Now, let me say this on the side. I love Moses Law, but if you
want to go under Moses Law, and you have disobedient kids, guess
what? We're all to stone them. They've
been disrespectful. If you have, you know, I have
this beard shaved around my neck, not allowed to do that. Go on, I mean there's so many,
there's 600 some laws. And if you want to go under the
law, go for it. But you've got to keep the whole
law. And you can't pick and choose commandments. You have to use
every commandment. And that man or that woman who
despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Now look what he says in verse
29 of how much sorer. Of how much more severe punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy? And then he gives three
things this man does, who forsakes the gospel, who sins willfully
after having received the knowledge of the truth. Here's what he
does. He gives three things. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God. That's how God sees it. That
person has trodden underfoot the Son of God. And the next
thing they've done, they have counted the blood of the covenant
wherewith he was sanctified That's not talking about the person
was sanctified by the blood. The Lord said, I sanctify myself
for them. He sanctified himself to this
blood of the covenant. And that person who sins willfully
after having received the knowledge of the truth, they count the
blood of the covenant that he set himself apart to an unholy
thing. I'm talking about severe sin. to count the blood of the covenant
unholy? And like I said, that word means
common. That which is general to all as opposed to that which
is peculiar to the few. And the third thing this person
does is they've done despite. They've insulted the spirit of
grace, the one who brings the message. the message of grace. He's called the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Grace.
And that person who commits this willful sin has done despite
unto the Spirit of Grace. Now let's consider these things
briefly. Trodden underfoot, the Son of
God. Now remember who He is. He's
God the Son. He's the Creator. He's the altogether
lovely one. He's perfect. He's glorious. Oh, what a savior. What a great
high priest. You think of the father's love
to his son. This is my beloved son. Hear ye him, oh the love that
exists between the father and the son. He's called the brightness
of God's glory and the express image of his person, the transcript
of his person. What a glorious being. And the man who sins willfully,
After having received the knowledge of the truth, the ultimate act
of contempt, he trod him underfoot. You're driving. Now, I always
stop for animals. Some people don't. I see a squirrel,
I stop. I even stop for possums. I hate
them, but I stop for them. I don't want to kill anything,
but there's some people who won't stop for squirrels or possums
or birds. Just run over them, tread them
under the wheels of the car because they're of no value to them.
Therefore, they show what they think about those animals. They
tread them under their wheels. Well, that's the same thing as
treading underfoot the son of God, having no regard at all. Now, how's the father going to
react to that? To tread underfoot his son. Of how much sore punishment suppose
ye who shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the
Son of God. Now this is that sin for which
there is no forgiveness, to trot underfoot the Son of God, to
place no value upon Him, so that you'll sell out. That's what
this person does. They trot underfoot the Son of
God. 1 Peter 2, 7 says, unto you therefore
which believe, he's precious. He's not precious to this person,
is he? He's not precious. And the next thing he mentions
in verse 29, that person has counted, viewed,
regarded the blood of the covenant. You know, when we speak of the
blood of Christ, we ought to do so with trembling, with joy,
with fear. We're talking about the blood
of God. And that scares me to even say that. Feed the church
of God, which he purchased with his own blood, the precious blood
of Christ. The only way you or I will ever
be saved is if He sheds His precious blood for us. And there's such
power in His blood that if He died for you, your salvation
is an utter necessity. You're conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ. That's how powerful His blood
is. Now what does it mean to count the blood of the covenant?
That's the blood of the New Testament. called the blood of the everlasting
covenant in Hebrews chapter 13. What's it mean to count the blood
of the covenant? An unholy thing. Does that mean
you think there's something intrinsically unholy about the blood? That's
not what the word means. The word means common. You know
when I hear preachers use the word common grace, it always
gets to me. Nothing about God's grace is
common. There's no such thing as common grace. They're saving
grace. No such thing as common grace. We read, in the scripture,
and the same word is used here, of the common faith, the faith
which every believer has. We read of the common salvation
in Jude that every believer experiences, common, that which is general
to all as opposed to that which is peculiar to the few. Now,
when we make the blood of the covenant common, That means we
are not seeing it in its saving virtue. If the blood of Jesus Christ
can be shed for somebody and they end up not being saved,
if I believe that, what I believe about the blood of Christ is
it's common. It's common. It's not necessarily
what actually saves. It's just common, thrown out
there for everybody. Do you know if you believe, or
if I believe, in universal redemption, that Jesus Christ died for everybody,
that violates every attribute of God. I want you to think about
that. That violates every attribute
of God. It violates His justice. He can
send somebody to hell that their sins were already paid for. It
denies His wisdom. It denies His purpose. You mean
He purposed to save them and wasn't able to save them? It
denies His immutability. He can love them and turn around
and send them to hell. I mean, just go on and on. Every
attribute of God is denied. in this view, this regard of
the blood of Christ. It's blasphemous. It makes Christ
a failure and it makes salvation dependent upon man. Now, if he
goes back to that, he's blaspheming the Holy Spirit. This is the
unpardonable sin. Do you hear this? Know that this
is my only hope of being saved and leave it. the next thing he speaks of in
verse twenty nine he had done despite he has insulted the spirit
of grace now he trods under foot the son of god that's his person
the blood of the covenant is his work and the spirit of grace
represents his message the message of grace oh what a glorious message
and this man disdains, does despite, insults the spirit of grace. God, the Holy Spirit is the spirit
of grace. Now, this may be a poor illustration. It probably is. As a matter of
fact, I think probably any illustration that doesn't come straight out
of the Bible is probably not that good anyway. So you can, if Lynn, worked all day and gave her heart
and soul to fixing me a beautiful meal that was perfect. And I
looked at the meal and didn't even taste it. Said, now let's
just go to McDonald's and get a fish sandwich. What an insult
that would be to her. What an insult. Now, as I said,
that's nothing compared to doing spite to spite under the spirit
of grace. hearing the message of grace
i don't need this question is what i want to close with who will not do this i don't want to be that person
to you it scares me who will not do this who will not trot
underfoot the son of god who will not count the blood of the
covenant wherewith he was sanctified, a common thing. Who will not
do despite unto the Spirit of grace? Well, before I read the
scripture, that person who finds their only hope in the Son of
God and the blood of His covenant and the Spirit of grace will
not do that. They won't. Now let's close by
reading a passage from John 6. Familiar passage. Verse 66, John chapter 6, verse
66. From that time, from that, You'll
notice time is in the italics, it was not there, supplied by
the translators. From that, from what just took
place, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. And that's what we've been talking
about. They went back. And they walked no more with
him. They claimed to be his disciples.
But because of this, they went back and walked no more with
him. Verse 59, these things said he
in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum, many therefore
of his disciples, people who claimed to be his followers,
when they had heard everything he said, said, this is an hard
saying. This is not going to bring people
together. This is going to cause problems. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew
it himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto
them, let this offend you. You know the gospel's offensive. Don't forget that. The gospel's
designed to offend the natural man. Paul said, if I, he said, if
I'm not suffering persecution, I'm not preaching the gospel,
because obviously the offense of the gospel has ceased. The
gospel is an offensive message. Don't forget that. Doesn't offend
a believer. but it offends everybody else.
The gospel is received by the believer and everybody else,
when they hear it, they're offended by it. Verse 62, What and if you shall
see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Now I love
thinking about this, the Lord gave him something to think about.
You're offended by these things I'm saying right now in front
of you. When you see me ascend back into glory, seated at the
right hand of the Father, you'll really be offended then. Verse 63, it is the Spirit that
quickeneth I don't know why the Spirit is not capitalized there.
It's the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak to you
that you're offended by, that you think are hard sayings, the
words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are
life. But there are some of you that
believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said
I unto you that no man can come to me. He didn't say no man will
come to me. He says, no man can come to me. He looks at these fellows and
says, you're unable. to come to me, except it were
given unto him of my father." From that, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Now how many is many?
Well, we know in the context of this, he fed 5,000 men, not
including women and children. And it appears to me that they
all left at this time. And all that was left were the
12. Then said Jesus unto the 12, will you also go away? Think of the Lord asking that
to you. right now. Will you also go away? You know, if you have an option,
you will. If you have a choice, you will. You will. But how I love Simon Peter's
answer. Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? It's not like we have other options.
Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And I love the Lord's reply. He didn't say, well, good for
you. You've done a good thing. He says, have not I chosen you
12? Here's why you answered this.
Have not I chosen you 12? And I'm not talking about all
of them. One of them not. One of them's a devil. But the
reason you believe is because I have chosen you to believe. Don't you say in your heart to
that, yes. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful for the
gospel. Lord, we pray that we might be
delivered from this willful sin after having received the knowledge
of the truth. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might be just like Peter Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Bless this word for Your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.