The Fourth Warning Passage (Hebrews 10:26-31) - Worship Service | Adult Sunday School

We'll try that and all ye men of tender heart

Forgiving others take your part. Oh Ye who long pain and sorrow bear praise

God on him and cast your care. Oh Praise him. Oh praise him

Let all things their creator bless and worship him and humble

Praise praise the father praise the son and praise the spirit three and one

Oh Praise him. Oh praise him Oh, yeah Okay, so I don't hear any of the female vocals in the monitors at all

When the morning falls on the farthest hill I will sing his name

I will praise him still When dark trials come and my heart is filled by the weight of doubt

I will praise him still For the Lord our

God. He is strong to save from the arms of death from the deepest grave

And he gave us life in his perfect will and by his good grace

I will praise him still I I Think that's good

Dave We check the the condenser mic for the violin, please

Are we on there we are good morning Good morning Welcome to adult Sunday school community church.

We will be in Daniel chapter 5 Moving right along So let's open in prayer

Lord your word is such a delight every day to bring us to you

To show us your mind in your heart for your people And this morning as we look into your word, we want to lift you up and honor you and find new ways

To be able to spread your word among the inhabitants of the earth For the world is in turmoil

But you had not only anticipated it, but you are sovereign over it And so we commit this day to you

We commit this study to you and we commit the results to you in Jesus name. Amen So we're in Daniel chapter 5 and If you would with me turn to Daniel chapter 5 and And We will read the first nine verses

While you're turning there, I'm just gonna double -check something here. Yeah, I only make it just a little way so we're good

Daniel chapter 5 Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand

When Belshazzar tasted the wine He gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which

Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple Which was in Jerusalem in order that the king and his nobles his wives and his concubines might drink from them

Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple the house of God Which was in Jerusalem and the king and his nobles his wives and his concubines drank from them

They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver of bronze iron wood and stone

Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing Opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing

Then the king's face grew Grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together

The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers the Chaldeans and the Diviners the king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me

Will be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold Around his neck and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom

Then all the king's wise men came in but they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king

Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed his face grew even paler and his nobles were perplexed

So we're gonna be on slide 79 Peter It's not working so we're not going to be on slide 79 we are going to be on the slide blank blank screen

Which is a good thing I guess so last week we finished off with Daniel chapter 4 and Watched Nebuchadnezzar go from the king

To an animal and back to the king all under the sovereign hand of God It is most important to remember as I've mentioned numerous times

And you all have heard that this book is about the sovereignty of God every chapter

Exudes the sovereignty of God. Nothing is outside his control nothing

It eludes him nothing trips the sovereign Lord up and We have to remember that we have to remember that as we're going through this book

Last week there was some things that were on the slide that I thought might have been interesting We'll see if I can work this thing

Yeah, it's gonna take a skill. Oh, you got to turn this thing on. Yeah, we'll do that. Okay, so I'm going the wrong way

So last week we talked about The message that is that was given to Nebuchadnezzar about his own demise and there was just some interesting interesting

Bits of information that I wanted to show you there's an awful lot of information available to us about Babylon About the history of Babylon.

We have the Babylonian Chronicles. We have Herodotus We have numerous Greek scholars who who wrote in just a few a few hundred years later chronicling the things that happened in Babylon and when we when we looked at Different Kings claiming to be king of the world that was common and this is exactly this is one of the impressions that was done a

Cylinder of Sirenus the king who conquered Babylon and said he was the king of the world the great legitimate king king of Babylon King of Sumer and Akkad king of the four rims of the earth

Well, we all know that he ruled over an area about the size of Texas Now any

Texans in here say well, it's huge It is but it's not the whole world but that's what

Kings would claim and this was the some impressions artistic impressions of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and then some of the cylinders that we have

That we've been able to use to decipher and understand the language of Babylon and that have given great color and depth to understanding the book of Daniel This is the

East India House inscription that we talked about last week and then This would have been one artist's rendition of what the city of Babylon looked like The Step to Ziggurat and the

Asgila temple of Marduk to the right of it. They erected numerous temples to their false gods

So now we're going to we're going to look at chapter 5 and we've read the first 10 verses But we will probably get through an introduction and just a few of the verses this morning

So now begins the chronicle of the fall of Babylon You will notice that there are five kings who succeeded

Nebuchadnezzar Mm -hmm Only four of them are mentioned in most ancient histories

Even Josephus in his history of the Jews the antiquities in chapters 10 in chapter 10 conflated

Nabonidus and Belshazzar so Nabonidus Would be this guy and Belshazzar those two for many many years

Until the discovery of some of the Babylonian Cuneiform inscriptions the name

Belshazzar didn't appear it appeared in Scripture. Therefore. It's true By the way, we don't need history

The Scripture is true, but it's always interesting when Scripture is maligned for centuries and then some discovery is made and Scriptures confirmed to the last letter and that news isn't nearly as big as the news

Preceding it that some when some thought Scripture was wrong so What we will read here,

I'm gonna read you something that Josephus wrote in his antiquities He says this but now after the death of never

Nebuchadnezzar Evel Merodach Every time I ever saw this in Scripture reading the book of Daniel.

I always thought they were saying Merodach was evil That's actually his name Evel Merodach But now so but now after the death of Nebuchadnezzar Evel Merodach his son succeeded in the kingdom who immediately set

Jeconiah at Liberty and esteemed him among his most intimate friends He also gave him many presents and made him honorable above the rest of the kings that were in Babylon for his father had not kept faith with Jeconiah when he voluntarily delivered himself up to him with his wives and children and his whole kindred for the sake of his country that it might not be taken by siege and utterly utterly and utterly destroyed

Josephus continues as we said before and when Evel Merodach was dead after a reign of 18 years

Neglis or his Neglis are his son took the government and retained it 40 years and then ended his life and after him the succession in the kingdom came to his son lab

Sara Dacus who continued in all but nine months and when he was dead it came to Baltasar That's Baltasar Baltasar Who by the

Babylonians was called Nabata Nabona Delia's No, he wasn't but we'll find out against him

Did Cyrus the king of Persia and Darius the king of media made war after the death of Nebuchadnezzar?

Where are we? There we go evil Merodach or Evel Merodach assumed the kingdom the name of the son and immediate successor of Nebuchadnezzar was

Was was this fellow now Evel Merodach the Babylonian form of the name is

Amalou Merodach That is man of Marduk. They were named after their gods About 30 contact contract tablets dated in this reign have been found

Excuse me. They show that Evel Merodach reigned for two years and about five months Josephus got it wrong go figure he is said by Berossus to have conducted his government in a illegal and Improper manner and to have been slain by his sister's brother

Nergal shower occur who then reigned in his stead Evel Merodach has said in 2nd

Kings 25 27 through 30 and in the parallel passage in Jeremiah 5 52 31 through 34 to have taken

Jehoiachin King of Judah from his prison in Babylon where he seems to have Been confined for 37 years and to have clothed him with new garments to have given him a seat above all the other kings and to Have allowed him to eat at the king's table all the rest of the days of his life

It's an undesigned coincidence that may be worthy of mention that the first dated tablet from this reign was written on the 26th of Elul and Jeremiah 52 31 says that Jehoiachin was freed from his prison on the 25th of the same month

So then even ever Merodach was murdered by Negra Lisa and succeeded by him

And I'm going through these Kings names because What the Lord has done here is he wrote when he when he penned when he had

Daniel or whoever it was pen the book of Daniel when we ended with chapter 4 verse 37 a

Whole bunch of time has passed between that verse and the first verse of chapter 5 and we'll talk about that in a minute so So he was succeeded by Nergal protect the king is what this man's name means one of the princes of the king of Babylon who accompanied

Nebuchadnezzar in his last expedition into Jerusalem, so this man was With Nebuchadnezzar when he took

Jerusalem this King Another of the princes who bore the title of rab mag which simply means official

He was one of those who were sent to release Jeremiah from prison Jeremiah 39 13 by the captain of the guard he was a

Babylonian grandee of high rank from profane history and the inscriptions the son of Nebuchadnezzar and Succeeded him on the throne of Babylon around 559

He was married to the daughter a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar The ruins of a palace the only one on the right bank of the

Euphrates bear inscription denoting that it was built By this King so one of the palaces of Babylon was built by this

King He Was succeeded by his son a mere boy

He was murdered after a reign of just nine months by a conspiracy of the nobles one of whom was

Nabon itis Who many people thought Belshazzar was the same as and was not?

He was succeeded by Nabon itis Who ascended the vacant throne and reigned for a period of 17 years at the close of which period

Babylon was taken by? Cyrus Belshazzar who comes into notice in connection with the taking of Babylon was by some

Supposed to be in the same as Nabon itis who was called Nebuchadnezzar son Daniel 5 11 18 and 22

Because he had married Nebuchadnezzar his daughter But it is known from the inscriptions that Nabon itis had a son called

Belshazzar who may have been his father's Associate on the throne at the time of the fall of Babylon and who therefore would be the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar The Jews only had one word

Usually rendered father to represent all of these relationships Relationships such as father grandfather or a great -grandfather

Sometimes they would say a father's father But often when they said father you had to trace the lineage to find out if they were actually talking about the father or the

Grandfather it could have been either Negrel Easter was succeeded by his son Labashe Marduk history indicates that he was a youth if not a child

But he only reigned for two or three months before he was murdered So Labashe Marduk this child may

I not come to shame was his name Oh Marduk That's what his name meant was the fifth king of the neo -Babylonian

Empire ruling in 556 BC He was the son and successor of Negrel Easter though Classical authors such as Berossus wrote that he was just a child when he became king

Babylonian documents indicate that he had been in charge of his own affairs before becoming king Suggesting that he was a young adult a youth an adult youth if you will 18 19 17 to 20 years old probably

His reign was very short lasting only two to three months and with the latest evidence of Negrel Easter being alive from April 556

BC and documents dated to a successor Nabonitis appears at June of that same year he led a coup against the king

Deposing and killing this young king Labashe Marduk the reason for his usurpation of the throne is unknown

Berossus only describes the justification as Marduk the young fellow lived in evil ways One possible explanation is that whereas Negrel Easter derived his claim to the throne from having married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar Labashe Marduk could have also been a son of Negrel Easter by another wife and And the

Chronicle captures the date that Cyrus took the city as the 16th day of the month of Tishri in Nabonitis's 17th year which translates to Saturday October 12th 539

BC Regarding Belshazzar's relationship to Nebuchadnezzar Walvoord in his commentary explains it this way so we have

Belshazzar mentioned in Daniel, but not mentioned in antiquity until These Chronicles were discovered in the early 1920s so for all these years people were

Confusing thinking Nabonitis and Belshazzar were the same person they were not and the

Bible knew that go figure Much has been made of the end reference to Belshazzar's relationship to Nebuchadnezzar Walvoord says who is described as his father in verse 2 when

Belshazzar tested the wine he gave orders Which is mentioned as his father in verse 2

Even Keel of Keel and Delitch is is influenced by this to consider Belshazzar a literal son of Nebuchadnezzar This is not entirely impossible

For as Leopold shows Nabonitis could have married a widow of Nebuchadnezzar who had a son by Nebuchadnezzar That son could have been have been adopted by Nabonitis as a way of strengthening his hold on the throne

Nabonitis assumed the throne in 556 BC only six years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar was probably at least a teenager when

Nebuchadnezzar died if he was old enough to be co -regent with Nabonitis in 553 BC and it is thus at least possible that Belshazzar could have been a genuine son of Nebuchadnezzar and that his mother after Nebuchadnezzar's death was married to Nabonitis This however is conjecture and it is more natural to consider

Belshazzar a son of Nabonitis himself Though as noted earlier his mother could have been

Nebuchadnezzar's daughter But no one knows for sure. Although the precise identity of Belshazzar may continue to be debated

Available of facts support Daniel's designation of Belshazzar as king and a physical descendant of Nebuchadnezzar The reference to the father may be construed as grandfather as as it has been stated

Neither in Hebrew nor in Chaldee. Is there any word for grandfather or grandson

Forefathers are called fathers or fathers fathers But a single grandfather or forefather is never called father's father, but only father

So that led to some confusion confusion for many years. Why am I going through all this because for centuries?

literal critics of the Bible Pointed to Daniel chapter 1 as a wrong verse it was wrong

Because Nabonitis was king. There was no Belshazzar. He was never mentioned in any of the ancient

Chronicles and Folks, that's what happens when we believe something other than Scripture first It's the

Bible first and then we look to history for information to flesh it out Because we don't have the

Babylonian Chronicles flesh Daniel out in a wonderful way But the scripture said Belshazzar was king and guess who was king and it was finally author

It was finally the world finally accepted it Belshazzar was king So all of that just to show that it took history 1900 doing oh,

I guess it would be almost 2 ,600 years to catch up to what we already knew Belshazzar was king

So verse 1 now, we're at verse 1 finally he says Belshazzar the king

Who really was the king held a great feast for thousands of his nobles and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand so now 23 years have elapsed from the end of verse 37 of chapter 4 and the first words of chapter 5 of Course liberalist scholars attacked this verse as we mentioned stating that Nabonitis was the king that succeeded

The the young man and thus the book of Daniel was mistaken here We have already seen that subsequent discoveries have clearly shown that Nabonitis was the king of Babylon at the time

But he was often away and his son Belshazzar ruled in his stead in his commentary on the

Bible Reynolds showers Explains it this way the opening verses of chapter 5 present the reader with two problems first Who was

Belshazzar? For centuries this was a mystery for available Babylonian records mentioned

No king named Belshazzar as a result critics said that this proved that the book of Daniel was historically inaccurate

However during the 1920s the deciphering of more recently discovered Babylonian documents solved the mystery

These documents indicated that Belshazzar was the son of King Nabonitis The second problem is this if Nabonitis was king during the events of Daniel chapter 5

Then why does verse 1 call Belshazzar Belshazzar King some Babylonians documents solve this problem as well?

They indicated the following in 555 BC Nabonitis marched an army westward

To conquer rebels who had revolted against the Babylonian rule since the death of Nebuchadnezzar Before he left

Babylon on this trip this expedition Nabonitis entrusted kingship to his oldest son

Belshazzar Though taught through time Nabonitis built a royal palace in the distant town of Turna or Tima in The heart of the

Arabian Peninsula long ways from home, and he settled there well Nabonitis retained the title

Maintained the title of king in Arabia Belshazzar exercised kingship in Babylon many letters and business documents indicated that Belshazzar functioned as the real

Authority in Babylon thus a co -regency situation existed and Daniel was perfectly accurate in calling

Belshazzar King So it was not uncommon. We see that he threw a feast

Belshazzar the king held a great feast for thousands of his nobles I was amazed when I looked into this just what kind of feast they threw back then

They really threw parties The Greek historian Ctesias reports feast with 15 ,000 guests

I was like the population of Bonner County when I was a kid When Asher Sharma to Paul to dedicated his new capital and Kayla in 879

BC 65 ,574 guests were present at the Feast of Dedication I Would you feed them all

I guess the now the last days of Babylon were chaotic Nabonitis had returned to Babylon and to deal with an internal rebellion while simultaneously

Dealing with this besieging army So while we're while we're reading verse 1 remember that encircling the walls of Babylon right now is the

Medo -Persian army They're outside the walls right now as we're reading verse 1 while Belshazzar is having his feast what

King throws a feast? While he's surrounded by an invading a very well respected and frightening foreign invading army so then

At the beginning of the following spring when Cyrus this is from this is from Herodotus.

This is Herodotus's Explanation of what was going on right now in Babylon when

Cyrus had punished the Guyanese he punished the Guyanese River by building canals and Dividing it among the 360 canals he marched against Babylon at last the

Babylonians Sallied out and awaited him when he came near their city in his march and they engaged him, but they were beaten and driven back inside the city there they stored provisions for very many years and Because they knew already that Cyrus was not a man of no ambition and they saw that he attacked all nations alike so now they were indifferent to the siege they were indifferent to the siege and Cyrus did not know what to do being so too long delayed and gaining no advantage so Cyrus is outside the walls

He's looking for ways in while they're having their feast Whether someone advised him in the dignity in this difficulty

Herodotus says or whether he perceived for himself what to do I do not know But he did the following He posted his army at the place where the river goes into the city and another part of it behind the city

Where the river comes out of the city and told his men to enter the city by the channel of the Euphrates when they saw

When they saw it to be fordable Having disposed them and given this command he himself marched away with those of his army who could not fight

And he when he came to the lake Cyrus dealt with it and with the river just as he had the Babylonian Queen Drawing off the river by a canal into the lake which was a marsh

He made the stream sink until its former channel could be forded When this happened the

Persians who were posted with this objective made their way into Babylon by the channel of the

Euphrates Which had now sunk to a depth of about the middle of a man's thigh Now if the Babylonians had known beforehand or learned what

Cyrus was up to they would have not let the Persians enter the city and Have destroyed them utterly for then they would have shut all the gates and opened on the river and mounted the walls that ran along the riverbanks and still caught their enemies in a trap

But as it was the Persians took them unawares and because of the great size of the city those that dwell there say

Those in the outer parts of it were overcome But the inhabitants of the middle part knew nothing of it all this time

They were dancing and celebrating a holiday which happened to fall then until they learned the truth only too

Well, so the Persians the Medes and Persians are surrounding the city Belshazzar's throwing a feast

Belshazzar's pride in the city was humanly well -founded But God had designs that would come to fruition that night

One can look at the insanity of Nebuchadnezzar and ascribe it to mental issues But the fact that it happened on God's timetable

Demonstrates that Providence or miraculous power and the miraculous power of God was what disposed of Nebuchadnezzar's mental issues

One can also ascribe the fall of Babylon to military acumen But everything happened according to the timetable

God had ordered and this too is a testimony to the Providence and miraculous power of the sovereign

Jehovah These are important aspects that should never be forgotten by the by the people of God of every age.

He is always sovereign Verse 2 when Belshazzar tasted the wine

He gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar Oh, are there any questions about the verse 1 of the introduction which took some time?

I'm sorry, but any questions? Verse 2 when

Belshazzar tasted the wine He gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which

Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple Which was in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles his wives and his concubines might drink from them, so this was sort of a a method of a king showing superiority over the peoples that he conquered by Misusing their sacred objects.

There were many vessels in the temple of Marduk that had been taken from conquered nations Why did

Belshazzar choose only the vessels from Jerusalem? Much speculation has been applied over the years.

So this proper Probably occurred after Belshazzar and his nobles were already very drunk

He would have been seated likely on an elevated platform Where all of the other guests could see him the feast would have been attended by great amounts of alcohol

The word father here again is a term that is loosely used in ancient languages It could refer to the actual father a grandfather or a great -grandfather

It could refer to a legal ancestor such as the case where one might be the son -in -law or grandson -in -law of a king

But Belshazzar was talking about Nebuchadnezzar He intended to desecrate the vessels by having everyone drink from them the nobles the wives and the concubines were properly present for the subsequent orgy that would follow

Drinking bouts like this were common among the Babylonian Persian peoples often They were accompanied by lavish feasts and included especially prepared dishes of unusual animals

Including ostriches camel horses and other animals So they would have butchered numerous animals for the dinner and they would have had immense amounts of alcohol ready

So when he tasted the wine, he was already drunk most likely

And so he probably did something that normally he wouldn't have done and had these vessels brought to the the party for everyone to drink from verse 3 yes

We're gonna find out no Daniel Daniel really rebukes Belshazzar. I mean what a brave man of course, he faced all kinds of things down, but No Belshazzar is is acting irresponsibly

Even by Babylonian Regulations and Daniel takes it later on we'll see

Daniel will take him to task for that So they then brought verse 3 the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple the house of God which was in Jerusalem and the king and his nobles his wives and his concubines drank from them so from the history of the

Babylonian concept Chronicles, we understand that Belshazzar as a boy would have been involved in the royal court of Nebuchadnezzar He would have been in Nebuchadnezzar's court and would have known

Nebuchadnezzar He would have been about 14 years of age at that time Nebuchadnezzar died in 562

BC. So he would have understood some of God's dealings and Sanctions against his grandfather. He would have known about Nebuchadnezzar's pride he would have known about Nebuchadnezzar Refusing to honor

Jehovah as the Sovereign Lord even after repeated admonitions from Daniel He would have known who

Daniel was he would have known all of this just as you know The people in your history from 10 years ago 15 years ago you remember the presidents and you remember the senators and the

Legislators and the good the bad the ugly you remember of them all if I named some of them you would know their names

This would be the same situation with Belshazzar. He knew what was going on.

He was no fool Well, he was a fool, but he was not stupid So he would have understood

God's dealings He would have seen his grandfather go into madness at God's Direction and then come back out of madness and have his kingdom restored to him

He would have known that the history of the Babylonians didn't provide that kind of mercy Generally when a king was deposed he was killed or he was killed to be deposed and in this one case

The king was deposed Set aside and came back seven years later. He would have known all this

Verse 22 indicates and here's one of the things if we want to jump ahead real quick to verse 22

You can see some of the dealings that Daniel had with him Daniel says to Belshazzar when when Belshazzar finally brings him in in verse 22

Yet you his son Belshazzar have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this and Belshazzar knew better Daniel points it out

He probably had been told about Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the prophecy in the fall of Babylon to Medo -Persia

Hello, guess who's outside the gates? Medo -Persia Even more interesting is the fact that ancient sources show that Medo -Persian troops under King Cyrus had conquered the entire

Surrounding countryside outside of Babylon at least four months prior to the night of the feast

So the the conquering army is outside his gates They've subdued the entire area all that's left is

Babylon and he's drinking himself into a drunken stupor the irony was

This by the way, this would also explain why there were so many Babylonian officials in Babylon. They had probably been running ahead of the advancing army escaping them from to lose their heads and taking refuge in the city of Babylon So the irony is that on the night

Belshazzar was raising his fist at Jehovah by defiling the vests of the temple The conquering army was encamped outside the city of Babylon Showers in his commentary again says this he says it is a fact that Nebuchadnezzar had made

Babylon Into a world Into the world's mightiest fortress the outer wall surrounding the city was so thick

No, battering rams or other instruments were sufficient to knock it down. Remember explosives didn't exist back then

Firearms gunpowder it was spears and battering rams and catapults and and such and such like that The presence of the second inner wall and numerous fortress towers and ramparts made any attempt to scale the walls

Suicidal as a result Babylon appeared impregnable Belshazzar and his officials were convinced that the

Medo -Persians could not penetrate those amazing defenses Brothers and sisters translate that to today as We're as we're moving through this

But the people that are destroying our country right now think they're inconquerable

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. What is the reverse of that? Go ahead

Cursed is the nation Who's God who abandons the Lord? The time is coming when what happened in Babylon may very well happen today

It may when I say the time is coming. It's going to happen. It's just when it's a matter of when

Are we spreading the gospel as fast as we can? Are we? Demonstrating to the world outside that that it is

Jehovah God who is in control We need to be doing that. So rental showers continuing.

He says the presence of the second inner wall With numerous fortress towers and ramparts made any attempt to scale the wall suicidal as a result

Babylon appeared impregnable Belshazzar and his officials were convinced that the Medo -Persians could not penetrate those amazing defenses

But even if Babylon's defenses could keep the Medo -Persians outside the city How long the

Babylonians inside hold out against a blockade they would need food and water to survive preppers in 600 550

BC They would need food and water to survive the Babylonians had solved this problem as well

The walls of Babylon had been built over the Euphrates River. So there's the big river so they had a continuing supply of fresh water in Anticipation of a blockade by the

Medo -Persians the Babylonians had supplied the city with enough food to maintain its population for more than 20 years

That's a lot of food 20 years of food Ancient historians indicate that in light of these great preparations the people of Babylon laughed at the siege of their city by Medo -Persia so this explains why

Belshazzar was busy getting drunk when the largest one of the larger armies in the world was outside his gates in light of these historical factors

Reynolds showers goes on to say It seems rather obvious that Belshazzar decided to desecrate the sacred vessels of Jehovah for one major reason to show his utter contempt for the

God of Israel and his prophecy concerning the fall of Babylon The king was so confident of Babylon's defenses that he decided to challenge this

God His defiling of the vessels was his way of shaking his fist at God and saying you have said that Babylon will fall

To the Medo -Persians who are now encamped inside outside our gates I am declaring to you that Babylon will not fall its defenses are impregnable

No one will be able to take it my actions show you what I think of your prophecy once again

A pagan king was providing God with a splendid opportunity to demonstrate his sovereignty

So I actually finished there, but are there any questions about this or can? Anything you have to observe about a comparison to what's going on today.

Oh Surely No, Herodotus Herodotus goes on to mention that that that enemies from inside Someone communicated to Cyrus to draw off the water from the

Euphrates and cause it to sink down and then they could get in under the walls in the Euphrates River Yeah, I would

Yeah, I I should have looked up this quote, but you know a Nation can survive its enemies, but not the traitors from within It's much more elaborate and impressive than that the quote is but That's the gist of it.

The fact is it is a complete dismissal of God's Word and the truth of God's Word that leads to the downfall of nations and in Babylon Daniel had already

Demonstrated through the early years and the early in the middle in the late years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign the sovereignty of God Belshazzar had all of that information and he refused to believe it

Peter Yeah Say I told you he said it much better than I did

Redneck renditions are usually not that good So we're gonna close a little early today, but I just wanted to remind us

If we need to pound anything home, it's it's two things Is that God is always sovereign in every age in every situation?

He will not be mocked He will not be mocked Let us not be among those that even accidentally ignore his sovereignty or Accidentally, we don't mock him.

But when we don't obey him, it's the same as mocking him and so as we look at these and what we're gonna get into the the fall of Babylon and then the further prophecies and and frankly a lot of commentators that I've read ignore a lot of this and they only focus on The prophecies the the ones in the early chapters and then from chapter 7 on they actually don't even comment on chapters

Three four and five and some of six But doesn't the scripture say that every word of scripture is profitable for doctrine for proof proof for correction for instruction

For us so that we might be fully equipped to live lives. I'm again paraphrasing a redneck paraphrase of second of the book of Timothy But we are equipped to follow him by studying and understanding and believing everything that's in the scriptures.

So before we close I didn't want this to be a more a lesson of simple

Application, but it's ending up something like that We need to be the people who demonstrate that we believe the

Word of God first That we trust the Word of God and that we live according to the Word of God Daniel did

Belshazzar didn't and Babylon fell Every nation can fall we like to think of ours as we always everyone who is in a nation that at least for for whatever reason starts out good likes to think of their nation as Lasting forever as eternal.

It's just not so only God is eternal Only God is eternal. Let's pray

Father It is a sobering thing to reflect on that the fact that your hand will be against those who are against you and So we pray

Lord For the salvation of souls in this nation that you would turn hearts inside You would turn the hearts of men for that is the only way for true

Repentance and revival we look to you. We look to your hand We look to your sovereignty and we look to your word

That the Lord Jesus Christ might be lifted up in this nation in a manner in which he has not been for so long

Well, thank you for what you're doing in the lives of your faithful We trust you for what you're going to do and we look forward to it in Jesus name.

Amen It's with thanksgiving

First love

I've made him Have been a dwelling place a rock

It's truth will still I We cling to you

You trust Praise his name

From the heights of heavenly reigns Seated in the highest place

Surrounded by His mighty deeds

Majesty Praise him now with trumpet sound Lift your voice

Praise the

Lord with instruments Reason for its excellence

Oh Check one two, okay.

It sounds good up here. Yeah up here. It sounds great Check check check one

Good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Church this morning. Would you please stand as we sing all creatures of our

God and King? All creatures of our

God and King lift up your voice and with us sing Yeah the burning

Sun with golden be the whole silver moon with softer clean

Oh Praise him. Oh, praise him Hallelujah, hallelujah

Yeah Thou rushing when that art so strong ye clouds and heaven along Oh praise him

Hallelujah Thou rising morning praise rejoice ye lights of evening find a voice

Oh praise him. Oh, praise him Hallelujah, hallelujah

Yeah, and all ye men of tender heart

Forgiving others take your part. Oh singing Hallelujah the pain and sorrow

Praise God and cast your care Praise him.

Oh, praise him Hallelujah, hallelujah Let all things their

Creator bless and worship him in humbleness Praise him

Hallelujah Praise praise the father praise the son and praise the spirit three in one

Oh The heavens are your tabernacle

Oh Glory to the Lord God of wonders beyond our galaxy

You I will celebrate

God of wonders beyond our galaxy Oh Oh God of wonders beyond our galaxy

Majesty Oh And he gave us

I will sing I will praise

Well, good morning a couple of quick announcements

First we have a men's fellowship tomorrow evening at here at the church at 630 tomorrow night

So if you would like to be here for that then feel free to join the men here for the men's fellowship tomorrow night and I think

Dave you turn the monitors off for this this line and Second we were able to find somebody who is going to be our electrical contractor.

He's gonna pull a permit for us So we are going to start wiring in the upstairs to finish the upstairs In the month of June So if you are looking for someone to or if you are

Wanting to come and contribute your skills and talents to helping run electrical if you have experience doing that we would welcome you and you

Can talk to Joe Gish Joe raise your hands for everybody remembers and knows who you are. You can talk to him He's gonna organize our volunteers to get that done and we're gonna schedule a day a

Saturday Next month in the month of June All right, turn your Bibles to the book of Hebrews 2 chapter 5, please

Hebrews chapter 5 Hebrews chapter 5 we're going to read this which is the third morning passage beginning in Hebrews 5 at verse 11

And we're gonna read through chapter 12. Sorry chapter 6 not chapter 12 Verse 12.

I think it is of chapter 6 Hebrews 5 verse 11 Concerning him we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing

For though by this time you ought to be teachers you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God and You have come to need milk and not solid food

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness For he is an infant

But solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil

Therefore leaving aside the elementary teaching about the Christ Let us press on to maturity not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment and This we will do if God permits for in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the

Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and Then have fallen away it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again

Crucified to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation

Useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled receives a blessing from God But if it yields storms and thistles it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned

But beloved we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation Though we're speaking in this way for God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name and having ministered and in still ministering to the saints and We desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end

So that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises

For when God made the promise to Abraham since he could swear by no one greater He swore by himself saying

I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you and so having patiently waited he obtained the promise for men swear by one greater than themselves with them an oath given as Confirmation is an end of every dispute in the same way

God Desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose interposed with an oath

So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us this hope we have as an anchor of the soul a

Hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner

For us having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. We stand with me as we pray

Let's bow our heads Father it is by your grace and by your mercy alone that we are able to call upon you that we are able to call you

Our father it is by your grace that we are saved and all of our salvation Our redemption is your work from first to last

And we thank you that you are the author and finisher of our faith the author of our salvation

The one who saves and to you and to you alone we give praise and adoration and thanksgiving for the blessing of salvation

And so we praise you for that We thank you for the joy and the opportunity and this time that we can gather together as your people to call upon your name

To worship together to fellowship together to listen to your word together We do these things as a community of believers and we thank you for the fellowship that we enjoy in Christ We pray that that may be sweet today that our worship may be sweet and that you would inflame our hearts with holy affections and holy passions for Christ and for the truth and Unite our hearts together in love for one another and care and concern for one another and Give us oneness of heart and purpose and we pray that you would accomplish your every good pleasure and your every joy in us today

Through your word and the power of your spirit. We ask these things for the glory of Christ our Lord His mercy is born

Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, his mercy is born

Patience would wait as we constantly roam What father so tender is calling us home

He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor

Our sins they are many, his mercy is born

Praise the Lord, his mercy is born

Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, his mercy is born

Riches of kindness he lavished on us

His blood was the payment, his life was the cost

We stood in the debt we could never afford

Our sins they are many, his mercy is born

Praise the Lord, his mercy is born

Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, his mercy is born

Praise the Lord, his mercy is born His mercy is born

Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, his mercy is born

Philippians chapter 2 verse 8 It says being found in appearance as a man

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death Even death on a cross

Therefore God also highly exalted him And bestowed on him the name which is above every name So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow

Of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord To the glory of God the Father What can take a dying man

And raise him up to life again What can heal a wounded soul

What can make us white as snow What can fill the empty mess

What can mend our brokenness Brokenhead Mighty, awesome, wonderful Is the

Holy Cross Where the

Holy Spirit dwells And laid down his life To lift us from the fall

Mighty is the power of What restores our faith in God What reveals the

Father's love What can lead the wayward home What can melt the heart of stone

What can free the guilty ones What can save and overcome

Overcome Mighty, awesome, wonderful Is the

Holy Cross Where the

Holy Spirit dwells And laid down his life To lift us from the fall

Mighty is the power of It's a miracle to me

It's a miracle to me And it's still a mystery

And it's still a mystery It's a miracle to me

The power of God For those who believe

Mighty, awesome, wonderful Is the

Holy Cross Where the land laid down his life

To lift us from the fall The power of God And again in the book of Hebrews, but this time to Hebrews chapter 10.

And find your place at verse 26, Hebrews chapter 10. And let's bow together before we read.

Our Father, we pray that your word would have its way in our hearts and in our minds today. We pray that you would conform us to the image of Christ and sanctify us by your truth.

We pray that you would help us to think accurately and clearly about difficult issues, and we pray that your word would make us to think and reason and believe and have faith as you would have us to, as your word might dictate to us.

We pray that you would sanctify us through our time here and that you would glorify yourself by the presence of your spirit and giving us the ability to understand and to obey your word.

Be honored here, we pray, through all that is said, and may you be glorified through our understanding and our obedience to your word.

We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, today we are starting the fourth of five warning passages that we find in the book of Hebrews.

And when I use the phrase warning passage, I'm not just speaking of a passage that contains a warning, because there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of those all scattered throughout

Scripture. But when we use the phrase warning passage, particularly in the context of the New Testament and in the context of the book of Hebrews, we're actually talking about five specific passages in the book of Hebrews that warn against the danger of apostasy, that talk about and describe apostates.

And those five chapters, we are now entering into the fourth of those five chapters.

And we have studied, obviously, the first three of those warning passages. And I'm going to just give you, again, the location of them.

And later on here, in a moment, I'm going to give you a brief survey of the previous three that we have already looked at.

But those five warning passages are found, the first, in chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. The second is chapter 3, verse 7, through chapter 4, verse 13.

The third one is chapter 5, verse 11, through 6, verse 12. This is the fourth one, chapter 10, verse 26, through 31.

Though most, and I would say this is probably appropriate, start the warning passage at verse 19 in chapter 10 and go all the way through the end of chapter 10.

And then the fifth and final warning passage is found in chapter 12, verses 14 through 29. So we have one in chapter 2, one in chapter 3 and 4, one in chapter 5 and 6, one here in chapter 10, and one in chapter 12.

So, these warning passages, five of them are interspersed throughout the argument of the book of Hebrews as if, almost parenthetically, the author pauses his argument at certain points to remind his readers of the dangers of drifting away or of disobeying or of disregarding the information, the truth that he has given to them as he is arguing his way for the superiority of Jesus Christ throughout the book of Hebrews.

These passages describe apostates and describe the act of apostasy. Now, apostasy is the act of turning away from a truth that you know to be true.

It's the act of seeing or knowing truth, being very close to it, being very exposed to it, and oftentimes even externally changed by that truth, but then turning away from that and walking away from it to reject it, to forsake it, and to turn your back on it.

That is apostasy. And those who commit that sin are known in Scripture as apostates.

So we are not here describing somebody. When we talk about the warning passages and apostates, we are not here describing

Christians who sin. We are not describing you accidentally sin, or you falling into a sin, or you sinning without even knowing about it.

We are not talking about people who sin their way out of Christianity and into a life of unbelief and eventually into hell.

It is not as if there is a certain number of sins, mystical number, undisclosed in Scripture, that you were allowed to commit after you become a

Christian. And then once you have tallied up the final sin, you sin that one too many times, and that is it. You are done.

God is done with you. You lose your salvation. You are going to hell, and you deserve it. You had your chance, but you sinned 491 times.

Jesus said, forgive 7 times 70. So you have sinned 491 times.

That is it. That is all the grace that God has for you. That is not what we are talking about. So we are not talking about Christians who sin, or Christians who fall into sin.

We are talking about somebody whom I believe, and I am going to argue, was never a Christian to begin with, but was exposed to the truth, who knows the truth, and turns his back upon it and forsakes it.

That is what an apostate is. Now these five warning passages are battleground texts in the discussion of whether a

Christian can lose their salvation or not. The book of Hebrews is the go -to book in terms of having a conversation about whether or not a

Christian can lose their salvation. If you believe in the security of the believer, or what

I prefer to call the perseverance of the saints, the salvation of the saints, even better. Or if you believe what is sometimes commonly called once saved, always saved.

That is that once you are saved, there is no possibility of losing your salvation. If that is your belief, then those who believe you can lose your salvation will always point to the book of Hebrews.

They will say, that is good that you believe that, but what about Hebrews chapter 6? What do you do with that passage in Hebrews chapter 6?

Because there are Christians within Christianity who believe that salvation, once received and once obtained by you through faith and repentance, that that salvation can be lost.

That that Christian can stop believing or become disobedient or stop attending church, fall into sin, slide into apostasy.

That that Christian having once been saved can send their way out of the kingdom and send their way into perdition and into eternal damnation.

That they in some way can be not kept even if by their own choice. They might say, there is no way that God can lose us, but if we are in the

Savior's hand, it is possible for us to jump out of the Savior's hand and thus lose our salvation. So even though, if we want to stay saved, then

God has the power to keep us. But if we don't want to stay saved, we want to go to hell instead, God doesn't have the power to keep us then.

There are some who believe that. So, these warning passages require a diligent and persistent and careful thoughtful treatment as we work our way through the book of Hebrews.

And Hebrews chapter 6 really is the go -to text. The go -to text is not

Hebrews 10. This is one of the warning passages. But it's not the battleground text. That's back in Hebrews chapter 6.

Now, if you have shown up here after Hebrews chapter 6, can you raise your hand for a moment?

Pat, you've been here since, before Ecclesiastes, I know that. We almost lost you during Ecclesiastes.

If you have shown up here after Hebrews chapter 6, can you raise your hand high so we can see it?

Okay, so there are a few. Good, a good number. That's good to see. So, Hebrews chapter 6 is the battleground text.

We've already covered Hebrews chapter 6. Obviously, you kind of get the feeling that we go through this systematically from the first verse to the last verse of a

Bible book and we do. So, we've already covered Hebrews chapter 6. In fact, this is the passage in Hebrews chapter 6 which is really the key, the battleground text.

This is the fault line, as it were, or the perseverance of the saints.

It's Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6. I'll read these three verses to you. For in the case of those who have been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the

Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the

Son of God and put Him to open shame. Now, we covered that in some detail. And by some detail,

I mean painstakingly, agonizingly slow meticulous detail. We preached 18 sermons.

I shouldn't say we, you had nothing to do with it. I preached 18 sermons on that warning passage in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11 going through the end of chapter 12.

There were 18 messages from March 24th of 2019 to August 11th of 2019.

So, that's six months, a good part of six months. Now, if that seems like a long time to you, it's because that's a long time to spend in one passage of scripture.

But the intention was to go through that and to answer all of the questions and to be systematic in how we dealt with that and to deal with every phrase, phrase by phrase, to see the author's argument, to answer the questions that would come up in relationship to that.

So, if you have questions about the warning passages, particularly Hebrews chapter 6, you can go on the website and you can go through all 18 of those messages.

That doesn't sound like fun at all. It's not, it's not any more fun than me preaching up here on a Sunday morning. It's the same conclusion in chapter 10 that we came to in chapter 6 because it is the same group of people being discussed in chapter 10 as was discussed in chapter 6.

The author is not changing his theology halfway through the epistle. So, everything we're going to learn in chapter 10 is going to be consistent with what we covered in chapter 6.

And that was a long time ago, 2019, particularly because 2020 took five years to get through.

So, 2019 was a long time ago. And if you were here and you don't remember those messages, then you can join those who are not here and go on the website and listen to those messages if you need a refresher.

Now, these five warning passages are difficult for everyone. No matter what side of the theological aisle you're on, whether you believe that salvation once obtained and once granted by God is everlasting and eternal and cannot be forfeited or lost, or whether you believe that a

Christian can lose their salvation through one sin or two sins or whatever your perspective is, the warning passages create challenges for all interpreters on all sides of that spectrum.

So, there's nothing slam -dunk about any of the warning passages. Our goal is to interpret them in a consistent way.

And this passage in chapter 10 is the most severe and the most stern and the most serious sounding of all of the five warning passages.

I want you to look beginning at verse 26, actually verse 27. This is a terrifying expectation of judgment.

Verse 27, the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Verse 28, dying without mercy.

Verse 29, severe judgment. Verse 30, vengeance is mine. Also verse 30, the Lord will judge

His people. Verse 31, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now, those phrases, particularly when compared to chapter 6, the warning in chapter 6, that is really strong.

Chapter 6 is very mild. Chapter 6 mentions the thorns and the thistles that are worthless and cursed and end up being burned.

That's a mild warning compared to what we find in chapter 10. Chapter 10 talks about the fury and the fire consuming the adversaries, dying without mercy, falling into the hands of the living

God. You can see just from those phrases that we went through from verse 26 to 31 that the author here is describing in the strongest possible terms a damnation that might fall upon whoever it is that he is describing in the rest of this passage.

Whoever turns away from it, this is what they get, verses 26 through 31. So the conclusion really is inescapable.

If a Christian can lose their salvation, then the judgment described in verses 26 through 31 is what they face.

If a Christian cannot lose their salvation, then the judgment described in verses 26 through 31 does not fall upon them.

It must fall upon someone else, someone who never had salvation. If you believe that you can lose your salvation or you believe that you cannot lose your salvation, there is no middle ground in that debate.

You either believe that you can lose it or you believe that you cannot lose it, there's no middle ground. There's no third option.

Either the warning passages in Hebrews teach that a believer can lose their salvation and perish in everlasting fire, or the warning passages in Hebrews teach no such thing.

They are describing something else. Now oftentimes the debate between these two camps is categorized or sort of described in terms of the

Calvinists versus the Armenians. That is somewhat true, it is somewhat helpful, but it is not entirely accurate, and here's why.

While all Calvinists believe that you cannot lose your salvation, that salvation once obtained is permanent and it cannot be lost or forfeited or returned or given up or anything of the description, is a

Calvinist. And while all Armenians would have to say that salvation can be lost, not all

Armenians would believe that you can, sorry, there are some people who would be Armenians who believe that salvation cannot be lost.

So there is between Calvinists and Armenians sort of this ugly redheaded stepchild theology in the middle, and if you were a redheaded stepchild, my apologies to you.

There is this ugly redheaded stepchild theology in the middle where they would deny all of the reformed doctrines of soteriology except this one doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

The salvation once obtained is eternal. And so they are kind of in this middle ground. They would say that they would deny the reformed doctrine of total depravity.

Denying that man is totally depraved. They would say, no, man is sinful, he's fallen, he's sick, but he's not totally dead in his trespasses and sins, not totally unable to do any good or to respond by faith because man has the free will, he has the freedom to choose to do this, to choose to do right.

So they would deny that. And then they would deny unconditional election, say, no, no, God looks down through time and sees who it is that's going to accept him if given the opportunity, they would use their free will to embrace him and to accept salvation, and then

God elects them on that basis. And they would deny the reformed doctrine of particular redemption, that Christ died to pay for the sins not of the whole world, but of his elect.

They would deny that, and then

God irresistibly draws all those whom he has given to the Son so that none will be lost, and that that drawing is necessary for the atonement to be applied to those whom he has unconditionally chosen because they are totally depraved and so all of the rest of those acts of grace are necessary.

So they would deny all of that, and then they would say, but salvation once acquired can never be lost.

Now, if that is your theology and you are in the middle there, if you are that ugly redheaded stepchild,

I want you to understand that your theology is inconsistent. The Arminians are consistent.

Man can get saved by his own free will. It is his own act that does this. Unaffected by God, God has made salvation possible, but he has not guaranteed or predestined anything.

He's just made it available, and it's up to man to choose to secure that or not, to take advantage of that or not.

That's what an Arminian would say. That's what this redheaded stepchild would say.

But once that salvation is acquired, you don't have the choice to give it up again.

So what you're saying is that an unbeliever who is dead in their trespasses and sins, at war with God, a slave to their sin, a slave to the devil, and in the kingdom of darkness has more free will than a believer in Jesus Christ who has been liberated from all of those things?

That before I am saved, I can choose salvation, and that is consistent?

Yes, if man is totally dead in his sins, and God has unconditionally elected him, and Christ has paid his price, and then

God draws all those whom he has given to the Son in eternity past, then salvation is not at all a work of men.

It's the Lord who saves. And that grace is a gift, that faith is a gift, and repentance is a gift, all of this are

God's gracious gifts to those whom he has chosen. If that is true, then of course salvation cannot be lost or forfeited because God has secured it, and then he preserves those whom he saves so that none are lost.

So the Calvinist is completely consistent, the Arminian is completely consistent, the one in the middle who denies the reformed doctrines of salvation but wants to believe that you cannot lose your salvation, your feet, theologically speaking, are planted in mid -air.

You are standing on nothing. There is no argument in Scripture, no theological argument whatsoever underneath of that position.

Your argument simply is that some believer makes a decision that cannot be reversed.

That's your theological argument. That's not how Scripture argues for the perseverance of the saints. Scripture argues the way

I've been arguing over here, that man is dead, that God has chosen, that Christ has died, that the

Spirit draws, and that therefore we are preserved perfectly. That's how Scripture argues. If you want to be the red -headed stepchild, and I'll stop using the term ugly, if you want to be the red -headed stepchild in the middle, just understand your theology is completely inconsistent with that theology.

You might agree with me on this point, but you cannot make a theological argument from salvation, from the elements of soteriology that would undergird that theology.

All right. Now, typically, when a passage like the one that we're going to be looking at, and we haven't gotten there yet, but we will, when a passage like the one that we're going to be looking at is handled in your average

Catholic church, this is a very controversial passage, and we don't like doctrines that divide, and we don't like doctrines that draw clear lines, and people are going to disagree on this, and so you might believe you can lose your salvation, and you might believe that you can't lose your salvation.

There are good arguments on both sides of this debate, and people disagree with this over the centuries forever, and so since we are just really interested in the unity of the body and the harmony and the bond of peace and all of that, and we want everybody to sort of just go along to get along, since that's the case,

I'm really not going to take a position on this. I kind of lean toward this direction or this direction, but we're just going to read the passage.

I'm going to leave it up to you to decide, and we're going to move on to chapter 11. That's how it would be typically handled. If you came here expecting that today or in the coming weeks, you are going to be sorely disappointed because I will lay all of my cards out on the table and confess to you that I am going to aggressively argue for your salvation, that you cannot lose your salvation.

So just to make it clear exactly what my position is, if I have not been clear already, here it is.

I do not believe that a genuinely saved individual can be lost. I do not believe that a genuinely saved

Christian, one who has been born again by the power of the Spirit and had their sins forgiven and has been justified, can be lost because, here's the reasoning,

God has given to him. He cannot fail to do that because our Savior is not a failure. He is not trying to do anything.

He's not trying to save as many people as He can. He has come with an intention. He fulfills

His will. He accomplishes all of His good pleasure. Salvation is not our work. It is entirely the work of God.

Our repentance is a gift. Our faith is a gift. And our perseverance in that faith is also a gift.

Since we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, and since we are predestined to adoption as sons,

Ephesians 1, and since we are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, Romans 8, we have been given by the

Father to the Son as a love gift. That's the language out of John 6. And since the

Father in eternity past has given to His Son a people, the Son has come into the world to die for those people, to pay their price on a cross, to give them

His righteousness and to offer their sin so that having once been saved, there is no condemnation to those who are in Him, the price having been paid and having been perfected for all time by that once and for only all time sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Their debt has been paid. Their condemnation has been washed away. The wrath of God has been propitiated and satisfied so that now the

Spirit will draw those whom the Father has given to the Son to the Son, and the Son having promised eternal life, causes them to believe, grants them the gift of repentance and faith, brings them to Himself, gives them eternal life, saves them, the

Spirit of God then sanctifies them, and then the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit glorify them for all of eternity.

That is what Scripture teaches, that the Father has planned our salvation, the Son has procured our salvation, and the

Holy Spirit applies our salvation. And since the Father has willed our salvation, there is no possibility that the will of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are all one in this purpose of redemption, can ever be thwarted or not fulfilled.

It must happen because God has preordained it to happen exactly as it will cash out. And it is impossible for God, having started this work, to give it up.

It is impossible for God to fail because it is impossible for the Son to fail to save or even to lose one whom the

Father has given to Him. Because that would dishonor the Father. If the Son should fail to do that work.

But Jesus promised, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. And this is the will of the

Father who sent me, Jesus said, that of all that He has given to me, I give eternal life to them, and I raise them up on the last day.

And in that process, not one of them is lost. So that the Father intends our salvation, Christ intends our salvation, the

Holy Spirit intends our salvation, so that the triune God, being one in purpose, one in the work of redemption, one of His works, accomplishes exactly what

He intends. So He cannot fail, and ultimately our salvation is a deliverance from sin, and we are safe and secure in Him.

For God has willed it, He has purposed it, He has procured it, and He has promised it, and He will preserve us in it.

That's my position. Now, this does not mean for one moment that I am vouching for any false converts.

If you are somebody who grew up in a Christian home, and you prayed with mom and dad, and you got baptized when you were four years old, and you stood up in front of the church, and you dedicated your life to ministry, and you wanted to go to the mission field, and you committed yourself there, but you are not truly born again, you've never been regenerated, you've never repented of your sin, or understood the gospel and trusted

Christ, I'm not vouching for you. You're not the one I'm describing here. And if you are somebody whose heart was warmed by a camp meeting or a revival that your church had when you were a kid, and you walked forward,

I'm not describing people who check a box, raise their hand during a service, yes, I prayed that prayer, prayed some magical prayer, walked the aisle, prayed at the altar, were baptized,

I'm not talking about any of those things. I'm not talking about frauds, or fakes, or false converts, or professors of religious fervor.

I'm talking about a group of people who are genuinely, truly born again and saved. Now, the warning passages, as I mentioned, have difficulties in them for all, and these warning passages are not unwelcome intruders into the theology that I just gave you.

So if you might disagree with everything I just laid out about the sovereignty of God, and election and eternity past, and the scope of the atonement, and all that, say, man,

I disagree with all of that, Jim, I don't like any of that, I don't know how it is that you read the book of Hebrews and still believe that. I want you to understand that the book of Hebrews and all that it teaches is exactly consistent with the theology that I just laid out for you.

There's no disharmony there whatsoever. I don't fear these warning passages. They're not unwelcome to me.

I don't have a problem dealing with them at all. I'm going to lay out for you, just as I did in chapter 6, how I think that the warning passages can and should be understood in light of the argument of the book of Hebrews.

Because people who believe you can lose your salvation, they'll typically say, what do you do with Hebrews chapter 6? He has perfected forever all those for whom he died.

What do you do with that passage? You understand that all the teaching about the superiority of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, and his offering, and the finality of it, and the perfection of it, all of those arguments that we have covered throughout the entire book of Hebrews, all of that militate against the idea that one can lose their salvation.

You wonder what I do with Hebrews chapter 6? You wonder what I do with the warning passages? I wonder what do you do with the rest of Hebrews?

Because the rest of Hebrews does not teach that you can lose your salvation. The rest of Hebrews teaches that Christ has perfected forever all those who are sanctified.

If you've been set apart by the Father to the Son, he has perfected you in that sacrifice, and thus you are glorified.

That's what the rest of Hebrews teaches. So our task here today, now that we've just gone through the introduction to the introduction, because this message is really not, we're not gonna get into the text in detail today.

This is an introduction. So now we've gone through the introduction and we've gone through the warning passages.

I'm gonna review the previous warning passages, all three of them, and you say, it's not as bad as it might sound at first.

And then I wanna give you an overview of this passage beginning at verse 26, and then a brief survey of the interpretive options.

And this is sort of to theologically set the table for us for the weeks ahead as we work our way through this fourth warning passage.

So a preview, or a review of the previous warning passages. The first one is in chapter 2. And it's easy to kind of catch the idea in each of these warning passages if you can just remember three words.

The warning passage in Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 is a warning against the danger of drifting. And the imagery there is of one who drifts by, before I get into that,

I would just remind you, all of these are online, so if you wanna listen to those messages, you can. And I'm not gonna go through this in meticulous detail for the sake of those who already suffered through it the first time.

So Hebrews chapter 2, the imagery is one of a boat that is drifting past and he sees the refuge off, the anchor, the shore off, the safe harbor in a distance, but he does nothing.

So it is a warning against apathy, against indolence, against not caring. It's sort of the image is one of just sitting in a boat and you see, you understand that there is danger that you are facing and you see the harbor and the safety that it provides.

And rather than doing something to direct yourself into the harbor and take safety in it, you just do nothing and you let yourself drift by and thus drift away.

This is described in Hebrews chapter 2. That is not somebody who is saved, it is one who sees the harbor at a distance and then just allows himself because he does nothing to take advantage of the provision of safety, just drift by.

And of course the imagery there is easy for us to see in Christian terms that we are in danger because of sin and the harbor is the safe harbor that we find in the person of Jesus Christ and if you do nothing to lay hold of the promises of the gospel and you are just indolent and apathetic and negligent, then you will drift by and eventually perish.

That is the danger of disobedience. And the author quotes heavily from the Old Testament citing the wilderness generation, that generation of people that came out of Egypt, they saw the plagues, they saw the

Passover sacrifice, they saw the firstborn die in the land of Egypt and then they came out of that and they saw

God's deliverance through the Red Sea and they entered into the Sinai Peninsula. Then they saw God's provision of manna and His provision of water and His provision of protection and providing everything that they need and in spite of all the miracles that they saw and all the truth that they were exposed to, that generation of people remained hard -hearted and disobedient.

That knowledge was not coupled with faith in those who saw those miracles. So instead of believing, they were just disobedient and they hardened their hearts by rejecting that truth and turning away from the truth.

The second warning passage does not describe Christians who lose their salvation. Who don't just see safe harbor presented to them and drift by but somebody who sees and understands the truth in a close -up way.

They see for themselves these spiritual realities and so they know the truth and they are disobedient and harden their own hearts toward it.

Come up with an excuse or a reason to reject it and so they turn from the truth. The third warning passage found in Hebrews 5 -11 -6 -12, that is the danger of departing.

The danger of drifting, this is one of those three warning passages. I hope that I can come up with some clever word that starts with D for the fourth one but don't put any bets on that.

The danger of departing. This one is not about drifting and this one is not necessarily about the kind of disobedience that is described in the second warning passage.

This warning passage describes somebody who is close enough to spiritual truth and close enough to spiritual reality not just to see miraculous things but to themselves experience them on some superficial level.

Somebody who is a partaker of the phenomena of the Holy Spirit and has tasted of the good word of God and has embraced these things in their heart as Hebrews chapter 6 describes them as enlightened and tasted and then they fall away.

That one who has experienced those things not at a distance like drifting by a safe harbor and not just by seeing those things but they have actually experienced them in a phenomenological way an outward way an experiential way they have tasted these things they have become partakers of these things they have enjoyed these things these have become very close this is somebody who is so close to the truth and so close to the

Christian community that outwardly speaking there is no discernible difference between them and the genuine

Christian and there is one event that transpires that identifies them as an apostate somebody who was never saved to begin with and that is when they turn from the truth and they walk away from it they depart from it they fall away from the truth not because they have never been exposed to it but they understand it and they are so close to the genuine article that you can't tell the difference between them and a true

Christian until they turn away that indicates to us what kind of ground they were a ground that brings forth fruit or a ground that brings forth thistles and the ground that brings forth thistles deserves to be burned because it is cursed so those are the three warning passages that know and experience the truth but turn away from it that is a departing the danger of drifting, the danger of disobedience and the danger of departing this fourth warning passage found a beginning here in verse 26 through verse 31 we will read it together and as we do

I want you to mark a few things but before we do again putting off the inevitable before we do

I want you to notice many people mark the beginning of this warning passage a little bit earlier and they see it as going all the way to the end of the chapter and I would be sympathetic to that and I would accept that as a demarcation of this warning passage

I think that if we do that then it really follows the same pattern as the previous warning passage in terms of warning against apostates and then turning the focus back to Christians and describing something that is true of them because the author here in chapter 10 seems to make a distinction between those he is describing who perish and those whom he is writing to who are not in danger of perishing there is that distinction beginning in verse 19 let's back up and begin at verse 19 so this is just to quickly review this is where most people think that this warning passage starts verse 19 therefore brethren since we have and I am not going to read the whole thing to you but remember since we have this bold and direct unfettered access to God and since we have a high priest over the house of God we are therefore to do three things we are to draw near we are to hold fast and then we are to encourage others to do the same so the author there is warning people here is what you must do in order to not be the type of person mentioned in verse 26 and the warning passage probably actually does start in verse 19 which is why as we have been going through this

I have been reminding you that verse 26 is the verse that begins this description of apostasy because verses 19 and 25 give us a prescription to prevent apostasy in the lives of God's people if we draw near hold fast and encourage others to do the same these three things help hold together the body of Christ and assure the salvation of all those who are making a profession of faith in Christ so beginning in verse 26 for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth

I want you to stop there for just a second I am just giving you an overview here if we and you will notice the author uses the word we there and so it is assumed that since the author is a

Christian and he is then using the term we he must have in mind here his entire audience is a

Christian with those to whom he is writing as also being Christians and then he says that it is possible for us to have this knowledge of the truth and then to turn away therefore it must be possible for Christians to turn away do you get the flow of the argument?

he includes himself with the we he says that if we having received the knowledge of the truth and they would say,

Arminians would say that that refers to salvation that describes repentance and it describes faith if we go on sinning willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but this is what you get instead a terrifying expectation of judgment now you will notice the strong language that is being used here verse 27, the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses how much severe punishment do you think 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 so he includes himself with those to whom he is writing he is warning them of the possibility that they would perish and if they are

Christians as well as he is a Christian then it is believed that they also would be at the risk of losing their salvation and falling away and yet we go on sinning willfully has anybody in this room ever sinned willfully after you received the knowledge of the truth and were born again

I won't ask for a show of hands I'll give you my hand and here is a dirty little secret every sin you commit is a willful sin at some level you wouldn't do it if you didn't want to do it there wasn't something in you that would make you do it so have

Christians willfully sinned or go on willfully sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth well if you do that there remains no longer a sacrifice for sin so the argument goes if you sinned after you became a believer then there is no sacrifice that will make up for those sins that you commit after you become a believer and the more egregious those sins are the more likely you are to fall into the seriousness of this act of sinning willfully whatever is meant by sinning willfully in verse 26 he likens it in verse 29 to trampling underfoot the son of God regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace and there is a phrase there in verse 29 that is key this one who goes on sinning willfully has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified what does the he refer to those who believe you can lose your salvation would say that the one who was sanctified is the

Christian you were sanctified by the blood of Christ does not it earlier in chapter 10 say that Christ has perfected forever all those who are sanctified and is not the sanctified group there

Christians and if are we the sanctified ones and if we are the sanctified ones then we are the ones who have the ability as those who are sanctified to trample underfoot the son of God and to regard as unclean the blood of the covenant and insult the spirit of grace and to regard as unclean the blood of the covenant by which you were sanctified so that that is the argument that this would say that those of you who have been sanctified is set apart by the blood of Christ this can happen to you this judgment can fall upon you you're the sanctified ones and this is a real danger that you would lose your salvation and experience the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries that you would die without mercy that you are terrifying and willfully to fall into the hands of the living

God that's how the argument goes but if in verse 29 the he who is sanctified is

Christ if somebody an apostate regards as unclean the blood of the covenant by which

Christ himself was set apart his own blood if he is the one who is sanctified then it is not believers who are being described here at all as being those who experience this wrath but instead 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 now you'll notice in verse 32 that the author switches and takes up a whole new tone

I mean those are somber sobering words verses 26 through 31 beginning of verse 32 but remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one therefore do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised for yet in a little while he who is coming will come and will not delay but my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him but we are not of those who have an everlasting and preserving of the soul the author seems to in verses 32 through the end of the chapter make a distinction between those who shrink back to destruction and those who continue with endurance to the persevering and the preserving of the soul it's a whole new note he's contrasting two people he's not describing one whole group of people many of whom are going to fall away he is describing two groups of people those who have an everlasting and eternal reward and those who turn away from that as apostates who never possess that at all that's the message so verse 32 to 39 describes those who are living godly lives they are suffering persecution they are producing the fruit of righteousness and salvation they have a lasting possession and they themselves will experience and enjoy and receive everything that is promised to them now let me give you a brief summary of the ways that this passage is sometimes interpreted these are three options and mine is at the end of this or the one

I prefer is at the end of this first, some people say that this is genuine Christians from a classical

Armenian perspective or a Wesleyan perspective those who deliberately turn from the truth this would be people would believe that these are

Christians who have embraced salvation been genuinely saved after they have received the knowledge of the truth which they say is genuine repentance and faith therefore they are these true believers who are sanctified by the blood of Christ set apart, saved, redeemed but then they sin or they stop believing or they walk away or they fall away and so they are lost for all of eternity some would believe that restoration to grace and salvation is possible others would believe that restoration to grace and salvation is not possible for those who fall into this category a second interpretation and this would be among those who believe that you cannot lose your salvation they would say that what is being described here in verses 26 through 31 is not spiritual death but physical death they would say that this is not hell that is in view here but the invasion in Jerusalem that burned the city with fire and that some who had gone back to Judaism out of Christianity suffered the fate along with those

Jewish brethren and they were the ones who experienced the fire and the destruction so that this is not eternal damnation that is being described but merely a physical death and the quotations that he gives from the

Old Testament in verse 27, in verse 30, and in verse 31 those three quotations all have to do with incidences from the

Old Testament that dealt with physical death and not spiritual death this is not an eternity in hell fire this is describing somebody who left the

Christian community went back to their Jewish way of life and then suffered the fate with the destruction of the temple and all those

Jews who were slaughtered because they were part of the Judaistic system so it's physical death that's being described some would also say that this is not eternal damnation that's being described here the person burning up but that the rewards are burning up and that's kind of a sketchy one that not too many people believe especially those who turn from the truth they're never converted to begin with they're never genuine believers they were never truly saved and they turn away from the truth with full knowledge of what they are doing and therefore they deserve the fury of the fire that consumes the adversaries they're so close to the

Christian community so interwoven with the life of the body they have so experienced the graces and blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ that it is externally and outwardly impossible to tell them from true

Christians but then at some point something happens and they forsake the assembling of themselves together they turn their back and abandon their believing

Christians and forsake that gathering together with them and they'll pursue back to the lust of the flesh or go back to the world or go back to their

Judaism but they were never saved to begin with so this describes somebody who has no knowledge of the truth having even experienced the blessings and some of the miraculous elements of the truth and so therefore they turn away in full knowledge with no excuse whatsoever for their sin and their rebellion this

I believe is what John is speaking of in 1 John 2 verse 19 when he says that they, speaking of apostates went out from us because they were never with us they were among us but they were never with us and they went out so that it might be revealed that they were never of us to begin with so what's being described here this departure then of those who know fully the truth and walk away from it this is a trampling of Christ this is a regarding as unclean the blood that he shed to sanctify us this is a regarding of the

Holy Spirit as something to be mocked it is an insult to the spirit of grace that's what this is that's what verse chapter 10 is describing now you may say okay

Jim I got all three interpretations I know where you're at verse 27 doesn't quite work like that because we haven't even really looked at the details of this and what is being described so in the weeks ahead we'll do just that we'll start next week with verse 26 and we will look phrase by phrase word by word going through this to show what the author is really describing here and how this is not genuine

Christians these are apostates who know the truth and the blood of your son and we thank you that by your grace you have made us to know the truth that you have opened our eyes and moved our hearts and granted us faith and repentance we thank you that our salvation is not something that was thought up in time it is not something that has come lately it is not a new invention it is something that was in your heart and mind and part of your eternal plan from eternity past and ultimately the salvation that we enjoy and the blessings are ours not because of anything that we have done but because of the grace of the

Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done on our behalf and we thank you for that and we rest in it we are secure because of what he has done not because we do anything but because of what

Christ has done and again we reflect upon that and now as we celebrate the Lord's Supper together we pray your blessing upon this time and that we would be encouraged and strengthened together as we celebrate the

Lord's Supper I would just remind you that this is an ordinance that God has given to his church that Christ has initiated and ordained for us by which we may eat and drink something that reminds us of the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ I have talked about that sacrifice today and if you are not a believer who has ever repented of your sin and trusted

Christ for salvation I would encourage you to not partake of the Lord's Supper as an unbeliever you eat and drink judgment to yourself scripture says or if you do this as a

Christian without dealing with the sin in your own heart and repenting of it if you do this in willful and knowledgeable sin you are deserving of the discipline of the

Lord not deserving of eternal judgment if you are in Christ your condemnation is taken away but we are warned against the discipline that might come upon us if we eat and drink of the

Lord's table in an unworthy manner not confessing sin so as we do this these are symbols there is nothing salvific in it these are symbols that remind us of the death of Christ there is a real spiritual presence that we have here as Christ's body and Him in us as we enjoy this together there is a sanctifying effect of this as we reflect upon the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ so we will do that together I am going to give you a couple of moments to pray silently as we confess our sin as we go down this path and if it were not for your grace and your eternal plan and your goodness to us we would reap everything that we sow and we would have eternity to reap what we have sown but we are thankful that there is forgiveness in Jesus Christ and that by that one sacrifice

He has perfected forever those who believe and that that one sacrifice is sufficient for all of our sin past, present, and future that it was all laid upon Christ which we do not deserve and He has taken in Himself all of our sin and so we confess to you our iniquity and our unworthiness and we thank you for the blood of Christ which makes us clean we confess it knowing that He has borne our wrath and that He has satisfied the demands of your justice so that we might live and that we might have eternal life and that we might have complete forgiveness and righteousness and we rejoice in that may our time here around this table and meditating upon that may it serve to strengthen our hearts and encourage us and sanctify us by your grace we pray in Christ's name,

Amen will the ushers come forward and help serve the elements alright let's pray one more time before we begin

Father a body you have prepared for Christ so that He might offer it on a cross in our stead and He did that faithfully and obediently through His blessings and we pray that now you would remind us again of that great sacrifice and the mercy that was shown to us because of His work on the cross on our behalf we praise you in the name of our great

God and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ Amen on the night in which

He was betrayed our Lord took the bread and when He had broken it He said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me in the same manner also after supper

He took the cup and said drink it as often as you drink it in remembrance of me and so Father I pray for each of us that are here that we would we would be brought to the cross we'd remember the work of the

Son the broken body the shed blood we remember the great value of that sacrifice

Lord on our behalf in Jesus name, Amen please stand

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross So I'll cherish the old rugged cross

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross So I'll cherish the old rugged cross So I'll cherish the old rugged cross

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross

I will cling to the old rugged cross

And exchange it someday for a crown

Have a great week! Let all the ends of the earth fear

His truth

May Jehovah's praise hear

In this wicked sinner, the

King redeemed my life Oh, taste and see that God is good to us

Taste and see His never failing love God is good

Oh, taste and see that God is good to us

Taste and see His never failing love

Taste and see that God is good to us

Taste and see His never failing love Host in Jesus, the one who is my life

His glory is my gladness, in Him I'm satisfied

Taste and see that God is good

Oh, taste and see He's good to us

That see that God is good to us Taste and see

His never failing love God is good

Out of the depths,

O Lord, I cry to You When I am tempted to despair

Though I might fail to trust Your promises

You never fail to hear my prayer And if You judged my sin,

I'd never stand again But I see mercy in Your hands

So more than watchmen for the morning I will wait for You My time is over and I still see no fruit

I will wait for You The secret mysteries belong to You We only know what

You reveal The questions that are unresolved