And as we're turning here, let
me remind all of us next Wednesday, we will not have a service Wednesday
before Thanksgiving. So I wanted to finish with chapter
10 tonight, Hebrews chapter 10 and beginning with verse 26. 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 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 unto the
Spirit of grace. 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. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance
the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured
a great fight of afflictions. Partly whilst you were made a
gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
you became companions of them that were so used. 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. Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. 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. Now the just
shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who
draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving
of the soul. We began last week when I said
was the practical part of this letter of Hebrews. It began in
verse 19. And I made the statement last
time that in the practical part, we will see exhortations, warnings,
encouragements, and examples. The verses that we looked at
last time must be called exhortations, let us draw near, let us hold
fast, and let us consider one another. Now tonight, these verses
that we have just read, I believe we will consider them to be warnings,
warnings about a particular sin, and that sin is the sin of apostasy. Is it possible Is it possible
for a true believer, a child of God, to apostatize from the
faith? We know from the word of God
that it isn't. Romans 8, verses 29 and 30 shows
that it is impossible. Many other places do the same.
But in Romans 8, we read, For whom he did foreknow, that is,
those whom God set his love upon, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. And we always
notice in that passage of scripture that each one of those words
is in the past tense that is called, justified, and glorified. Because in the purpose of God,
it is secure. It is going to take place. Everyone
that he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son will be called and justified and glorified. The question is,
is it possible for a true believer, a child of God, to apostatize
from the faith? And again, I said the answer
is no. It is true of all of God's children
that we were And this is found in Ephesians chapter one, predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. To become a child of God, to
have God as our father, what kind of father would he be if
after he had received one to be his child, if he turned that
child out? What kind of father would that
be? We wouldn't think even an earthly
father would be worth the name father who disowned one of his
children. No matter how far a child may
go, they're still your son, your daughter, right? As parents,
we know that. And we will always love them.
and they will always be our children. And if someone like myself and
you, earthly fathers, if we're this way, how much more our Heavenly
Father? Is it possible for a true believer,
a child of God, to apostatize from the faith? No, absolutely
not. We know that. But listen, we
also know from the Word of God that in the Lord's parable of
the sower, that the seed fell upon some good ground and some
ground that was not good. And the plants that sprang up
on that ground that was not good, it looked good at first. The
plant looked good. It fell on ground that was in
a pathway, it fell on ground that was among thorns, it fell
on ground that was among rocks, we know the story there. But
some fell upon good ground. But the point is, even the seed
that fell on the ground that wasn't good, at first it sprang
up. It sprang up, the plant looked
good, but here's the thing, It never brought forth fruit. Never. The good ground, the seed
that fell upon the good ground, and who makes the ground good? God the Holy Spirit does. He
gives a new heart. And the seed, the word of God,
the gospel, brings forth a plant, a life, and it brings forth fruit. Now think about this. One fruit,
one fruit, that that plant brings forth is perseverance, is perseverance. So we know this also. We know
that a true child of God, it's impossible for one to apostatize,
but we also know that there are plants, there are those who make
a profession of faith and yet they do not bring forth fruit. I thought about pliables. You
remember Mr. Pliable and Pilgrim's Progress. He started off too, didn't he?
He left the City of Destruction and he went along with Pilgrim,
but at the first opposition, the first trial that they came
to, he When he was able to get out of that slough of despond,
he went back to the city of destruction. And if you will remember, there
were two other characters, I can't recall their names right now,
but there were two other characters in that allegory that Bunyan
said a pilgrim saw them, they jumped over the wall. Do you
remember that? They jumped over the wall. They
did not enter in at the straight gate. They didn't come by way
of the cross, by way of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they ran ahead. They ran ahead of Pilgrim, but
it wasn't long, they came back running the other way. Why? Because they were men who made
a profession, but they did apostatize. The Hebrews, the Hebrew believers
to whom this letter was at first written, no doubt they were tempted
to turn back. You've been tempted to turn back.
Every child of God, somewhere along the way, is tempted to
turn back. And in the next chapter, after
naming a number of those who, by faith, are mentioned, he tells
us, the writer tells us, that if they had had a mind, they
had the opportunity to go back. But they didn't. They didn't
turn back. They persevered. But these Hebrew
believers to whom this letter was first written, no doubt they
were tempted, they were pressured to turn back, to look back, to
go back to Judaism, to go back to that old covenant. And I would
imagine that some of the pressure that came upon them came from
their family. It seems like that's always the
way it is. When a child of God is first
converted, one of the first things he's going to experience is opposition
from his family. You've just gone too far this
time. There's something wrong with
you, you know. What is that, a cult over there?
Is that a cult that you go to? While you're believing and hearing
things that none of these other churches are talking about? These
other churches don't talk about God's sovereign grace and God's
electing grace and God's effectual atonement and the perseverance
of the saints. Is that a cult you've got in?
And especially, I noticed this when I was in a country that
all of the people, for the most part, were of the same religion. I'll call it that. And in that
religion, they sprinkle babies. And here's a mother, here's a
father who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're experiencing
opposition from their family already, but then the Lord blesses
them with a little baby, and all the family says, surely,
you're gonna have that baby sprinkled? Surely. There comes the opposition. And it comes in many different
ways, right? And these Hebrews to whom Paul,
or the writer, was writing, no doubt they were under pressure
from family, from tradition. Oh, that's never been the way
we've done it, you know. We've got our tradition. They
were under pressure from tradition, from family, no doubt from discouragements. Have you ever been discouraged?
Have you ever met, have you ever met discouragement in the way,
the way, the truth and the life? Have you ever been discouraged?
Of course you have. But notice this, if you notice
down in verse 34, Not only do I say that they were tempted
by family, by tradition, by discouragement, but actually they had experienced,
these to whom this letter was first written, they had experienced
persecution, the spoiling of their goods. In other words,
it had cost them financially. They had lost maybe their job,
I remember a couple of men and their families that, where I
preached for some time, they came under persecution and they
had to leave the town there. They had what they call a heathos,
and every man was in that syndicate, I guess you'd call it, and because
they wouldn't contribute to the support of the official church,
They had to leave. And as many times, the Lord turns
what seems to be persecution into a blessing. Because the
place they had to leave, I mean, to make a living in that place,
it was almost impossible. And after they left, I went to
visit them about 100 miles, maybe, from where they'd gone. And they
were in the most fertile part of the state of Yucatan that
there is in Mexico, farming. And they were making a good or
better living there. But persecution, and many turn
back, many go back. Yet, as I said, it's impossible
for a true child of God to apostatize But yes, Paul does, or the writer
here, does give this warning. And it's a warning to all believers. It's a warning to you and I.
Now, I don't have an outline for these verses tonight, so
we'll just go through them. verse by verse, and trust God,
the Holy Spirit will bless his word to all of us here tonight.
Verses 26 and 27, 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, far of judgment,
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary. Now,
I'm convinced that the writer means a particular sin. When he says, if we sin willfully,
is there any sin that is not willful? Does anyone ever commit
a sin that is not willful? He has, to this point in this
letter, made it clear that Jesus Christ is God's great high priest. that His blood, His sacrifice
is the one offering that does satisfy God and put away sin. And He's made it clear that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the surety of the new covenant, a better
covenant, and that He has fulfilled all the Old Testament types.
Now, if we sin willfully, if we turn back, if we turn away,
from the Lord Jesus Christ and go back to that old way, that
mosaic economy, there's only one thing that we may expect. If we, think about it, if we
turn away from the one and only effectual sacrifice for our sins,
who is Christ, our propitiation, then we will meet the wrath of
God. And I say that to myself, I say
it to all of us here tonight, if we willfully turn away from
that one sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord, what should we expect?
The wrath of God if we sin willfully. We are not reconciled to God
and do not have peace with God if we turn back. When we then are not true believers,
but God's adversaries. We're not reconciled to God.
If we turn back, if we deny the Lord Jesus Christ, deny His sacrifice,
His work for us in our place and in our stead. If we deny
that, this is what the writer's telling these people. You deny
this and you turn back, there's only one thing you may expect
and that is the wrath of God. Our Lord Jesus said this in John
chapter 3, he that believeth on him, who is the him, he that
believeth on him, God's son, God's only begotten son, whom
he gave, he that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. And when a person turns away
from Christ, he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Verses 28 and 29. 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 unto the Spirit of grace." It seems in
these two verses that the writer is contrasting between Moses
and Christ, between the law and the gospel. As John said in John
chapter 1, for the law was given or came through Moses, but grace
and truth came by or through Jesus Christ. What happened when
a person, and to my recollection, we only know of two. Only know
of two who were actually put to death because they disobeyed,
they broke the law of Moses. In the Pentateuch, there was
that one man who took God's name in vain. And there was another
man who disobeyed, he was out gathering sticks on the Sabbath
day. Those are the only two instances
that I recall from the law of God. But those two men, there
had to be two witnesses testifying and say, yes, he did curse God.
Yes, we saw him out there working on the Sabbath day. And those
witnesses, they had to be the first to cast the stones. Now,
this is what the writer is saying. If that happened under the law
of Moses, and the physical life, that's all those stones could
do, take away the physical life, then how much more, how much
more if a person despises Christ and His gospel? Those men, they
despise the law, they despise the law, but how much more if
a person despises Christ and His gospel? By doing so, When
a person turns back, by doing so, in effect, it would be as
if he trod the blood of Christ under his feet. That's what it
would be like. It would be like trodding the
blood of Jesus Christ under a person's feet. He would be counting Christ's
blood by which the covenant was ratified as an unholy thing. You see what I'm saying? People
who who deny Christ, who turn away from the truth. This is
as it were. They trot underfoot the blood
of Christ. They do despite unto the Spirit
of grace. How much sore punishment do you
suppose a person who does that is going to receive? There's
a man out here, he's picking up sticks. Now, that's bad, because
the law commanded him not to do work on the Sabbath. And he
is executed. He dies. His life is taken from
him. Well, that's bad. And what he
did was bad. He broke God's law. But how much
worse, how much more to walk upon the blood, the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. How much worse to do despite
unto the Spirit of grace, the Holy Spirit. And to count the
blood of Christ as unholy. This is what the writer's saying.
How much worse is the punishment going to be for a person who
does this? He's warning, what am I saying?
He's warning people against apostasy. of going back, of denying the
faith, of sinning willfully, turning away from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, there's a part in verse
29 I want to mention because, you know, people sometimes have
taken this passage of scripture and they say, you see there,
the Bible does teach you can lose your salvation. The Bible
doesn't teach that. People can take passages out
of their context and not look at what the scripture says and
not study, and they may come up with that belief, that thought,
but that's not what the Bible teaches. But what about this
in verse 29, which says, wherewith he was sanctified. Now, the person
who despises Christ and his gospel is not the person who was sanctified. The person who was sanctified
to offer his blood is Christ. In John chapter 17 and verse
19, this is how he prayed. He said, and for their sakes,
this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, for their sakes, for
his people, those that Father had given him, for their sakes,
I sanctify myself. I set myself apart for the cross,
to die in their stead. All right, let's look at verses
30 and 31. 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. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Turn that around. It is a blessed thing. It is a wonderful thing for a
child of God to fall into the hands of the living God, to recognize
that we are in his hands, that underneath are the everlasting
arms that our times are in His hands. And yes, the scripture
even says that we are graven upon His hands. But for the person
who denies Christ, it's a fearful thing. It's a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Verses 32 through 34. But call to remembrance the former
days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great
fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing
stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
you became companions of them that were so used, 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 enduring substance. To encourage these believers
to persevere, he asked them to call to remembrance the former
day. To remember how it was, how they
were treated that time by their family, by their friends, and
those who persecuted them. And they endured it all, knowing,
and this is the way they endured it all, knowing that they had
a great reward in heaven. Yes, it cost them their livelihood
maybe, their job. Yes, it cost them maybe their
wealth, their money, whatever. But they endured it knowing that
in heaven they have a much greater reward. And if it cost them their
family, they have a family in heaven that's much greater than
any earthly family here. I read this yesterday, I believe
it was. What will make heaven to be heaven? What will make heaven to be heaven
is the presence of Jesus and of a reconciled divine father
who loves us for Jesus' sake no less than he loves Jesus himself. To see and know and love and
be loved by the father and the son. in the company of the rest
of God's vast family is the whole essence of the Christian's hope. My knowledge of that life is
small, the eye of faith is dim, but it's enough that Christ knows
all. and I shall be with him." What
is it? Heaven. What is heaven? It's
to be with Jesus. To be with Him and His Father
who is our Father. You've got that. Think about
that. He's telling these people. You want to give that up? You
want to turn back? You want to quit? Our Lord said,
when you put your hand to the plow, Don't look back. And I know all of us here tonight
who know Christ, we know that's an awful thing to look back,
to ever look back. Keep your eye on the prize, the
hope that is before us in heaven. That's what he's encouraging
these believers to do. Verse 35. Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. The word
translated confidence in this verse is the same word translated
boldness in verse 19. The boldness that you have in
prayer, coming to the throne of God through the blood of Christ,
don't let go of it. Don't let go of it. Cast not
away therefore your confidence, John Gill commented on this verse. He said, and I quote, there are
two sorts of believers, nominal and real, and there are two sorts
of faith, and a historical one, which may be in persons destitute
of the grace of God and his endeavors, and a true and unfeigned one,
which has salvation connected with it. The farmer may be cast
away and lost, that is, that feigned faith. It may be cast
away and lost, the latter, though it may be remiss and weak in
its exercise, yet it cannot be wholly and finally lost. And this exhortation may be designed
as a means of continuing it. and of the perseverance in it. This exhortation here, cast not
away, therefore, your confidence. Patience is needed to enjoy the
promise. Christ is coming again, verse
37, for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come
and will not tarry. Christ is coming again. in a
little while. Now, this was written almost
2,000 years ago, I guess. You say, how can that be a little
while? It was a little while for those who received the letter,
and we live now later. It's just a little while for
you and I, and Christ is coming for us. None of us are going
to be in this world very long. A long life compared to eternity
is what? Just a blink of the eye, if even
that. Verse 38. Now, the just shall
live by faith. The just, the true believer,
lives by faith. We do not live by faith in our
faith, but by faith in the Savior. The just, the true believer,
does not keep himself, but he is kept by the power of God through
faith. The just, the true believer,
does not draw back but continues to believe in Christ and His
finished, accepted work. We believed yesterday, we believe
today, and by the grace of God, we will believe tomorrow. The
just shall live by faith. And then the last verse, verse
39. And you see here in this verse,
the writer, he didn't believe that these people were going
to apostatize, did he? He believed that they were true
believers. Because notice he says, but we
are not of them. We, you, you and me. He's right. We, I'm not. You're not. We are not. of them who draw back unto perdition
to be lost. But we are of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. we continue believing. And that's
the perseverance. You know that word pea and the
word tulip that's been associated with the gospel, total depravity,
unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace,
that pea sometimes People say that means the preservation. Some say the perseverance. Both
are true. He preserves us by his grace,
and by his grace we persevere. Amen? I trust the Lord will bless
all of us here tonight, and this warning is always good for God's
people, not to take things for granted and not to be guilty
of presumption. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed.