Well, I have reached that stage
in life where I do a good bit of reminiscing. I've been reminiscing
some this week. Most of you are probably unaware
of it, but we have just concluded 20 years of labor together in
the cause of Christ this past week. And we've seen some Blessed,
blessed, blessed times. God has so richly favored me
and my family making us part of this assembly. The best 20
years I've ever spent in my life was spent right here. I thank
God for it. But we've seen some come and
go. We've seen some who seemed to
be strong prove to be nothing at all. And some of you have
been through some great trials, some real heartaches, some heavy
struggles. And the only reason you're here
now and the only reason I'm here now is because we are not of
them that draw back unto perdition. That's all. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10, if you will. To the weak and unbelieving,
The very slightest trouble seems to be an avalanche of heartache. To the believer whose heart is
crushed with an avalanche of trouble, he recognizes that this
is but a light affliction. We suffer but for a moment. The
difference is the one knows something of God's grace, the other does
not. There are many who begin the
race, but never finish. Many who run for a season and
run well, but in time fall by the wayside. Many who, like Judas,
Demas, and Deocrates, seem for a while to be stalwart examples
of faith and faithfulness, but at last deny the faith, deny
the Savior, deny the gospel, and forsake it all and make shipwreck
of their souls. Now these facts are so often
illustrated in scripture and verified by observation that
they cause great concern for honest men and women. Men and
women like ourselves who struggle with sin. You see, true believers
like the true apostles of our Lord on that night when he said
to his disciples, he said to those gathered around him, those
12 apostles, the true as well as Judas, the fake. He said to
them, this night one of you shall betray me. And all of them except
Judas, all of them except the phony, all of them except the
fake, all of them except the deceiver, knowing something of
the depravity of their natures, they said, Lord, is it I? And
then, as if to keep from exposing himself, Judas asked the same
question in his hypocrisy. After reading the warnings that
have been given to us in this 10th chapter of Hebrews, as well
as in chapter 3, in chapter 4, and in chapter 6, the last part of this chapter,
having come to the conclusion now of this thing of apostasy,
denying the faith and abandoning Christ, when we read verse 39,
we have reason to shout with joy and thanksgiving to our God.
Listen to this. But we are not of them that draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. Now that's true of somebody.
That's true of somebody. The title of my message tonight
is found in this verse. We are not of them that draw
back. This last section of Hebrews
10 was written specifically to encourage us in perseverance.
to encourage us to continue in the faith, to tenaciously hold
on to Christ, to continue following after him. And the source of
encouragement, the basis of encouragement, the foundation of the encouragement,
that by which we are inspired to this diligent perseverance
is exactly the opposite to what all the world's religion would
say it ought to be. The source of encouragement is
the assurance that we are not of them that fall back, of them
that depart from the faith. We're not of them that go back
unto perdition, but rather of them which believe to the saving
of our souls. The fact is, the righteous, those
who are made righteous by grace, made righteous by God's operation
for them in Christ Jesus, The righteous shall hold on their
way. The sheep of Christ shall never
perish. It is not possible that anything
within us or anything out of us can separate us from the love
of God that's in Christ Jesus the Lord. God's elect shall persevere
unto the end because we are preserved and kept by the power of God
Almighty in his immutable free grace. Now I want you to hold
your Bibles open to this 10th chapter of Hebrews. We're going
to look at verses 26 through 39, and I want you to see three
things. Number one, in verses 26 through 31, we are again given
a sober warning. Once again, we have a word of
warning against apostasy. In verses 26 and 27, the apostle
describes what this apostasy is. Apostasy, of course, you
know, is falling away. It's going back. It's departing
from Christ Jesus. This description must be understood
in its context. The Holy Spirit clearly identifies
and associates apostasy with departing from the faith and
forsaking the assembly of God's saints, that is, forsaking the
worship of Christ. So let's begin in verse 25 and
then we'll go back down to verse 26 and 27. Not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as the matter of some is, like
you see so many do it. And so much the more as you see
the day, the final day, the day of Christ's coming, the day of
our Lord's glorious advent, the day of the end, as you see the
day approaching. Now verse 26. For, for, The connection is back to verse
25, you see that? 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 these verses have been perverted
by many. There are many who take this text, like others, that
they tear out of their context and say, no, there you see men
and women can be saved and then be lost again. It is possible
for men and women to lose their salvation. In fact, many point
at this and say that anyone who sins after having professed faith
in Christ has lost his salvation. Others look at this and say,
now, this is a demonstration that we ought to, if any man
commits a willful act of sin after coming into the church,
he ought to be disciplined and put out of the church, excluded
from the assembly of God's saints. That's not the teaching of this
text, obviously. An incorrect interpretation of
the passage has caused many true believers to have horrible, horrible
struggles. Great distress comes upon us
because we recognize. We recognize what the world never
will acknowledge. All our acts of sin are willful. There are sins of ignorance,
things about which we have no knowledge. There are sins of
ignorance, things about which we simply are not aware that
we have done something to violate the revelation of God's word.
But every act of sin is a willful act. We've never ever caused
been caused to do anything by something outside our own volition. That is, that's evil and corrupt.
The believer recognizes that. We entertain the lust of our
minds. The lusts are there, but we entertain them. We speak evil
knowingly, deliberately. You men and women, let me see
if I can illustrate it. Shelby and I love each other dearly. You men and women have good relationship,
husband and wife. And when you say something sharp
and hurtful, As much as you despise it, it's willful. It's the corruption
of your nature. So to say if we sin willfully
after having received the knowledge of the truth and lay that down
as a blanket statement, that's a terrible, terrible indictment
against us all. And none of us have any basis
of hope or assurance because we know our sin is willful. Now
this is what the text means. After a person has embraced and
professed the gospel of Christ, particularly after he has embraced
and professed those things taught in this chapter, the fact that
Jesus Christ the Lord is the only high priest of God's church
and kingdom, The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, by his blood,
by his sacrifice, is our only and our all-sufficient atonement
for sin. The fact that Jesus Christ, by
fulfilling the law, has put an end to all the rituals and ceremonies
and types and shadows of the Mosaic economy so that Christ
is the end of the law. If, after having received that
proof, We sin against this light, this revelation, this knowledge,
what we have been persuaded of, at least in our minds, and depart
from it, and go back to the weak and beggary elements of the law,
turn again to works religion, turn again to will worship, depart
from Christ and the gospel of his grace, then we have forsaken
all hope. We've abandoned the only hope
we have. You see, Christ is the only Savior there is. He is the
only hope sinners have. And to turn away from him is
to turn away from the only hope we have. The Apostle Paul uses
it just this way in Galatians chapter 3. The Galatians, you'll
remember, had been subtly deceived and led away from the simplicity
of the gospel of Christ. Judaizers had crept into this
church at Galatia and taught them to mingle works with grace. Taught them to mingle their obedience
to the law with Christ's obedience to the law. Taught them to mingle
their works of righteousness with Christ's accomplished righteousness.
Now when Paul writes to the Galatians, he said, who has bewitched you?
Who's bewitched you? That's a strong term. The bewitching
doctrine of legalism, the bewitching doctrine of works religion is
deceiving to the souls of men. Who's bewitched you that you
should so soon turn away from him who's called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel? He writes to those Galatians. And I find this interesting and
instructive. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
that church about which Nothing good could really be
said concerning their behavior. Nothing. There was just nothing
good to be said concerning their behavior. Every conceivable evil
was somehow identified with that congregation. Asceticism, fornication,
adultery, envy, strife, division, all those carnal things. So Paul
speaks to them and says, I write to you as under carnal. But he
still addressed them, buddy, as brethren. He spoke to them
throughout the epistles, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, as his brethren
in the midst of all those things. But the Galatians, he says not
a word about their sins, but speaks of their sin of having
departed from Christ. And he says, I'm concerned for
you. I stand in doubt of you. lest
I bestowed labor on you in vain." Because he understood to depart
from the gospel of Christ is to depart from Christ. To abandon
the gospel of God's free grace in the crucified substitute and
go back to the weak and beggarly elements of the law is to depart
from all hope. And so he says to the Galatians,
I stand in doubt of you. You see, if we depart from Him,
we've departed from Him alone in whom is salvation. If we depart
from Him, we've left the sure foundation and the only foundation
upon which our souls can be built. The willful sin spoken of in
verse 26 is the abandonment of Christ, of His gospel, of His
worship, and of His people. It's going back to the law. That's
specifically how it's used here. It's going back to the world. It's going back to where we were
before. It is departing from Him. Now
then, look at how this apostasy is described in verses 28 and
29. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two
or three witnesses. God gave his law by Moses, and
anyone who despised the commandments of God in the law, either the
ceremonial law or what's called the moral law, anyone who did
so, when two or three witnesses established the fact of it, that
man was put to death. He was cut off. Of how much sorer
punishment then, verse 29, Suppose you, shall he be thought worthy
who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace. If God spared
not those men who despise the law, you can bank on it. He will
not spare those who despise the gospel. Hold your hands here
and turn to Galatians 5. Galatians 5. There has been from
the inception of the early church, and there is this day, A terrible,
terrible, terrible, terrible inclination in men. And a terrible
tendency in the religious world to turn back again to the law. And the apostle says, don't you
understand what the law says? You that teach the law, don't
you hear what the law says? You either obey perfectly or
you're damned. Now look what it says in chapter
five of Galatians, verse one. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free. Now what liberties is he
talking about? Read the next line, you'll find
out. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The
bondage of the law. And that's all the law is. There's
no freedom in law. There's no freedom in legality.
There's no freedom in works religion. It's all bondage. Behold, I,
Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, that is, if you
endeavor to do something by which to win God's favor or to improve
your standing in God's favor, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. In other words, there
is no place where grace and works can meet. There's no place where
your works and Christ's works can be put together. There's
no place where you can look to yourself and look to Christ.
There's no way that you can hold on to both. If you have one,
you've got to abandon the other. If you lay hold of Christ, you've
got to let go of yourself, your righteousness, and your works,
and your obedience. But you don't. For I testify
again to every man that is circumcised, he's a debtor to the whole law.
You try to do anything by which you appease God's wrath, by which
you bring about righteousness, you must perfectly obey God from
cradle to grave, inside and out. Verse 4. Christ is become of
no effect unto you. Not Christ is become of no effect,
but Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are
justified by the law, you've missed the gospel altogether.
You've fallen from grace. Now we must not fail to notice
back here in Hebrews 10, what strong words the apostle uses
by inspiration to describe this apostasy. This is departing from Christ. We try to soften it. We try to
make it less than it is. This is what it is. This is what
it is. Doesn't matter, Bob, whether
it's you or me, your sons or daughters or mine, mother or
dad, doesn't matter. This is what it is. It is to
tread underfoot the Son of God. You remember in the Old Testament
when the Passover blood was sprinkled on the doorpost in the letter?
It wasn't sprinkled on the threshold. Because blood of Christ is not
something you trample on. It is counting the blood of the
covenant wherewith the person has been sanctified. Well, there
you see they're sanctified just outwardly, just outwardly. Joining
the church and living among folks who believe God and associating
with God's people, you can't do it unless you kindly behave.
You got to behave a little bit. He's talking about just an outward
sanctification by religious profession. Trotting underfoot, the blood
of the covenant wherewith he has been sanctified, an unholy,
common, ordinary, meaningless thing. Counting the blood of
Christ, the blood of that dear Savior by whom and by whose blood
the covenant has been ratified and sealed and put into force
on our behalf. It is to count the blood of the
covenant as dirt and mire in the streets, a common unholy
thing. It is doing despite to the spirit
of grace. My God, let me never, never,
never behave in such a manner, even to give an implication of
such. Now, look at verses 30 and 31.
For we know him that has said, vengeance belongs to me. I will
recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Now this is what he's saying. Those who abandon Christ and
his gospel, the gospel of God's grace and glory in the substitute,
have great reason to fear. For nothing awaits them. When
you've forsaken life, nothing awaits but death. When you've
forsaken hope, nothing awaits but hopelessness. When you've
forsaken help, nothing awaits but helplessness. Nothing but
a fearful, terrible judgment awaits those who depart from
the gospel. It is a fearful thing. And God's demonstrated it over
and over again. When Israel forsook him and embraced
the idols of the land, God sent them into judgment, and God sent
judgment upon them sharply. When the Jews abandoned Christ
and the gospel, God cut them off and sent the gospel to a
people whom he would call from among the Gentiles. He says concerning
Ephraim, Ephraim is joined to his idols. Leave him alone. Leave
him alone. Jeremiah sought to pray for the
people and God said, don't you pray for this people. Don't you
pray. I've shut them up. I've left them to themselves.
Now, let us not be high minded but fear. For if God spared not
the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee.
Now then, here's the second thing. Look in verses 32, 33, and 34.
Here the Holy Spirit gives us a word about assurance. But call
to remembrance the former days. Remember the past. It's always good for us to remember
the past. Our hope is presently in Christ,
but don't forget what God's done for us in the past. The former
days in which after you were illuminated, that's how God saved
you. God saves sinners by illuminating
their hearts, illuminating their souls, causing the light to shine
in darkness and giving the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ. After you were eliminated, you
endured a great fight of afflictions, partly while you were made a
gazing stop, both by the reproaches and afflictions, and partly while
you became companions of them that were so used. For you had
compassion on me and my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing that in yourselves you have in heaven
a better and abiding substance. Now here, Paul calls us to remembrance,
to encourage us to persevere, to encourage us to hold on to
Christ, to encourage us to continue in this way regardless of what
we face, regardless of the obstacles, regardless of the trials, regardless
of the temptations. And he does so by telling us
to remember what we've already experienced. When you first were
called out of darkness into light, And you were called by God to
abandon the world and its religion. It wasn't a peaceable thing. The world doesn't let go peaceably.
You endured affliction, trouble. You may have even been laughed
to scorn. You may have lost family and
friend as a result of it. But you understood. that what
you lost for Christ's sake was nothing. You remember what Peter
said? He said, Lord, we have forsaken
all and followed you. And the Lord stopped him dead
in his tracks, put things in perspective. He said, now, lacked
you anything? What did you lose? Nothing, Lord. Nothing, Lord. I have a family that far exceeds
any other family. I have an inheritance that far
exceeds any other inheritance. I have a life that far exceeds
any other life. And Paul says, now remember that.
Remember that. And then thirdly, he concludes
this chapter with a comforting, assuring, and yet challenging
word of admonition. In verses 35 to 39. Here's the
admonition. In the light of these things,
Cast not away therefore your confidence, your assurance, which has great recompense of
reward. What is it? Christ himself. All that he is, all that he has. Now what you gonna cast away,
or what you gonna cast him away in order to get, in order to
obtain? But here's a need we all have. For you have need of
patience. God teach me patience. Hang on
now before you pray like that. You only learn it one way. Not
but one way to learn patience. Not but one way. Tribulation
worketh patience. But we need it. That's the reason
he sends it. You have needed patience. After
that you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. After you have fulfilled your
course, after you've run your race, after you've finished this
fight, after the warfare is over, you'll receive the promise. And
here's the promise in which the Holy Spirit inspires our perseverance. For yet a little while, thank
God it won't be long now, just a little while longer, little
while longer, just a little while longer and he that shall come
will come and will not tarry. I don't know whether it's talking
about our Lord's second coming in his glorious advent or whether
it's talking about him coming to snatch us away from this world
of woe and trouble when he calls us out of this world by means
of death. It doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter. But
when our Lord Jesus does come again, whether it be by calling
us out of, did I say out of life into death? Calling us out of
death into life. Or whether it be by coming in
his glory, he will put an end to all suffering and all sorrow
and all death. Listen to this. Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. But in my Father's house are
many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. Now look at verse 38. The believer's life is a life
of faith. Now the just shall live by faith. It's not that the just once believed
in Jesus. That's not what he's talking
about. It's not that the just once made a profession of faith.
That's not what he's talking about. The just shall live by faith. You see, the believer's life
begins in faith. It continues in faith. It is
brought to maturity and completion in faith. We begin by looking
to Christ, looking unto Jesus. The author and finish of our
faith, we continue. And when we finish, we'll see
Him face to face. That's what it is. It's faith.
Not works, but faith. And it is a continual thing.
The believer is not just one who has believed on Christ. He
is one who believes on Christ. There's a huge, huge difference.
But if any man draw back, draw back to what? Back to the world,
back to will worship, back to works, back to the law, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. But blessed be God, we are not
of them that draw back unto perdition. but of them which believe unto
the saving of the soul. True believers cannot, will not,
shall not leave Christ, nor will they take again the weak and
beggarly elements of the law, of their own works in the place
of Christ. But rather, like Peter, we say,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Well how do you know that God's
elect true believers will not perish? No matter what Satan
does. No matter how hell may rage. No matter what lust may
rage in our souls. No matter what struggles and
warfares we have with our own sin. How do you know that the
true believer will never perish? Because the Savior said, I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Never. Never. Never. I'm persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That
being the case, I believe I'll stay with it. I believe I'll continue. I believe
I'll hang on to Him. and say goodbye to everything
that rivals him. John Newton wrote so many excellent,
excellent hymns. I didn't have time to write this
down, but I read it several times before the service tonight. Let
me read you this. This is one of his best. When any turn from Zion's way,
alas, what numbers do? I think I hear my Savior say,
Will you forsake me too? Our Lord, with such a heart as
mine, unless you hold me fast, I think I must and will decline
and prove like them at last. Yet thou alone has power, I know,
to save a wretch like me. To whom or whither could I go
if I should turn from thee? Beyond a doubt I stand amazed. Thou art the Christ of God, who hast eternal life secured
by promise and by blood. The help of men and angels joined
could never reach my case. Now can I hope relief to find
but in your bounteous grace? No voice but thine can give me
rest and hold my fears or bid my fears depart. No love but
thine can make me blessed and satisfy my heart. What anguish
has that question stirred if I will also go Yet, Lord, relying on your word,
I answer humbly, no, no, no. Amen. All right, David, let's
sing 255. Blessed assurance. We'll be dismissed
with that.