Hebrews 10:26-27 | Apostasy

Apostasy and the Warning Passages in Hebrews

All right, if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. We will consider verses 26 and 27. Hebrews chapter 10 26 and 27. Our gracious God Lord. I come to you I.

Plead with you.

To remove me, but at the same time use me to speak to your people. Let it not be clever stories or Anything that like that to capture their attention. But Lord that you will capture their attention by your word By the truth that's in it.

I beg you in this moment to use me in the name of your beloved Son Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. So our theme for this week is.

Apostasy.

We have already concluded from the book of Hebrews that it is impossible for a born-again believer To be unborn that is to lose their salvation. Now how it can be so clear and yet not so clear at the same time can boggle most people.

Because of passages such as this one many interpretations have true believers Becoming non-believers claiming that these warning passages clearly teach that Christians can fall away and it has Befall the church it has Separated the church denominationally since the since the beginning especially taking place during the Protestant Reformation, I believe it's that way because The interpretations the interpreters are not doing proper exegesis.

They are making disconnected applications without the context drive in the interpretation. So what we have here is it's what it's what's called exegesis versus eisegesis. So exegesis is when The interpreter is trying to pull from the text with the author both the human author and the divine author is.

Is is it's telling the audience? All right. Now the scriptures were written to certain churches at a certain time in history. But they were for us. All right, they're not written to us, but they are for us there.

So you have Paul he wrote. You know the church, you know, the book of Galatians to the Church of Galatia so Paul was writing to that church the the writer here in Hebrews is writing to a messianic congregation.

He wrote it to them, but it's for us. We can read this book and we can glean from it, but it's not written to us. And then you have what's called. So as exegete and when you exegete you want to make sure that that you're pulling from the text.

What in presenting to the people what the text teaches? And then you have eisegesis. This is where I have a concept. I have somewhere in my mind I'm trying to take the congregation and In doing so I'm going to try to make this fit it.

I have a certain point that I want to make but in order to establish this point I Got to make the Bible fit in my box. Now in our outline today, we're going to see this supposed apostasy text comes only as a commentary.

Given from verses 19 through 25. Now notice I said suppose apostasy because I don't believe that a born-again believer can be unborn. I Believe once you are born again once you have been made right with God.

By the death by the life death burial resurrection ascension of Jesus Christ that cannot be undone. So as we transition I want to look back at our passage from last week Hebrews 10 I know we've already read it a couple times a day and.

In.

Different contexts 10 19 through 25. So let's read verses 19 through 21 first.

Just to.

To put our feet on solid ground. So we know as we come to this verse what it is that we're looking at. The writer has therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

This is this is speaking of it entering into the the The heavenly places by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way That he has opened for us through the curtain that is Through his flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God.

Let. Yeah, we'll stop right there personally one since we have a great high priest over the house of God. So it starts out with their four brothers. So therefore brothers speaking of since so so three weeks ago.

Speaking of since the new covenant has been established. Therefore brothers since the new covenant has been established also in this text since we have access to God through the torn flesh of Jesus. So the old covenant their access to God was through a veiled Temple.

The temple had veils on it where you could not get to God. So you had to go through the media you had to go through the priests. And now we have access to God through the torn flesh of Jesus. The only way you and I can be in the presence of God in heaven is because of what Jesus Christ has done that those who enter Through this torn flesh of Jesus through Jesus Are the house of God.

So we saw last week that that Jesus Christ Is the head of the house and if you are in Jesus you are the house of God.

So.

If you are here today, you are a christian. You are the house of God. There's not. This building isn't the house of God. Temples are not the house of God. The people Gathered together are the house of God.

And we saw that this was an exhortation from the writer, right? He's been laying down theological truths about the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ how Jesus is greater and how his sacrifice Is greater and so he he lays down a exhortation and he calls Them and us I believe to do three things and that is faith hope and love.

And we'll quickly look at these three things. So first one is faith we see this in verse 22, let's look at uh, a first 22 a Says let us draw near with a true heart full of assurance of faith. So we you and I we draw near to God with a heart full of assurance of faith.

We draw near in faith knowing what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. If Jesus Christ has not accomplished this we cannot draw near to God in faith.

Right.

O covenant they brought sacrifices For priests to slaughter. That's how they drew near you and I because of the torn flesh of Jesus. We draw near in faith because we have been.

Born again.

By what Christ has done and then the text gives us two things that happen to the individual that. That's drawing near these are two things that has happened to them. One is that they have received a circumcised heart.

And two they have been baptized. Let's read the rest of that passage. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience right here. This is going back to ezekiel 36 and we read that last week. This is the circumcision of the heart.

This is where the bible talks about being born again. This is regeneration proceeding faith. And it says and our hearts washed and our bodies washed. With pure water so two things take place we are born again.

And then our bodies are washed with pure water. So it's speaking of the circumcision of the heart regeneration. Being born again receiving the new birth and then we take the sign of baptism. So if you are reformed it is Broadly believed that the sign of the new covenant is baptism.

And then we look at Verse 23 we see hope. It says let us hold fast to the confession of our hope. Without wavering for he who promised is faithful. So our hope. The confession of our hope speaking of jesus.

Jesus is our hope what he has done is our hope our confession. We hold to the hope. Let me read that again. Let us hold fast to our confession of our hope. So what is our confession? We looked at this last week.

I'll just go through it real quick. Who is jesus the christ the son of the living god, right? He is god god. The hypostatic union god and man the he he is the second person of the trinity. He the creator of all things entered into creation what what has jesus.

And another part of our confession is what has jesus done. He has lived the perfect life. He has died as a substitutionary atoning death. And are baptized and are being baptized into him points back to these things.

It points back to his death burial and resurrection. So so who is jesus? He is the god man. He is the god that entered into creation who lived the life. We couldn't live took upon himself the punishment that we deserve and when we are baptized.

This is speaking of our confession. We are baptized. We are saying.

That we.

That when jesus died We died with him. And when he rose from the grave our baptism pictures are Raising from the grave that we are new creations in christ. Now the baptism is not what causes the new creation, but it's a picture that points back.

It's our confession. It's not our justification. The justification is the circumcised heart. You cannot believe in jesus if you do not have the circumcised heart. So the bible is clear we hope in our confession Of what of who jesus is and and what he has done for us.

And in the senate we have a statement of love For those who believe in him who have believed in him.

In the senate who is this?

Who is this? You're coming here as a ministry of love and you are to love one another and in doing so, you encourage one another to love and to do good works. And that good work, I would say the first portion of that good work is you encourage other people to love and to do good works.

What is that? That they're encouraging people to love and to do good works, right? And the good works would be drawing near in faith, hope of your confession and to love and to stir one another up to love and good works.

This is what we are called to do when we assemble. So how do we do this? I just gave it away. When we assemble, verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as we see the day drawing near.

So conclusion, those that draw near in faith and hoe to the confession of their hope, stir one another up to love and good works.

How?

By not neglecting to meet together. The emphasis on our text today is gonna be speaking about the as is the habit of some, which is those that neglect to meet together. So those that were neglecting the habit of meeting together were not trusting in the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

If someone truly trusts, listen, I don't know how to express this better. If someone truly trusts in the supremacy of Jesus Christ, they know and understand that he is worthy and deserving of all worship.

But you have to know the supremacy of Jesus Christ. And with that said, they're going to do everything within their power to gather and worship the God-man who is Jesus Christ in one spirit, the Holy Spirit, as we gather as one body, the church.

If someone truly trusts the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, they know that there's nothing they can do to make themselves right with God. So in honor of the one who made them right with God, they gather with the saints to worship with one voice.

Now, there were some in the Hebrew church that did not understand this, which is why the writer tells them that they are not yet ready for solid food. Look with me at our verse today, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 and 27.

This is some of the most scariest verses in scripture. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversary.

So what does that mean?

Right?

Like that's scary. What does that mean?

Now before, I believe that before we can understand what it means, we must understand what it doesn't mean.

Right?

In order to understand what it means, we must first get an understanding of what it doesn't mean. And what it doesn't mean, what it cannot mean is that if you have one deliberate sin in your life, that there no longer remains a sacrifice.

So you get born again, you deliberately sin. And then next thing you know, you're not born again. And you gotta do something else. We talked about this in Sunday school. You gotta do something else to be saved, right?

You gotta confess, you gotta do something to be saved. But here's the thing, this verse says that if you do that, there's no longer remains a sacrifice. So if it's saying that you can lose your salvation, it's also saying that you cannot be re-saved.

So if this is telling us that you can lose your salvation, it's also telling us that when you lose your salvation, you can no longer be saved again. So I would tell my brothers who believe that you can lose your salvation and point to this, then they, if you truly believe this, then you have to also truly believe that when someone loses their salvation, they can't regain it.

So whatever it is that this is talking about, this is something that you cannot regain. That if you sin once, this cannot be that if you sin once deliberately, you lose your salvation, and there's no longer a sacrifice that remains.

Turn with me to 1 John. And we'll look at chapter one and chapter two. Chapter one, we'll see verses five through 10, and chapter two, we'll see verses one and two. So the writer is John the disciple.

He is speaking to who I believe to be a Jewish congregation who are not receiving their brothers, being the Gentiles. There's two sins here. We have the sin of brothers hating their brothers, the Jews hating their Gentile brothers, and also there is a sin of denying that Jesus is the Christ.

So those are the two major sins in 1 John. We won't be dealing with those, but this is what our text is speaking about. So verse five of chapter one, he writes, and this is the message that we have heard from him, speaking of Jesus, and proclaim to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. I believe this is speaking about them hating their brothers. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.

Right here.

If we say we have no sin, present tense, we deceive ourselves and do not, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, past tense, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things so that ye may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So right here we're told, in verse eight, we're told, not to say we have not sinned. Let's read that again.

If we say we have not, we have no sin. So right now, present tense, if we say we have no sin in our lives, it says that we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So if you say, Jeff, pastor, I have no sins.

John says you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you. Verse 10 tells us not to say that we have not sinned. Look at verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, past tense, I've never sinned. I've never done wrong.

If you say that, you make him a liar and his word is not in us. Bible's clear, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us. And then he tells us not to sin. Look at verse one of chapter two.

My little children, I'm writing these things so that you may not sin. He doesn't want us to sin. He's telling you that never say that you have no sin, never say that you have not sinned, but hey, don't sin.

Stop it. Then he says, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have someone who speaks on our behalf. And then he tells us that he is the propitiation for our sins.

That the propitiation, he is the payment. He's the one that paid for our sins. He paid for our wrongdoings. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the world. Speaking to the Jews. It's not, he didn't just pay for the sins of the Jews.

Gentiles included. And how is this done? You see it in verse seven. Which says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.

Go to look at verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all sins and cleanse us from all righteousness. How can he do that? Because the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.

So if first John is true, if John is true, speaking of first John, and it is, and there is forgiveness for Christians after they sin, then what in the world is the writer of Hebrews talking about? They seem to conflict.

If you ask me, the writer of Hebrews is ending the same, ending a thought, the thought, he's ending the thought the same way he began the thought. He's ending the thought the same way he began the thought.

And we see that take place in chapter five. Turn with me to chapter five. So this is gonna be kind of a recap that's gonna lead us back to where we were. So in Hebrews five, we see chapter five, verses seven through 14, and then chapter six, one through six.

In Hebrews five, the writer tells them that they are not ready for the teaching of Jesus being the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He's saying, you're not ready. They're not ready because they're hard of hearing.

They're not paying attention. But then he goes on and at the end of chapter six and seven and all the way up until where we just left to teach them about Melchizedek. He tells them, you're not ready, you're hard of hearing, but he goes on to teach them.

And we've walked through that, we've exegeted that, however many weeks it took, we walked through and we exegeted those passages. But now the writer, I believe, as he's ending this subject, he's going back to where when he started and we're gonna look at that.

So we will quickly address three subjects that we have already covered. One being Jesus made perfect and our obedience. Two, the two level doctrines concerning Christ. And then three, the sin of apostasy.

So real quick, let's just jump in it. Point number one, Jesus made perfect and our obedience. So Hebrews five, we'll look at verses seven through 10. Hebrews five, seven through 10. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save from death.

And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience to what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal life to all who obey him, being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

So right off the bat, we see in verse nine that he is made perfect. The word perfect here, again, it's the Greek word telios. It means to be made complete, that you are complete. Now, I know that's kind of hard to understand.

How is it that Jesus had to be made perfect? Well, if you look over in Hebrews chapter two, again, another portion we've walked through, look at verse 10. Verse 10 says, for it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist and bring in many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation, perfect, telios, complete through suffering.

Him being made perfect is pointing to his obedience, okay? It's pointing to Jesus being obedient. And it's through his obedience that the way is completed, that the way of salvation, the way of eternal life is completed, that he is the source of salvation because he came and he perfectly fulfilled the Father's will for him.

Remember, the Father's will, that he was going to save a people. His purpose was to save a people through his son. His son would accomplish that purpose by living the life they could not live and taking upon himself the punishment and death they deserve.

Jesus Christ comes, he does the Father's will, and in doing so, he is made perfect as the source of eternal salvation. This is what it's speaking about. The work of Jesus is complete, it is perfect. Jesus on the cross says it is finished.

Same idea, it is completed. He could have said it is perfect, same idea. He has completed the Father's will for his life so that you and I can enter into eternal salvation. Now right here, where it speaks about his obedience, we're gonna see the contrast between the people led by Moses and the people led by Jesus.

And we looked at a little bit of this last week and we ain't gonna look at it as much this week. So if you look at Hebrews chapter three, we'll look at verses 16 through 19. So we're gonna see old covenant, new covenant.

Old covenant, the people led by Moses, for who were those who heard and yet rebelled? So context, Jesus takes, I mean, God delivers his people from Egypt.

They're in the wilderness.

God gives them the land of Canaan. He says, go take it, it's yours. They send spies, spies come back, says there's giants in the land. They're having, it takes two people to hold a pomegranate. They're afraid, they don't wanna go in.

They're afraid of the people. They're afraid that if they go in, they will be crushed because they do not trust that God told them that he has given them the land. It is yours, go and take it. He is going to be with them and he will use them to defeat their enemies.

They did not believe the word of God. And so that's the context and it says, for who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was I provoked for 40 years?

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? But it was with those who were disobedient. So notice they sinned, they disobeyed.

Well, what was this disobedience? Verse 19, so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. So what was the sin? What was their disobedience?

Unbelief, right?

They did not believe that God truly gave it to them. Chapter four, verses nine through 11, new covenant. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Verse 11, let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Unbelief, they were to enter the land of Canaan. Take it, it's yours.

I will be with you.

I will use you to defeat the people. You and I are told to enter into Christ, to rest in Christ. And if you do not, that's unbelief. It's the same sin as the people of Egypt. I mean, as the people that left Egypt led by Moses.

So we're told to trust. And right here where it says in verse nine, it says he became the, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation. Right here, to all who obey him. What is the obedience that we must perform?

Trust, entering him and resting. Not confessing, not forsaking, name it. It's trust, it's resting, it's entering Christ by faith. That's our obedience. That's what the obedience means in Hebrews. When it talks about obeying, it's speaking of entering Christ by faith.

When it talks about sin, it's speaking of the sin of disbelief, not obeying, not believing what God has told them. It's not talking about the sin of lust. It's not talking about the sin of adultery. It's not talking about the sin of murder.

It's talking about the sin of unbelief. This book, book of Hebrews, that's what it's talking about. Don't add to it. That's what it's talking about. Point number two, the two levels doctrines concerning Christ.

Chapter 5, 11 through 14 and 6, 1 through 3. It says, about this we have much to say and it is hard to, about this, speaking of Melchizedek. Let's go to verse 10. Being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

About this, Melchizedek, we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. So he had been preaching to them just like the people in the wilderness. They are hearing him but they're not listening.

Whenever I was preaching this, I gave the analogy of speaking to my kids and I think I used Trinity. I tell Trinity, Trinity, clean your room. She hears my voice but she doesn't clean her room. Meant that she's not listening.

There's a difference between hearing and listening. You hear my voice, clean your room. But if you clean your room, then you've listened to my voice.

Right?

And he says that they have become dull of hearing. For although by this time they ought to be teachers, so he's speaking to some people who have been in the faith for a while, they ought to be teachers.

You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God, speaking of his law. You need milk, not solid food, right? Babies need milk, right? You can't feed a newborn a steak. For if everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice in distinguishing good from evil.

Chapter six, verse one. Therefore, let us leave, listen to this, the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. Right here, you're just gonna hear the elementary doctrine, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith towards God and the instructions about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead.

And this we will do if God permits. So the writer is wanting to move the conversation from where he was at to Jesus being the high priest, while at the same time, his audience still needed the basic gospel truth.

The first level of doctrine concerns Christ has to do with repentance and faith, baptism, the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. All right, this is stuff that you should always be teaching.

Right?

You should always be teaching this. The second level of doctrine that our writer is speaking about is Jesus being the high priest. All right, but he's saying that they're not ready for this because they don't even understand repentance and faith.

They don't understand baptism. They don't understand the laying on of hands. They don't understand the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgment. So how can I teach them about Jesus being the high priest?

This is what he's trying to get to them. And the reason why they don't understand it, we find out again right here in verse four, for it is impossible in the case of, yeah, so we'll move on to our third point, the sin of apostasy.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Hebrews six, verses four through six, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, listen to this, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again, the son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

So real quickly, the writer names five experiences. He says that they, those who have once been enlightened, right, they have received truth. They have received the truth of what God has done for them in Christ.

They have tasted the heavenly gifts. They have partaken in the Lord's Supper. Right, when we partake in the Lord's Supper, we do it as a remembrance of the body that was broken for us and the blood that was shed for us.

And this blood is the blood of the new covenant. This is the heavenly gift. Jesus talked about the bread coming down from heaven, that he was the true bread from heaven. This is a heavenly gift given to us to remember our Lord and what he has done for us, who has shared in the Holy Spirit, that they are gathered with the church Catholic.

They are gathered together with the church as they worship God. They are seeing the Spirit of God at work, who has tasted the goodness of the Word of God. This means that they are sitting under the preached Word of God.

Right, they're sitting under the preached Word of God. The Bible's open. A man is proclaiming what God has done. And it also says, and the power of the age to come, that these are people who are no longer under an old covenant, but they are living under the new covenant age.

Because we saw that the old covenant ended at the death of the testator. Once the death of the testator, once the death happened of the one who made the covenant, the new covenant began. Now, in my opinion, this is speaking about an intellectual believer who is a part of the church, who has undergone baptism, and who has in some ways repented from dead works.

I wouldn't say that this is a salvific repentance, but in some ways it seems that there is some signs of life in him when it comes to morality. But he has not trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And I can tell you that he hasn't trusted in the finished work of Christ because of what Hebrews is all about when it comes to the sin. It's about them going back to the temple. You cannot be in Christ and go to the temple and sacrifice a lamb, a goat, a turtle, whatever it is.

You cannot be in Christ. You cannot say that you trust the sacrifice of Christ. You cannot say that you trust the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ while all the while have a goat or have a lamb in your arms running back to the temple to have it sacrificed.

Although they look like Christians, they smell like Christians, whatever. I don't know how we smell.

They're not Christians.

Well, you say, well, how do you know?

Because they got lambs. They're desiring the temple.

They're going back and they're sacrificing. And by them going back to the temple to sacrifice,.

They forego their repentance.

And therefore their repentance cannot be renewed again. And see what it says? To restore them again to repentance since they crucify once again the Son of God. Now look right here at this. They crucify once again the Son of God.

This is speaking of a sacrifice. And when you look at Acts chapter two, I know we go here a lot, but there's so much theological truth in Acts chapter two. We'll just look at one verse. So we have Peter proclaiming.

And as he's proclaiming right here, he's just been preaching the gospel. He's preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how it was foretold by King David. He calls right here the Jews in his hearing.

He says, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain. So who is he speaking to? The house of Israel. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.

This Jesus whom you crucified. Okay, now listen. Is that you, you?

Is it you?

Did you crucify Jesus? Is it me?

No.

He says, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you, who is he speaking to? The house of Israel whom you crucified. You go to our text, it says for the crucifying once again, the son of God to their own harm.

You and I did not crucify Jesus. This book right here is written to the Jewish, the house of Israel. And he is saying, when you take that lamb, when you take that goat, when you take that bird, whatever it is, and you run it back to the temple, you are crucifying once again the son of God and it is to your own harm.

And it is holding him up to content.

And he's saying,.

There's no repentance from that. The sacrifice has already been made.

It's them,.

It's not you, and it's not I. It's not me. Now back to our text and I'll tie everything into a bow. Let's read our text again. Hebrews 10 verse 26 and 27. For if we go on sinning deliberately, remember, what's the sin of Hebrews?

Unbelief. If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversary.