Book of Hebrews - Ch. 10

I've been holding back on the test. So I thought we just you know Tonight instead of going second session at the break.

We'll take the exam. Is that all right? Got visitors looking saying what what see what what is what is what's what's going on here

Hebrews? I Thought for a while we weren't going to get through it

And of course there's so much in this book as you see and as you know And you have known there it's such a tremendous book and probably we could take any chapter

I mean I couldn't it take me months but I'm sure that if we wanted to do so we could take one chapter and all the truths in one chapter and spend a

Week on that one chapter with the truths that are in there, you know the time we got it We all studied it very carefully and studied it word for word

But I find that it has been interesting. It really has been a an exciting and blessing to me to Be able to break down some of the words with you and to share some of the thoughts and you've been so gracious You've been faithful.

You've been here Most have been here who have been coming have been here every night and That's a real encouragement to me not because I am here

But it indicates to me that you do love the word and you do love your church and you want to be a part of What the Lord is doing obviously some

I've had to work and couldn't be here every night Some are sick and can't be here And so for what all those reasons are

I'm grateful you're here because if you hadn't been here Then we wouldn't have been able to come would we I mean you got to have somebody to teach or you can't teach

Then you just have to learn and I don't like to learn I'd rather teach them learn Had you rather tell everybody else how to do it, you know

Then you have to worry about doing it yourself But there was a tape that was found and we don't know who it belongs to we don't know where it belongs to me and where I dropped it or where you dropped it, but if you did get one of the tapes of my testimony and You dropped it.

Well, then we have it here. So you claim that if you don't I'll sell it again Well, that'd be neat wouldn't it what you don't know is they have metal in them and I have magnets all over out there as you

Go out. They just pluck them out of your pocket, you know, and I'll say you the say I see you probably buy this take three times.

I don't know it And then for those of you that are visiting with us that if you want to receive the mission magazine the free

Missionary magazine of the chosen people the American Board of Missions to the Jews. You'll find these little

Folders out on the table out back if you'll just stop off after the service and look through it and just Open it up and there's a place where you can tear it off and check that top one

I would enjoy receiving the chosen people your free missionary magazine and print your name and address and zip code and just leave it lying there then

I'll take that and send that to New York with the rest of them from the church and You'll be again receiving over the next year.

You'll receive a Complimentary subscription from me to you from the chosen people magazine, which is the media arm of the

American Board of Missions to the Jews which I've said early is the oldest and largest Jewish mission work in the world and so you'll want to be a part of that and Accept that I'm sure and it's an encouragement having your home and it keeps you up to date on what's going around Well, where are we in Hebrews?

Ten right ten tomorrow night, then we shall go to 12 and 13 and all of them are strategic

All of them are critical. You know, we've gone out of the old The old covenant in the past we've been dealing with all that and now we're getting into those things

That are quite applicable to our personal lives You know, it is interesting as we said early in the week that most

Christians I think it's safe to say that most Christians are still laboring around still moving around Those things that relate to the earthly things of Jesus and have very little awareness of what he is doing

Now in the heavenly realm on our behalf and what that means to us in our personal daily walk

As a Christian and so the writer of the Hebrews as I've said I believe it is Paul and gave you my reasons for that.

So you'll permit me from time to time I'll say the writer and sometimes I'll say Paul and I wouldn't be dogmatic about it either way

We'll know when we get up yonder and so that'll be alright But we know that someone wrote it and so in chapter 10, we want to continue along and what he started over in chapter 9

He's going to continue with somewhat for a while talking about the heavenly sanctuary, you know and he's talking about the superiority of the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus and Specifically in chapter 10. He's going to talk about Jesus Christ the

Messiah of Israel the Savior Making one offering that brought about total perfection And this is why it is superior to the not one offering but the many offerings in the

Old Testament They never had one offering they had many offerings and yet Jesus offered one offering and that is sufficient for everything

And so he's going to give us how the priesthood and Jesus priesthood is based after not

Aaron, but who? You recall the mysterious figure? Melchizedek Melchizedek Jesus is from the tribe of Judah not the tribe of Levi Priests are from Levi.

So that's why he wasn't a priest on earth, isn't it? He is now a priest in the heavenly realm and he has a greater priesthood

We have a greater sanctuary because it's a heavenly sanctuary and now we're talking about a greater sacrifice

Because it is made by him. He's going to give us three reasons in chapter 10 there are basically three reasons as to why the sacrifice of Christ the

Messiah is Superior to the sacrifices of the Old Testament All right The first one is it takes away sin and he spends 10 verses of chapter 10 discussing that Chapter 10 verses 1 through 10 for those of you that are outlining this he is going to talk about how it takes away sin

Now in the first four verses he says the Old Testament sacrifices had no real effect or lasting effect

You might say they were ineffective They were ineffective for one thing. They belong to the age of what we've called types and shadows

We've talked about that several times. They were pictures and portraits for gleams Shadows of that which was coming on the scene

So therefore if they were the pictures if they were the shadows then they could never change the heart

They could never change or deal with the conscience of a man or a woman notice in verse 1 what he says for the law having a shadow of Good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered

Year -by -year continually make those who come to it or those who approach it Those who come there with he says cannot make them perfect Can I give them a right standing before God or a perfect standing of righteousness before the

Lord? so when did they offer them year by year they had to do that that could be a reference to all the sacrifices or Specifically it could be a reference to the chief sacrifice on Yom Kippur the day of atonement

When the high priest went in behind the veil, it could be a reference to that because in verse 11 notice and Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering offering the same sacrifices which can never take away sin

So year by year day by day day by day They offered all those daily sacrifices and year by year once a year the high priest would offer his

Or you could just say they offered him every day all year whichever way you want to approach it But they could never take away sin and this is what he's approaching us

Otherwise the high priest and the priest if they could take away sin, they wouldn't have to continually do them

They wouldn't have to just keep on repeating those things now in chapter 9 You remember over in verse 10 through 14

Explained that these Old Testament rituals dealt with what they dealt with the flesh.

Did they not they dealt with the outwardness they dealt with the Ceremonial cleanliness they brought about the ceremonial cleanness are they brought about?

Removal of that which was unclean only by ceremony only by rituals only by performing these and so it was always outside As we say it never had anything to do with the heart or the conscience and they produced a remembrance of sins

The remembrance of sin was always there and we saw that very clearly last evening But never a remission of sin now when you take the

Lord's Supper, what do you remember? You don't remember your sins? Oh, you have to pray and make sure your sins are forgiven before you take of it

But when you and I partake of the Lord's Supper Holy Communion, we think about him We are concentrating on him who he is and what he has done so we don't have to have a remembrance of sin

Why do we not have to have because he has removed those sins. We have a remission of sin

We've seen that in chapter 9 verse 22. It says without the shedding of blood. There is no remission of sin

So the blood has been shed therefore we have remission of sin He has forgotten them.

So the Old Testament sacrifices were ineffective to take away sin Now in this that it takes away sin.

He's going to show in verse 5 all the way down to verse 20 He's going to deal with now.

We're saying the first 10 verses, but he's going to go from 5 Down to 10 rather 5 to 10.

What he's going to do is to talk about how Christ's sacrifice Becomes effective and he does it in several ways

But you'll notice that in verse 3 lest we pass it by but in those sacrifices

There is a remembrance again made of sins every year same thing that he said earlier in preceding chapters

So there always is now in verse 5. He's going to quote Psalm 40 verses 6 through 8

He's quoting Psalm 40 verses 6 through 8. Let's look at it. Wherefore when he comes into the world he saith

Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body thou has prepared Me now you recall what we mentioned in John chapter 1 in the beginning was the

Word and the Word was with God and the Word Was God and the

Word became flesh and Dwelt or tabernacled amongst me and we said that Jesus was never born

No matter what you do at Christmas time. You do not celebrate the birth of Jesus Jesus was never born.

He has always been the eternal pre -existent Son of God What happened in Bethlehem was

God prepared a body whereby God Himself in the person of the Son would come and dwell on the earth in human flesh and in that little baby dwelt the very

Godhead Himself and the glory of God and the personal presence of God on the planet earth and he says that God Prepared him a body because he always was and he was the

Son. Did he not himself say father? I pray that these people will love one another in the same way that you and I have loved one another throughout all time

He plainly says that over in John chapter 17 and that great prayer of intercession And so what we're saying here is when he came into the world the

Holy Spirit had prepared for him a body and he in that body Completely dedicated himself to the will of God verse 6 in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin

Thou has no pleasure then said I lo I come in the volume of the book

It is written of me to do thy will Oh God Jesus was committed even though he was the

Son even though he is God himself He was committed to the will of the Father and he submitted himself totally to the will of the

Father you recall whenever the disciples and Jesus was stopping along the way and the disciples said he's hungry and they went off to get something to eat

They brought it back to him and you recall what he said to them and they said aren't you hungry? You haven't had anything all day.

You remember what he said? I have meat that you don't know anything about He said my food is to do the will of him who sent me and it is true

There are times when you so get committed to the things of God that food just you know You say man, I forgot to eat lunch

It's hard to think a Baptist could ever forget something like that But but sometimes you can we can get caught up in the things of the Lord So greatly and get the burden so strong and just get involved in serving the

Lord that we actually forget Sometimes to have a meal it becomes immaterial food is secondary It's secondary and this is what he's saying to us here

And so that body was going to be sacrificed upon the cross now There are many passages

Psalm 51 verse 10 and verse 16 first Samuel 15 22 and Isaiah 1 11

Psalm 51, you know, is that great penitential psalm of repentance by King David? This is wash me and I shall be clean purge me and I shall be whiter than snow

Removed from me this blood guilt in this mice my tongue shall sing aloud of thy praise and sinners shall be converted unto thee but in that psalm and along with a first Samuel 15 22 and Isaiah 1 verse 11 and following we find that God very plainly indicates to us that The blood of the animals and the blood of all those sacrifices

That he had to set those things aside and there had to be a substitute someone else had to come along and to pay that and so what he did was establish this new covenant through the blood of his

Son and by his surrender to the will of God Then you and I because of that have been completely set apart watch this carefully look at verse 10

By which will they says over here that he plainly in verse 7 that he was committed to do the will of God and Then verses verse 10.

He tells us about that will by which will we are sanctified set apart set aside

By what through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all now just under that He talks about the high priest out at the other priest.

Are they daily but Jesus offered it once and for all now Listen to me carefully That means you are set apart for the things of God whenever you became a

Christian when you were born again God Accepted the covenant as I said earlier the week that he and the

Son have made on your behalf You become a child of God and God has set you apart for his service and for himself

You have been created the scripture says in Christ Jesus unto good works And he is going to accomplish in your life and mine what he has set out to do

We make it hard on ourselves sometime, but he is going to do what he has said He's going to do in our lives why because we have been sanctified you sanctified this building

It is set apart to serve the Lord It is set apart for the worship of God and you as a believer have been set apart to glorify

God and to magnify his son why because Jesus paid for you Jesus bought you

Well, we know he didn't get a good deal with us, but we talked about that early in the week He knew he got a bad deal when he got us, but he's gonna make it right

He's gonna take that and make it what it ought to be And so this is what we're talking about here that we have been sanctified

Forever in this particular matter And so what we're saying is that it takes away sin that makes the price of Christ greater than the

Old Testament sacrifices But there's a second reason that he gives and it means in verse 11 through 18 that and we've already talked about it that you only

Had to do it one time There's no repetition. It did not have to be repeated now

The Old Testament priest stands daily Christ has sat down at the right hand of the father

This will see in verse 12, but this man well look at verse 11 and every priest stands stands stands daily

Ministering and offering off of the same sacrifices which can never take away sins But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God Jesus died on the cross raised from the dead

Ascended to the father in Acts 1 10 and 11 went back to the right hand of the majesty and just sat down why? Everything that needs to be done has been done.

It's all over. He doesn't have to do it again He doesn't have to go back to the cross again And so this is a contrast between him and the

Old Testament. Also, they offer the same sacrifices quite often It says in verse 11 the same sacrifices and they offer them often

But he only offered one sacrifice one time that one sacrifice was who it was himself and he only did it once Now there are some denominations or religions if you want to call them that at every time they worship they actually have a bloodless sacrifice of Jesus again a

Mass is a bloodless Sacrifice whether you know that or not If you don't know that you need to study the word and you need to study that I'm not talking about people

I'm talking about systems of belief and That is a bloodless sacrifice and it is a reoffering of that every single service

But the Bible says he did it one sacrifice one time and there's no need for any other bloodless or any other kind It has been done and that's why he sat down at the right hand of the father

And so by that one offering what has happened to us notice verse 14 4 by 1 well verse 13.

He just repeats Psalm 110 1 You remember we said Psalm 110 seems to be the key Psalm of Hebrews It's used over and again.

Psalm 110 for has been quoted several times Here's Psalm 110 1 the Lord said unto my

Lord set thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool and then verse 14 for by one offering he hath

Perfected forever them that are sanctified and you and I know as we look at each other and as we look at ourselves

We don't see much perfection. I Mean there doesn't seem to be but as far as your Lord is concerned when he looks at you

You are perfected in his eyes. You are perfect in his eyes You are complete in his eyes why because not who you and I are but what he has done

He has taken the perfection that is in his son and he has placed that to your account And when

God sees the record of your life He does not see all of these things that we run around and get Satan accuses us in our minds about he sees you in his

Son and he sees you standing in righteousness in his son Now that's not a license to do as we please because once we realize what he has done for us

Then our desires begin to change and we submit them to him and he begins to move them in the right direction but neither should we let the enemy of souls and mankind come in and continually taunt our minds and Contaminate our thinking by keep telling us.

Well, you're unworthy. You're not worth anything God doesn't love you. Nobody else loves you and who have you anyway and all of these things

We know those things may very well be true, but we are accepted in the beloved We are accepted in Christ and God loves you just like you are and you don't have to be anybody else

You don't have to be anybody else now I don't care about your aerobics and all that stuff do all that stuff, but you don't have to be like anybody else

You just be yourself in the Lord. He loves you for who you are and he died for you He died for me, but he died for you and you don't have to be me and I don't have to be you

Why is it that we're always trying to make everybody like us? Cloning we clone everybody

Somebody says I don't really know how to live for the Lord. Could you show me out? We don't show them what the Bible says about living for the

Lord. We start telling them how we do it They already got those problems. They trying to learn how to live for the

Lord They don't want the same problem you and I got and we can direct them to the word. They won't make mistakes and If they do make mistakes, they'll know what to do about it the problem is most

Christians act like most Christians and Most Christians do like most Christians and that's why the church is just hang on and try to stay even in the world

Because most Christians are like most Christians But we find one that's really fired up for the Lord.

We call him a fanatic He's not right. He's not normal something's wrong with him. Why he reads his

Bible all the time While they're always praying they're always singing they'll even carry their Bible into a restaurant

They'll carry their New Testament on the job If you don't watch them you be standing next to him in a shopping center, they'll handle track to somebody

God forbid They'll embarrass you to death won't they cause they talk about Jesus We don't be around those kind of people, but that's the kind of person that you find is in the

New Testament But we don't want to be like that we want we want them to be like us because we're more tactful than that We are more mellow than that.

We're kinder than we are We're not as bold and aggressive as they are we say which is a rationalization for not doing much for Jesus and yet They just serve the

Lord. So what's he saying here? Well things ought to change and he offered one time verse 14 and we are perfected forever

Because we have been sanctified set apart by him once and for all he has done that back up to verse 10

Once and for all the last three words always remember those and underline them So the

Old Testament sacrifices produced a remembrance of sin Every time they went but Christ's sacrifice makes possible a remission of sin

Look at verse 18 now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin

Why don't you and I keep offering for sin because we don't have a remembrance of them why don't we remember our sins and keep offering for sin because verse 17 and And their sins and iniquities will

I remember no more he just doesn't remember him so we don't have to keep offering Jesus did that Jesus did that and so therefore

God does not remember them Our sins have been pardoned and sent away forever and I use the illustration time and time again because it's so prevalent in our mind

We had a president of the United States that got in some problems and we had another president that pardoned him Yes, yes

Do you know that the charges against that man that was pardoned can never again be brought up in history?

No matter what anybody says or finds or does he is free from that forever It can never be brought how much more so if God pardons you and me

Are we free from those things that we've come to him for why do we keep letting those things crowd in our lives?

But we do it. We do it We don't want to do it and we know we shouldn't but that old mind is strange and so we do it

But thank the Lord we're moving on right we're moving on and we're learning better than that and we're growing in the

Lord and each day It gets better doesn't each day. We're able to get a grip on it. And so that's what we're doing now

We're looking into this scripture. So, you know that in Leviticus 16 On the day of atonement

Yom Kippur the high priest got two goats, didn't he? You recall he got him two goats G -o -a -t -s two goats and they came in and what he would do is he would pray over one of those goats and Sometimes he would sometimes he would sometimes he would put his hands on the goat and sometimes he would lay his hands over the goat but around the head of the goat, which was indicating the transference or the taking of the sins of the children of Israel and Placing them upon that goat and that's what we get the term, you know, well scapegoat scapegoat takes the blame for everything and so they took that goat turned it over to a stranger and the stranger to the people of Israel would lead that goat out into the wilderness and they turned him loose never to be seen again

They didn't worry about it and that indicated to them are symbolized or pictured the remission of sins

Sins gone and that's exactly what the Bible says happened when Jesus Christ came

God took our sins and put them up on him and they are forever gone

He has done away with them and that is what the word remission means. It means the carrying away of all of our sins

So when we have remissions of sins, they have been carried away turn them loose Let them go.

Don't try to keep them with you. Don't try to keep hanging on to those sins. You have to confess them forget them

You forget you've confessed them go home. Don't worry about them. Don't let them bother you

Just keep on going just keep on going and this is what he's indicating.

That is what he did There's no more offering for sin. Why because there's no more remembrance of sin

The Holy Spirit witnesses in our heart and 14 to 17 are extremely critical verses

What's the key to it all it is the grace of God God just remembers our sins and liquid is no more because that's what he wants to do.

It's between him and his son Jesus Doesn't have anything to do whether you belong to this church or any other church

Well, you've been baptized or haven't been baptized where you read your Bible or don't when you pray or you don't if you're a born -again

Child of God, it's all been taken care of between God and Christ. You can become an obedient child You can become a disobedient child, but you shall always remain a child

You are his and you belong to him and it's all by his wonderful and marvelous grace

This is what God has said and this is what he wants us to do and you recall in Jeremiah 31

We read about how he was going to do that He was going to take that new covenant and he says that he was going to write it into the hearts of mankind

He would no longer write it on stone So what he says the three things that he's talking about here is one it takes away sin

Secondly, it never needs to be repeated. No repetition necessarily and thirdly

He begins to move into the life of faith or the area of walking by faith And he says you now have access to God because the way is now forever open to God Verses 19 all the way to verse 39 the remaining part of chapter 10

He talks about how God's Presence is now open for every person

Breaking it down in verse 19 to 21. He gives us an explanation of what he's going to do having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having a high priest over the house of God Now he just kind of reviews the blessings

He just kind of reviewing What we have because Christ died once and for all and he says we have a perfect standing and we have boldness and that word

Boldness is interesting. It doesn't mean you and I have the right to just come sauntering into the presence of God So well here

I am God He is a holy God He is a righteous God and as before any king if you knew the king's son if you knew the prince and prince that I'd like You're going to meet my dad.

You'd still be quite cautious you wouldn't just go strolling in and taking for granted or presuming upon the graciousness of that King and neither do you and I Presume upon the goodness and the graciousness of God because we're

Christians, but what it does mean is we have a freedom of speech We are able to freely approach the throne of the

Lord and speak to him. Whatever is on our heart We have a freedom to come to him and talk to him about anything at any time and we can come into his presence

There is no veil between us and God you recall the veil in the tabernacle

You know as well as I that that veil symbolized the body of Christ That veil symbolized the body of Christ because that veil

Enveloped our hell within the glory of the Lord and Christ's body Envelops or holds in the glory of the

Lord and when the veil was torn Then the way into the Holy of Holies was seen by all people and when

Christ's body hung upon the cross and was pierced By the nails and the thorns and the spear then the way was opened into the presence of God The way was open.

And so this is the symbolism that's involved in this So we have a new way and it's based upon a new covenant and it's based upon a living priest all

Old Testament priests are dead, but we have a living priest and The house of the

Lord had now has another high priest and the house of the Lord is the church the body of Christ We have a new and living high priest who ever lives.

He always lives He always will live to make intercession for us And so he just sort of explains that and then in verse 22

He gives us an invitation by giving us three statements that begin with let us

Three let us statements you notice them. He says in verse 22 to 25. Let us

Draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promise and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but Exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching so he started giving us an invitation

Let us let us let us he's inviting those believers to do something. He just kind of reveals He said here's what

God's done for you. Now, let me show you come on over and let's talk about this Let me explain something to you here.

Let us draw near in verse 22 instead of what drifting away

You recall at the very first of the Hebrews we talked about those things people began to drift away from the

Word of God Neglecting it by neglecting it. He said draw near instead of drifting away.

Let us hold fast. You remember our profession We said the word profession means confession Let's stand fast on what we believe.

Let's don't compromise what we believe our testimony our faith or some translations have

Hope let us hold fast the profession the confession of our faith of our hope without wavering without wavering

We don't have to apologize for what you believe let's just stand in it and encourage others. Let's encourage let's consider

Verse 24, let us consider one another let's consider other Christians Let's consider other believers is an example of what he was saying

Let's encourage our brothers and sisters in the Lord what to be true to Christ Be true to Jesus Why is it that when someone in the church has a problem many times they're criticized instead of encouraged now

I'm not saying I hope your church doesn't experience that but you and I both know that there are churches of varying denominations where that happens if a

Christian gets in a crisis or has a problem or even sometimes gets into a

Deterioration of their home and maybe even a divorce in their home They are immediately Criticized when that's when everybody in the church ought to go to them and envelop them with arms of love and encourage them

They don't need criticism. They need help. They need encouragement. They need to be lifted up, but that's not the way we are many times

But yet that's what he says Let's consider one other what would happen if you and I were in that situation

You know what? We'd want we'd want the church's very tender loving care. We'd want the very best.

We don't want him criticizing Well, we have to apply these things don't we why don't we do that to others?

Which we would have them do unto us on these same circumstances and this is what he's talking about It seems to me and he goes on and says in verse 24

Let us consider one another and if you're going to provoke one other don't provoke one another to anger Don't provoke one another to resentment provoke one another to love

That's what he says provoke unto love and to good work If you're going to provoke anybody to do anything provoke them to love and do good works

Be faithful Well, that isn't the way I see it is the way you see it now I know I'm a part of the problem to say

I know I'm a part of the problem too because I know there are people That I provoke I just provoke them.

I know how to provoke them to love I know how to provoke them to good work, but sometimes I'd provoke them to anger to resentment

Argumentation and all those things now understand that sometime because I would never do anything like that Would you

I would never I don't they got problems everything all those people that have problems with us They just don't understand us if they understood us.

They wouldn't have these problems, but nevertheless This is what he's saying and then notice what it says

He says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together now We always quote that verse and every time we find somebody doesn't go to church.

We hit them with Hebrews 10 25 Well now it is true that these believers evidently had been neglecting this part of their believing life

They had been neglecting Christian fellowship and the mutual encouragement that believers get one from another

Since Christ is our high priest and we are a kingdom of priests We are a holy nation of priests the scripture teaches us

Then I believe that what he's saying to us here that we ought to assemble together for common worship and for teaching and for service

Now if we have a church that believes the Bible then honors the Bible is walking with God and meets those

Criteria's of the scripture and obviously we want to be in that place and we need to be one another and I have found this

Drastically in my life that we need Christian fellowship. You cannot make it in this world by yourself

I have tried it and it is a miserable road to go to have an independent mind or an independent spirit and not believe that you ever need to encourage one from any other

Christian because they'll Come a time when you will You just will and I will and we do and that's a part of coming together

That is a part of coming together and I think this is what he's saying going to church is important But going to church is not

Christianity. It is a portion of Christianity In fact, it's a small portion because it only takes up a very small portion of your time

You're here one day a week You add Wednesday, that's two. Well, you got seven

Well, maybe you have one other activity. You might have two other activities That's only for an hour at a time. Most of the time we just do whatever we want

Most time we not around church and if they had an activity every night It wouldn't be for an hour or so or two hours or so So we spend most of those time doing the other thing.

So it's a very small part of our actual Christian living So it has to be quality We have to make it the best we can because it's not there

So it is a part just like prayer in the home Bible study in the home Just like witnessing on the road witnessing in the neighborhood all those things are

Parts of the Christian life that fit together like pieces of puzzle that make what should I call the Christian life? But isn't it true we kind of get over emphases on different things

There are some people that don't do anything but come to church on Sunday morning Sunday night. That's it. I Don't care how many activities you have they not coming and it wouldn't make a difference if Peter and Paul came in they wouldn't come

Jesus himself will have trouble getting them at the rapture They just will have some other things to do

This is why he threw this verse in here This is exactly why I believe he put it here the

Old Testament Jewish people Could not go into the tabernacle anytime they chose The high priest couldn't go into the

Holy of Holies anytime he chose But you and I have the unique privilege of approaching worship anytime we want to We can pray anytime we want to and we can enter into the presence of God anytime we desire night or day night or day

You can call this church up and I don't know much about it But I'll promise you you get hold of a pastor you get hold of a deacon you get hold of the custodian you get hold

Of somebody and say I want to go down to church tomorrow afternoon And I want to pray for three hours and I guarantee somebody get down here open the door for you

In fact, they'll be down here to find out what you doing down here. Somebody gonna come down and pray for three hours Probably get the newspaper down here take a picture find out who this guy is or who she is.

Well, that'd be news, wouldn't it? pray for three hours a Christian But somebody do it for you

You couldn't do that in the Old Testament you see you have a unique privilege of being a Christian a Unique privilege of being a

Christian and the question is do we take advantage of our privileges? Are we taking advantage of these privileges?

Well, he gives us that explanation and then quickly before we take our break he gives in verse 26 to 39

He's gonna kind of urge them on he's gonna kind of exhort them on you could say an explanation Then he's going to give an exhortation here in verse 26 to 39 and we'll not read all of those word -for -word

But hopefully you've read them If not, you're in this as you recall at the beginning of week, we mentioned five exhortations and this is the fourth one

We mentioned five exhortations are where he kind of warns them about something and what he warns about here something very crucial willful sin

Willful sin The careless Christian starts to drift through neglect we said that's the first thing happens he begins to neglect the word

Well by neglecting the word he loses his familiarity. He loses that closeness and he begins to doubt the word

Well pastor, I don't know if this is really true or not I know that's what the Bible says, but I really have a problem with that. I mean, I'm not too sure anymore

Well, you used to be sure. Well, I'm not too sure anymore. I'm not too sure about this and that you'll find that person Usually it's not because they're really into studies because they've been drifting from the word and they begin to doubt the word

And this is what he's talking about And once a person begins to doubt the word a different word, obviously our minds become dull to it

Yeah, there's a verse of scripture that says Let's see boy. I knew that what man I used to quote almost that whole chapter, but I I just can't think of it now

We become dull towards it now some of you older folks Don't let me say well now wait a minute age has something to do with it

Do you know that it is a psychological fact that a 70 year old man or woman?

Can memorize anything that a 21 year old man a boy or girl can memorize It only takes you 40 % longer to do it

But you can memorize it just as well as a 21 year old boy or girl can do it Even though you may be 70 years of age

It takes a little longer to do it But it's a psychological fact and don't sit around and say well I'm sitting and I can't memorize like I used to you can't because you don't

Unless you are mentally ill or have a brain problem But if you're not on drugs or something else or you don't have a medical problem

It is a fact that you can the reason is somewhere down our line We get around 60 some years of age in there We just quit because we've either learned all we're gonna learn or we don't feel the necessity to memorize

You know what? I think I think we become so familiar with God's Word We're around church so much and we hear it so much and we're around the things of the

Lord that it has lost its attractiveness to us Why we begin to neglect it we begin to drift we begin to come dull towards it and this is where he's head here and The next step he says is to willfully and deliberately sin

Willfully and deliberately sin and then if we willfully and deliberately sin what will occur is we will begin to despise a

Spiritual heritage. Hey, aren't you a Christian? Don't you go down to that first Baptist Church Center? Well, well, yeah,

I remember but I mean, I don't agree with everything they do. I mean now don't miss them I mean, I don't believe everything and then we began to kind of apologize for our spiritual heritage

That's actually despising it actually despise it and he said this is what happens now

Let's look at some important facts about this sin It is extremely important and let's do this before we take our break and let's finish this chapter.

It won't take but just a moment You'll still get out at the same time 1140 something.

All right There in this this sin this the sin that he's talking about here

First of all, it is not one sin that is committed once it is not one sin that you commit one time

That he's speaking about he's talking about sinning willfully verse 26 for if we sin Willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sins if we willingly go on sinning if we just Willingly continue to do so just that's what the word literally means sin willfully just willfully go on sinning

It's the same continuous tense of the verb that you find in 1st John 3 hold your place and let's go towards the revelation and look at 1st

John Chapter 3 because this is very important 1st

John chapter 3 verse 8 he that committed sin is of the devil for the devil sins from the beginning

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he's born of God now

Obviously, we know from experience that you do sin But this has the same present tense of the verb usage he that just willfully goes on in the attitude of sin

No repentance, no remorse. No care. No sorrowful heart about it. Whatsoever just continually goes on and does he said that person's never been born of God That person has never been born again ladies and gentlemen no matter how good you say they are and I don't care if they've been a member of the church for 35 or 40 years if They continue to go in that direction and there's no repentance.

There's no joy to God. There's no hunger to come back to God There's no desire for things God. The Bible says that person has not backslidden that person has never been born of God Because the

Holy Spirit will continue to draw a child of God. He will chastise. He will work He will do well, he will do many things and that person cannot just delight in willful sin

It's an impossibility Although I meet people who claim to be members of churches and have been for years and years and years that just willfully sin and have

No remorse about it. No repentant attitude about it and careless and their family try to say well

I know he or she will say but they probably just did a backslid in the state whenever there's nothing in their life to indicate a salvation experience

But what we try to do is make it easy for them and we want them to get in the back door of salvation But it won't work It will not work and these are hard sayings but nevertheless they happen to be true and so whosoever continually and Habitually continues on in sin is not born of God.

This passage is not dealing with some so -called Unpardonable sin it is talking about our constant attitude towards God of continual perpetual rebellion willful rebellion

It is not an accidental thing. And this is what he's talking about, you know in the Old Testament There were no sacrifices worthy.

There were no sacrifices for deliberate sin Not in the Old Testament. We talked about the children of Israel not being faithful to the

Lord sins of ignorance. Yes a sin in the moment of passion Yes anxiety.

Yes, but a deliberate sin. There was no sacrifice for it in the Old Testament Judgment was the only thing that God meted out to them

Now that's interesting when you really try to apply that and think about it and this is exactly what he's using here

This is what he say willful rebellion. You might look at Exodus 21 14 and numbers 15 30

Those sins of ignorance and sudden passion they were covered by the blood there and by the sacrifices

But willful sins only brought the punishment from the Lord. Look at verse 29 of How much sore punishment?

Well, you don't read just look at verse 28. He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses

How much sore punishment suppose you shall he be thought worthy Who hath trodden underfoot the

Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified and unholy thing

And hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace But we know him that hath said vengeance belongs unto me.

I will recompense Saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judge his people It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living

God Now who's he talking to he's talking to Christians He's not talking to Israelites.

He's talking to Jewish believers, but they are Christians and This is a message to the

Christians that he's giving us here He's reminding that our salvation and the shed blood that purchased it is held in extremely high regard by God the

Father God regards your salvation a priceless thing He regards the shed blood of his son a priceless thing and he esteems it into the very highest regard the father values his son and That son went and gave his life on the cross is what he's saying

For you and I to have redemption and to become a child of God and for a person to sin willfully is not only to Sin, but it is to sin willfully against God the

Father against God the Son and against God the Spirit And he said now if I dealt with him that way how much sore punishment

Do you think one is worthy who has experienced full redemption by being sanctified? It causes one to think but what happens he quotes

Deuteronomy 34 verses 35 and 36 beginning at verse 30 He'll go ahead and quote that vengeance belongs unto me.

I will recompense a book so it goes back in the Old Testament He quotes what God had to say to the Israelites concerning that matter to show that God in the

Old Testament He allowed his people to reap what they sowed Well, of course that's not eternal judgment that he's talking about he's not talking about that at all

He's talking about the chastening in life How he deals with a person in life he will chase in that life and the loss of reward

The loss of the reward for faithfulness look at verse 34 and 35 For you had compassion on me and my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods

Knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance cast not away therefore your confidence which at great recompense of reward stomach rewards for your faithfulness and So he discusses that he's not talking about salvation for other scriptures

You might read 1st Corinthians 3 verses 14 to 15 and 1st Corinthians 5 verse 5 1st

Corinthians 9 27 and 1st Corinthians 11 30 So in verses 32 all the way to 39 that last section

He gives a tremendous assurance to these people to prove that their lives prove that they have sincerely been born again

That they really were born again These are those who have put their faith in Christ and they have not turned away notice what he said in verse 37 for yet a little while and he that shall come will come

And will not tarry Now the just shall live by faith. He's quoting from where he's quoting from the

Old Testament again Habakkuk chapter 2 He's quoting Habakkuk chapter 2 the just shall live by faith

But if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him, but we are not of them who draw back under perdition

We're not like those he talked about in chapter 6 that got close to accepting Christ and then walked away But of them that believe to the saving of the soul

He says we're looking forward to his coming. Listen, you know what? He's saying here to me as I look at this particular passage scripture.

He's saying your destiny is perfection not perdition You're gonna be perfected for sure one of these days.

You don't have to worry about perdition Not at all why because you have trusted Christ in your heart and you look for his return

That's what he's saying If you know the Lord's in your heart you're looking for his return then dear people Those are the two greatest motivators in the world to know you're saved and to know he's coming back for you

I mean, there's nothing that excites a church more than to know that the Lord's coming back And if you and I can just keep that in our minds

That I think we shall do well, and so we have a greater sacrifice Because it does do away with sin and it does open the way to God for us and it brings complete confidence and assurance

In our lives. All right, let's take a five -minute break We'll come back in about five minutes and then we'll cover that great chapter on the heroes of faith chapter 11