Apostasy Described (Hebrews 10:28-29) Part 2

Good morning. Boy, that sure had a chilling effect on your talking.

Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School. We will be in the book of Daniel again, chapter five.

Let's open in prayer. Father, we are grateful for your word, for what it teaches us, for how it directs us to you and to your son and to the

Holy Spirit. And this morning, as we look into Daniel, we pray for illumination that we might see how this applies to our lives today.

Lord, wake this world up if you are going to tarry to the evils that are occurring around us.

And it is history repeating itself. And you have given us instruction. You have given us a way to serve you and to honor you and to glorify you and to have a nation be blessed.

Let us see that happen. Lord, we ask it. And so this morning, teach us, encourage us, and Father, might we do everything we do today to the glory of the

Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And so we finished up last week on chapter five, verse 21, where Daniel is setting up, he's preaching what has been called the sermon of Daniel, chapter five.

He starts back in, oh, should've had that on the tip of my tongue, shouldn't

I? Verse 17, so verse 17 is where Daniel starts his sermon.

And he's going to lay the groundwork to Belshazzar before he explains to him that basically it's all over, but the shouting to, dude, your kingdom has been judged.

And that's what we're going to see when we get to, oh, I just gave it away, didn't I? That's awful. Nobody likes to have the end of the story given away.

But at any rate, so he starts his sermon and he starts out after Belshazzar was encouraged by his mother to bring

Daniel in to interpret this writing on the wall that no one else could interpret.

And actually, they couldn't even read it. But Daniel comes in and Belshazzar remembers what his mother said, and then he also says some of his own.

He says, I remember you, I know who you are. He remembers the stories probably from his youth. He was probably a young teenager when

Daniel was doing many of the exploits that he had done in Babylon. And so he offers a great series of gifts to Daniel if he will but interpret this.

Now, generally speaking, when a politician or a prince or a king or somebody in power offers you money to do something for him, he wants the outcome to be beneficial to him.

And Daniel knows that and he says, remember what he says in verse 17, he says, you keep your gifts to yourself, give your rewards to someone else.

However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.

So that's Daniel, we're gonna continue with his sermon, but Daniel is setting up the time when he will be able to explain to the king that the kingdom of Babylon has been judged and it's over today.

And it actually happens that day. So to give us the context, let's go ahead and start reading in chapter six, verse 10.

Daniel chapter six, verse 10. Excuse me, Daniel, yeah, yeah, right.

Since we're studying Daniel five, let's read in Daniel six, what do you think? Daniel chapter five, verse 10.

Then the queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles. The queen spoke and said, oh, king, live forever.

Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale. Remember what we talked about that last week? That was a mother basically saying to her son, buck up, dude, quit freaking out.

There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.

And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers,

Chaldeans, and diviners. This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this

Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the interpretation.

Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, are you the Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father, the king, brought from Judah?

Now, I have heard about you, that a spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight, and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you.

Just now, the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me, that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare to me, declare the interpretation of the passage.

But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems.

Now, if you are able to read the inscriptions and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

And here's where Daniel starts. He says, and then Daniel answered and said before the king, keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else.

However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him. Oh, king, the most high

God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father. And because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and men of every language feared and trembled before him.

Whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive, and whomever he wished, he elevated, and whomever he wished, he humbled.

But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.

He was also driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of beasts and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys.

He was given grass to eat like cattle and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the most high

God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that he sets over it whomever he wishes. Yet you, his son,

Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the

Lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them.

And you have praised the gods of silver and of gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand, but the

God in whose hand are your life breath and your ways you have not glorified. Then the hand was sent from him and this inscription was written out.

Now, this is the inscription that was written out. Mene, mene, tekel, ufarshin, ufarshin. This is the interpretation of the passage.

Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.

Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar gave orders and they clothed

Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

That same night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62.

So as I said last week, we left off on verse 21, where Nebuchadnezzar's malady was described by Daniel.

He was driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of the wild beasts. But the most important part of all of this is

Daniel reminding Belshazzar that when kings are arrogant and do not follow the ways that God has prescribed for them, they can be deposed and they can be deposed instantaneously.

And you're gonna see Daniel is going to be made the third ruler in the kingdom and it's gonna be the shortest third rulership in history.

I think it lasts maybe two hours before the Chaldeans or the

Medes and the Persians take over the city. So then with the beginning of that sermon, where he explains all of the basics and then he reminds

Belshazzar that Nebuchadnezzar lifted his heart up and was deposed, he says this to Belshazzar.

He says in verse 22, he said, yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this.

So Belshazzar was familiar with all of the history that had preceded him in the past, oh, 20, 20, 30 years.

Remember there were 23 years between, oh, actually there's 23 years between chapters here, between five and six, but there were many years had passed, many kingships had passed between Nebuchadnezzar who wasn't his father.

Remember we talked about the fact that the word grandfather did not exist in Persian, doesn't exist in Aramaic.

So when they wanted to say grandfather, sometimes they just said father and the context gave the indication as to who it was.

Sometimes they would say your father's father, that would make it more clear. But in this case, he's referring to Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar's father when in fact, in keeping with the lack of direct translation, he was mostly, he was his grandfather.

Yet you his son have not humbled your heart. So Belshazzar was his grandson.

Here the crux of the matter is alluded to in that Belshazzar knowing all the things that had happened to Nebuchadnezzar had still lifted up himself in pride and wickedness.

And this bringing those implements of the temple into the throne room and desecrating them was a direct affront to Jehovah God.

He did this intentionally. He was shaking his fist at God. It wasn't just, let's try these different kind of drinking tumblers out.

This might, maybe the drinks will taste better in this. It wasn't that at all. He knew exactly what he was doing.

He lifted his heart up against Jehovah God and Daniel points it out. Daniel calls him out on it. Now, what do you think?

Think about that. These are kings, we've talked about this before, that when they didn't like you, they just killed you.

And it was copacetic for them to do that. It was within the law. And Daniel calls

Belshazzar out. You knew this and you didn't humble yourself. He called

Belshazzar out. So what does Belshazzar's, he says this again, and then he goes even further.

He says, but in verse 23, he says, but you have exalted yourself against the

Lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before you and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them.

And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand, but the

God in whose hand are your life breath and all your ways you have not glorified. Daniel is being very careful to separate

Jehovah, Yahweh, from the false gods of stone, bronze, iron, and silver and all the other gods that they had.

He names him the Lord of heaven, which was a common Syrian term for their greatest gods.

And he appropriates that for Jehovah and sets it against these other names. So the indictment here becomes more pointed.

Daniel makes clear that he understands as the Lord does that Belshazzar had elevated himself, exalted himself specifically against the

Lord of heaven. He uses the term Lord of heaven, which properly designates Jehovah, but also directly contradicts the idea that the gods of Babylon had any power whatsoever.

There was much more in this statement than just the name of God. Daniel was lifting up Jehovah and putting down the gods of the

Babylonians. And that could be interpreted by a king as insolent and atheistic, if you will.

You could be killed for that. It's remarkable though, that after this soliloquy is finished,

Belshazzar does not summarily execute Daniel for his insolence against the gods of Babylon.

It's very likely that all the noise in the hall had ceased as Daniel delivered his incitement.

You know his indictment. You know how noisy it can be when a thousand drunk people, well, maybe you don't.

I hope you don't know how noisy. Let me rephrase that. I wonder what it's like to be in a hall with a thousand drunk people celebrating and raucous and the presage to much more profane activities later on in the evening.

It was noisy. And when Daniel comes in and begins to deliver this indictment to Belshazzar, it's my opinion that the noise died down and everybody would pay very pointed attention to what was going on.

They would have heard it. I think that everyone would have heard this sermon much to the dismay of Belshazzar.

And yet he listens. He listens to the entire message. He doesn't shut Daniel down.

He doesn't interrupt. He listens to the entire message. Now, most certainly Daniel was disgusted with the way

Belshazzar had desecrated the Jewish temple implements, but he sternly but politely delivers his message.

And I love the way at the beginning, he makes sure that Belshazzar knows I'm going to tell you the truth.

I'm not interested in your gifts. Very important. Very important. He also reminds him of the very fact that he is

King and that he is the fact that he is still King and that he is still breathing is a grace of Jehovah God.

His kingdom and his life are as he says in the hands of the Lord of heaven.

Much has been made of this sermon and rightly so. It is notable that this is an encapsulation of the way the world responds to Jehovah.

If you read it, you'll notice that this is a very concise way of the world, the way the world responds to the

Lord of heaven. Men continue on in their own way, hating God and acting as if he doesn't exist.

It's been said about atheists that atheists don't believe in God and they hate him. Think about that.

They don't believe in God and they hate him. Everybody in their conscience knows as Belshazzar knew.

And so Daniel calls him out on this. Men continue on their own way as if nothing is going on, as if they can just continue on merrily doing the things that they're doing, the life that they're living, the way that they're acting, the way they treat others as if nothing will ever happen.

Belshazzar had not learned from the judgment of Nebuchadnezzar, which was clearly in his, well, maybe not that night, maybe a bit fuzzy because of the alcohol, but for the most part, it was in the recent past for him.

It's something that he would have remembered, something in the 90s. You people my age and even people younger, you can remember things that happened 20 years ago, 20, 15, 20 years ago.

Some, especially your wives can remember things that happened 15, 20 years ago. And I'll just leave it at that.

So Belshazzar still worshiped the false gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which as Daniel said, do not see, they do not hear, they do not understand.

The implication, the clear implication is though is that Jehovah God sees, hears, and understands.

And you are about to find out what that means. Any questions before we jump into the translation and the part that everybody likes about this chapter?

Okay, verse 24. Then the hand was sent from him, and this inscription was written out.

So the hand was then finally sent from God as Daniel describes this, and wrote out the inscription.

Daniel is explaining that the hand was sent. The hand was sent, that so troubled Belshazzar and the magicians could not translate.

This is the scripture, this is the only time in scripture that this has ever happened, that something like this has happened.

Verse 25. Now this is the inscription that was written. Let's see if we, this is the, and I put it in English.

I found it in English, on English characters online. This is the inscription that was written.

Mene, mene tekel ufarshin. The inscription was very meager. That's, there's not much there.

Only four words. The first, mene is an Aramaic word related to the

Hebrew mina, which is equal to 50 shekels, and was primarily a word that meant to number.

It is repeated twice, most likely for emphasis. The second word, tekel, is related to the

Hebrew word shekel. A shekel was also a unit of weight and a unit of monetary value, but it also meant to weigh.

It meant to weigh, to weigh something. The third word, ufarshin, was related to the

Hebrew word paris, which was a half shekel unit, and was another word related to weighing or division.

It can actually be translated dividing. So that word, the last word, can be translated dividing.

Seeing monetary units in descriptions of division, in descriptions is very commonly understood in modern day

America. After all, what is a quarter? It's a fourth of a dollar.

But we think of it as that round thing with GW's head on it. That's a quarter.

It's one fourth of a dollar. It's a division. We do the very same thing in our language, and in many other languages, they do the same thing.

After all, a quarter is simply one fourth of an American dollar, but it can also mean to divide something. So I grew up on a cattle ranch, and we used to butcher our own bees, and we would quarter the animals, and then take care of each of the different quarters in a different way.

So to quarter something is to make it into one fourth of the original. So to divide can be used as a verb.

Simply saying the word quarter communicates monetary value to the average American, but that may be completely lost to a foreign observer.

In the same way, these Aramaic words have multiple understandings in their day, but when one was talking about exchanging goods, it was understood that they were words that were related to monetary value.

I trade you a bushel of wheat for a certain number of shekels, or a portion of a shekel.

I don't remember what the value application was there. There have been suggestions made that the writing was done vertically.

And now, again, a lot of this is just speculation, and it's fun, but it's what we have in the

Scripture is what we have in the Scripture, and that's what we need to focus on. But just as a way of helping us understand some of this, there's been suggestions that the writing were vertical.

And we must remember that Hebrew and Aramaic are read from, this doesn't have a pointer, from right to left.

So the two, many, many are on the right there, and you read right to left, which is how it would have been written on the wall in the throne room.

So the inscription would have looked something like this. Adding complication to this, it is possible that some unfamiliar form of the

Aramaic characters may have been used. In any event, it took divine intervention to accomplish its interpretation.

It will be seen as we read the translation in the next verses that Daniel's rendering is completely reasonable.

And a lot of scholars have objected to what he came up with. Well, it was a divinely inspired to Daniel translation of these four words, like the rest of Scripture.

Verse 26, this is the interpretation, Daniel says, of the message. Many, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.

Put an end to it. Here begins Daniel's interpretation. The momentous end of the

Babylonian empire would be accomplished at this particular point. Verse 27, Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.

Your pride, Belshazzar, has tainted all you do, and your kingship has been found defective.

And then the last word, verse 28, Peresh, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the

Medes and Persians. And finally, with likely, likely, a play on the word divided, which could also refer to the

Persians, the kingdom will be split and given to the Medes and Persians, who at the time were united under one king.

Another important aspect of this translation is given by Daniel is that it firmly places these happenings and this book in the 6th century

BC. As one commentator stated, for those of you who haven't been here, there's quite a bit of controversy has been arisen over the centuries that Daniel was, basically the idea was is that the prophecies in this book were too accurate.

They couldn't have been prophecies. They had to be a history written after the fact. So therefore the book was written in the 2nd century

BC and not the 6th century BC. The fact is it was written in the 6th century

BC. These were prophecies and this particular section right here helps confirm that.

So as Gleason Archer said in his commentary, he said this, the important consequence of this identification of the combined

Medo -Persian empire as the second kingdom in Daniel series of four, which are embodied in Nebuchadnezzar's four -part dream in chapter two, is that the kingdom, the third kingdom must be the

Greek one. Therefore the fourth empire must still be the Roman empire, which of course did not actually take over the

Near East until 63 BC, a century after the Maccabean uprisings, which is where the period of history is that some critics believe this book was written.

Back to this quote, therefore this handwriting on the wall demolishes the

Maccabean data hypothesis, which insists that nothing in Daniel's prophecies in any event later, that nothing

Daniel prophesies, that Daniel, let me start over, which insists that nothing in Daniel prophesies any event later than the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in 164

BC, a hundred years before Pompey annexed the Palestine Syria to the

Roman empire. So the fact that he quotes that Daniel interprets this to talk about the

Medes and the Persians places this squarely in the sixth century BC, because that is when the

Medes and the Persians took over the Babylonian empire. So even as these events were happening in the throne room, the

Medo -Persian army was pouring into the city to conquer it. Now I can't remember if I went through the actual tactical method that the

Medes used, the Medes and the Persians used. We'll talk about it if I don't have it in here. But at any rate, these are the three words.

So God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales.

You, Belshazzar, have been weighed on the scales and found defective, deficient, and perish.

Your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and the Persians. Doesn't that sound like treason?

Daniel is saying you're going to be conquered today. And I'm delivering that information.

Very dangerous thing to say to a Babylonian king in any event, because they were not known to take difficult information very well.

Generally, it was dealt with by lions or furnaces, or just much stabbing would ensue.

Verse 29, then Belshazzar gave orders and they clothed Daniel with purple. This happened right after Daniel gave this horrifying prophecy of what's going to happen.

They clothed, excuse me, they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler of the kingdom.

He did that right there in the drunken throne room. That night, as soon as Daniel finished his proclamation, they put the robe on him, purple robe, which means kingly robe, somebody who's in charge.

They put the gold necklace around him. Only kings had those kinds of ornaments on them. And then they made the proclamation that he is now the third ruler in the kingdom.

So remarkably, Belshazzar, instead of summarily executing Daniel for his insolence, keeps his promise and bestows upon Daniel the very short -lived title of third ruler in the kingdom.

Daniel understood that the accolades of this world are passing, and especially this one, because he knew that the

Medes and the Persians were outside the gate. They were gonna take the city. He's now third ruler in the kingdom for somewhere between 10 minutes and five hours.

The irony of this entire situation is captured very well in John Walvoord's commentary. He said this, in its rise to power, the

Babylonian empire had conquered Jerusalem, taken its inhabitants into captivity, looted its beautiful temple, and destroyed the city.

Yet this empire, the Babylonian empire, was to have as its last official act the honoring of one of these

Hebrew captives who, by divine revelation, predicted not only the downfall of Babylon, but the course of the times of the

Gentiles until the Son of Man comes from heaven. Man may have the first word, but God will always have the last word, unquote.

And then here it is, very, that same night, Belshazzar, the

Chaldean king, was slain. As mentioned before, the Medo -Persians were already pouring into the city, and that night took

Babylon and killed the city, or killed the king, yeah, killed the city too. Killed the king. Now remember, they had 20 years of supplies.

They had what at the time was known as the most formidable army on the planet, at least in the world, in the known world.

They were taken in one night. Now if you read Herodotus, or I believe it's in Herodotus, chapter 11,

I think, at any rate, it talks about how this was accomplished, where one of the commanders began draining the river.

He broke down some barriers and drained that part of the river off into some surrounding low -lying lakes.

And the river that ran through, I think we have, oh, Ron was aiming at this stupid thing.

Yeah, and then we go right to the end like that. Yeah, just, there.

That river going through, they drained it down so that a man could walk in it.

It was only thigh deep, and he could walk underneath the wall into the city. It was a remarkable accomplishment at the time.

I mean, they didn't have Ron's excavators. They had shovels and slaves.

And they drained the river down and then walked underneath the walls. And while they were celebrating and wrapping this robe around Daniel, actually, they weren't celebrating at this point, wrapping the robe around Daniel, giving him the gold necklace, the

Medo -Persian army was marching into the city. Okay, any comments or questions about that section?

And then we'll finish up this chapter. Yes. No, that moves it backwards.

I know, because I screwed up and did that. There's no, there's no, okay.

There's no laser on this. So then, verse 31, Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62.

Now, the fall of Babylon was prophesied in Isaiah 13, 21, and in Jeremiah 51.

Isaiah 13 says this, in Isaiah chapter 13, verses 17 through 22.

Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold, and their bows will mow down the young men.

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, nor will their eye pity children. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the

Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation, nor will the

Arab pitch his tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there, but desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of owls.

Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there. Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers, and jackals in their luxurious palaces.

Her fateful time also will soon come, and her days will not be prolonged.

So the history of Babylon is recorded by Herodotus and Xenophon. Modern discoveries discount the liberal theories that attempt to make

Daniel look like a liberal book. So for many years, or make Daniel look like a later book, a later book.

Cyrus himself had an inscription made that has been found describing the fall of Babylon.

And here's what he said. Marduk, that's one of the gods of Babylon, the great god of Babylon, the great lord, a protector of his people, worshipers, beheld with pleasure his good deeds, that's

Cyrus's good deeds, and his upright mind, literally his heart, and ordered him to march against his city

Babylon. He made him set out on the road to Babylon, going at his side like a real friend.

His widespread troops, their number like that of the water of a river, could not be established. Strolled along, their weapons packed away.

Without any battle, he made him enter his town Babylon, sparing Babylon any calamity.

He delivered him into Cyrus, his hands, Cyrus, Nabonidus, the king, who did not worship him.

Remember, Nabonidus had vacated the city and left the city in the hands of the kingdom, that part of the kingdom in the hands of Belshazzar.

He was busy off in another city building a different temple to the moon god.

And it really affected his kingship. It made many people in Babylon angry,

Babylonians angry, that he was not properly worshiping Marduk. And so this is Cyrus saying that Marduk took care of that.

So, closing, finishing up here, this incredible chapter, divinely included in scripture, chronicles fulfillment of prophecies regarding Babylon and demonstrates that divine justice does indeed come to pass on the world and its wickedness.

This was an important, this would have been a sorely needed encouragement to the Jewish captives of the day. And it should speak to us today in the very same way.

The Lord Jesus is coming again, and his second coming will be one of divine justice that will be glorifying to Jesus Christ and that the church will give glory to God for.

Remember, the church is the believers that he has taken, the ecclesia, the called out ones that he has called out and made

Christians, made believers. The Babylonians were the original preppers. They were ready for a 20 year siege.

Their city was impregnable, they thought. Their army, the envy of the earth.

There was nothing that could stop them. There was nothing that could conquer them. There was nothing that could right the wrongs that they had perpetrated on the other nations.

And then God decided Babylon must fall, and it did. No matter the strength of the nation, if the

Lord God Jehovah is not the God of that nation, it will fall. And this should be a message to us, not to try and,

I'm not saying that we need to evangelize people. Let me just say it that. It's the heart that needs to change. There are no political solutions that God needs to have us perpetrate.

He needs to, the gospel must be preached, the gospel must be spread throughout the world, and he will change the hearts of those whom he has chosen to give to his son as the bride of Christ.

Our part is to preach that gospel. I'm not saying there aren't those who are, who necessarily work in individual nations, trying to right wrongs that are going on in those nations, but the church needs to most certainly be about the business of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the gospel that changes hearts.

Belshazzar's heart wasn't changed. I think Nebuchadnezzar's heart was changed. I know when you take a poll of scholars,

I'm not a scholar, but when you take a poll of scholars, there's different opinions. Calvin doesn't think he was saved. Many of the more modern scholars and some of the older ones think he was, that at this point, at one point in his life,

Nebuchadnezzar turned to the true God. Belshazzar did not, as near as we can tell,

Belshazzar did not, and his kingdom was numbered, divided, and it fell, and that is the answer to any, any who try to rise up against God.

So next time I'm with you, I think Jess will be teaching next Sunday, we will be looking at chapter six.

How many of you are aware of the controversy that attends chapter six regarding Darius the

Mede? Okay, so there are, the

Bible is the only place in history where the word, the name Darius the Mede appears, and because of that, critics have decided there was no

Darius the Mede. The funny thing is, is that the Bible has been demonstrated, we know it's the word of God.

We know that every stitch of it is true, but the world doesn't believe that, but where it is corroborated by history, or where it corroborates history, well, that must be true, but when a part of the

Bible is the only part that exposits some part of ancient history, and no other secular source exposits or confirms that, well, then the assumption is the

Bible must be wrong. Why is that? It's accurate, it's always accurate, but just because there's nothing else talking about Darius the

Mede doesn't automatically make the scripture wrong, but the world thinks that way. The fact is, we will see there are plenty of explanations as to who

Darius the Mede is and what his place in history was, and the fact that the scripture is rendered true as normal, and we will see that Darius the

Mede indeed did have quite an influence on Daniel and on history, and chapter six, chapter six is considered possibly one of the most, if not the favorite chapter in the entire

Bible. Do you know what's in chapter six? Daniel in the lion's den.

Who hasn't heard Daniel in the lion's den? Quite an interesting story, an interesting story of the protection and the sustainment of Jehovah, of those whom he has called to fulfill his purposes, and we will see all of that.

As we get into chapter six, we'll look into the controversy, Jim. Yeah, but see,

I'm an old guy, so I've already forgot what it was. We'll look into the controversy surrounding who

Darius the Mede was, but we will also exposit this wonderful story about God's protection of Daniel.

Jim. I'm, all of that.

The theme of the book of Daniel, as Jim just mentioned, is that God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men.

He lifts up, he puts down. I'm not gonna be able to repeat it exactly as you said, but one of the interesting things about it was even the kings themselves acknowledge this, and Abinatius in his chronicle pointed out that he was,

I was the lowliest of men, and here I am, the king of Babylon. He didn't know how that happened. Jehovah God put him in that position, and then

Jehovah God took him down. God rules in the affairs of men every day, every second.

Nothing catches him by surprise. The fact is, the

Jews needed this encouragement during this time that they spent in captivity, because they had lost.

Jerusalem was sacked, and they were taken captive, and now they were captives in Babylon, but to see to the observant Jew and to us today, the observant Christians, to see

God raising up and taking down kings right in this kingdom at this time in history had to have been a great comfort to the

Jewish captives. They knew their God was supreme, they knew their God reigned, and they knew that he would take care of them, and we need to remember that today too.

Now, that doesn't mean you're gonna live a life of leisure, but it means that everything that God does is good. Romans 8, 28 is true, whether your life is sailing or sinking at the time, you may think.

I'm thinking that Daniel, as a captive at 15, must have thought, this is just not good, and now look where he's at.

The third ruler in the kingdom for 20 minutes or more. Any other questions or comments about this?

And that is precisely true, that liberal scholars will attribute accuracy to Herodotus and Xenophon.

When they agree with the Bible, they'll even attribute it to the Bible, but when the Bible's alone, they won't, and that's because Herodotus and Xenophon don't divide men's hearts, revealing darkness and light in their hearts, and the scripture does, and that's why we have evolution, that's why we have all of these false gods, false theologies.

Evolution is a theology. It is a theology, and it's a false one, and it is because if God is the creator, and I answer to Him, I probably shouldn't be doing the things

I'm doing. It's really that simple. I'd hate to make it any more complicated than that.

This book divides men's hearts in the very same way that God divided the kingdom to the

Medes and the Persians. Now, that's not even a stretch. That's how it's done. God does the dividing, and He is sovereign, and we get to see it.

We're gonna get to see it in Daniel chapter six again, and we'll get to see it in Daniel chapter seven, and then we'll get back to some of the prophecies that have made the book of Daniel, at least in the non -biblical world, so prominent, so I can't think of the word right now.

I'm having one of those old guy brain locks. Explosive, I guess. Comes with age, yeah.

So any other questions before we close? Comments? So if you would like to be doing your homework, you just read

Daniel chapter six, and the next time we get together, we'll talk about Daniel and the lion's den and Darius the

Mede. Let's pray. Father, all of your word is true. All of your word is effective for giving us doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, that we might be made perfect to live out our lives in a manner that will honor you, and this is the thing that men, that those in the church love, and those outside of the church hate.

It is your word that is the dividing line between what is right and what is wrong. We want to be,

Lord, judged by your word in the sense that we are brought to our knees to be corrected, to be instructed, and to be made to do what will honor and glorify the

Lord Jesus Christ daily. We thank you that we get to see this in the history of men, that everything that occurs is inside your sovereign will.

Nothing occurs outside your will, and we are grateful for that. We know the Jews of this time were grateful for that, those that were paying attention.

Let us always be paying attention so that we see, as you work in the lives of men, you work out your will, and you bring glory to yourself, to your son, the

Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Spirit. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. ♪

All the great and sub was made ♪ ♪

So we in the song of angels cry ♪ ♪

Free the dust of our forsaken to take our curse ♪ ♪

Save my guilt, deep my spirit, all my sins ♪ ♪

I dare not blame my righteousness ♪ ♪

It is Christ who saved me from the depths ♪ ♪ God's pardon

I receive ♪ ♪ I'm washed within his precious blood ♪ ♪

My heart is sprung ♪ ♪

Praise the God of holiness of justice, truth, and mind ♪ ♪

Who guides me by to walk within his light ♪ ♪

While Satan weaves his shallow lies ♪ ♪ God speaks to me in love, has bought me with his blood ♪ ♪

And Christ dispels my every doubt ♪ ♪ Through him I am redeemed ♪ ♪

I love because he loved me first ♪ ♪ I live because he lived ♪ ♪

A tear within the sea, but you are everlasting more ♪ ♪

You free the dust of me to leave this place ♪ ♪

Leaving the world behind, not fearing death will ♪ ♪

Then I'll look on Jesus Christ and to his arms

I'll run ♪ ♪ And when I see him face to face, what glory that will be ♪ ♪

To look upon my savior's scars and know they were for me ♪ ♪

What glory that will be, my savior's scars and know they were for me ♪ ♪

Jesus said ♪ ♪

Mighty fortress is our God, a shield that never fails ♪ ♪

Amid the flood of mortal ills, his power will prevail ♪ ♪

Our ancient foe is cruel and armed with hate ♪ ♪

Yet with one word he'll bow to Jesus' reign ♪ ♪

Hoping God, oh my soul, he is strong, he is strong to save ♪ ♪

Hoping God, he's a rock and you hide in place ♪ ♪

He's a mighty fortress ♪ ♪ Trusting our hate with triumph is the law ♪ ♪

Hoping God, oh my soul, he is strong, he is strong to save ♪ ♪

He is strong, he is strong to save ♪ ♪

Hoping God, he's a rock and you hide in place ♪ ♪

He is our silent savior's rival, there is only one, he is our

God ♪ ♪

He is to come and to the lamb who was slain be glory ♪ ♪

Now to the king on the throne, he is to come and to the lamb who was slain be glory ♪ ♪

Matchless in your glory ♪ ♪

There is no song we could sing to honor the weight of your glory ♪ ♪

There are no words we could speak to capture the depth of your beauty ♪ ♪

Jesus, there's no one like you ♪ ♪

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you, there's no one like you ♪ ♪

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪

There is no sinner beneath in its direction of your mercy, how can we thank you enough?

♪ ♪ Jesus, there's no one like you ♪ ♪

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you, there's no one like you ♪

Welcome. Please find your seat and stand with us in singing You Have Been Raised. One, two, three. ♪

Since the tomb has been opened, nothing can take away our hope in you ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪

You have been raised, the work is completed, all of his powers have been defeated ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪

Now we are free from condemnation, there is no judgment left for us to meet ♪ ♪

Don't have to wonder if you're welcome, you are the one who's brought us here ♪ ♪

You have been raised, the tomb has been opened, nothing can take away our hope in you ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪

You have been raised, the work is completed, all of his powers have been defeated ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪

The price you paid for us has fully been accepted ♪ ♪

Because of your shed blood we cannot be rejected ♪ ♪

The price you paid for us has fully been accepted ♪ ♪

Because of your shed blood we cannot be rejected ♪ ♪

You have been raised, the tomb has been opened, nothing can take away our hope in you ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪ You have been raised, the work is completed, all of his powers have been defeated ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪

You have been raised ♪ ♪

I was lost in darkness night, I thought I knew the way ♪ ♪

The sin that promised joy and light had led me to the grave ♪ ♪

I had no hope and you were gone, a rebel to your will ♪ ♪

Had you not loved me first, I would refuse you still ♪ ♪

But as I ran my hell -bound race, indifferent to the cause ♪ ♪

You looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross ♪ ♪

And I beheld God's love displayed, you suffered in my place ♪ ♪

You bore the wrath reserved for me, now all I know is grace ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, all I have is Christ ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, Jesus is my life ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life ♪ ♪

Be yours alone and live so all might see ♪ ♪

The strength to follow your commands could never come from me ♪ ♪

O Father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose ♪ ♪

And let my song forever be, my only boast is you ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, all I have is Christ ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, Jesus is my life ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life ♪

You can be seated.

All right, just a couple of announcements.

Next week is the week to return the baby bottles. If you checked those out about a month ago, please remember to bring those filled with your coins.

That's the fundraiser for the Crisis Pregnancy Center. And the return date for that is next Sunday.

And then also coming up on June 25th is our New Families Night. So this is for people who have been to the church really not long enough to attend one of the membership classes.

It's your opportunity to meet the elders and the deacons and ask your questions and find out about us and this church.

I know there's a lot of new folks who have come in the last several months. That's June 25th, and we're providing dinner that night.

It starts at 6 p .m. So if you plan on joining us for that, please sign up on the sheet that is out on the table in the foyer so that we know how many people to prepare for.

And some folks have asked if they can bring their kids. You can bring their children. There's no... You can bring your children.

There's no children's activities planned for that night, but that doesn't mean that the kids can't come and sit and enjoy the time there if they would like to.

And then also we have a baptism class coming up on June 27th. That's the Sunday, last Sunday of this month, and that is for anybody who is interested in being baptized at our annual church campout in the month of July.

If you have been... If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you have never obeyed the Lord and believed His baptism, we would strongly encourage you to do so and to be part of that class

June 27th and plan on joining us after the church service.

We'll meet in this classroom back here and pack a lunch or bring a lunch with you. It's a short class kind of explaining what baptism is and why it is essential, what

Scripture teaches about baptism and why you should be baptized, and then you can plan to go through all the rest of the steps.

There's only 130 after that before the baptism service. Turn now, if you will please, to the book of Hebrews, to chapter 9.

I'm going to read a passage out of Hebrews 9 which describes the effectiveness, the efficacy really of the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9, and then later on we're going to be back in chapter 10. Hebrews 9 beginning at verse 11 and we're going to read through the end of the chapter.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood

He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal

Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

God. For this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never enforced while the one who made it lives.

Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law,

He took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying,

This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you. And in the same way, He sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

And according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Nor was it that He would offer Himself often as the high priest enters the holy place, year by year with blood that is not

His own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages,

He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await

Him. Let's pray together. Our Father, what a magnificent description of Your plan of redemption and Your purposes in the death of Your Son for Your people.

It is because of what Christ has done that we are the recipients of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

It is because of His work that our salvation is secure and that we are redeemed and that You are directing all things to the accomplishment of Your will and Your purposes.

Because Christ is our High Priest, we know that His intercession never fails for us. And because He has shed

His blood, perfect and undefiled, our salvation is secure in Him. And so we thank

You for that and we thank You that we can rejoice in that salvation and marvel at Your goodness displayed in the cross of Christ and in His resurrection for His people.

Thank You for uniting us with Him by faith. Thank You for Your eternal purposes which have marked us out and loved us from eternity past.

We are the unworthy recipients of all of these graces and we but thank You for them. We pray that You would encourage our hearts together as we sing and worship and praise

You this morning that You would focus the attention of our hearts and of our minds upon Christ and upon Your Word and upon Your work for us.

Help us to appreciate these things, to love You accordingly and appropriately and we pray that You would be honored through our worship and through the fellowship that we enjoy together as Your people.

Be magnified here today in and among us we pray and that You would accomplish Your purposes in us and in our nation and in this world through Your people.

We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord and all God's people said Amen. ♪ ♪

Rock of Ages, cleft for me Let me hide myself in Thee Let the water and the blood

From Thy wounded side which flowed Be of sin the double cure

Save from death and death Could my tears forever flow

All for sin could not atone Thou must save and Thou alone

Helpless look To Thy fountain Lord, I fly Thy cross I cling Naked come to Thee for dress

Helpless look to Thee for grace To Thy fountain

Lord, I fly Wash me, Savior or I die

While I draw to Thee When my eyes shall close in death

When I soar to worlds unknown See the ages cleft for me

Please stand Wisdom once devised a plan

For all our sin and pride Was placed upon the perfect plan

Who suffered bled and died The wisdom of a sovereign

God His greatness will be shown When those who persify desire

To join around Your throne And O the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

And I might come to know The glory of The glory of The cross

A righteousness was there revealed

That sets the guilty free And justifies ungodly men

And calls the filthy glee A righteousness that proved to all

Your justice has been met And holy wrath is satisfied through one atoning death

And O the glory of the cross

That You would send

Your Son for us I gladly count my life as loss

And I might come to know The glory of The glory of The cross

A righteousness was there

And O the glory

That would send Your for us I I might come to O the glory of The cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

And I might come to know The glory of of The cross

And O the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

And I might come to know The glory of the cross

That Your for us I gladly

I would send Your Son for us gladly my life as loss

And I might come to know The glory of the cross That You would send for us I gladly my life as loss

And I might come to glory cross would

I gladly come to know

The glory of the cross That You would send Your for us I gladly come to The cross

That You for us I gladly come to send for us the glory of for us

I gladly come to The glory of would send for us I gladly come to the cross

That You would send

You give the healing and grace

Our hearts always hunger for Oh, our hearts always hunger for Almighty, infinite

Father Faithfully loving your eyes

We find us falling before your throne

Oh, we're falling before you

You are this song, hearts always hunger for Oh, our hearts always hunger for You are the one that we praise

You are the one we adore You give the healing and grace

Our hearts always hunger for Oh, our hearts always hunger for Let's begin now with a word of prayer.

Our Father, it is our desire that as we look at your word today that you would grant to us understanding and insight in your word.

We pray that as we tackle a difficult subject that you would be honored through us understanding this passage and thinking of it rightly.

Help us to see this passage and its meaning and its context and we pray that your spirit would be our teacher and your word would be our focus today and that you and your glory may be our everlasting concern.

Be honored here through this we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Turn now if you will please to Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to read together beginning at verse 26 and we'll read through the end of verse 31.

Hebrews 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 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. Each one of these warning passages that we are encountering in the book of Hebrews has at its core a question that we have been discussing at length every time we come across it and that is the question of whether or not a believer can lose their salvation.

That is a key question that comes up in every one of the warning passages because it is the warning passages that are often focused on by those who believe you can lose your salvation.

It's the warning passages and usually a phrase or a statement or a description in the warning passages that becomes the focus for those who say you can lose your salvation.

They camp on those phrases. So what we have been doing as we come to the warning passages is we slow down from our normal rapid pace through the book of Hebrews.

We slow down considerably to really examine that passage and see are we required to believe from this description or from this phrase that someone who has saved can lose their salvation and finally perish.

And we come now to the phrase this morning that is at the core of that controversy between Arminians and what we would call the

Reformed or Protestant view of salvation. The concern of whether or not a believer can lose their salvation and it is in that phrase that you find in verse 29

He has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. That phrase.

Really the key question is who is it that is sanctified here and what does sanctification mean? And your interpretation of that phrase is going to determine whether or not you believe that you can lose your salvation or not.

So that phrase, that description there is our focus this morning. And we have been looking at this description of the sin of apostasy in the warning passage in verse 29 now for a couple of weeks.

Taking each one of these phrases and seeing does it describe a believer and why is it that the author of Hebrews here describes the judgment that is due to an apostate with such severe terms.

The fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. A terrifying expectation of judgment. Concluding this solemn and sober warning with that phrase at the end of verse 31 it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ it is not a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. I did not plan that. There was no instructions given regarding that.

The sound guy fell asleep. I saw that sound happen. He popped up and said okay. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ it is not a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. But if you are an unbeliever and you are an apostate and one who has never trusted Christ for salvation it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. That would have been the point where we could have used the reverberation right there. Terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. So the author is describing this act of apostasy and he is really pulling back the curtains as it were to allow us to see what apostasy really is.

What is it? Is it just somebody unable to make a decision about Jesus Christ? Somebody who has heard a little bit of the gospel and goes on about their lives and then dies kind of in ignorance?

No, this willful sin is a turning away from a full understanding of the truth and a full apprehension of the truth so that one examines the truth and sees it and then willfully chooses something else over that truth and in turning their back on Jesus Christ they step away from, walk away from the truth and repudiate all that Christ represents and all the truth that they have known that Scripture teaches concerning Christ and salvation in Him.

That is the act of apostasy. It is no small thing. It is in fact a trampling underfoot the

Son of God and we saw last week what that means, why that is so horrible. It is horrible because it is a sin against the

Father who sent the Son and that assessment of the Son that He is worthy to be tread upon, that He is of no use and of no value is an assessment of the

Father's gift. If the Father has given the Son and the Father has said of the Son, this is my beloved

Son in whom I am well pleased and in giving the Son and that sacrifice of that great gift one turns from it, it is not only an assessment of the person of Christ and His work but it is also a thumbing of the nose, a turning up of the nose at the gift of the

Father Himself so that the Father and His work in sending the Son is offended by the act of apostasy.

Now there is the second phrase what we're looking at this morning and that is in verse 29 that He has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which

He was sanctified. He has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which

He was sanctified. Now this is the second description of apostasy. It deals with the work of Christ.

We said a couple of weeks ago or I said a couple of weeks ago that this threefold description of apostasy could be categorized in terms of the person who is offended, the

Father, the Son and the Spirit. You've offended the Father by His giving of the gift of His Son so it is an offense to the

Father. It is an offense to the Son to regard as unclean the blood that He shed for our salvation and it is an insult to the spirit of grace apostasy is.

So there are three persons who are offended in this act of apostasy. Turning from the truth of Scripture is an offense to the

Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. We could also categorize these acts of apostasy in terms of the work that is snubbed.

The Father sends the Son and you turn up your nose at that. The Son gives Himself in sacrifice and you turn up your nose at that.

The Spirit shows you the grace of drawing you to Christ and you turn up your nose at that so that the work of the

Father and the work of the Son and the work of the Holy Spirit are all repudiated by the act of apostasy.

So when he describes in verse 29 the apostate as regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, the author is describing there the work of Christ.

And we've seen the blood of Christ all the way through, of course, the book of Hebrews. This has been a main theme all the way since chapter seven as the author has been describing the work of Christ and His act of inaugurating this new covenant that we have now.

And so the blood of the covenant by which He is sanctified, that blood is the blood of Christ. And this is what inaugurates the new covenant.

It is a better blood. As we saw in Hebrews chapter nine, all things are made clean and all sin is forgiven on the basis of blood.

The old covenant was inaugurated with the blood of an animal sacrifice. The new covenant is inaugurated with the blood of the sacrifice of the

Son of God. So it is the sacrifice of Christ that is being described. Most often in Scripture, when we read the phrase the blood of Christ, what it is shorthand for is the entire act of self -giving sacrifice that the

Son has made. It's not describing the literal plasma of the Son of God. It is far more broad and comprehensive than that.

It is describing, when we talk about the blood of Christ, and in particular here in verse 29, He has regarded it as unclean.

It is describing the entire self -giving act of sacrifice that the Son did in His death upon the cross.

It is not only the shedding of blood, it is the giving of His body, and it is the act of self -giving and atonement and bearing the wrath of the

Father and finishing and accomplishing the work of redemption on behalf of all of His people. That is all that is wrapped up in that phrase, blood of Christ.

Well, what does the apostate do? The apostate regards that sacrifice as unclean or common.

That is the assessment of the apostate. The apostate, knowing what Scripture says concerning the death of Christ and knowing what

Scripture says concerning His suffering and His act of atonement, knowing what Scripture claims concerning the fullness and the finality of that act and the preciousness and the glory and the majesty of it, the apostate, knowing all of that, regards that act of self -giving sacrifice as common, as unholy, as unclean, in the

NASB says, the word unclean. That word describes something that is common or unclean of little value, ordinary or worthless.

I'll tell you how it is variously translated in Scripture. Verse 29 where it says He is regarded as unclean, the blood of the covenant, that word that's translated as unclean there in our text is translated as common seven times in the book of Hebrews.

He regards it as common. In other words, not unique, not set apart, not special, not holy in that sense of being solely and singularly unique.

He just regards it as common. That word is also translated as unclean three times. It's translated as unclean usually when it is describing a sacrifice which is unclean and not holy or not acceptable.

It's translated as defiled once and as unholy once. In other words, this word describes something that is the opposite of set apart, the opposite of holy, the opposite of special or unique.

The apostate regards his assessment of the sacrifice of Christ, that self -giving sacrifice, is that the sacrifice of Christ is a common sacrifice.

It is to treat Jesus as if he had shed the blood of an ordinary man, as if it's just an ordinary

Jewish carpenter who sort of ran afoul of Roman authorities and Jewish authorities and ended up dying on a cross just like thousands of other

Jewish men had done at the hands of the Romans over the course of that period of time when they occupied Israel.

He's just an ordinary man, nothing special about him, nothing set apart, nothing sanctified, nothing holy, nothing unique, of no special importance.

It is to regard Jesus as an ordinary person, an ordinary sinner who died and shed a blood that is just as tainted as your blood or my blood.

That if you or I were to die a death and shed our blood in the process of dying that death, the apostate treats the blood of Christ as if it is just as common and ordinary and polluted and sinful and useless for the sake of salvation as the shedding of any other blood of any other person who had ever lived.

Nothing unique about it. Nothing special, holy, set apart. Just common, ordinary, defiled, even unholy, profane, or sinful.

This is the assessment of the apostate. He says that the Father's work in sending

His Son and the work of that Son in accomplishing salvation is just a common death.

Nothing special or unique about it. Now, I know that the apostate would say, no, hold on, Jim. That's not exactly what

I think. That's not at all what I would be saying. My turning from the truth of salvation is not an assessment of Jesus whatsoever.

It's just me regarding all of the people that are in that church as being hypocrites. It's just my assessment of whether or not

I really want to spend my time with those people or doing those things. It's not an assessment of Christ at all.

And the author of Hebrews would differ with that. He would say, no, you may not view your sin that way, but God views the sin of an apostate just as this, as a trampling underfoot of the

Son of God and as a regarding or assessing of the blood and sacrifice of Christ as just a common, unholy, defiled, ordinary, and not at all unique thing.

The apostate would say that his assessment of Christ, he may even say, no, I think he was a special person.

I think he was unique and probably in the plan of God. It's just not for me. But the act of apostasy itself is a regarding as unclean the blood of that sacrifice.

In other words, contrary to how the apostate himself would describe his treachery,

God sees it as a regarding of that sacrifice as a common or unclean thing. For the apostate to go back to an animal sacrifice and to say, no,

I will go back and sacrifice animals or I will go back to those other priests or I will go back to the temple or the tabernacle, that is to make an assessment concerning the sacrifice of Christ that regards it as no more unique, no more special or powerful and maybe even less so than the animal sacrifices that you're turning back to.

Does that make sense? You go back to those animal sacrifices, how does that say that you are evaluating the blood of Christ?

If you regard those animal sacrifices as worthy of trust but not the sacrifice of Christ and you turn instead to that, you're really making an assessment of who and what you think

Jesus is and has done. Furthermore, if you were to turn back from Christ to a life of sin or to your wretchedness or to enjoy sin for a season or the pleasures of this world or if you were to turn away from Christ because you regard your reputation as more valuable than being aligned with Him and His people, if that's your assessment then again, you're making an assessment of the blood of Christ that it is of less value than those things.

It is to regard it as unclean. It is to see it as not special at all and to go back to that is to make, to go back to those things and to turn back to your sin is to make an assessment of the blood of Christ.

That is how God sees it. That is in fact what the apostate is doing even though the apostate may never recognize that or say that.

Here's what we've learned about the blood of Christ in the book of Hebrews. What does this blood do? Chapter 9 verse 12 it secures eternal redemption.

Chapter 9 verse 14 it cleanses the conscience. Chapter 9 verses 25 and 26 it removes our sin.

Chapter 10 verse 19 it grants us access to God. Chapter 10 verse 29 it sanctifies us. In other words, the blood of Christ does everything that the blood of bulls and goats could never do.

It could never perfect us. The blood of bulls and goats could never draw us near. It could never give us access to God.

It could never remove sin. But the sacrifice of Jesus has done all of those things.

And the apostate says, I understand that but I don't think that I need eternal redemption. I don't think that I need my sins taken away.

I don't think I need a clean conscience. I don't think I need access to God. Or the apostate says,

I disagree that that is actually what the blood of Christ does and not only do I not need that,

I don't even think that the blood of Christ does those things. So I'm going to go back to the temple and sacrifice an ox.

Or I'm going to go back to the temple and sacrifice a lamb. The apostate's assessment is that the blood of Christ is in no way unique, just common.

He regards as unclean, common, defiled, the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.

Now, here is our interpretive issue. Who is the he in verse 29?

And what does it mean that he was sanctified? This is where if till this point you have been mentally disengaged for whatever reason, you're going to have to mentally engage to follow through this.

Because this is an important issue. Who is it that is sanctified here? And I want you to follow the pronouns and I'm going to explain to you why this is significant and what type of interpretation or what type of issue theology hangs upon this phrase in this warning passage.

This is, this phrase, the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, that phrase is the battleground over whether or not a

Christian can lose their salvation. And here's why. Follow the pronouns through the passage beginning at the, let's see, beginning at verse 29.

How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve? Who's the he being spoken of there?

It's the apostate, the one who goes on sinning willfully, verse 26. The one who can expect nothing but a terrifying expectation of judgment, verse 27.

The one who's going to receive the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. That's the one who is described in verse 29 with that first he.

How much severe punishment do you think this one will deserve who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God, has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which the apostate, the one who leaves, has been sanctified and he has insulted the spirit of grace.

In other words, the first option here is that this refers to the apostate, the one who goes on sinning willfully. He has been in some sense sanctified by the blood of Christ.

That's what verse 29 would teach. At least that's one option that the person who is sanctified here is a genuine believer or he is the apostate, but the one who is sanctified here, the he being spoken of by that phrase, he was sanctified, describes the person who suffers this judgment.

Here's why this is important. Because if that refers to a Christian who has been sanctified, then we have here a statement that a

Christian who has been sanctified suffers the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. You see what's at stake on that?

The one sanctified, if he is a believer, then you have here a description of one who at one time was sanctified, he was a saint, but then he suffers the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

So that's one possibility. Or, and here's the second one, follow the pronouns at the beginning of verse 29 again.

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?

Could you tell by the different way that I'm emphasizing or reading that who I'm describing? The Son of God as being the one who is sanctified.

So this passage comes down to one of two options. I'm gonna give you three interpretations of those two options.

Try and keep the math straight as well, but I'm gonna give you three interpretations of those two options. But here are the two options.

Either the he being spoken of is the one who receives the punishment, or the he being spoken of is a reference to Christ.

The he being spoken of is the one who receives the punishment. That person is either a believer, or he was never a believer, he was an apostate, or the he being who is sanctified here is

Christ who is in some way sanctified. Now, this interpretation comes down to not only who the he refers to, but also to what does it mean that this person was sanctified?

If it is a believer, if it is the person who receives the fury of the fire, this person who is punished, if the he is a

Christian, now here's, again, here's the three interpretations. If the he is a Christian, then he is obviously sanctified in the same way that we would describe being sanctified in any other context.

You are a saint and you are sanctified. This one perishes and suffers the fate of eternal damnation.

Or it is the unbelieving apostate who was never saved to begin with, and if it is him, then here's the second interpretive key.

In what sense is the unbelieving apostate sanctified? How can an apostate be sanctified?

You see, if I'm going to argue that this is an apostate here that is being sanctified that ends up perishing, then the question is how can an unbeliever be sanctified?

And particularly, how can an unbeliever be sanctified by the blood of the covenant which Jesus shed?

Or the third option is that the one who is sanctified is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

This is the blood of the covenant by which the Son of God who he trampled underfoot was sanctified.

It's Christ who is sanctified. So, those are our two options. I refer to the person who is punished or to Christ himself. Now, here are three interpretive.

It's either the person who is punished is either a believer or an unbeliever. Get that? Either a believer or an unbeliever or it refers to Christ.

I'm going to lay all my cards out on the table here for you and I'm going to tell you at the outset, I think that the one who is sanctified here is

Christ. Now, that's what I'm going to argue for in, wow, not very much time.

That's the one I'm going to argue for before we get done with this. And I'm going to go through the case for the other two and I'll explain to you the case that they make and then

I'll explain to you what I think the issues with those two cases are. All right? So, those are the three options. Number one, a true believer.

This is the position of the Armenian who would say that this passage describes somebody who was once sanctified or a

Christian who has lost their salvation. Now, they would argue, they would say that they would say that only somebody who is a

Christian could be referred to as sanctified because really the root word for sanctified is saint.

We recognize that all the way through Scripture. There's a large family of words that are kind of all related to this hagiadzos or hagia, a concept of being sanctified.

It means set apart for a special use. It can be, and that can be referred to the temple or to a vessel in worship or to a person or to a priest or to even ground which can become holy or sanctified if God indicates it for a special use.

So, it is a broad family of words that can be applied to almost anything in Scripture as long as it is set aside, set apart, or made holy.

It's also the root word for the word saint. We are saints or those who have been sanctified and our sanctification takes place in three tenses.

We are sanctified, set apart for God in eternity past when He chooses us. We're set apart for God in this world as He saves us and grows us in holiness and then we're eventually set apart entirely perfectly at the end when we go to heaven.

So, it is saints or believers who are sanctified. So, the Arminian would say this passage refers to one who is a believer who was a saint at one time and then he perishes because they would argue and of course their whole, their whole gist for their interpretation of this rests upon the meaning of the word sanctified that it is referring to a saint or one who has grown in holiness.

Therefore, it must refer to a Christian and cannot refer to an unbeliever. Furthermore, they would say it can't refer to Christ since Christ did not grow in holiness and He was not made any more holy in this life through what

He endured. That's true. Now, most, if not all of what I just said to you is true technically speaking.

So, the Arminian would say this has to be a believer and they would they would point to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10 and they would say don't you remember in fact you can look there it might even be on the same passage or page as what you're looking at now.

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10 by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

So they would say there the sacrifice of Christ earlier in chapter 10 the author says that it is the body of Christ His offering once for all that sanctifies us.

So we are the sanctified ones are we not? We are made saints through the offering of Christ's body by this will we have been sanctified.

So therefore this one who suffers this fury of fire must be one who was at some point a saint a sanctified one but later repudiates it and therefore loses their salvation.

That's the case. That's the case that this refers to somebody who was a Christian and then lost their salvation.

How would we answer that? I would just simply ask you to not just observe one verse in the context but actually another verse in the context

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Yes it is true that the offering of the body of Jesus Christ sanctifies us that offering that one time offering once and for all but scripture says how long are we sanctified for?

He has perfected forever all those who are sanctified. So the ones whom he has sanctified by the offering of his son he has perfected that same group of people and he has done so forever.

So how is it in what sense can somebody who has been made a saint and then is perfected forever perish in eternal flames?

Is it possible that somebody who has been perfected brought near to God and been made the recipients of his grace could perish in eternal flames?

The author of Hebrews is suggesting that this sanctification that happens through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ that sanctification in setting us apart perfects us.

That offering does not make our perfection possible it doesn't make our perfection likely it makes our perfection eternal and settled.

So that the author of Hebrews is saying those who have been sanctified by the blood of Christ he has in that offering by the work that he has done he has perfected them forever.

If we have been perfected forever then we cannot be unperfected because then forever isn't what?

Forever. What does forever mean? It means forever. If you've been perfected forever that's forever forever not partially forever not a temporary forever it's forever forever.

Forever forever times forever. It goes on it's the perfection that is forever it's everlasting. I don't know how else to say that other than people who have been perfected and given access to God and been brought near and have their conscience cleansed and their sins removed and their guilt expiated and their wrath satisfied and have been made sons and justified and declared righteous that situation is what is being described by that word perfected.

Do you remember how the author has said previously that the law cannot perfect us? The animal sacrifices cannot perfect us?

What does he mean by perfect? He's not describing moral perfection he is describing the accomplishment of God's redemptive practices.

We have been brought near by the death of Christ. That is the perfection. We have been brought near for how long?

Forever. Yeah and we're all catching on now aren't we? We've been brought near forever. Therefore this is not describing a believer who has lost their salvation because the author has already told us how long our sanctification lasts.

Okay so that's the first option. The second option is that this refers to one who suffers punishment but that the one who suffers punishment here was never a believer but instead they were never a believer but they are the apostate so they are a faker, somebody who has made a profession of faith in Christ but then is never actually genuinely saved.

And this of course hinges upon the question of the interpretation of sanctified. In what way can we say that a believer is sanctified when an unbeliever is sanctified?

In fact does Scripture ever describe an unbeliever as being sanctified? Can you think of an ...

I'll just give you a second. Can you think of a place in Scripture where it describes an unbeliever being sanctified?

The Arminian would say no. Unbelievers are never described as being sanctified or set apart in any sense.

Well you might want to let Paul know that. First Corinthians 7 .14 says the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband for otherwise your children are unclean but now they are holy.

Oh, so an unbeliever can be sanctified in some sense.

Right? Not made inwardly holy, not changed and given a new nature. But the unbeliever is in some way sanctified by being married to, united to, and in the home with a believing spouse.

The believing spouse is a channel of set apartness or uniqueness for the unbelieving spouse.

So in answering the question, if I become a believer and my spouse is not saved, am I justified in leaving the spouse?

And Paul would answer that question and say no, because the unbelieving spouse is set apart, sanctified through his believing wife.

Or she, the unbelieving wife is sanctified by her believing husband or through her believing husband.

What does the word sanctified mean in that sense? When an unbeliever can be said to be sanctified.

It just simply means that they are, they enjoy blessings and benefits by being in the home with and united with a believing partner.

In other words, the believing partner because they receive the blessings of the new covenant and the blessing is poured out upon that home by virtue of the believer that is in it.

There is a set apart or uniqueness, a sanctifying effect that makes that household unique. That household would not be unique and that unbelieving spouse would not be unique in that sense.

Set apart if he were divorced, if there was a divorce that would happen and the two would be separated. So can an unbeliever be sanctified?

Yeah, they can in that sense. We're not talking about again an inward growth and holiness. We're not talking about being set apart in eternity past.

We're not describing here a progression or a conformity to Christ likeness. We're simply describing the blessings that come to the unbeliever by virtue of the fact that they are united with and with a believing spouse.

How much more the apostate who is in, with and among an entire believing community.

Could we say that they are in some sense sanctified? Yeah, we could. Couldn't we?

In other words, they receive all of the blessings that are poured out upon a faithful and believing church of people.

They get to enjoy the preaching. They get to enjoy illumination, companionship, fellowship, friendship, the service of God's people.

They see the giftedness and the testimony of grace. They hear the worship. Their hearts are in some way warmed. They receive benefits and blessings just by being with and among the people of God.

So there is a sanctifying effect that comes to them being united outward physically, superficially even with the people of God.

There is a way in which they are sanctified. So that word sanctified could be describing an unbeliever in which case this could be applying to an unbelieving apostate who is in some way sanctified by their union with and in and among the people of God.

Now this is not my interpretation. I spilled the beans for you earlier when I told you that I think this refers to Christ.

But this is obviously a viable interpretation, a possible interpretation. My rebuttal to this would be that in the text, if you look at it, it says he is regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.

It seems as if the blood of the covenant itself sanctifies this person who is spoken of here.

That doesn't seem, it doesn't seem that the best way to understand that is as a reference to the apostate, the unbeliever.

In what sense does the blood of Christ itself, you notice he is not describing the pouring out of blessing on the believing community in which case the person would receive that, but that the blood of the sacrifice itself has a sanctifying effect on this individual.

As if there is a direct connection between the blood that is shed and this person. That would be my rebuttal to that.

I don't think that this is the best explanation of it. I think that the best explanation of it is the one I'm about to drop on you right now.

And then I will argue for it as to show you why I think this is the best explanation. The third option is that this refers to the

And of course this hinges on the, also on the interpretation of what it means that he was sanctified.

In what sense was Jesus sanctified by his own offering? We understand how it is that you and I could be sanctified by his offering, right?

We are set apart, we are made his own, we are united with him. But is it even possible does scripture ever describe

Jesus as being sanctified? Can you think of any place in scripture where it says that Jesus was sanctified?

I'll give you just a second. Jesus said in John chapter 17, verse 19, for their sakes

I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in the truth.

Now here's the significance of that passage. In that passage, Jesus was praying for his disciples and he says,

I not only pray for them, he wasn't praying for the world, those who did not belong to him, but he's praying in John 17 for those whom the father had given to him from eternity past.

And he is praying for them and he prays for them and the disciples and says that he is also praying for those whom who would believe through the testimony of the disciples.

In other words, Jesus is praying for you and I in John chapter 17. And what he prays is, Father, for their sakes, that is for the sake of those whom you have given me who are united to me by virtue of that gift and that will of the father.

For those whom you have given me, I sanctify myself so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

In other words, Christ was saying that he sanctified himself. through what he was about to endure.

This is the night before his crucifixion. This is on the way from the upper room out to the garden of Gethsemane where he would be betrayed.

And this was his prayer. I am setting myself apart for their sakes so that they may be sanctified in me and in the truth.

He was praying for all those who were in him who would be united to him by faith and saying, I am giving myself to this.

I am setting myself apart. I am sanctifying myself to this task so that they may be sanctified in me.

So he was dedicating himself to this task. And listen, this is something that only Christ could do. We have seen what priests ever sanctified themselves.

Do you realize that? Do you remember that? No priest ever just said, hey, I think I will be priest. I am just going to show up at the temple.

I have got a robe. Yes, it is not as flashy as the other guy's robe, but I have got a robe. I know how to kill animals.

I am going to show up at the temple and just start grabbing the animals and killing them on a Passover. That did not happen.

No priest ever said, no priest ever sanctified themselves. Instead, a priest was sanctified by another priest, someone greater than them, who would set them apart for that work.

And you know what that sanctification of that priest always entailed? It was the offering of an animal sacrifice.

So the sacrifice of another and another priest who was greater than that priest would always do something that would sanctify or set apart that high priest or that priest.

Jesus said, I sanctify myself to this task. You understand how bold that was to say that as a high priest?

What was he saying? I take this office on my own initiative. I don't need another animal sacrifice to make me a high priest.

I take this position of high priest because the Father has said concerning me, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Therefore, I set myself apart through his self -giving act. He sets himself apart as the unique son, as the only functioning high priest, as the only acceptable atonement, as the only sacrifice for sin, as the only one who can perfect all those who are in him, and as the only one who can grant us access to the

Father. So when Jesus said, I sanctify myself so that they may be sanctified, he was saying that his offering and setting himself apart as the giver of that gift and his self -giving sacrifice was itself him setting himself apart for this work on behalf of other people.

He needed no other high priest to do this on his behalf. He needed no other animal sacrifice to make him sanctified.

Only Christ and Christ himself could sanctify himself. To whom else would he turn? Who is greater than he?

Is there an animal sacrifice greater than his sacrifice? No. Is there a priest greater than him? No. Is there a priesthood greater than Melchizedekian priesthood?

No. So who is higher than him to ordain him as high priest, to offer a sacrifice to make him high priest?

There is nobody higher to whom he can appeal. So all that Jesus could say is, I set myself apart,

I sanctify myself. So what does the apostate do? He regards as common and unclean.

After trampling underfoot the Son of God, he regards as common and unclean and as unholy and defiled and impure the blood of the covenant by which

Christ himself was set apart as head of the church, sanctified as our high priest, given that position of Melchizedekian priesthood and seated at the

Father's right hand. The blood that set him apart, that blood of the covenant that sanctified him, the apostate says, no, it's useless.

It's just common and unclean. The apostate regards as a common thing, the blood of Christ, which set

Christ apart as a high priest, as head of the church, as head of his people, as Savior of all

God's elect, that blood that set him apart for that office and for that purpose, the apostate regards as unclean.

So those are our three options. It either refers to the one or the other. either a believer or an apostate. I don't think that really those are viable options.

Or it is Christ himself who is sanctified by the blood of the covenant. If it is Christ himself who is sanctified by the blood of the covenant, then this passage does not teach that a believer can lose their salvation.

Because it's not describing one who is sanctified who loses their salvation. It describes the sanctifier who sanctifies himself for the purpose of bringing salvation to God's people.

And the apostate who turns from that his sin is that he does not value the sacrifice of Christ. He does not value the blood of that covenant and he regards it as unclean, unholy and as common, which is the opposite of being sanctified.

He looks at the blood which sanctified the son of God and says it is not set apart or unique in any way at all.

And because of what Christ did in his blood and in his self -giving sacrifice, that is why we as Christians value that blood.

That is why we value that sacrifice. That is why we sing about the blood of Christ and that is why his sacrifice is so central to everything we do, everything we preach, everything we sing, everything we teach, everything we pray.

All because of the blood of that sacrifice which sanctified Christ. The apostate views it as a common thing.

We certainly do not, do we? Our time is out so we will look at the spirit of grace next week and why apostasy is such an offense to the

Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for so great a mercy in the giving of your son.

We thank you that there was no one higher or greater than the Lord Jesus Christ who might set him apart as our

Savior. But that Father, you have appointed him a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, that his priesthood is faithful, it is everlasting and eternal and he is a priest forever.

He intercedes for us and he sits at your right hand even now praying for us and we thank you for that. Because of his work and because of his intercession, we are saved.

We are safe and secure in him. We thank you that he has provided atonement and he has paid the price for all who have repented and trusted in Christ.

And if there is anyone here who does not know Christ as Savior and Lord, may you show them, open their eyes so that they may see the value in that sacrifice and come to Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the adoption as sons.

We pray that you would be honored through this as you draw unbelievers to your son, accomplish your purposes, draw in all your people, fill up the number of your chosen ones, fill up the number of your chosen ones so that Christ may return and we may be with him forever.

We ask in Christ's name. Please stand.

Jesus, keep me near the cross. There a precious fountain, free to all of healing stream.

Close to me is the Close to me is the close from calvary's Beyond the river, near the cross so lamb of God.

Bring its scenes before me

Help me walk from day to day

With its shadows o 'er me

In the cross, in the cross

Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find

Rest beyond the river In the cross, in the cross

Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find

Rest beyond the river

Have a great week. His name is

Jesus His name is Jesus His name is

Jesus Christ our Lord His name is

Jesus His name is Jesus Christ our

Lord His name is