If We Go On Sinning Willfully

I do indeed love that hymn. If you are memorizing

Scripture, you want to write down the text, that hymn, because you just memorized it.

Everyone here can sing the chorus that we just sang. Well, you just memorized a verse of Scripture. That's how I did it.

I was raised singing that song, and now you've got one less verse on your list, so put that one down.

It's a beautiful, beautiful song. Turn with me, please, to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10.

Hebrews chapter 10. We have been working through this book for a very long time now.

The last time that we were in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, was the end of November.

My opportunity to preach came on Christmas Day, and I didn't really think that verses 26 and following was an excellent

Christmas message. And so, it's been a couple of months, but it is time to tackle this text.

So, we will be looking at Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 and following. Let's once again ask the

Lord's blessing upon our time. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we ask especially for the ministry of your

Spirit at this time, that we might hear with soberness, that you might give us ears, hearing ears, to hear what your

Word would say to us. May we take very seriously the warning of this text, but likewise the promises it contains as well.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Some of you have been seeing this text coming.

You knew it was there. We've talked about it a couple of times as we've worked through Hebrews as one of the great warning passages.

Most everyone, the sound of my voice, if you're a student of the Scripture, knows that Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 -29 in particular, is considered to be a parallel text to Hebrews chapter 6, the beginning of Hebrews chapter 6, that we have already worked through, indeed, quite a number of months ago.

The problem, of course, is when we come to a text that is a proof text, that is, it is a text that is frequently used by people, and it's approached like this, not by reading through chapter 10, or reading through all of Hebrews, and just now coming to this text, and so you have its context, and you have the argument and flow of the epistle.

No, a proof text is a text where someone is making an assertion, and it is one of the texts that might be cited, normally without any context, and without any exegesis, as evidence of an overarching statement or theme.

When you have texts like that, and none of us can avoid proof texting, all of us at some time or another are asked, either within the confines of our home or personal relationships, or I am frequently asked, to speak on broad themes in a very brief period of time.

And it is simply not possible to exegete every single text that you cite in a context like that.

The problem is, very frequently, that is about as far as we get. That is, there will be those who will come along and they will say, well, here clearly you have indication that a person can truly be a

Christian, and they can lose their salvation. You can truly be in Christ. You can truly be sanctified by the blood of Christ, and yet lose your salvation and end up under the wrath of God.

And then others will react against that, and frequently with imbalance, and end up twisting the text.

I think of those who pervert the gospel. There was a conference here in the

Valley just yesterday. I did not go to it, not because I would not have actually enjoyed the opportunity of sitting right in the front row, but because I just have too many other things going on and too many commitments.

But there was a conference here in the Valley where I can guarantee you, 1 John and the book of James were turned into pretzels just yesterday about this time, by those who tried to say that the gospel of Jesus Christ does not contain within it the necessity of repentance and a belief in the

Lordship of Christ. And so there will be people who will react and do so in an imbalanced fashion the other direction.

And as a result, normally when we come to texts like this, we have heard it in the context of polemics and arguments and fighting back and forth so many times, that it can be next to impossible for us to lay all of that aside and try to hear the text for what it is actually saying.

And as a result, I think sometimes we get robbed. I mean, if you can think back this far, for those of you who were here, when we went through Hebrews chapter 6,

I don't know about you, but I found it to be a very encouraging text. When it went on to talk about, but you are not of those like that, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things which accompany salvation.

Even in talking about difficult texts and difficult statements, we can very often find great blessings.

Remember, it was only a few months ago I preached a sermon called, The Blessings of Apostasy. We looked at 1

John chapter 2 and we ended up discovering there were promises in the midst of the warnings that, frequently because we are so embattled about the extent and nature of the warnings, we miss the promises.

We don't see what is actually there. Now, hopefully, we have laid the context, we have laid the foundation for dealing with this text.

We have been working through Hebrews, some of you might say somewhat painfully slowly, and we have,

I hope, very frequently reiterated and repeated the key issues, the key themes that we need to keep in mind so that we can now look at how this text functions and we know what has come before.

We remember chapters 9 and 10 and we remember that the writer is talking about the once -for -allness of the sacrifice of Christ.

And he has contrasted that once -for -allness, that singular nature of the sacrifice of Christ, over against the repetitive sacrifices that were found under the

Old Covenant. And he has asserted to us over and over again, if this sacrifice is made more than once, then it's pointing to something greater, it's not perfecting those people.

He's talked to us about the Day of Atonement and how the priest would go in year after year. And because he has to go in year after year, what does that mean?

It means that the sacrifice itself is not bringing about perfection. But now, we have this one faithful high priest.

He has offered one sacrifice for sins forever. He's entered into the holy place, unlike the old high priest who had to go in and out, in and out.

He has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And so as a result, we've been told here in chapter 10, what's the result of this?

The result of this is the perfection of those for whom that sacrifice is made.

There is a sanctification, a setting aside, a making holy. And we talked about how in Hebrews, this is a salvific thing.

It's not to be made parallel with the idea of experiencing sanctification and the process by which we are made more holy in our living.

This is something that is done positionally. It's very closely parallel to justification in Paul's terminology.

Here, drawing from the Old Testament language background, Christ's death brings about a perfect sanctification and salvation.

And so, we have these tremendous promises. And we've just had said to us, so now, as you see, since we have a faithful high priest, we need to consider how to stimulate one another, love and good deeds.

And then the last verse that we looked at was verse 25, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

And so, here you have a bit of a transition and there's a word of warning. And it's, don't be like some and think that you've got it all, you've got your ticket punched, you know everything there is to know.

There is a reason why the people of God gather together as a corporate body for instruction, for encouragement, for prayer and for worship.

Don't forsake those things. It seems there were some who were drawing aside and maybe they were being drawn away.

What is Hebrews all about? There's that constant, come back to the old ways, come back to the old ways.

It seems this book is written before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. And it's written to Jewish Christians and it's come back and do what?

What would be required of a person who came back to the old ways?

They would have to offer sacrifice. And in that offering of sacrifice, what would that mean?

What would you be saying about the sacrifice of Christ? And that is the background then that we need to keep in mind.

We dare not take this text and just cut it out and say, oh, it needs to be looked at in and of itself.

Yes, we need to be honest with the text, but it must be seen as a part of the argument, the entire argument of the book of Hebrews that we have followed to this point.

So we begin at verse 26. For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve, who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again the

Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. But remember the former days when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

For yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Amen. Now here we have our text, and hopefully as we read through all of it, your mind was immediately drawn back to Hebrews chapter 6, and you see the parallels.

You have the very strong word of warning, but then at the very end you have the statement of the writer, we are convinced you are not of those who are those who will shrink back.

You're not of them. Back in chapter 6, we're convinced of better things, considering the things which accompany salvation.

So, you have parallels between the two texts. But there are strong words that must be listened to first.

And why is it that the author, having directed us to these great promises, the great work of Christ would now, with such strong words, level a warning to his hearers?

Well, certainly, any person who speaks before the people of God must be honest about the truth of God.

And we must recognize that we as human beings tend to like to hear the good and forget about that which is not as comfortable or as good in our hearing, in our thoughts.

So, in other words, we like to hear about the finished work of Christ, and we like to hear about the perfection that's in Him, but then this other stuff, this persevering stuff, this danger of apostasy stuff, this falling away, can we talk about that some other time?

And yet, the Word of God gives us this balance, and it is not a balance that means, well,

God's done His part, now you do your part. That's not the balance that is being referred to here. There is a danger, however, and we have seen it many times, there is a danger of people taking the truths of the gospel and perverting them to their own destruction.

There are many who believe in once saved, always saved. Now, that sometimes is used to describe the perseverance of the saints, or the preservation of the saints, if you want to use the very same terminology that was used right here at the end of chapter 10, the preserving of your soul through faith.

But for many people, once saved, always saved, means you walked an aisle, you shook a hand, you filled out a card, you said a prayer, you did something you thought you were supposed to do, and you've got your ticket punched.

You've got your ticket punched, you've taken that ticket, and you've stuck it in your wallet with all those other things that you stick in your wallet that five years later you dig out and don't even remember what they were for.

Any of you have any of those things in your wallet? I do. Especially when I travel, I've got stuff in there, and I go, where did

I get this thing, and why did I keep it? I have no earthly idea. And unfortunately, for many people, that's what that card becomes.

In other words, it doesn't represent a changed heart. There is no repentance. There is no bowing the knee to the

Lordship of Christ. There is no concern about the things of God. You've just sort of slapped on a little religion to your normal pagan living, and you're still out there in the world.

You don't care about Christ. You don't care about His people. You don't care about His church. You don't care about anything other than just me, myself, and I.

But hey, someone told me that I said the right words, and so I'm going to heaven.

I've got my ticket punched. That is an abuse of grace. And that's a false gospel.

It's not what's taught in the Bible. Nowhere. Nowhere. And this text should make that pretty clear.

But there are people who will abuse the grace of God, and so in the final installment of the needed words of balance and warning, our author warns against the one great sin he has been concerned about, because he's already told us we have this one who's entered into the very presence of God.

We have an advocate. We have a high priest. And so what is he talking about here when he talks about, for if we go on sinning willfully.

Now, interestingly enough, the very first word of verse 26 in the original language is willfully.

Willfully. It's hard for us to translate it that way in English. We don't start sentences in that way.

And so willfully ends up down the sentence a ways in our English rendering. But the way that the author puts it is willfully sinning.

It's a high hand. It's someone who, right, it says right there, after receiving, and he even uses a strengthened form of knowledge, a true knowledge, a real knowledge of the truth.

We're talking about someone here who knows. This is not, whatever this text is about, it's not about sins committed in ignorance.

It's not about simple -minded folks who just, you know, just never seem to grasp hold of any of the elements of the faith.

We're talking about someone here who has received a knowledge of the truth.

They know what this epistle has already said. They know that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the prophets.

He's the fulfillment of the prophecies. They know the purpose of His death. They know the glory of His person.

They have been properly instructed. But you see, it's one thing to have a head knowledge of something.

There's about an 18 -inch separation between the head and the heart. And there can be people who say, yes,

I understand that. Some of you know that just over the past few days, word has come across the reformed world of a man who is well known in reformed circles as a scholar, as a philosopher of religion, a published scholar teaching in conservative reformed circles who just came out over the past few days.

He's become a Hindu. A Hindu. Yeah. Now, here is someone that would be described very clearly by Hebrews chapter 10.

Someone who had all the credentials of knowledge, all the credentials of scholarship, had been fully instructed.

No excuse. And it now is chanting to Shiva and Vishnu or whoever else.

How does that happen? Because it's possible, my friends, to have factual knowledge, truth in your mind that is not joined with a regenerate heart.

It is possible to play at Christianity. And in fact, you can be a scholar.

You can have a line of letters after your name that no one could ever pronounce.

And it does not matter one thing. Our knowledge is not what justifies us before God.

Christianity is not some big tall philosophical mountain that finally when you pull yourself up over that last edge, ah,

I've arrived. And you can look down at all the little people there that are sliding down the mountain.

They've gone up the wrong way or they just don't have my brains to be able to do this. No, that's how

Christianity is. And yet we must admit,

I hope we're all troubled when we hear something like what I just told you. I hope you don't just go, oh yeah, well, nothing new about that.

Sure, it does happen in every generation. But I hope it's always troubling to us to hear about someone who has made a profession of faith and then who just throws it away for falsehood.

It's much more common for us to hear someone who has made a profession of faith and it's not so much they now deny it, they just don't live in light of it.

But for someone to actually be a professor who's taught, not just, we're not talking some wild -eyed

Arminian here either. We're talking about a reformed man who would actually go from doing that to being a

Hindu. Makes us go, this is amazing. How can that be? If we go on sinning willfully, there is a willful act here.

There is a decision on the part of this person and this person is someone who has received the knowledge of the truth.

They're not acting in ignorance. Now, what kind of sinning is this? It's going to be described for us.

Unfortunately, a lot of people aren't willing to wait for the description. And I've seen many, a person, because the way

God made them, there are certain people who are just introspective. There are certain people, you get both types.

You get the people who are never introspective and they'll never examine themselves and they're just surface level in their examination of things.

And then you've got those people, they're just navel gazers. I mean, you can try in every possible way to point them to the cross and the sufficiency of Christ and the source of joy in the

Christian life and they're just, oh, I just don't know. I don't know. And if you've been involved in ministry any time at all, right now there are faces and names flooding past the minds of many of you.

I can guarantee you, the pastor, I can give you 20 of them right now. And so there are just some people and they look at a text like this and they won't be patient to wait for the description of what this sin is, this high -handed sin.

And they just look at that and go, well, that must be me. Because I still experience sin and every time they sin, well,

I just must not be a Christian. Well, look, if there is just a consistent pattern of sin, that's a problem.

But you know what, most of the people I know that have that consistent pattern, they don't care about it either. They like it.

They hide it. They're not confessing it. You have to give some patience here, at least let the sentence finish, to find out what it is we're talking about.

There is a high -handed sin here. It is engaged in willfully. But notice something else.

The author uses the first person. Catch that? It doesn't stay for a few.

All the way through this, in what is arguably the strongest warning passage, the author places himself in the audience.

And that's an important thing. That's an important thing. He's not saying he's done it.

So he's not saying that his hearers have yet done this, but he is warning against the possibility.

And you see, that's how the wise elder or pastor, that's how we have to do it.

I have to look out at you. And I don't know all of you. We have some visitors here. I don't even know who you are. But even those

I do know, I don't live with most of you. And so I can't see into your heart.

I mean, the more we know each other, that helps, but still... And so you have to address the congregation as a whole, knowing that God, by His Spirit and His grace, is going to preserve every one of His elect people in that congregation.

But as I've said many times, you don't glow green. I don't know who you are. And so I have to be truthful to the entirety of the message.

And we know, those of you who have been members here, look around. Are there people missing that used to be here?

It's the experience of any gospel -preaching church. If they were still here, that means we're not preaching the gospel. But there are people, you and I are thinking about them right now, used to sit there and there and there and there, and they're not here.

Why is that? Did Christ fail? No. There is the reality of those who will make profession, and they may even maintain that for a certain period of time, but then they walk away.

To those, these words are said, there no longer remains the sacrifice for sins.

Now stop just for a moment and think with me. Why does the author say that?

Immediately, these individuals. Why? I can only think of one reason why our author would immediately say, there no longer remains the sacrifice for sin.

Because it says something about this sin they're committing. Evidently, they still want there to be a sacrifice for sin.

Just not the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Does that tell you what we're looking at here?

Does that give you an idea? Does that help you to understand what verse 29 is all about? Verse 29 will explain why the last phrase of verse 26 is, there no longer remains the sacrifice for sins.

Because the sin, the great sin, that I think not only is

Hebrews talking about, but it's the sin that John talks about in 1

John 5. There is a sin that leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray for the one who commits it.

What was that sin? It is the fundamental denial of the uniqueness of the person and work of Jesus Christ by actively denying who

He is, by engaging in a profession of faith to the contrary. Whether it be to go into some form of proto -gnosticism that denies

He really came in the flesh, therefore there was no sacrifice to begin with. If He didn't come in the flesh, what was sacrifice?

Or in this case, you go back to the temple, you bring the animal, you give it to the priest, and you stand there, and you offer the sacrifice, and when you do so, you're saying, everything

I said about Jesus was a lie. And everything the Christians claim about Him is a lie.

Were there people who did that? There were. Did they have many reasons why they did so? Of course.

But you see, immediately the assertion of the author is, don't think that God is going to accept from your hand any sacrifice for sin.

If you already know that all of those sacrifices were pointing to Him, that He is the fulfillment of all of those prophecies, then how dare you go find some lamb, go find some goat, some bull, and drag it to that temple and have its throat slit thinking that that somehow is going to appease a holy

God. You know what He has done, and you are rejecting it. There is no sacrifice of sin for that person.

But instead, a terrifying expectation of judgment.

Now, the term that is used there is related in the original language to the word for fear, phobos.

You've heard of phobias? That comes from phobos, fear. I've mentioned before, my dear

Greek professor, I repeat this often, mainly just because I'm so thankful that he was so patient in teaching me that language for seven years.

Poor guy. And also to encourage myself and him that there are times, honestly, where you don't think anyone is listening anymore.

And I can guarantee you, the day that my Greek professor said this in a class on the life and letters of Paul, if you had stopped him right there and asked him what percentage of his students were actually tuned in and listening, he would have laughed.

It's one of those afternoon classes. It was after lunch. Oh, I hate afternoon. But I was tuned in.

And I was listening. And there was Dr. Baird, and he's sitting up front, and he says, Now, the

Greek word for fear means fear. He didn't smile.

He didn't expand on it. He just said, the Greek word for fear means fear.

Now, I knew what he was saying, because it's so easy. You hear it all the time.

Well, you fear the Lord. Well, that actually just means sort of a respect type thing. Well, it can mean that.

But it always means fear. Fear actually means fear. That's what he was trying to say.

And I wrote it down, and I remembered it, and that was many, many years ago. I can't remember when I go to the grocery store to buy anymore, but I can remember what

Dr. Baird said on that day after lunch many, many years ago at Grand Canyon, and he was right.

And that's the term we have here. Terrifying. There is a terrifying certainty, an expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

And your text probably gives you an indication. That's a quotation out of Isaiah where Yahweh does destroy

His adversaries. And what, therefore, is He saying? If you know what

God has done in Christ Jesus, and you are so arrogant, you are so foolish as to know what

He's done, and say, I'd prefer another way.

I don't like blood sacrifices. Oh, I've heard people on television saying this, haven't you not?

I mean, this is our society. I don't like blood sacrifices. I'd prefer another way of peace with you,

God. Appreciate all you went through, but I'd prefer another way.

What impudence is expressed in that thought, in that mannerism, in that behavior.

It brings a terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

God showed the depth of His love, His mercy and His grace in the cross of Jesus Christ, but may

I suggest to you that if you disrespect that, if you know what

He has done, and you spit in His face, you will find

God to be your enemy. You will make yourself

His adversary. You cannot be neutral about the cross of Christ.

If you know what it is, if you know what God did there, and then you say, eh, you make yourself

God's enemy. And you can simply expect the fury of a fire which will consume you.

He gives us then an a fortiori argument. If this is the case, how much more is this the case?

You agree with me on this? Then how much more this? That's the argument that He gives you. Verse 28,

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. A lot of people don't like that.

You go back to the Old Testament, and that's exactly what it says. Law of Moses, two or three witnesses, yes,

He broke the law of Moses. Do not show mercy to Him. And a lot of times people will quote texts like the man who went out and right after the revelation of exactly what the people of God were to do on the

Sabbath day, what does he do? He goes out and breaks all that. Oh, but he was just gathering sticks.

Maybe he forgot. He needed to start his fire. It's no big deal, right? And what happened?

He was executed. Oh, I don't like that. That's because you probably don't have much of a zeal for the glory of God.

He made his will known. He made it clear. And this guy said, eh, the law of Moses.

He said, you set that aside. Set it aside? Catch that phraseology? That's the nature of the sin.

Setting aside, big deal, don't care. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God and has regarded and cleaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

We probably won't have time this morning to even make it all the way through this, let alone the application.

But I think you can see we need to take as much time as we need. How much severer punishment?

Um, excuse me, he died without mercy. How much severer can you get than that?

But the point is, if the law of Moses brought about the death of the one who broke it, then think about all that this book has laid out for us about what the triune

God has done in Christ. How all of that law was but a shadow of the great fulfillment that is now come.

And if you can set aside the law of Moses with its shadows, and you can die as a result of that, now you can look at the fulfillment, the glorious fulfillment,

Christ entering into the very presence of the Father in heaven, the shedding of the blood of the

God -man, and you can set all that aside, how much severer should your punishment be than the one who sinned against the types and shadows?

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve? Now, it uses he.

This theoretical person. Because again, the author is not saying, you've done this.

He's not naming any names. He presents to us a hypothetical case here.

If a person did this, how much severe punishment do you think he will deserve?

And what has he done? Here's the description. Here's the description of what we had up in verse 26.

What's he done? He has trampled underfoot the

Son of God. Trampled underfoot.

And we know what that means. We don't use the terminology a whole lot. It was more common in the past.

But he has trampled underfoot, even today in those cultures over there.

Remember a few years ago? President Bush was in Iraq, I believe. Remember what a guy did that got all sorts of press coverage?

He threw his shoe at him. And most of us went, I can think of more damaging projectiles.

Iraq, maybe? But that's because we don't understand the society.

To throw a shoe at someone is to say you're beneath the dust on the bottom of the soles of my shoe.

It is a great act of disrespect. We didn't get that part.

We just all sort of sat around going, Bush ducked pretty well, and it was good.

We didn't get the fact that the people in that culture were going, wow, what disrespect that man just showed.

And that's why I think our government had to try to keep that government from shooting the fellow as a result.

The dust on the bottom of their shoes. Remember even Jesus said, shake off the dust from your feet as a sign against them.

The shoes, especially in that day in that culture, the sandals, man, you'd think they'd get dirty now.

You know, we walk on sidewalks and paved streets. It was pretty bad back then.

That's probably one of the first things you did for someone who came into your home was you provide the opportunity for them to wash their feet because they would be caked in the dust and the mire of the streets because it wasn't just nice, clean dust either.

Because it was shared with the donkeys and the horses and the dogs and the cats and everything else. So it was a sign of disrespect.

And so this person, what's he done? He has trampled underfoot the Son of God. That means this person knows who

Jesus is. Knows who he is. Knows that he is divine in his character.

And has said, don't care. I disrespect you. I do not bow before you.

I do not honor you. I do not worship you. I show disrespect to you.

And has regarded as koinon. Common.

Unclean. The blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. When you take

Greek, you discover that the Greek of the New Testament is called koine.

Koine Greek. Why? The common Greek of the day. The everyday Greek. It wasn't some special Holy Spirit inspired language that no one had ever heard before.

There was a time when people thought that. It was actually language of the people. Language of the street.

Koine. Common. Of course, in the sense of the sacrificial concepts, unclean.

Not set apart, but common. A difference between holy and common. And so this person, by their action, tramples underfoot the

Son of God and has regarded, has considered, has thought of the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified as unclean.

Now, I will mention this briefly now because time is passing us quickly. And I will expand upon this this evening.

I would strongly, if you're not providentially hindered, ask you to be here this evening because we need to continue this.

This is important. But I will briefly mention it right now. One of the big controversies that we'll make some comment on this evening is who's the he?

Oh, it's easy. It's this apostate.

Could be. That's a possibility. Grammatically, that fits.

That's not the only grammatical possibility. In fact, the closest antecedent is not the apostate.

Who is it? The Son of God. That is, he has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which the

Son of God was set apart and treated holy, was sanctified. Remember Jesus' words in John 17?

I sanctify myself. So one of the issues that we'll need to address is not that it's the apostate.

The apostate clearly is the one who has regarded as unclean this blood. But the description of the blood as the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.

Is it the apostate who is actually a part of the covenant and sanctified by that blood in the covenant?

Or is he regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which

Jesus, the Son of God, was set apart as holy? That is an issue that is somewhat important and we will address it a little bit more.

But I want to finish verse 29 at least so that we can see what the nature of this sin is and make application this evening.

He has regarded, he has thought in his mind that the blood of the covenant which we've been reading about in chapters 9 and 10 especially is unclean and he has insulted the

Spirit of Grace. He has insulted the

Spirit of Grace. That means this person has been within the congregation.

He has seen the work of the Spirit. He has seen people's lives who have been changed.

And yet, by his action, that purposeful action of setting all that aside and going back and offering the sacrifice, trampling underfoot

Jesus Christ, he has insulted that gracious Spirit.

How often do we in this very room, in this very service, pray,

Lord, minister to us by your Spirit. We can do nothing apart from your

Spirit. How often do we do that? All the time. And we are thankful when the

Spirit comes and ministers to us and protects us from distraction and helps us to understand the

Word of God. Right? But what this text is telling us is if you sit in a place where the

Spirit of God is ministering and is causing people to understand His truth and causing people to bow the knee before Jesus Christ, the ministry of the

Spirit is taking place and yet you resist all of that and you reject that and you in fact decide that well, that's ridiculous.

I reject all of it. Just like that apostate did just over the past few days.

You've insulted the Spirit of grace. Where else do we hear something almost exactly like that?

Remember Jesus? Jesus once talked about an unpardonable sin. What was the unpardonable sin?

Remember what it was? It was His opponents. Seeing Him ministering by the

Spirit of God and they said, that's Beelzebub! Power of the devil! What had they done?

What did they do? They had identified the very activity of the

Spirit as satanic. They were calling that which was white, black and black, white.

Good, evil and evil, good. And if you can know the truth about what

Jesus Christ has done on Calvary's tree and you can grab hold of anything.

I know there's no temple for you to go to today. But if you can grab hold of anything and say, this will be enough.

I will follow this way. Whether it be Hinduism, Islam, or just plain old pagan secular humanism.

If you can be under the preaching and teaching of the Word of God and see the

Spirit of God active in the lives of other people. Last Sunday night, we watched the beautiful testimony of believers' baptism.

You see the Spirit active in that. You see the

Spirit drawing people to Christ. You see all that. And you just close your eyes to it. I'll be fine.

You're insulting the Spirit of Grace. Oh, no, I'm just being neutral. No, you're not. You're insulting the

Spirit of Grace. And that is why there is but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

You say, wow, some hellfire preaching. Well, it's right there on the page.

It's right there in the text. And there's a reason for it. You see, when you have such great and precious promises, there's responsibility on the part of those who learn about what

God has done. You cannot remain neutral about these things.

Now, as I said, there's much more to be said. We need to talk about the covenants.

We need to talk about the promises that come after this. But we need to hear first a great book of encouragement.

Look what God has done in Christ. There's nothing to go back to. But we need to recognize that it also says, and if you do, there are consequences.

There are consequences. Wouldn't there have to be?

I mean, seriously, my friends, if God has done what He says He's done in His Word in Christ Jesus, would there not have to be consequences?

To those who would learn and understand and know and say, I don't care what

He's done. I'm going my own way. If there are consequences then, there remain consequences to this very day as well.

We need to take seriously what the Word of God says. It's promises. Promises of grace and love and mercy to the repentant.

But it's promises of judgment upon all those who reject God's grace,

His mercy, and His love. Let's pray together. Indeed, our

Heavenly Father, we stand before You and as we have listened to Your Word, we are sobered.

We must be sobered in the presence of Your truth. And we know that You are just and righteous.

And we know that these warnings are absolutely necessary. For if You have truly done what

Your Word says You have done in the person of Jesus Christ, then to reject that, oh my, the consequences that must come.

But Father, we are thankful that You've caused us to bow the knee. And Lord, we pray.

We pray for those amongst us who have heard and yet have continued to think that there will be another day.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. I'll become serious. Lord, help them to see the glory of Christ and the necessity of His Lordship and His Saviorhood and the necessity of their turning to Him in repentance and faith.

Lord, may we be encouraged in recognizing the glorious work of Christ that is even seen in these words.

We do thank You for preserving them for us. We ask that by Your Spirit You would make them to come alive in our hearts and that You would use them to draw