Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from the book of Hebrews chapter 10. I'll be teaching on the subject,
the just shall live by faith. I've taken that title from the
last two verses of this passage. Let me read those to you and
then we'll go back and get the other verses in the context.
But in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38, the Apostle Paul writes
to the Hebrew believers He says, now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we, that is, we who
believe or living by faith, are not of them who draw back unto
perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Now, first of all, I want to
just give you some definitions from the scripture Concerning
this subject, the just shall live by faith. What does the
Bible mean when it talks about a person being just, the just? Well, here in this context, it
is a person, a sinner, who is justified before God. Now, to be justified before God
has to do with salvation. Justification before God. It
means to be declared legally, positionally, in Christ, not
guilty before God. You see, the Bible is very clear.
We are all sinners. And we all come short of the
glory of God. The wages of sin is death. And that means that all we deserve
by nature and by practice is death. The sentence has been
passed. Adam brought the whole human
race under condemnation, so that when we were born in Adam, we
were born on death row under the sentence of death. Now to
be justified before God, who is the judge of all, we must
be legally pronounced not guilty. The sentence must be cleared.
The condemnation must be removed. And we must be made righteous
before God legally, positionally, in Christ, declared righteous
by the living God who judges according to truth. So a justified
person is one who is a sinner saved by the grace of God. His
sins have been washed in the blood of Christ. Christ paid
his debt to law and justice. Christ died for his sins. Christ
is the one who established an everlasting righteousness of
infinite value whereby God could be holy and just and truthful
and righteous and still pronounce this sinner just, not guilty. So now those who are saved by
the grace of God, those who are justified, fit and entitled to
the whole inheritance of grace in Christ, the just shall live. They live eternally, they live
spiritually, by faith. Now let me say a word about faith
before I go on further. Faith has an object. And saving
faith or the faith of the elect of God, the faith of God's elect,
faith that saves is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact,
the emphasis here on the word faith is not necessarily on our
personal act of faith, our personal believing. We who are justified
do believe. And that faith is the gift of
God. It's a moral quality, a gift of God's grace. It's a grace
of the Spirit whereby we lay hold of Christ. Somebody said
faith is the hand that reaches out and takes hold of Christ
and holds on for dear life. That's the gift of God. But faith
here has more in view Christ Himself and what He accomplished
on Calvary for His people. So we could say it this way.
The just, or the justified sinner, shall live by looking to Christ,
by resting in Him, by trusting Him, by laying hold of Him. You see, Christ who is my righteousness,
Christ who is my Redeemer. Now that's what he's talking
about here. Now these Hebrew believers had heard the Gospel,
and they claimed to believe it. Many of them were going away
from it, they were leaving it. They were falling away unto perdition. They were apostatizing, as one
man said, denying what they claimed to believe. But the Apostle Paul
says that those who truly live by faith, those who are truly
saved, will never depart from Christ. They'll persevere unto
the end because they are preserved by the grace of God. And what
he's showing here in this passage of Scripture is that there is
nothing more deadly to the souls of men than to reject Christ. Now back up in verse 26 of chapter
10, he mentions this. Now listen to this very carefully.
He says, For 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."
Now, this passage, this verse has been taken out of context
to prove a lot of wild things that are not scriptural. For
example, it says, if we sin willfully. Many teach that that means that
if a believer sins after he's baptized, he'll lose his salvation. Well, that is not what this means.
Some teach that it means this, that a believer will sin, but
he will not sin willingly or of his own will, or he will not
willingly engage in acts of sin. That's not what that's teaching
at all either. If that's true, then there are
no believers, there are no Christians. But that's not what it's teaching.
This sinning willfully here, is a specific sin. And the specific
sin is rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work.
Rejecting His blood as our only hope of the forgiveness of sins.
Rejecting His blood as the only payment for our sins. rejecting
his righteousness as that which alone saves us, keeps us, and
entitles us to final glory in heaven. He'd been talking about
drawing near to God through Christ, having a conscience that's sprinkled,
cleaned by the blood of Christ. He'd been talking about holding
fast the profession of our faith. What is the profession of our
faith? My hope, that song, that hymn, my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. That's the profession
of my faith. The profession of my faith is
what the Apostle wrote in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote this
in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3. He says, for we are
the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice or
have confidence in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh. Christ is my all in all. He is
my salvation. It's His blood alone that washes
me clean from all my sins, past sins, present sins, future sins,
original sins. It's His righteousness alone,
His holiness alone that saves me and keeps me and entitles
me to heaven's glory. And I have no other profession
of faith, you see. We look to Him. We rest in Him. Now, if we who believe that,
we who have heard that, and claim to believe it. If now we willfully
reject Christ and him crucified, then, he said, after having received
the knowledge of the truth, after having heard the gospel preached
and claiming to believe it, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. If you reject the blood of Christ
as your only hope of forgiveness, there's no more sacrifice for
sin, because there is none. Who would you look to? Where
would you look? Would you look to your tears
of repentance? They won't wash away sin. Would
you look to the waters of baptism? The waters of baptism will not
wash away sin. Would you look to your own sorrow
and penance? That won't wash away sin. The
only thing that will wash away the sins of God's people is the
blood of Christ. So that if you willfully reject
that, reject Him, After having heard the gospel and claiming
to believe it, you have rejected the only sacrifice for sin, and
there remaineth no more. If you reject his righteousness
as your only ground of salvation, your only hope of assurance of
faith, then you reject the only way of salvation. And all you've
got to look forward to, as verse 27 says, is a fearful looking-for
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
If you reject Christ and His finished work as that which alone
saves you and keeps you and ensures your final glory in heaven, all
you have to look forward to is judgment and fiery indignation
because you're an adversary of the glory of God. You're an adversary
of Christ. And he goes back here in verse
28 now, and he goes back to the Law of Moses, and he uses a comparison
here. He says in verse 28, he that
despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Now those, under the law of Moses,
there were certain crimes that could be committed that had capital
punishment as the judgment. Death, for example, what they
call accidental or incidental murder, the punishment was death. Breaking the Sabbath, the punishment
was death. And what he's saying is, if the
law of Moses was that severe and that stern, that he who broke
that law, there was no mercy. And under two or three witnesses,
look at verse 29 now, of how much sorer punishment. Suppose
ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot 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." If the law of Moses,
which was a temporary system, which was wrapped up in temporal
ceremonies and sacrifices given to the nation Israel, if that
law, which had no eternal value or saving value in and of itself,
if it was so strict that it condemned one who broke it to death, how
much sorer, how much greater, how much worse do you think the
punishment will be for those who reject Christ, who is the
only hope of salvation, the Son of God incarnate, the blessed
Redeemer, the one whom the Father sent and said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. The one who came
and died for his people under the punishment of death, the
sentence, the curse of the law. He was made sin for them. So
our sins were imputed to him and all that he went through
in his suffering, his bleeding, and his dying to accomplish salvation. How much worse do you think it's
going to be for those who reject Christ? Well, under Moses' law,
it was physical death. But under the covenant of grace,
it's eternal death. And that's unimaginable. He gives
us three things here in verse 29. He says, they've trodden
underfoot the Son of God to reject Christ and not believe the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in him, to not seek him as a
mercy beggar. Just like that publican who said,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. To reject him in unbelief, in
self-righteousness and pride, is to tread under your foot his
precious blood." Because you're saying it means nothing. The
Bible says in Galatians 2 and verse 21, if righteousness come
by law, by your works of the law, then Christ died in vain. The sinner who seeks to be saved
by his efforts to keep the law is saying that Christ's death,
his blood, his righteousness is nothing. He died in vain.
So you trodden under the foot the Son of God. And then secondly,
you have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith you were
claimed to be set apart an unholy thing. The blood of the covenant
is the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation
of his people. And those who reject him, who
reject his blood, say that it's an unholy thing. It's curse,
because you see, if when Christ died on that cross, if he didn't
finish the work of redemption, he died under a curse, and you're
saying his blood is curse. But you see, he did die under
the curse, but he finished the work. He satisfied law and justice. He paid the debt, the penalty,
that his children, his church, his sheep, owe to God's law and
justice. And he was buried and rose again
the third day as a testimony of that. You see, sin demands
death. Righteousness demands life. And
then thirdly, he says they've done despite or despot unto the
spirit of grace. The Holy Spirit, his official
duty under the covenant of grace is to point sinners to Christ.
And those who reject the gospel, They blaspheme the Holy Spirit. They go against the Holy Spirit.
They do despot unto the Spirit of grace, because he is the third
person of the Trinity who applies what the Father purposed before
time and what the Son, Jesus Christ, purchased in time, and
points sinners to Christ. Now, in verse 30, he says this.
He says, 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." Verse 31. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Now, what he's saying here
is this. Don't ever doubt that those who
reject Christ, that those who reject God's way of salvation
by free and sovereign grace, mercy in Christ Jesus, salvation
by his blood and his righteousness alone, don't ever doubt that
God will surely punish all who reject Christ. How do we know
that? Because we know the God who said,
vengeance is mine. Vengeance is not yours. Vengeance
is not mine. It's God. And God's justice must
take vengeance upon all who are found at the judgment without
Christ. Without Christ you have no forgiveness.
You're covered in your sins. Sin is charged to your account,
and you must pay for those sins which you cannot really pay for
them. That's why it's an eternal death, eternity in hell. And
we know the God who must punish him, he's holy. The soul that
sinneth must surely die, and either you must die eternally
or you must have one who is appointed by God and who's qualified and
willing to take your place. Now, if you reject Christ, then
you have no substitute. You have no representative. You
have no sin offering. You have no surety. And therefore
God, who has said, vengeance is mine, he said, I'll recompense
it. And he said, the Lord shall judge
his people. And it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. My friend, without Christ,
it is truly a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. But in Christ, now listen to me. Here's the positive point.
Here's the joy and the peace in Christ. It is not a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God, because that
same God who judged me in Christ is now my Father. He's my loving
Father. You see, that's the issue of
the Gospel. How can God be both a fearful, vengeful, just God,
which He must, and at the same time be a loving Father? There's not but one way, and
that's by the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, without Him, there is no merciful, loving, heavenly Father. Without Christ, all there is
is judgment and damnation for sin. So it's a fearful thing
to fall in the hands of the living God without Christ. Now, in verse
32, he begins to tell these Hebrew believers to recall what they
had already suffered for the sake of Christ. How could you
even think about leaving Him? How could you even think about
rejecting Him and going back to human works religion when
you suffered so much already? He says in verse 32, he says,
but called to remembrance the former days in the which you
were illuminated, that is, you heard the gospel, you endured
a great fight of afflictions. Because of their testimony of
the gospel among the Jews, they were persecuted, they were afflicted,
they were beaten, they were scorned, they were hated. And he says
in verse 33, partly whilst you were made a gazing stock, both
by reproaches and afflictions, in other words, they were reproached
and afflicted and beaten and hated publicly, and partly whilst
ye became companions of them that were so used. What he's
saying there is this. When you first claimed to believe
in Christ, claimed to believe the gospel and testified among
the Jews, you suffered publicly yourself because of your own
testimony or because of your identification and siding with
the people of God. So he says in verse 34, for you
had compassion of me. in my bonds, and took joyfully
the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance." Even when Paul was
put in prison, these Hebrew believers identified with him. They helped
him. They gave him things that he needed, money and food and
clothing and things like that. And they did this because they
were convinced that the persecution they were going through in this
life was not even to be compared with the glory and the enduring
happiness and blessedness of life eternal in Christ. So he
says in verse 35, cast not away therefore your confidence which
hath great recompense of reward. Don't cast away your faith in
Christ, that's what he's saying. Don't turn away from the assurance
of eternal salvation that we who know Christ as our Redeemer,
as our surety, we who know Him as our all in all, have. And
in that there's great recompense of reward. It's not a reward
that we earn, but it's the reward that Christ has earned for us. It's the reward of grace. So
he says in verse 36, for you have need of patience. that after
you have done the will of God you might receive the promise
for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and
will not tarry." That patience there is a calm submission to
the will of God. It means this, that no matter
what I go through in this life whether it be prosperity, adversity,
sickness, derision, hatred, You know Christ said, blessed are
you when men shall revile you and say all manner of evil against
you for his sake, for my sake, he said. He said, blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He told his
disciples, he said, marvel not if the world hates you. They
hated me before they hated you and the servant is not above
his master. He told them in John chapter
16, he said, they'll throw you out of their synagogues Thinking
that they're doing the work of God in doing that but they do
it because they neither know me nor my father You see no matter
what we go through here on this earth as believers We're to endure
it patiently with a calm submission to the will of God in Providence
And that's what he's saying. You have need of patience patience
in Christ Knowing that after we've done the will of God after
we after we've done what God's Word says to do is beginning
with believing in Christ, we might receive the promise. And
the promise there is final glory in heaven. And he says the proof
of that will be the fact that in a little while, now we don't
know what time frame this is, but he says, he that shall come
will come and will not tarry. Christ is coming again. And he's
not tarrying. Somebody says, well, he's waiting
for this and he's waiting. There's an appointed time in
which he will come, and he won't come one second earlier or one
second later. So we're to wait. Now, the last
two verses, again. Now the just shall live by faith. Those who are justified by the
grace of God in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his
righteousness, they live, their whole lives are in looking and
resting in Christ. Looking to Him, resting in Him. But if any man draw back, Paul
says, my soul shall have no pleasure in it. That won't satisfy me,
that won't please me. He says if they draw back, if
they leave the gospel, but now listen to me now. If they leave
the gospel, they never knew it to begin with. My friend, if
you leave Christ, you never knew Him to begin with. John said
that in 1 John 2. If they had been of us, they
would no doubt have remained with us. But going out from us,
it was manifest that they never knew us. They never were with
us. And this is what he says in verse 39. But we are not of
them who draw back unto perdition. Now, we may get scared. We may
do some wrong things. But we won't totally leave Christ
unto eternal damnation, perdition. But we are of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. That's saving faith. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Listen, if you
know Christ today, savingly, you will know Him always. If
you truly know Him, and if you truly believe in Him, If you're
truly, savingly resting in Him, you'll never lose that salvation.
That's impossible. If you do draw back and leave
Him, you never know Him to begin with. And that's what Paul's
teaching here. We're not of them who draw back
unto perdition. But we are of them, we who are
justified in Christ. washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness, freely entitled to the whole inheritance
of grace and glory because of Him and His finished work, we
are them who believe unto the saving of the soul. We shall
be finally delivered and glorified in Christ Jesus, who is our only
hope of salvation. The just shall live by faith.