This is how we're going to be
in Hebrews chapter 10 again, if you'd like to turn there. Anytime that we come to what
seems to be a conundrum or something that perplexes us in the scripture,
something that seems too complex for our understanding, sometimes
things may even seem like a contradiction. We can ask some very few simple
and short questions to figure out if it's really a conundrum,
if it's really a contradiction, if it's really a, what is he
actually saying? And one of those is this, did
the Lord just say that we're saved by blood and my works? That's never gonna happen, we
know that. No, it's his blood alone. Another
one would be, are we saved by the Lord's grace, and then saved
by what we do also? Scripture will never say that,
will it? Never will say that. So anytime we have a contradiction
in our mind, understand it's because maybe we don't have insight
from the Lord, and Lord says, if you have not, because you
asked not, ask him. Ask him, Lord, show me, what
does this mean? Lord, reveal your face here. I wanna have
understanding here, and that is certainly what I did while
preparing this, has asked the Lord, begged the Lord he would
show me, show me what he is saying. And I hope this hour that he
will cause us to see these few short verses. And the first verse
that we're going to read has been so misconstrued and used
as lawmongering. It's been used as a whip to whip
a congregation into shape and make people afraid of what if
I don't do this? And what if I don't do that?
And I better start doing this and I better start doing that.
That's not what he's saying. Because if that was the case,
it would be Christ plus you. It can't happen. It's not a contradiction. So let's read this. Pray the
Lord give us understanding here this morning. Hebrews 10, 26
through 29. 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
of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. Of how much sore 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 under the
spirit of grace. What is it to sin willfully? Because he says, if we sin willfully
after we have received knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins. What is it to sin willfully? That's what I've titled this
message. What is it to sin willfully? Does he mean if I have fears
and doubts? If I have unbelief, I sinned
willfully. Does that mean there's no more
sacrifice for sin? If I sin, if I have unbelief,
that's sin, isn't it? Well, certainly that can't be
what it means. If that's the case, every one of us are doomed, right?
Every one of us, that's the sin that does so easily beset us
is unbelief. The moment, We read this verse,
I'd prefaced it a little bit, but perhaps some of you felt
the way that I did when I first read it. I remember being in
religion and I remember how it was back then. And I thought,
well, that cannot mean what that used to mean. It's not possible
because that's all we are is sin. And truly that's all we
can do is sin willfully. So what is it he means here to
sin willfully? What does it mean? First time
I read this, Preparing this message, I said, Lord, is it I? Is it
I? And I said, that's the hardest.
That's what the Lord's people do. Whenever the Lord said, one
of you are gonna betray me, nobody pointed to Judas and said, we
know it's this guy. Yeah, he's been acting weird. No, they said,
is it I? Is it I? We've seen him do everything
we've done. He's been following you as long as we've been following
you. Is it I? Am I sinning willfully, Lord?
Am I the one where there's no sacrifice for sin? Is it I? Makes us cry out, have mercy
on me, the sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Well, is my offense, whether I'm offending you or whether
I'm offending God in my flesh, is my offense, is that willfully
sinning? clearly describes the 12 tribes.
And James, we heard that this morning, James, the first chapter,
he's talking to the Lord's people. And he says in James chapter
three, for in many things, we, the Lord's people, offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same as a perfect man. Well, there's only one that has
been perfect. There's only one that has not offended in word,
and who is he? He's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't he? So it
certainly can't mean It can't mean offend because in many things
we offend all. And there still remaineth a sacrifice
for sin. If the offense of us, and boy
we are offensive, aren't we? Our pride's offensive. Our mentality
on things is offensive, honestly. I mean, if you look at how we
view things and how the Lord views, we're just offensive.
If our offense is the, Is the willful sin that he's talking
about here? None of us, none of us are saved. Sacrifice of
Christ would then be dependent upon our ability to not be an
offense, wouldn't it? Well, that can't be the case.
We gotta go back all the way to the first statement. Can't
be the blood plus works. It can't be grace plus running
to the law as well. It's by grace alone, it's by
the blood alone. So what is he saying? What is
he saying? And I'm gonna keep saying some
things that this is not saying in order to make us understand
what it is saying, so bear with me. The Lord never contradicts
himself. The Lord never contradicts himself. He's never, it would be a contradiction
of being saved by grace if it's something you and I must do or
must not do. Maybe he says, maybe he's saying
if we stumble because our pride, Gets in the way, that can't be
the case because in Proverbs, tells us for the just man, fall
us seven times and rise us up again. Can't be us falling and
stumbling because we do all the time, don't we? We trip over
our own feet. I don't need you to trip me up,
I trip over myself. So it can't be our stumbling,
can it? That he's talking about willfully sinning here. Aren't
you thankful that he brings us up from that downfall? And you
know that number, that number seven, I just said, that's the
number of perfection. You've been restored perfectly,
perfectly in Christ. So what is he talking about here?
Well, it cannot be something that's in my flesh because in
me that is in my flesh, well, it's no good thing. Paul said
that. Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I am, not that I was.
Understand, when we're brought out of darkness into light, we
have two natures. The Lord doesn't take the first
nature and put it away, and then we just have the second nature,
the new man. We have two natures that hate
each other. And that first nature, that old
man Adam, continually sins in the sight of God. And our only
hope is the Lord took that sin and put it all the way so that
he doesn't see Adam anymore. He sees Christ in you, the second
man, the hope of glory. That's our hope. That's our hope. To the things of God, men have
been fooled to outward appearances. They have preached behavior so
much in outward appearances. And I've used this man as an
example. He came here one time and he
told me, He said, well, what are you preaching
your congregation? I said, well, we preach Christ. We preach him
crucified him alone. We preach we're saved by grace.
He's like, okay, well, how do you tell them to live? I'm like,
but I don't, I don't have to tell them how to live. They know
how to live. And he said, no, you have to tell them how to
live the Christian life. He got this close to me and he said,
what does that look like in your congregation? What does their
Christian life look like? What is their walk like? What
is their talk like? What is that? He kept going and
going and going. I was a little bit baffled and taken back and
I said, well, it does look like a bunch of dead dog sinners at
the master's table desiring a crumb. And his brain went, he had no
idea what I meant by that. Men have been fooled by outward
appearances. What I can see is evidence. What I can see is evidence.
But the work that Christ did is inwardly. It's inwardly. It's not externally. Now is what
in internally, will it come out externally? Absolutely. You're
here this morning to hear about Christ. The Lord brought you
here by grace. The Lord gave you a desire to be here. That's
external. Uh, something happened. That's,
but he did that. He gets the glory for it. He
gave you the desire. He gave you the faith. He gives us all this.
He gave us love for one another. We heard that the first hour,
the reason we love each other is he gave it to us all of this.
He gets all the glory and all this. So what is he talking about then?
If we sin willfully, what is it to willfully sin? Well, the
key word here, and I want you to notice this verse again, is
the word sin. It's not plural, it's singular. For if we sin willfully, that's
singular. That's one particular sin. One particular sin. Now, if we sin willfully, that's
singular. Well, what is it to sin willfully?
Well, the key to the answer to that is in verse 29. And I love
how the Lord answers the questions with scripture. The first hour
we saw him say, let us three times. And now this time he's
given us the answer three verses later, look down in verse 29. of how much more sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath, number one,
trotted under the foot the Son of God, number two, hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and number three, hath done despite under the spirit of grace. That
is what it means to sin willfully. And for the remainder of our
time, I hope to explain what those mean. Pray the Lord would
help us. Trodden under foot's the first
one. That means to spurn, to spurn the Lord Jesus Christ. To value him. Trodden underfoot. I mean, that's devalue him as
you do dirt. That's pretty worthless, isn't
it? That's how it is in the world that we live. That's how it is.
Men view him as nothing. That's what he's talking about
here. Second is to count the blood unholy. And I love looking
at this definition. I love this definition. I would
not have guessed that this would have been the definition, but
to count To count the blood unholy means to be in control of, to
rule, to command, to be the leader of, and to be the deciding factor
in. That's what that means. To control,
what does that mean? Well, I have a choice of whether
the blood is going to wash me or not. That is counting the
blood of Christ as an unholy thing. And the third one, done
despite under the spirit of grace. That is to insult the Holy Spirit
of God's grace. How? By adding to grace. Add anything to it by adding
to grace. This is what it is to sin willfully. And if a man sin willfully, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. Ask yourself this, do I
sin willfully? Is it the sin that so doth easily
beset us? Is it unbelief? No. No, that's
not it. Sinning willfully is to despise
Christ. Thank you, command the effect of the blood and to despise
grace by adding to or taking away from the finished work of
Christ. All these things devalue the
Christ finished work. Am I sure that I do not do these
things? Well, there's more than one way
to do this. There's more than one way to do this, actually.
One is simply, and I find this so common, one is simply those
three things. There's one way to do this. One
is simply by not needing the Lord Jesus Christ, not needing
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to say I'm a good person.
It's to say I'm not as bad as others. I'm not as bad as some. I'm not that bad. That's not
needing the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not understanding that
we're sinners. That's what that means. I heard
a song actually. I heard two songs, and there's
no such thing as irony. I mean, I guess you understand
what I'm saying. There's no such thing as happenstance. The Lord
let me hear two songs is the whole point I'm making. And one
of them was, Me and God Have a Good Thing Going. That was
the name of the song. That was the name of the song.
And the second one was, Me and God. And that was Josh Turner. I think it was a little newer
song. And I listened to a little bit of it, and what I got out
of it was the words say this, nothing can't be done by me and
God. We are like two peas in a pod,
me and God. And he kept going and going,
and so I turned it off. I didn't want to hear the rest
of it. Men don't need Christ because they're not as bad as
other people may think. They're not as bad as some, and
therefore, they're not as bad as what God says in his word. But they don't really mean to
say it that way, it's true. I'm good enough for God. That
is one way to trample underfoot the Lord Jesus Christ, to call
the blood unholy, and to spurn the spirit of grace. You know why men think this way,
don't you? There's no fear of God before their eyes. That's
what the scripture says in Psalm 36, one. You know the Lord told
us that they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. And the amazing part is, and
you know this to be true, everybody is sick by nature. Everybody
is sick by nature. The Lord has to be the one to
tell you that you're sick. Now, when we're as human beings,
we hear that and we think, well, that doesn't make any sense.
Because I know when I'm sick, I don't feel good, I don't feel
right. This ain't about feelings. This is about the unseen, not
the seen. It's not about feelings. The Lord has to come to you and
say, you're the sinner. You're the chief sinner. You're
a leper. You're a leper. Only then will we need the Lord
and cry out in mercy. Lord tells us you thought I was
all together as one of you. You thought I was lacking to
you. Me and God have a good thing going now. No. I'm not like you turn with me
to Proverbs chapter one. Look at verse 26 through 29.
To those who have this mindset and to those who are religious,
not needing the Lord, he says, I will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish come upon you, They shall call, then shall they call upon
me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
shall not find me. For they hated knowledge and
did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none, they would
none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof.
This is the end of all those who do not need God or his son. They do not need God or his son.
What is it to sin willfully? It is to devalue Christ. We just
saw the end of those that sin willfully. It's to devalue Christ. It's to call the blood. It's
to call the blood unholy by saying that you have control over it,
you have power over it to make it effectual. And it's to insult
the spirit of grace by adding one thing, one thing to grace. One sure way that we can do this
is we can see ourself not as the sinner. We don't need a savior. Only sinners need a savior. Only
sinners need to be saved. If we never see ourself as a
sinner, we'll never need a savior. If we never see ourself as a
leper, we'll never need a physician. If we never see ourself as lame,
we'll never need feet. If we don't see ourself as blind,
we'll never need sight. You know what that makes the
believer cry out? Lord, make me a sinner. Lord, make me lame. Lord, show me my need. Lord,
make me blind. Who would pray to be blind? I
would. Spiritually speaking, Lord, if I haven't saw you, make
me blind. Give me eyes to see you. Show me I don't see you. They that do not see themselves
born utterly depraved, utterly incapable of pleasing God, They
refuse the gospel truth. They refuse the gospel truth.
They're good the way that they are. They don't need God. They
ain't gotta have a good thing going. It's just how they are.
This is how they sin willfully. Sin willfully. We go back to
our text in Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 26, for if we sin willfully
after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Another popular way that
men sin willfully is the second part to this, where he says they
count the blood unholy. They believe that they are in
control of the blood. They are in charge of the blood.
They determine the blood's effect on people, whether it be theirs
or other people. You know, you have to go In some
religions, you have to go to that religion and do so many
chants and say so many things, and then the priest will deem
you as righteous. That's what they're talking about
here. They're deeming the blood unholy.
devalues the blood if it's our choice. But it also devalues
God's election because Christ's blood was only shed for whom
the Father elected. Christ's blood was only shed
for whom the Father loved and chose in the covenant of grace.
So to say that they're in charge of the blood, that doesn't just
devalue Christ, that devalues the whole triune Godhead. The
whole triune Godhead. Aren't you thankful the gospel's
simple? that it takes you and I out of the equation and doesn't
allow us to think that we have any power whatsoever. To think
that we have power. Well, it's futile when it comes
to the things of the Lord. But He teaches us He has all
power, both in heaven and on earth. And for those for whom
He loved and whom He died for, they have been redeemed by His
blood. We value the blood because He
has complete and absolute power over it. It redeemed successfully
everyone that it was shed for. What is it to sin willfully?
It's to say the contrary to that, that it didn't redeem anybody
unless you let it. That's to call the blood of Christ
an unholy thing. Men will say that they, you ever
heard somebody say they control their own destiny? That was really
popular a bit ago. I don't know if it's as popular
as it used to be here. I'm just living under a rock, I don't know. But
men would talk about, You have the power. And I think it started
when all these superhero movies started coming out. Everybody
has the power. I'm going to control my own destiny. I'm going to do
this. I'm going to do that. But it went to the next level that
they could do it before God as well. I control my own destiny.
God wants to bless you. He wants to help you. But you've
got to do the rest. You've got to do your part. And
he'll do the rest. And they did that in salvation. That's what
happened. They did that in salvation. And
it's just not true. We don't control our own destiny
and thank God we don't because that means I would be at the,
I'd be at the helm. I don't want to be at the helm.
I just want to be on the boat. I don't even, I want to be down
on the sides of the boat resting in Christ's finished work. Thanks
be to God there isn't even a rudder or a helm to be had on the boat. We know from Noah's Ark there
was no steering wheel or No, it was all just the Lord guiding
it to where it's supposed to go. And that's what he does for
his people. That's what we believe. Those who are in the ark are
gonna be kept safe because of the finished work of Christ alone,
not by works of righteousness we do, not because we allowed
the Lord to save us or we allowed, we chose this or we didn't choose
that. No, he chose in the covenant
of grace before time ever began to redeem his people. And did
he do it? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Now, what is he
doing? Well, he's seated. He's seated as the captain of
our salvation, as our surety, as our substitute, as our mediator,
interceding for his people. We don't control our own destiny,
he does. He did, because it's finished.
Actually, I've never thought of it that way before. It's a
destiny we haven't come to realize yet, but we're already there.
The destination's already happened. It's called glorification. So
it's past tense, isn't it? No, we don't count the blood
of the Lamb. His precious blood is a common thing. We see it
wholly. We see it as wholly, given freely
by His grace towards His people. Now, the last way that men sin
willfully really encompasses the first two ways I talked about,
but this is common way as well. Let's just read this again verse
26 and we'll finish it all the way through 29. For if we sin
willfully after 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.
He that despiseth Moses Moses Law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment suppose
he shall be thought, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden
under the foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and
hath done despite under the spirit of grace. Now if we examine what
is being written right here, but also what has been written
previous all the way up here to chapter 10. And we'll try
to remember some of the things that's been written. This whole
book, this whole book of Hebrews is the writer addressing the
Hebrews who were coming out of the law, some believers, and
he's writing to some non-believers as well. Or it will be there
for them to read also, the Word of God just for the Lord's people
as we know. You understand what I'm saying. but it's about the
law and grace. It's about the old covenant and
the new covenant. It's about Christ finishing the
work that the old covenant could never have established, that
man could not be saved by works. And that is exactly what the
last part of this is talking about, hath done despite unto
the spirit of grace. Men sin willfully by despising
that last word of our text, the word grace. The word grace. How many churches have you seen
that has grace on their sign? In this area? A lot. I was shocked to find out that
a lot of churches have grace in this area. I found one church
that it had the second church of Christ's grace because we
put Christ first. I thought that was, you know,
no you don't. You just drew too much attention
to yourself to put Christ first. So many churches has grace on
their sign and do they preach grace? Well, they use the word. But what is the definition of
grace? Do you wanna see the definition of grace? Look at the cross and
what was accomplished on the cross. You and I being successfully
redeemed, all of God's people being successfully redeemed without
having any contributing factor to it whatsoever except that
he took our sin and owned them as his own. We didn't give them
to him, he took them. Owned them as his own and put
them away. You and I didn't have any contribution whatsoever,
and now we've been made the very righteousness of God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because those sins are gone,
we've been made heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
We're now seated in the heavenlies with him. It's finished, all
of it. Now we just have to go through
the motions of this life, which when we get there, it'll just
be a figment of imagination. We won't even remember it. That's
grace. That's what grace is. The Lord
finishing the work without you and I being able to put a single
hand to it, a thumb to it, not even before the worth was even
created, God said, I'm going to save you from your sins. Not because you're the most attractive
thing or the smartest thing or the, none of those, none of that
matters because of grace, because of grace. Everything in Hebrews is the
fulfillment of the covenant of works in Christ. It is the establishment
of the covenant of grace for his people. And to despise the
spirit of grace is to add one thing to or take away one thing
from the finished work of Christ. It is to say, yes, it's Christ,
but fill in the blank. Before salvation, Deering after
they're professing how they live their life, adding one thing
to it. And that's frightening because you and I know that we
are idle factories in our mind by nature. Our old man is an
idle factory. We'll make a work out of anything
if we can, if the Lord doesn't keep us. But thanks be to God,
it's not us that keeps us. He keeps his people. He keeps
his people. To sin willfully. is to add one
work to the finished work of Christ. This is the poisonous,
the poison of false religion is to mix works and grace. That's
the poisonous concoction of all false religion. And the only
thing it can equal is death. That's it. This is how men trod
him under the foot. This is how they count his blood
as unholy. And this is how they insult. That's what that word despite
means is insults. the Holy Spirit of grace. The first two actually fall into
that same category because thinking you're good enough for God means
that your justification is your keeping of the moral law or of
the civil law. To think you're good enough for
God is your justification by keeping the moral law or the
civil law. And likewise, believing that
your justification is by what you do, in salvation is the ceremonial
law. That would be their justification.
So all this is wrapped up as the same sin. It's not any different. Really, it's adding one thing.
It's not needing Christ, but at the same time, it's those
that add to Christ. Well, you don't need Christ at
all, as all. He has to be the singular need.
He has to be the one thing needful. The frightening part for us is
if we ask this question, how is it men mix works and grace?
And it's simply put, do this, don't do that, when it comes
to salvation. Do this, don't do that. If you do this, you're saved.
If you don't do that, you're not. Think about that. That's
so simple, isn't it? And that's the lie. That's the
lie. It's subtle, and it's simple.
But doing that as part of the righteousness won't work out
anything but death. Now, unless the Lord is pleased
to keep us, we won't be kept. Unless the Lord is pleased to
reveal this to us, we will sin willfully. But we are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
at the last time. You know what that makes us cry
out? Turn us, Lord, and we'll be turned. Teach me, oh Lord,
the way of thy statutes. Cause me to have understanding.
Make me to hear your words. That's the believer's prayer
often, isn't it? You know, the believer's prayer that we pray
the most, I pray the most, leave me not to myself. Leave me not to myself. In closing, let's read this one
more time, verse 26. For if we sin willfully after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins. If this precious portion of God's
word has ever caused fear for you, I pray that it doesn't anymore,
if you've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we know,
we know, we've been comforted because we know what it means
to sin willfully. And we do not ever trodden on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We exalt him. We magnify him. We hold him in high esteem, higher
than the heavens, as he's given us instruction to in the faith
to be able to to see him. We don't trodden him down. We
lift him up. We desire. What did John say?
I must decrease. He must increase. That's it,
isn't it? That's it. That's what we do by God's grace.
We see him as he is. the seated, successful, sovereign
Redeemer of His people. We don't think the blood of our
sanctification is unholy. We don't think we have a choice
in salvation. As a matter of fact, we're resting our entire
hope of salvation in the Father's choice, in the Son's choice,
in the Spirit's choice. His choice to elect, His choice
to redeem, His choice to call, His choice to save and keep,
It's all his, it wasn't mine. And he did it all, he did it
all. We know that it is by grace we
are safe to faith. We know that it is by grace we
are safe through faith. We do not insult and despise
grace for that reason. We know that it's by grace alone.
What does that verse say? For by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. That's so simple. That's so simple. Not one work, not one work, lest
any man should boast. Lord says, you're not gonna get
any glory in this. I'm gonna get all the glory. I'm gonna
get all the glory. To sin willfully is to do the
opposite, it's to devalue Christ, it's to call the blood unholy,
and it is to despise or to insult the grace of God. But do you
know we can't do that as God's people? We cannot sin willfully
as God's people, because if you look at the last verse, it says,
or I'm sorry, verse 26, the last part, if you sin willfully, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But do you know why we
cannot sin willfully? Because there remaineth a sacrifice
for sins for the Lord's people for all time and all eternity. That sacrifice for sin is the
very reason God's people cannot sin willfully. They cannot. If there's a sacrifice for sin,
it's put all that sin away, and you cannot ever devalue the blood
of Christ, trample upon Christ, or add one work to the grace
of Christ. Why? Because we're kept by the
power of God. He keeps his people. And we have
no confidence in the flesh, do we? Not a bit. Keeps his people,
we have no confidence in the flesh. Thank God that he does
keep us, that he does keep us and that we cannot sin willfully
as his people. Let's pray. Father, we love your
truth. We see it so clearly here displayed
on where we could have been left to ourselves, where we would
have fallen into our own lust of our own heart that you chose
to show us by your grace, the beauty of your son, to show us
we're sinners, and to cause us to love you by giving us your
love. Lord, you gave us faith to believe
on you. Lord, thank you. We cling to
the promise that you will not leave us to ourselves. We ask
that you bless all this to our understanding and for your glory.
In Christ's name, amen. In closing,