Apostasy Described (Hebrews 10:28-29) Part 3

Apostasy and the Severity of Judgment in Hebrews 10

So turn your Bibles, please, to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And we're gonna read together verses 26 through 31. We'll pray together before we read that passage. Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 26.

And when you've found your place, let's pray together. Our Father, we pray that you would be with both speaker and hearer this morning, and that as we focus upon your word that the meaning of it, the somberness of it, that the seriousness of this passage may not be lost on us, that you would open our eyes and our hearts to understand the significance of this passage and where we are at in relationship to us.

We pray that you would accomplish your purposes in us,.

Your people, through your word,.

And that you would be honored and glorified through our study of it. Give us clarity in our thoughts and in our minds, we pray in the name of Christ and for his sake, amen. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning 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 severe punishment do you think you 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. As we give some thought to the subject of apostasy, it is quite easy for our hearts to break because we can all think of an apostate, somebody that we know, somebody who comes to mind who at one time made a profession of faith in Christ and at one time appeared to be faithful to his cause, but then has turned and walked away from it and left the faith that they once professed.

And this can be quite perplexing to us because we look at them and we think, how could they have known so much and have experienced so much and have seen so much and come to such an understanding of the truth and then turn around and walk away from it?

It seemed as if they affirmed all the things that we have affirmed. And it seems as if they loved all the things that we love and that they experienced all the things that we experienced and yet they turn around and turn their back on all of that and repudiate it and renounce it and deny it and then turn from that truth.

So how could they know the same things that I know and walk away from it? Have seen the same things that we see and yet turn and repudiate what they know to be true? And then we turn to scripture and to passages like this, which so forcefully and so clearly talk about the destiny of the apostate who turns away from the gospel and away from Christ and we come face to face with scripture's teaching regarding their judgment and their eternal damnation.

And scripture does not pull any punches in its description of the destiny of the apostate. And we understand what justice demands from God in terms of what the apostate deserves. We understand that egregious evils warrant a severe punishment.

And that the more egregious the evil, the more egregious the crime against God, the more worthy the person who commits that crime is of judgment, of his damnation. We see that taught in scripture. We see it right here in this passage.

And we are left to compare the apostasy of the apostate, their abandonment of the faith with the judgment that God promises that they will receive. And one of the challenges, one of the things that comes to our mind is this really a just punishment for the apostate?

And the purpose of the author in this passage is to show us that yes, what the apostate receives in his judgment from God is exactly what he deserves. Because his crimes are that egregious. What is right and just?

What is the right and the just thing for God to do to somebody who has been brought face to face with their own sin and been given a clear understanding of what the truth is, but then has turned away from that and repudiated it and renounced it and walked away from it for their sin for a season or the pleasures of this world or the approval of men.

And instead they renounce all that is right and true and good and holy and righteous and turn instead for their sin and turn instead to enjoy their pleasures of this world or what the world might offer.

What does one who does that, what does he deserve? And the answer to that is a fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. We have this description in verse 29 that describes the sin of the apostate.

We've been looking at these three phrases that the author uses. This person receives this severe punishment, verse 29, he deserves it because he has these three phrases, 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.

And we've been looking at that description there. All three persons of the Trinity are slighted and sinned against in the sin of apostasy because the father is sinned against and that the son whom he has sent a savior of the world and upon whom he has put his blessing and approval, the one who manifests the grace and the character of the father, he is trampled underfoot.

And of course, the son is himself slighted and sinned against in that he is the one who is trampled underfoot and the apostate regards the blood of the covenant by which the son of God has been sanctified and made our high priest.

He regards that blood of the covenant as an unholy, common or impure thing. And then the spirit has been sinned against because the spirit has been insulted. And this is the third phrase that we're looking at this morning.

He has insulted the spirit of grace. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has insulted the spirit of grace? That's the third phrase and that's what's going to occupy our attention here this morning.

The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Grace

This is a reference obviously to the Holy Spirit. He is the one who is referred to here with this term spirit of grace. And the way that the author describes the Holy Spirit here indicates to us that the Holy Spirit is a person and not just a power.

You can't insult anything other than a person. You can't insult a power or a force. And so this is, of course, in contradistinction to the theology of Jehovah's Witnesses who believe that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a designation of God's active power or his force.

It's the description of the way that the Bible describes God's energy or the power by which God does his work or activity. They would say that's what the Holy Spirit is. That the Holy Spirit is not a person.

He is not divine. You can't even refer, Jehovah's Witnesses would say, to the Holy Spirit as a he or as a person because he is not a person or a personality. He is simply God's active force or his power.

Well, the author says you can insult the spirit of grace.

Insult him.

Can you insult a power, a force field, an energy field? Only a person can be insulted, right? I've said a lot of horrible things about electricity in my life. Mostly when I run afoul of electricity in some way or when it goes off in the middle of a football game, I have cursed electricity, but never in cursing electricity have I ever been worried that it might be insulted and not come on again before the game is over just to show me that it is insulted and upset with what I said about it.

You can only insult a person, not a power, and so therefore the spirit of God is a person and personal attributes are attributed to him. In fact, not only is that true that you cannot lie to a power but only to a person, you can't grieve a power either, and yet the scriptures warn us against grieving the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4, verse 30.

You can't lie to an energy force, but scripture tells us that we can lie to the Holy Spirit. Ananias and Sapphira did it in Acts chapter five and it cost them their lives. You can't quench a power or a force, but scripture warns us against quenching the Holy Spirit in First Thessalonians chapter five, and of course you can't blaspheme a power or a force like electricity, but you can blaspheme a person, and not only are those actions only possible to be done to a person, but the Holy Spirit also performs personal actions or activities.

He is the one who gifts God's people, he is the one who calls us, who speaks through his word, who regenerates us and empowers us to service. He moves, he comforts, he convicts, he indwells, he sanctifies, he seals us, he draws us to the sun.

This person has a will and scripture uses personal pronouns like he and him to refer to the Holy Spirit. He is a person, and not only is he a person, he is a divine person because scripture says that the Holy Spirit is God.

In fact, in Acts chapter five, the passage that I just referred to with Ananias and Sapphira, Peter said to Ananias and Sapphira after they had sold their property and given part of it to the apostles and lied about the amount that they had sold it for, Peter said to Ananias, you have lied to the Holy Spirit, and later in the same passage, he says you have not lied to men, but you have lied to God.

There the Holy Spirit is called God in Acts chapter five, and he performs divine acts. He does things that only a divine person can do, like regenerating and giving spiritual life to God's people, his elect.

The Holy Spirit was involved in the creation of all things in Genesis chapter one. He is the one who raised Christ from the dead in Romans chapter eight, and he performed miracles through the Lord Jesus Christ as Christ did all of his miraculous works in the power of the Holy Spirit in the gospels.

So these are divine acts that the Holy Spirit does. And notice the title that is given to him here in verse 28. He is called the Spirit of Grace. Now that is familiar language to a Jew who was a conversant in his Old Testament, because that language, that phrase is taken, that description of the Holy Spirit is taken from Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10.

In fact, there are only two times in all of scripture where the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Grace, where he's given this title. Once is here in the book of Hebrews chapter 10, and the other is in Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10.

Here's Zechariah 12, verse 10, a familiar passage once I read it to you. Listen, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication so that they will look on me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.

And they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. What is Zechariah describing there? He is describing a future time when God will fulfill all of the eschatological blessings to the nation of Israel and he will pour out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the house of David a spirit of supplication and mourning, that is the spirit of grace.

And that spirit of grace will cause all of those of the house of David and in the city of Jerusalem to look on, this passage says, it is God speaking, to look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.

And there this one who is pierced is given the attribute of divinity. It is God himself who says he is pierced. And they mourn for him as one mourns for a son. So there the work of the spirit of God is to draw the focus and attention of the nation of Israel, the people of God there in the old covenant nation of Israel to the Messiah whom they had pierced and to create in them mourning as they recognize their sin and grieve over it and come to him.

That is the fulfillment of the eschatological blessings promised to the nation of Israel under the new covenant. When Paul says in Romans chapter 11 verse 26 that all Israel will be saved, that is the event that he is talking about.

He is looking forward to the national salvation of Israel. So that phrase spirit of grace occurs in the old covenant, in the Old Testament I should say, in reference to the new covenant blessings, particularly the end time eschatological blessings that will be poured out on the nation of Israel.

But it also occurs in Zechariah chapter 12 in the context of describing the sacrifice of Christ. They will look on me whom they have pierced. So it's interesting then that the author would use that description of the Holy Spirit which only occurs one other time in all of scripture and then it's in the Old Testament referring to the new covenant blessings promised to the nation of Israel and referring to the sacrifice of this divine son.

And it is the Holy Spirit who in reference to that eschatological promises and in reference to that sacrifice of the divine son is going to do this work in the people and the nation of Israel, creating in them a knowledge of their sin and a turning to the person of Christ.

So here the author uses that phrase, that descriptor for the Holy Spirit to remind us of what that work of the Holy Spirit is. What is the work of the Holy Spirit in Zechariah? In Zechariah the context is sacrifice and new covenant blessings.

And what is the context of Hebrews chapter 10? It is sacrifice and new covenant blessings. It's the same descriptor used of the Holy Spirit in both of those passages and the contexts are similar in terms of their subject matter and their promises.

So what is Zechariah? Why does he use that description? Well, because in Zechariah, sorry, in the author of Hebrews, why does he use Zechariah's description? To remind us of the work of the Holy Spirit that he was promised to do in the book of Zechariah.

That is to turn people's attention to Christ, to bring them a knowledge of their sin and create in them a mourning and repentance over that and to create in them an understanding of what they have done against that son.

The Holy Spirit's Gracious, Christ-Centered, and Convicting Work

And this brings us to the work of the Holy Spirit. We've talked a little bit here about the person of the Holy Spirit is the spirit of grace. The spirit who gives grace, the spirit who does even a gracious work.

So what does scripture say is the work of the Holy Spirit? And we're covering all of this so we can understand what it means that when we insult the spirit of grace. The work of the Holy Spirit is a gracious work and it is a Christ-centered work.

Jesus in his last discourse with his disciples on the night before his betrayal, sorry, the night of his betrayal and the night before his crucifixion. In John chapter 16, verse 14, he says, he will glorify me, that is speaking of the Holy Spirit.

He will glorify me for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. And Jesus was promising there to the disciples that the work of the spirit of God would be to reveal to them the things of Christ.

He will take of those things that belong to me and he will reveal them to you and disclose them to you. And that describes the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in drawing attention to Christ. He reveals the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He illuminates our hearts and our minds to show to us the glories of Christ and his oneness with the Father and the magnificent and glorious nature of his sacrifice. The Holy Spirit points and draws our attention to the Lord Jesus Christ, showing Christ as the sacrifice for sins and showing that forgiveness of sins looks like in those who turn to Jesus Christ.

So the spirit of God directs our attention to Christ and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to do that, to draw his elect to him, to turn our focus and attention on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would say something here at this point that I've said a number of times before, any ministry or any emphasis or any theology that focuses attention and almost a fixation upon the spirit of God is not a biblical ministry or theology.

Because the work of the spirit of God is to point to Jesus Christ, why? Because in the person of Christ, we see the nature of the Father revealed. So the way that we glorify the triune God is when the spirit of God turns our attention not upon himself, but upon Christ so that we may behold in him all of the glory and the nature of the Father.

And when we see in Christ all of the glory and the nature of the Father, and it is the work of the spirit to show us that, then we can worship and adore our triune God, understanding that the role of the spirit is not to draw attention to himself and not to create in us a longing and a longing and a longing and a singing and a singing for more of the Holy Spirit, but rather a focus and a fixation upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the biblical role of the Holy Spirit.

That's what he does.

He takes what belongs to Christ and reveals it to us. This is what he will do in the end times when he causes the nation of Israel to look to whom, the Holy Spirit? No, to Christ and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.

So it's a Christ-centered work that the spirit of God does, and it's a gracious work. That is a gracious thing. Second, it is a convicting work. Jesus said in John 16, eight, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment to come.

The spirit of God grants an understanding to us of who Christ is and of our sin, and he does this to the apostate as well. He shows to the apostate the nature of his sin, and the apostate understands and is brought to understand by the ministry of the Holy Spirit that the remedy for his sin is to be found in the person of Jesus Christ.

And the apostate is brought to understand his need for that remedy, and he's brought to understand that he lacks righteousness and that that righteousness can only be provided in the person of Christ.

And the apostate is his eyes are directed to Christ as the remedy for his sin, the remedy for his lost condition, as his mind is illuminated, and all of that truth is brought to bear upon his heart and his soul in an external and superficial way.

And third, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a church-building work, because after we are brought to a knowledge of the truth and we repent and we believe, it is the Spirit of God who indwells his people and gifts us to serve one another.

He motivates pure affections and worship. He makes the people of God holy, granting us victory over sin, sanctifying us, energizing our hearts to serve him, motivating us to mortify sin and put to death the members of our body and our flesh.

He is the one who fills us with love and joy and empowers us to serve him in a God-honoring and Christ-exalting way. All of that is the work of the Holy Spirit. All of that is a gracious work. And when we say gracious, we mean that none of that is deserved.

What do we deserve? We deserve none of that. We do not deserve, in ourselves, being born as children and descendants of Adam. We do not deserve to have our minds enlightened and our eyes opened and our hearts changed and to be indwelt by the Spirit of God.

We do not deserve any of the gracious works that the Spirit of God does to us. But the apostate experiences these things superficially. He sees the grace of God on display. He sees the works of the Spirit of God amongst the people of God as the apostate sits in the congregation of God's people.

He sees grace on display. And he benefits and experiences all of the gracious works that the Holy Spirit does in and amongst the people of God. He experiences all of the blessings of the Spirit of God superficially as he sees them poured out upon God's people, whom he is among and whom he is with and whom he pretends to be one with.

He is warned of the judgment that is to come and he is given examples and he sees examples of people who have escaped that judgment by repentance and faith. And the apostate is called to repentance and called to belief and the truth is put right there in front of him.

And what does the apostate do with that truth? He insults the Spirit of grace. That word insults is a word that doesn't just mean insulting somebody, but it means to mock them and it has the idea of showing contempt for the person who is so insulted.

I may insult you quite innocently by saying something or doing something that you would consider to be insulting or offensive. And it might be a personal insult to you, but I might be able to do that or I might do that having no intention to do so, doing it just accidentally as it were, not even realizing that what I'm doing is an insult.

That's not the kind of insult that is described here. This has the idea of doing so with intention. It is an act of mockery and it is an act that demonstrates your despising of the Holy Spirit and your hatred for, your contempt for the God of truth.

The apostate turns away from all of those gracious acts, all of those gracious works, all of the grace that is shown him by the Holy Spirit. He shuns the gracious testimony of the Holy Spirit, disavows it, repudiates it and renounces it and shows his spite for the Holy Spirit in rejecting the gracious works that the Spirit of God does amongst the people of God.

This is the true nature of apostasy. This is the true nature of one who knows the truth and turns from it. The true sin of the apostate is that he regards the testimony of the Holy Spirit as untrustworthy and false.

Think about this. The Spirit of God shows us and testifies that Christ is sufficient, that he is glorious, that he is trustworthy, that Christ is of more value than all that the world has to offer, that Christ is more precious than the pleasures of sin for a season, that Christ is worthy of our honor, our adoration, our praise and our worship.

The Holy Spirit testifies that Christ should be and is worthy of being more precious to us than anything else that the world may offer. He is worthy of us laying down our lives, taking up our cross and following him and dying for him if necessary.

That is the testimony of the Holy Spirit. That's the testimony of the Holy Spirit through Scripture. And what does the apostate say? The apostate says, no, that's a lie. Christ is not more valuable than what the world has to offer.

Christ is not more valuable than the applause of men. Christ is not more precious than my sin for a season. Christ is not worthy of my confidence, my trust, my adoration, my praise or my thankfulness.

Christ is not worth any of that. The apostate, in his act of turning away from the truth, is saying that the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning the divine Son of whom the Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, that the Spirit's testimony concerning him is a lie.

Further, the apostate's sin says that the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning our sin is a lie. Whereas the Holy Spirit testifies that I need a Savior because I am a wretched, lost, depraved, helpless, hopeless sinner who has violated God's law, turned his back upon the truth and sinned against a most holy and most benevolent sovereign in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore, I need salvation and I need atonement for my sin and payment for my sin and that I desperately need righteousness because I am unrighteous and if I stand before a holy God, I will perish on that day because I need righteousness and I need forgiveness.

That's the testimony of the Holy Spirit. And the apostate says, no, that's a lie. I don't need a covering for my sin. I don't need righteousness. In fact, I am able to stand in front of a most holy God on the day of judgment and I will trust in my own righteousness to avail for me on that day.

I don't need atonement for my sin. I don't need a sacrifice. And most of all, I don't need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The sin of the apostate is that he says concerning the testimony of the Holy Spirit about our sin, that the Holy Spirit is a liar.

And the sin of the apostate is that he regards the works of the Holy Spirit as lies and as frauds. He sits, the apostate does, and enjoys the giftedness of the Holy Spirit and the lives of the people of God around him.

He sees the graciousness of people. He sees the lives of thieves, ex-thieves and liars and prostitutes and drug addicts and wife abusers and wife beaters and haters of God totally transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and their lives turned around.

And he says concerning that gracious work that it is merely a, it's not real. It's just a psychosomatic ruse. It's just a myth. There's nothing to it. It's created by something else. He says regarding the work of the Spirit of God that it is not a gracious work and that it is not true.

The sin of the apostate is that he regards the testimony concerning Christ as a lie. He regards the testimony concerning our sin and our need for Christ as a lie and that he regards the works, the gracious works of Holy Spirit, which he sees each and every day as he is around the people of God as a fraud.

Now, Ananias and Sapphira were killed as a judgment from God because they lied to the Holy Spirit. And now I ask you, how much more severe punishment do you think he deserves who calls the Holy Spirit a liar?

If the Spirit killed a man and a woman because they lied to the Spirit, how much more severe punishment do they deserve who call the Holy Spirit a liar? Are you starting to see, I hope, the depth of sin and the seriousness of the act of apostasy from the faith?

To repudiate and to reject the gospel is to cast reproach upon the gracious work of the Holy Spirit who has worked in and through the gospel and bears testimony to the grace of God, even putting that testimony clearly in view of the apostate.

And the apostate sees that truth and turns his back upon it. This is a blasphemous insult. And it's a serious blasphemous insult. Given that the apostate at one time agreed with the testimony of the Holy Spirit and agreed with the testimony of all of God's people.

Maybe even agreed with that testimony in his baptism and in telling others of the gracious works of the Holy Spirit as he shared what was going on and shared the truth that he was coming to understand and to learn.

But then he turned away from that. And now the apostate disdains the Spirit's testimony, disavows the truth and denies what they once affirmed. They are spiritual Benedict Arnold of the worst kind for they have betrayed the truth from the inside.

They have betrayed a truth that they knew to be true. Now this is not how the apostate views themselves. Understand that. The apostate would never describe themselves in these terms, but that is irrelevant because the only thing that matters is how God views the apostate and how God would describe the apostate.

And this is it. He has trampled underfoot the Son of God and regarded as unclean and impure the blood of the covenant by which the Son of God was sanctified. And he has insulted the Spirit of grace. That is what the act of apostasy is.

And the apostate always flatters himself thinking that he's going to get away with his crimes and get away with his sin. That if he can commit spiritual treachery and treason and turn against the truth and turn against the Spirit of God and the Word of God and go and do his own thing, that he will be able to sin with impunity.

But the apostate must be made to understand that his sin will always find himself, find himself, find him. The sin will always find him out. It will pursue him and chase him down and eventually it will catch up with him and overtake him in due time.

Having once received the truth, they then turn from the truth and they deserve the punishment that is described in this passage. The fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries, dying without mercy, a severe punishment, vengeance.

The Lord will judge his people. It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. One of the objections that is often raised against scripture is that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire is an onerous punishment given the nature of our crimes.

I mean, so what I've told a few white lies? So what I have not worshiped God with my whole life. So what I do my own thing. I've missed a few Sundays at church. So what if I blaspheme God's name a few times, taking his name in vain.

These things are really no big deal. And you're telling me that the justice for that, the justice is eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire that never ends, that that is a just thing. Some of the new atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, they describe such a doctrine as a moral crime.

They would say it is an outrage against morality that God would ever punish anybody for their sins like that in the lake that burns with fire that goes on forever and ever. They would say, that's not just, that's a moral outrage.

No, the moral outrage is that people would spurn the grace of God and that they would turn from his loving, saving, benevolent grace. That's the moral outrage. For in doing so, they demonstrate that they are God's adversaries and that they deserve the fury of a fire which will consume them.

The act of apostasy turning from the truth is to turn from a gracious God and to insult his spirit and to spurn his son and to tread upon that precious gift as if it were nothing. It would be a moral outrage if such people were not punished for eternity in the lake that burns with fire.

When we understand the greatness of the God against whom that sin is committed and the seriousness of that act of turning away from the faith and abandoning the truth, it's not a moral outrage to face the fury of a fire which consumes the adversaries.

The moral tragedy is that people spurn the grace of God and having known the truth that they turn from it. That is a moral outrage. That is a moral tragedy and God's judgment is just and those who would escape that judgment can do so only in the person of Jesus Christ.

God sent his son into this world to live a perfect life and to die a death on the cross, to pay the price for sin for any and all who will turn from their sin and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is God's gracious and saving gift.

And to say that my sin is more precious than that, that my selfishness is more precious than that, the approval of men, the tinkerings of this world are more precious than that is an insult to the spirit of grace and it is to regard the work of Christ and the blood of his covenant as an unholy, impure and common thing.

That is a moral outrage. If you are in Jesus Christ, you are safe and secure from his wrath. If you are not in Jesus Christ, you can be if you will repent of your sin and trust in his salvation. Believe that Jesus Christ died to pay the price for your sin, turn from your sin, come to him, repent and believe and place your faith in Jesus Christ and he will save you, he will forgive you of your sin, he will give you his righteousness and he will take you to heaven to be with him.

He will keep you safe and he will keep you secure. To turn from that truth, having heard everything you have heard today, is to turn from the only road to salvation. It is to turn from the only offer of grace and salvation and that is found in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone.

Repent and believe the gospel. If you turn away from the gospel and you will not repent and believe, then you demonstrate by walking away from him that you are his adversary and you deserve the fury of a fire which will consume you.

Repent and trust Christ. Let's bow our heads. Father, we are grateful to you for your merciful salvation found in your son. We thank you that you have done a work in the hearts of your people that you might turn us from our sin and we pray for any who are here who have never believed upon Christ for salvation that you would do a work in their heart and show them their need for salvation and bring them to saving faith and gather together your people that they may honor and glorify you as saved and redeemed people who love you and who cherish the sacrifice of Christ and who will worship you forevermore.