:01:17.000 | I don't know whether your protracted sexual sin will have the effect of preventing you from being restored to repentance.

00:01:29.000 | And I hope the fact that I don't know will sound to you both sobering and hopeful.

00:01:38.000 | Sobering because it is possible to sin oneself into a condition of inability to repent.

00:01:48.000 | And hopeful because in Christ Jesus, the worst of sins, the worst of sins will be forgiven if there is authentic repentance in faith in Jesus Christ.

00:02:03.000 | So let me try to help by giving the bigger picture of the book of Hebrews.

00:02:10.000 | This book is written precisely to help people, save people, who have made a great beginning in the Christian life.

00:02:20.000 | Described, for example, in chapter 10 verses 32 to 34, "Recall the former days when you were enlightened.

00:02:29.000 | You endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

00:02:32.000 | You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property,

00:02:39.000 | since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one."

00:02:43.000 | That's an amazing beginning in the Christian life.

00:02:46.000 | They joyfully accepted the plundering of their property for the sake of love.

00:02:51.000 | They made a great beginning, but now they're starting to drift away, according to chapter 2 verse 1.

00:02:58.000 | "We must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."

00:03:04.000 | Or chapter 12 verse 12, "Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

00:03:10.000 | and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed."

00:03:17.000 | Or chapter 3 verse 12, "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart,

00:03:23.000 | leading you to fall away from the living God.

00:03:25.000 | Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today,

00:03:29.000 | that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin,

00:03:33.000 | because we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end."

00:03:42.000 | So we know that they were born again because they're persevering.

00:03:49.000 | Did you get that from verse 14?

00:03:51.000 | We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our confidence firm to the end.

00:03:58.000 | So our perseverance to the end confirms that we were truly in Christ.

00:04:04.000 | And what's so baffling for many people, and yet so wonderful about this book,

00:04:10.000 | is that the strategy of the inspired writer is to lavish the readers with glorious displays of superiority,

00:04:19.000 | the superiority of Christ and his salvation for sinners.

00:04:24.000 | That's one thing.

00:04:26.000 | And yet, on the other hand, to give the most stark and stunning warnings of destruction

00:04:31.000 | if we turn away from this overflowing grace and join Esau by selling our birthright for a bowl of pottage

00:04:40.000 | and so prove that we were never in Christ like we saw in 3.14.

00:04:45.000 | So I strongly encourage anyone who may be stumbling over the warnings of chapter 6 and chapter 10 and chapter 12

00:04:54.000 | to read the whole book beginning to end and let yourself be swept up into the superiority of Christ over angels,

00:05:03.000 | superiority of Christ over Moses, superiority of Christ over Old Testament priests,

00:05:11.000 | superiority of Christ over Melchizedek.

00:05:15.000 | Let yourself be swept into the fact that his covenant is a better covenant,

00:05:21.000 | and his promises are better promises, and his sacrifice is a better sacrifice.

00:05:26.000 | This book is a volcano, an overflow of spectacular provisions of God through Christ to save the worst of sinners.

00:05:39.000 | Yes, it is.

00:05:40.000 | Let this be the primary impact of the book of Hebrews.

00:05:45.000 | Now, to be sure, the terrible warnings of destruction are there, like Hebrews 12.15.

00:05:52.000 | "See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau,

00:05:59.000 | who sold his birthright for a single meal.

00:06:03.000 | For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected."

00:06:09.000 | Why?

00:06:10.000 | "For he found no place of repentance."

00:06:14.000 | He couldn't repent, "though he sought it with tears."

00:06:18.000 | That's the heart of the warning in this book.

00:06:21.000 | Don't treat the grace of God and the preciousness of Christ and the forgiveness of sins and eternal life

00:06:30.000 | with such contempt that you harden your heart to the point where you can't cherish Christ anymore.

00:06:38.000 | You can't hate sin anymore.

00:06:42.000 | You can't repent or receive forgiveness anymore.

00:06:47.000 | The warnings in the book of Hebrews are most fundamentally not warnings about being beyond the reach of grace.

00:06:57.000 | They are warnings about hardness of heart that cannot receive grace as a precious gift

00:07:08.000 | and rest in grace as free and cherish grace as all-satisfying.

00:07:15.000 | The problem with Esau in chapter 12—and this is the main problem that the writer is dealing with—

00:07:20.000 | the problem with Esau in chapter 12 was not that grace and forgiveness were unavailable,

00:07:27.000 | but that he had sinned himself into a condition where he could not welcome them

00:07:34.000 | as more precious than his bowl of Cheerios, oatmeal, pottage.

00:07:40.000 | He loved this world so much.

00:07:44.000 | He loved sin so much that freeness, the freeness and the all-sufficiency of grace

00:07:52.000 | couldn't be seen or felt or received as more precious than sin.

00:07:58.000 | So it says in 12.17, "He found no place, no occasion, no ability of repentance,

00:08:06.000 | though he sought it with tears." Not tears of repentance over the ugliness and the distastefulness

00:08:14.000 | and the Christ-crucifying evil of sin. No, no.

00:08:17.000 | His tears were the tears of fearful remorse that refused repentance because of the sin he still loved.

00:08:27.000 | So, the point of the book of Hebrews—and my point here is not to identify people for whom it's too late.

00:08:36.000 | That's not what Hebrews is trying to do. That's not what I want to do.

00:08:39.000 | I don't want to decide for anybody whether it's too late for you.

00:08:41.000 | I pray, and I hope it's not. I don't believe it is.

00:08:44.000 | Rather, the point is to say to everyone, just like it does in chapter 3,

00:08:50.000 | "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, but take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you

00:08:59.000 | an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

00:09:04.000 | Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

00:09:11.000 | This is a man crying out to a church for whom he believes it's not too late.

00:09:16.000 | It's not too late if you can do this. Would you do this?

00:09:20.000 | Would you not harden your hearts?

00:09:23.000 | Or as chapter 10 says, "Oh, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward,

00:09:31.000 | for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised."

00:09:41.000 | It's a sweet pleading to every person.

00:09:45.000 | It's not too late.

00:09:47.000 | Turn. Don't harden your heart.

00:09:51.000 | Maintain your hope.

00:09:53.000 | Keep your confidence.

00:09:56.000 | Amen. Thank you, Pastor John, for those sobering words.

00:09:59.000 | And Josh, thanks for your openness to talk about your past here on the podcast.

00:10:03.000 | It's very much appreciated that you would share your story with us.

00:10:06.000 | And thanks for listening to the podcast.

00:10:08.000 | Over at our online home, you can explore all of our episodes in our archive now of about 1,300 episodes to date.

00:10:14.000 | There you can see a list of our most popular episodes, read full transcripts, even submit a question you might be wrestling with yourself.

00:10:21.000 | For all of that, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:26.000 | Also, be sure to subscribe to us and your favorite podcast app.

00:10:30.000 | Well, God is sovereign.

00:10:32.000 | How do we pray boldly for things while also honoring God's final decision that his "no" may be the best option?

00:10:39.000 | How do we rightly pray in confidence with authority on someone else's behalf for healing, for example, while remaining in full submission to the mystery of God's will?

00:10:48.000 | That's a really sharp, good question, and that's on Monday.

00:10:52.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you back here then.

00:10:55.000 | [END]

00:10:57.000 | [END]

00:10:59.000 | [END]

00:11:01.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Does My Sexual Past Make Me Unsavable?

Chapters