The Willful Sin (Hebrews 10:26-27) - Worship Service | Adult Sunday School

Okay, good morning, we're going to go ahead and get started. If you would take a seat.

We will be back into 1 Samuel, and it will be chapter 11, and we'll begin at verse one.

Before we start, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for the great privilege of gathering together as your people collectively.

We pray this morning, Lord, that as we look at your word and examine your word, that your

Holy Spirit would guide us and direct us and give us the illumination and understanding.

We also pray, Lord, that through the understanding of your word and through the grace that you give us and the empowerment of your

Holy Spirit, that we would understand and apply whatever truths that would apply, and then we want you to be glorified in all that we do.

So we give you thanks, Lord, and we ask that you'd guide us this morning, and we just praise you and thank you in Jesus' precious name, amen.

Well, the American military commanders traditionally have followed a standard procedure for planning their operations, which has proved pretty effective over many years.

The operation orders have five paragraphs, the most important of which are the first two, the situation and the mission.

All successful battles are carried out with the proper understanding of the situation and the grasp of the correct mission for the unit to perform.

It would have been important in our current text for King Saul to have evaluated the situation and the mission.

Having just been acclaimed king, he now faces two grave matters, both of which threaten the nation's existence.

The first was Israel's internal division. The tribes of Israel were physically divided, some in the north and some in the south, with most of the nation west of the

River Jordan, but some tribes were on the east bank. Even worse, the tribes were morally and spiritually divided, as is shown in the

Book of Judges. Saul's home in the land of Benjamin has been the cause of a brief civil war resulting in thousands of Israelite deaths.

In Judges 19 through 20, there was, we find that, there was great opposition to Saul as king by some worthless men.

They doubted his leadership and they despised him. We find that at the end of chapter 10, verse 27.

So unless Saul could unite the tribes and work out a means of effective coordination with Israel, he had no hope to survive against its enemies.

These outside enemies of Israel were the Philistines to the west and the

Ammonites to the east. Both of them were fierce and well -armed foes.

The twin problems presented situations that Saul faced.

His mission then was to first heal the petty grievances that divided the

Israelites. And then he had to secure and bring those men together and plan a battle against the

Ammonites. Behind Saul, however, it was the

Lord that would deliver his people. The words deliver and delivered occur three times in this chapter.

So let's begin with verse one, first three verses. Now Nahash the

Ammonite came up and besieged Jabesh -galid. And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, make a covenant with us and we will serve you.

But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, I will make it with you on this condition that I will gouge out your right eye of every one of you.

Thus, I will make it a reproach on all Israel. The elders of Jabesh said to him, let us alone for seven years that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel.

Excuse me. Let us alone for seven days that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel.

Then, if there is no one to deliver us, we will come out to you. Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the hearing of the people.

And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. So as we begin this, we see the

Ammonites, they were the descendants of Lot. They were actually born from the youngest, out of the youngest daughter's lineage.

And they were born out of incest. The daughters having a relationship with their dad, their father,

Lot. They got him drunk, had the relationship. And out of that, we have

Moab, which to this day are the Moabites. And then the younger was

Benami. He is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day, both of which, their tribes were enemies of Israel.

In Genesis 19, we note that Lot was weak and sometimes sinful and immoral.

He believed and trusted in Jehovah, as did Abraham by faith. That is why we find in 2

Peter 2 .7, this text. And if he rescued righteous

Lot, oppressed by sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard that righteous man while living among them.

So as we think of Lot, this was a weakness and a sinful time for him.

And yet he was saved in the same manner as was Abraham by faith.

So as we continue, Moab and their kingdoms, as I mentioned, were longstanding enemies of Israel.

So as we begin, we find Nahash, the king of the Ammonites. After besieging

Jabesh -Gilead, he plotted against the people. The intent of this king, who was very wicked, was to shame the

Israelites by threatening them and trying to devise a diabolical scheme which would demand the people of Jabesh to gouge out their right eye.

This was a practice actually in the Near East by the pagan nations.

When they conquered somebody, they often would mutilate them in some form.

The name Nahash means snake, very appropriate for this man.

The men of Jabesh offered to make a treaty with him. The terms of the treaty were actually generous.

They offered to become the servants of Nahash. Nahash didn't want to negotiate.

He didn't want anything to do with that. So then he refused and posed this grisly option for them to carry out.

This was the evidence of his wickedness and his hatred for the tribe of Israel.

But as we think about the request of the people of Jabesh, they did this in verse four.

"'Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul "'and spoke to all the people.'

"'They asked for several days, a week, "'that they would try to gain help from Israel.'

And of course, Nahash was so arrogant and so wicked, he didn't think there would be any help for these people.

But the sad thing, and illustrates to us, was the condition of these men.

They didn't know that there was a king appointed over Israel, King Saul, and they didn't realize that there was a judge,

Samuel, that they could summon for help. They didn't know this, and these were the elders of Jabesh.

So we see that this time and period, the Israelites were in bad place.

Many of them were still idolaters. Many of them did not practice or even attempt to obey the law of God.

In fact, they hated it. They hated to be under this burden rather than serving the true king of Israel, Jehovah God.

Even after the election by lot at Mizpah, Saul didn't begin his formal reign as king.

Instead, he returned to his father's house in Gibeah and to his former occupation in the agricultural ranch that he had.

So we read in verse five, "'Now behold, Saul was coming from the field "'behind the oxen, and he said, "'What is the matter with the people that they weep?'

"'So they related to him the words of the men of Jabesh. "'Then the

Spirit of God came upon Saul mightily "'when he heard the words, and he became very angry.'"

So we see here, Saul, he's carrying out the work of agriculture, and he's coming back from the field behind two oxen.

He hasn't yet started his reign. Now, most commentators agree that the reason for him not starting his reign over Israel was because the monarchy was entirely a new form of governing over Israel.

That was, he was waiting for the proper time. He didn't want to start his reign and start taking over the country of Israel and the people of Israel to rule over them until the right moment.

And now is the time. Israel, God's people, God's chosen people are being threatened by an enemy tribe.

So Saul now has to take the reign and form an army of the

Israelites. They're divided, they're not in any way coming together, and this is one of Saul's major problems.

What does he do? Verse seven, he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of his messengers, saying, whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.

Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people and they came out as one man.

So as Saul did this, he's taken two oxen, he's cut them up and sent pieces throughout

Israel. Then with the threat, if they don't come to him as one, and when he was summoned them, he would do the same to their oxen.

That was actually a pretty moderate threat to the people of Israel because the threat was this.

The oxen were quite expensive and quite valuable in the agricultural area of Israel.

So they depended upon their oxen for their livelihood. So the threat was if they didn't respond to his call, he would destroy their oxen.

So they came, they responded as one man. Verse eight, he numbered them in Bezek and some of Israel were 300 ,000 and the men of Judah, 30 ,000.

So now he has an army of 330 ,000 men, warriors, men that now wanna fight against the enemies of Israel.

So I'd like to try to give us a picture of where we are in this map that we have.

Okay, so amen.

Okay, so Bezek is the place where they're going to battle. Jabesh -galid is where Nahash has threatened the men of Jabesh.

So as we consider that, then the people meet at Bezek.

That's where the battle's gonna be carried out. So this was a strategic plan that Saul is bringing together.

It's gonna require some strategy. These Ammonites are vicious warriors and the people now are coming as one.

So Saul's gotta devise a plan in which he can overtake this enemy.

Saul being this newly elected king now is going to show the

Israelites his might. So we look to him to see how he's gonna respond on behalf of God's chosen.

He was first, two things. He was angered and this anger caused him to want to rally the people.

He wanted to build an army quickly. So he cuts up the oxen, sends it throughout

Israel. That brought the fear of the Lord. Now, this is the important part.

As we consider Saul and what he's done, how did it begin?

Verse six, the spirit of the Lord God came upon Saul mightily.

Now we have Saul being directed by God's Holy Spirit. He's empowered by God's Holy Spirit.

Now we know in the Old Testament, this was temporal. God would do that on occasion.

Then he would remove his spirit upon their disobedience or for any reason that God chose.

Here, now, Saul has confidence. Why does he have confidence? Well, he was anointed by Samuel, the judge of Israel.

He was anointed and then he was inaugurated. The people of Benjamin by lot chose him as their king.

Here's a man now who knows that he's serving God. He was appointed by Samuel and approved by Israelites.

So he's taken the reign. He is now being transformed by God so that he can carry out this task and do it in a way that they'll defeat their enemy.

Now, this cutting up of the oxen and sending them throughout

Israel, there was an occasion back in Judges chapter 19 in which a man did the same to his concubine and sent her throughout

Israel to arouse the Israelites. That was the only other occasion that we had for this type of incident.

So in verse seven, he took the yoke and he cut it up and sent it out. So then we have now the men of Israel, 330 ,000.

Ready to go to war. In verse nine, we read, they said to the messengers who had come, thus you will say to the men of Jabesh -Gilead, tomorrow by the time the sun is hot, you will have deliverance.

So the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh and they were glad. So now

Saul is telling them exactly what God's gonna do.

He's gonna deliver them. They're gonna defeat this wicked enemy. They are gonna take care of Nabash's army.

They'll destroy him. He was confident and even told them the timing that they would be delivered.

But he's using the word delivered. So as we think of this, God has empowered him to take on this awesome task and to carry it out on behalf of the

Israelites. Verses nine through 11.

They said to the messengers who had come, thus you'll say to the men of Jabesh -Gilead, tomorrow by the time the sun is hot, you will have deliverance.

So the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh and they were glad. Then in verse 10, then the men of Jabesh said, tomorrow we'll come out to you and you may do with us whatever seems good to you.

The next morning, Saul put the people in the three companies. Before we go there, notice that now the people of Jabesh have gone to Nahash and they've assured him, tomorrow we'll come to you.

You can do whatever you want to us. So Jabesh, at this point, he was confident that he was gonna mutilate these people to disgrace

Israel. He had no fear of Israel coming against him. So he lacked any fear at all.

So now, as we think of this plan, this is what Saul does to plan this strategic attack.

Verse 11, the next morning, Saul put the people in three companies and they came into the midst of the camp at the morning watch and struck down the

Ammonites until the heat of the day. Now the mid morning watch would be anywhere between two in the morning and six in the morning.

So that was very strategic, first of all. The Ammonites would most likely be asleep.

They may have guards, but they weren't prepared for battle and an attack is gonna be launched before they're even awake.

So that was part of the strategic plan. The second part is that he is going to divide the people in three companies, so he's got 330 ,000 men, warriors.

And he divides them into three companies. That's a good strategy because they would have been overwhelmed.

They could have attacked from different sides and then had an onslaught come to finish the battle.

So as we think of his strategy, it was well done to overcome this enemy.

Verse 12, excuse me, verse 11. The next morning

Saul put the people in three companies and they came in the midst of the camp at the morning watch and struck down the

Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those that survived were scattered so that no two men were left together.

So this wasn't just a mild victory. He scattered the whole tribe of the

Ammonites so that there was not even two together. He defeated them. It doesn't give us the count.

It doesn't tell us how many survivors there may have been. The point of this text is that God delivered his people from this wicked enemy and they weren't shamed.

God was glorified. As we think of the essence of this promise that tell the people of Jabesh that they'll be delivered by the heat of the day, he was confident, not in himself, but his confidence was in the

Lord. The Holy Spirit had come upon him. He carried out this strategy.

He planned the attack. He told them beforehand, by the heat of the day, you'll be delivered.

And that's exactly what happened. So as we look at this, there's a massive pointing.

Everything points to one thing, God's sovereignty. So as we think of God's sovereignty, look at what he did here.

He took a man that was basically a farmer. He looks for donkeys, can't find the donkeys, find

Samuel. He didn't know who Samuel was. Samuel is told by God that this is going to be the one to anoint king over Israel.

You're going to appoint him prince over my people. God is a king. He appoints him.

Then Saul doesn't do anything for a period of time. He continues in the agricultural world of his farm for his father, waiting for the right time.

When the time came, the Lord anointed him. The Spirit of God came upon him in power and his anger was stirred up.

Then he was ready for battle. He carried out this plan, defeated the enemy of Israel.

And we'll see that he gives glory to God. Then verse 12, then the people said to Samuel, who is he that said, shall

Saul reign over us? Bring the men that we may put them to death.

So do you remember back in chapter 10, the last verse, these worthless men, these were men that didn't follow

God. They were followers of Satan. They mocked

Saul. They didn't bring him a gift and they just mocked him. He didn't do anything then and watch his response now.

Verse 13, but Saul said, not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the

Lord has accomplished deliverance in Israel. Think about the restraint that Saul showed here.

He not only didn't want to take revenge, but he recognized that the

Lord had delivered Israel. There was no need to carry out this vengeance against these men at this time.

He did so to bring glory and honor to God, which it did.

Not another man shall be put to death this day. He wanted the focus to be on their deliverer,

Jehovah. That's what he wanted. He knew that that's how they were delivered from this enemy because he couldn't have done it.

He knew that and he knew that Samuel knew that as well.

So as much as we know, most commentators think that Samuel also followed

Saul in battle. So they were together and all of Israel knew that these were leading them now.

This was their judge and this was their king now leading them in victory over their enemy.

Verse 14, then Samuel said to the people, come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.

Now, I'll bring that up again, please. Gilgal was the place where they would,

Samuel wanted them to be for this great celebration of the victory that God delivered them.

So they would have went from Bezach to Gilgal and that's where they would celebrate.

You can turn it off. Thank you, Peter. Verse 15, so all the people went to Gilgal and there they made

Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. So you might think, well, he's already king.

He just led them in battle. Why would they say they would make him king there?

So we have to understand that Samuel called the people to Gilgal.

This was a famous sanctuary for Israel, for the Israelites. This was the one place where Samuel would go annually to judge

Israel. Then he would return to Ramah where his house was located.

So it was not too far as we saw from Jabesh, Gilead. It was situated in the lower

Jordan near Jericho. They could leave the field of battle and go to this sanctuary.

In verse 15, so all the people went there to Gilgal and were there made

Saul king before the Lord at Gilgal. This is not the anointing of Saul.

He was already anointed by Samuel back in chapter nine.

So we have to see what does this mean? Why did they appoint him king now?

The difference between Saul's election at Mizpah met with, it was met with opposition.

Not everybody was in full agreement that he should be king. The confirmation at Gilgal is much the same between the first proclamation of a king and then his coronation.

This was more of a coronation. Now he was recognized leader of Israel. Why? Because God raised him up and gave victory under this king's leadership.

The king as well as Samuel, but they knew it was God. God gets the glory.

But now they're affirming him as one group of Israelites.

They're all together. They're all recognizing this is the man that God gave us. This is our king.

So then he was confirmed by all. They would bring peace offerings and there were tokens of joy and gratitude.

And they followed with a feast. This was a coronation, a celebration, not only of the victory that their king had led them in, but also now we have this king.

They're the ones by the way, that no longer wanted Samuel to lead them.

You remember back in chapter eight, Samuel was getting old and his sons had been crooked because they were judging over Bathsheba.

And so they demanded, they went to the elders and they demanded a king. We want a king like other nations.

So it isn't as if this was a group of people, the Israelites that were following God.

There were idolaters, they had idols, they were sinful and they weren't obeying

God. They did not want to serve God. They wanted a king like all other nations. But here now this king, the

Lord came upon Saul and gave him victory. Now they're greatly rejoicing and they're celebrating as one nation.

Some of the principles perhaps that we might gain from this text is first of all,

God's sovereignty. It's God who is king of kings and Lord of lords.

It's God who is our mighty deliverer and rescuer. God is our salvation.

I'm glad, I wish they would have been able to do that song, but the worship team is gonna give us that song which we can too rejoice in as we lift it up to the

Lord. So first of all, we can find

God's sovereignty displayed. Another thing is the effects of the men of Jabesh.

They did not realize the resources that they had before them. First of all, they had the

Lord God Almighty. They didn't summon Samuel to seek the Lord for victory. If they had repented and turned to God and called upon Samuel to give them deliverance,

God would have done so under that repentant heart. This way, they look to Saul, they recognize that God is their deliverer, but they didn't realize the resources that they had.

They were sinful people at this time. As Christians, we know that we've got all the resources we need.

We have everything we need for life and godliness. God has given us the power over sin.

He has given us the ability to serve God. He's empowered us by his

Holy Spirit, and he's also given us his word. That is the resources of the

Almighty God for his people. Here, we have a vivid display of how

God worked in the Old Testament to bring victory and to be glorified through that, knowing that he was their deliverer.

He was their savior. So as we close, I'm gonna close a little early.

I just want us to remember that as we look at these texts, it's more than a historical book.

All scripture is profitable for reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness so that man of God may be fully equipped for every good work.

So we have to understand, as we look at scripture, there's more to it than just a historical event.

Yes, we see God delivering the Israelites. We see him defeating these wicked enemies of Israel.

And yet, most of all, we see him lifted up as King of kings and Lord of lords.

God, who is our deliverer. So let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you, Lord, that you are sovereign God. You have not only provided the way of salvation through your son, our

Lord Jesus Christ, and his perfect sacrifice on the cross, but you have also, for all those who turn to him, to you in repentance, you have indwelt us by your

Holy Spirit and given us your divine word. We give you thanks and praise for what you reveal of your glory throughout your word.

And we pray that you would continue to be glorified in all that you do. We give you praise, in Jesus' precious name, amen.

♪ Lord, you're my soul clings to you ♪ ♪

Your right hand upholds me ♪ ♪ But those who seek to destroy my life ♪ ♪

Shall go down into the depths of the earth ♪ ♪

They shall be given the sword ♪ ♪

They shall be abortion for jackals ♪ ♪

Kings shall rejoice in God ♪ ♪

All who swear by his exalt ♪ ♪

For the mouths of liars, for the mouths of liars ♪ ♪

Teach me, O Lord, statutes ♪ ♪

And I will keep it to the end ♪ ♪

Give me understanding ♪ ♪

That I may keep your law and observe it ♪ ♪

Leave me inclined to your testimonies ♪ ♪

To selfish gain ♪ ♪

And give me in your concern and your promise ♪ ♪

That you may be feared, that you may be feared ♪ ♪

Take away the reproach that I dread ♪ ♪

For your rules are good ♪ ♪

Behold, I long for your precepts ♪ ♪

In your righteousness, give me life ♪ ♪

Justness, give me life ♪ ♪

May God be gracious to us and bless us ♪ ♪

And make his face to shine upon us ♪ ♪

That your way may be known on earth ♪ ♪

Your saving power among all nations ♪ ♪

Let the patients be glad ♪ ♪

And sing for joy ♪ ♪

For you judge the peoples with equity ♪ ♪

Nations of all ♪ ♪ Let the peoples praise you, praise you, praise you ♪ ♪

The earth has yielded its increase ♪ ♪

And our God shall bless us, God shall bless us ♪ ♪

Let all the ends of the earth fear him too, oh

God ♪ ♪

Let the peoples praise you, praise you, praise you ♪ ♪

Lord you have searched me and known me ♪ ♪

You know when I sit down and when I rise up ♪ ♪

You discern my thoughts from afar ♪ ♪

You search out my path and my light down ♪ ♪

And are acquainted with all, and are acquainted with all ♪ ♪

And before my tongue, behold oh

Lord, you know it all together ♪ ♪

You heal me in, behind and before it ♪ ♪

Such knowledge as to what it is

I, I cannot attain it ♪ ♪

I cannot attain it ♪ ♪

Where shall I go from your spirit ♪ ♪

Where shall I flee from your presence ♪ ♪

If I ascend to heaven, you are there ♪ ♪

If I take the wings of the morning ♪ ♪

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there ♪ ♪

Your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me ♪ ♪

If I say surely the darkness shall cover me ♪ ♪

The darkness is not dark to you ♪ ♪

The night is bright as the day for darkness is light with you ♪ ♪

Where shall I go from your spirit ♪ ♪

Where shall I flee from your presence ♪ ♪

If I ascend to heaven, you are there ♪ ♪

If I make my bed and she over you formed my inward paws ♪ ♪

You knitted me together in my mother's womb ♪ ♪

I praise you for I am fearfully and wanting from you ♪ ♪

Your secret intricately woven in the depths of darkness ♪ ♪

In your book were written every one of these that were formed for me ♪ ♪

When as yet there was none of them ♪ ♪

When you are dead and she holds you there ♪ ♪

How precious to me are your thoughts, oh

God ♪ ♪ How vast is the sum if I would count them ♪ ♪

They are more than the sin I awakened,

I am still with you ♪ ♪ What's to lay the wicked, oh

God, oh man ♪ ♪

They speak against you with malicious intent ♪ ♪

Your enemies take your name in vain, do

I not preserve me, oh

God ♪ ♪ For in you I take refuge, I say to the

Lord, you are my Lord ♪ ♪

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight ♪ ♪

The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply ♪ ♪

I drink offerings of blood, I will not pour out their names on my lips ♪ ♪

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot ♪ ♪

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed I have beautiful inheritance ♪ ♪

You bless the

Lord, give me counsel in the night, oh so my heart instructs me ♪ ♪

I have set the Lord always before me because he is in my right hand ♪ ♪

My flesh also dwells secure for you, will not abandon my soul to Sheol, oh let your only one see corruption ♪ ♪

I've been a dwelling place, a rock amidst the waves ♪ ♪

Though everything around us shakes, your truth will still remain, our anchor forever ♪ ♪

You will never change, you will never change, from everlasting you are

God ♪ ♪ Your love forever will endure, your promises are sure, to everlasting you are

God ♪ ♪ Passing dream, a thought that soon is gone, our strength we cling to you, our rock steadfast and true, our refuge forever ♪ ♪

You will never change, you will never change, from everlasting you are

God ♪ ♪

Number here and every years, for eternity you will be, you will never change, you will never change, from everlasting you are

God ♪ ♪ Your love forever will endure, your promises are sure, to everlasting you are

God ♪ ♪

Praise the Lord, oh praise his name, from the heights of heaven he reigns, seated in the highest place, surrounded by unending praise ♪ ♪

Lift your voice and dance around, everything that has breath praise the

Lord, everything that's in us praise him, everything that has breath praise the

Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the

Lord with instruments, praise him for his excellence, look at what he's done for us, bore our sins upon the cross, praise the

Lord with all you are, mind and soul and will and heart ♪ ♪

From his hand comes everything, he alone is

God and King, everything that has breath praise the

Lord, everything that's in us praise him, everything that has breath praise the

Lord ♪ ♪ Everything that's in us praise him, everything that has breath praise the

Lord, everything that has breath praise the

Lord, everything that's in us praise him, everything that has breath praise the

Lord ♪ ♪ You're holy, you're righteous, you're faithful, you're faithful and strong, let all of creation praise the

Lord ♪ ♪

The heavens shake, the mountains quake and crumble to the sea, the oceans roar because the

Lord is reigning sovereignly and those who trust in you will never be afraid, those who trust in you will not be moved ♪ ♪

God is our refuge, our shelter and our strength, the

Lord our fortress, our rock and our defense,

God is our refuge, our help in time of need, he will always be our peace ♪ ♪

The sound of violence in the earth, nations rage against your name, against your mighty word, one day wars will cease, endless peace will reign, one day all the earth will be made new ♪ ♪

God is our refuge, our shelter and our strength, the

Lord our fortress, our rock and our defense,

God is our refuge, our help in time of need, he will always be our peace ♪ ♪

If you are for us, against us, if you are for us, we'll never be ashamed, if you are who can be against us, if you are for us ashamed, ashamed ♪ ♪

God is our refuge, our shelter and our strength, the

Lord our fortress, our rock and our defense, God is our refuge, our help in time of need, he will always be our peace, fortress ♪ ♪

You are the protector of the widow, the daily barrister, you break the prisoner's chains and set them free,

God shall arise and his foes be scattered,

God shall arise and both sing his praise ♪ ♪

Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of Let all the nations say you are awesome

Let every kingdom sing praise

You are awesome, you are awesome, you are awesome

You are awesome, you are awesome, you are awesome, you are awesome You are awesome, you are awesome, you are awesome, you are awesome

One, two, there we are. Good morning everybody. Welcome to Kootenai Church. If you haven't already, please stand as we sing this morning

Wonderful Grace of Jesus. Wonderful grace of Jesus Greater than all my sins

How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin?

Taking away my burden Setting my spirit free

For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me

Wonderful from ashes, grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea

Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain All -sufficient grace driven me

Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater far than all my sin and shame

O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name

Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching to all the lost

By it I have been pardoned Saved to the uttermost

Chains have been torn asunder Giving me liberty

For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me

Wonderful from ashes, grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea

Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain All -sufficient grace driven me

Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater far than all my sin and shame

O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name

Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching the most defiled

By its transforming power Making Him God's dear child

Purchasing peace and heaven For all eternity

And the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me

Wonderful from ashes, grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea

Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain All -sufficient grace driven me

Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater far than all my sin and shame

O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name

Great is your faithfulness, O God You wrestle with a sinner's heart

You lead us by still waters into mercy

And nothing can keep us apart So remember your people

Remember your children Remember your promise,

O God Your grace is enough

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me

Great is your love and justice, God You use the weak to lead the strong You lead us in the song of your salvation

And all your people sing along So remember your people

Remember your children Remember your promise,

O God Your grace is enough

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me

So remember your people, remember your children, remember your promise,

O God. Your grace is enough,

Your grace is enough, Your grace is enough for me, for me.

The grace of God has reached for me, and pulled me from the raging sea.

And I am safe on the solid ground, the

Lord is my salvation. I will not fear when darkness falls,

His strength will help me scale these walls. I'll see the dawn of the rising sun, the

Lord is my salvation. Who is like the

Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love.

My debt is paid, and the victory won, the

Lord is my salvation. My hope is hidden in the

Lord, He flowers each promise of His word.

When winter fades, I know spring will come, the

Lord is my salvation. In times of waiting, times of need, when

I know loss, when I am weak. I know

His grace, whom He knew these days, the Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love.

My debt is paid, and the victory won, the

Lord is my salvation. And when

I reach the final day, He will not leave me in the grave.

But I will rise, He will call me home, the

Lord is my salvation. Who is like the

Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love.

My debt is paid, and the victory won, the

Lord is my salvation. Glory be to God the

Father, glory be to God the

Son, glory be to God the

Spirit. The Lord is our salvation, the

Lord is our salvation, the

Lord is our salvation. You may be seated.

I have a number of announcements here this morning, welcome. First, you'll notice that there is a table with some bottles, baby bottles on it in the foyer.

This is a fundraiser for the local crisis pregnancy care center. So if you would take one of those home and sign one of those out, you can fill it with spare change throughout the course of the next month, and then bring it back on the collection

Sunday, which will be Father's Day. And that money is used to support the crisis pregnancy center, so please take note of that.

And when we are done today, because the women's retreat is coming up this next weekend, we have to pick up all of the chairs so that they can vacuum in here and set up tables for the women's retreat.

So when we're done, anybody who can help out with that, please do. We're just going to stack the chairs, and you can leave them stacked here in the sanctuary.

And the following week is our equipping conference with Phil Johnson on the life and legacy of Charles Spurgeon.

And that is sold out, but we do have a waiting list of people. There's 20 or 25 or something like that on that waiting list.

So if you have signed up and you are not going to be able to make it to that, please let us know. You can get a refund for your registration, and then we will pass that on to whoever is on the top of that waiting list.

And next Sunday, a bunch of announcements, I said we did. Next Sunday, we have a family visiting us, one of our missionary families, the

Wendells, Marty and Jeanette Wendell. It's been a number of years since they have been able to join us, simply because of travel concerns as well as health concerns with their own family and his parents.

But they are in Trout Creek, Montana right now, and they're going to be here next week to give us an update.

Marty and Jeanette are going to take the adult Sunday school hour, and if you are somewhere else in the facility doing

Sunday school during that time, that will be live streamed and recorded and on the YouTube channel, so you'll be able to see an update of their ministry.

They're going to take the entire adult Sunday school class to show you what has been going on through BCM Ministries and what they've been doing for the last number of years.

And then during the worship service, Marty will be up here to give a brief update on that as well. So be prepared to meet them if you haven't yet.

I know a lot of you don't know our missionary families, but that'll be a great opportunity for you to get to know one of them. And then coming up on June 18th, we are going to have, this is a

Friday night, we're going to have a new family's night or a new person, new people's night, new whatever you want to call it, new

Ducoutny Community Church night. It's a Friday night, and we will serve you pizza. And next week, there'll be a sign -up sheet on the table out there.

It's going to be an opportunity for you, if you are new to our congregation, to our church, to meet the elders and the deacons.

All the elders will be there with their wives and the deacons, hopefully, and their wives. And we'll be able to introduce ourselves to you, get to know you a little bit.

Sometimes when you have a large group of new people who show up, it's difficult to assimilate them and get to know them and meet them and find out about you and let you find out about us.

So that's going to be an opportunity for you to do that. June 18th, it's a Friday night. Just mark it down, and you'll be able to sign up for that next week.

This last announcement is for the kids and parents. So kids, please listen up.

Make sure that I have the attention of all of the children in the congregation. Everybody's listening to me and the parents? Okay.

We need to make sure that we are not running inside of our church building. So last week, we had three incidences where a child collided with senior citizens.

One person who had an operation on a leg got collided into. And so I know it's very tempting because at Adventure Club and Classical Conversations and the play days and all of the other functions that we have here, you get to run around and play games, and that's all part of that.

But kids, please listen up. On a Sunday morning, we do not want any running going on here at all.

It's not because we hate children. It's because we don't hate seniors either. And so there are a number of them who are frail.

A number of them come here, and they don't want to leave in an ambulance. They show up under their own transportation.

They don't want to leave under anybody else's transportation. So if we could just remember that, and parents,

I mentioned that to you as well. The security guys are all up to speed on it. They're going to start correcting children and stopping them if they see them running.

A couple of the sheriff's deputies who attend here enthusiastically volunteered to tase them. And I said, no,

Rich, let's just wait. Let me announce it. Give it a Sunday or two to learn the new habits, and then tase away.

So if you could remember that, and parents, you help us police that.

I don't want to do it myself. I'm already becoming the get -off -my -lawn guy, and I don't want to be pushed over the edge to have to do that with every kid here.

And I don't want my relationship with every kid in the church to be the guy that runs around stopping them from running because that's just not good for my relationship with the kids.

So please be mindful of that. Let's all just be a bit more diligent because it is a serious danger threat to some folks who are here.

All right, enough of that. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 67, please. Psalm 67.

This is a song from the choir director with stringed instruments.

Psalm 67, beginning at verse 1.

God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on the earth,

Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise

You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth.

Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You. The earth has yielded its produce. God, our

God, blesses us. God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him. Will you stand with me as we pray?

Let's bow our heads. Father, You are a God who is worthy to be praised and worthy to be exalted and worthy to receive worship and honor and adoration.

And You are worthy of all of that and so much more than we could give to You or offer to You in the brief lives that we have.

We thank You and praise You for our salvation, for our protection, for our provision. We thank

You for this church body and for the leadership here and all those who come and volunteer and contribute. We thank

You that the Word of God is preached here in our community, and we thank You for those who faithfully serve in all of those capacities, for our missionaries who serve

You in this country and abroad. We thank You for the blessings that You have poured out upon Your people around this nation and around this world.

And we pray that You would protect and that You would provide for and that You would sovereignly guide

Your people, Your believers, those whom You have redeemed, that they may give

You honor and glory and that in doing that all the nations may learn to fear You. We do look forward to that day when, because and through the return of Christ, all the nations will worship

Him and long for that kingdom and we long for that reality. But in this world, we know that we will have tribulation and suffering and affliction, and we pray for Your people that You would strengthen us and unite our hearts in love and worship and adoration and praise together, and that You would strengthen our hearts and give us courage to stand in the truth, to love the truth, and to be bold in our proclamation of the truth.

Unite our hearts to that end and unite us together for those purposes that You may be honored amongst those who are

Yours and that You may be glorified by Your people. We praise You this morning that You have called us here together,

You've redeemed us out of darkness and brought us into the light of the kingdom of Your dear Son, and we pray that You would be honored and glorified through our praise, through the preaching of Your Word, our reading of it, our meditation upon it, and our fellowship with one another.

We ask these things in the name of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of the

Holy Spirit. Amen. I'm alive and well,

Your Spirit is within me Because You died and rose again

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken

I'm accepted, You were condemned

I'm alive and well, Your Spirit is within me

Because You died and rose again Amazing love, how can it be

That You might need to die for me Amazing love,

I know it's true And it's my joy to honor

You In all I do, to honor

You You are my

King You are my

King Jesus, You are my

King Jesus, You are my

King Amazing love, how can it be

That You might need to die for me

Amazing love, I know it's true

And it's my joy to honor You In all

I do, to honor You In all

I do, to honor You In Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 7, it reads,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which

He graciously bestowed on us and the beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of His grace.

O fount of love, divine that flows from my

Savior's bleeding side, where sinners train their filthy rags for His righteousness applied.

Mercy cleansing every stain, now rushing o 'er us like a flood, where the wretched and violent swans stand adopted through His blood.

O mount of grace, to Thee we cling, from above have set us free, once and for all on Calvary's hill, love and justice shall agree.

Praise the Lord, the price is paid, the curse defeated by the dead, we who once were slaves by birth, sons and daughters, now we stand.

Of joy is mine to drink, for my Lord has conquered death, victorious forevermore, the ancient foe is laid to rest.

Alleluia, Christ is King, alive and reigning on the throne.

Our tongues employ with hymns of praise, glory be to God alone.

Alleluia, Christ is King, alive and reigning on the throne.

Our tongues employ with hymns of praise, glory be to God alone.

Our tongues employ with hymns of praise, glory be to God alone.

Now, if you will, please turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, to chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, and we're going to begin reading at verse 19, to catch some of the context again.

Hebrews 10, verse 19, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembly together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve, who has trampled underfoot the

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

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Let's pray before we begin. Our Father, we do ask for your help and assistance in understanding this passage.

Help us to understand who is being described here, what is being warned about, and help us to see if we are in this group of people that is being described here.

We pray that you would bless the preaching and the teaching and our understanding of your word and the power of your Holy Spirit so that we may honor you with obedient hearts and obedient lives.

Be honored and glorified here we pray in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, apostates.

We all know one. I mean, it's not that we all know the same one, but we all know somebody who has departed the faith at one time or another.

We all know someone who has had exposure to Christian truth and felt their hearts strangely warmed by the gospel message.

And then they began to enjoy the fellowship and the meeting with the people of God and even made friends with many who were in the church.

Then they made a profession, a valid one it seems, a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and then were baptized.

And then they went on to serve in various ministries within the church, even evidencing certain

Christian virtues and qualities like forgiveness and graciousness and kindness and gentleness and compassion and love and submission.

And then slowly, sometimes slowly, their affections begin to cool and the passions begin to wane and their priorities shift.

And what was once a fervent conviction and commitment to Christian truth becomes an almost undiscernible apathy toward Christian things and Christian truth.

Something happens sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly, but eventually and inevitably, they end up leaving the

Christian faith and renouncing what they once firmly would have held that they believed and firmly would have insisted that they were part of.

They walk away, leaving the faith. In the end, they forsake the assembling of themselves with other

Christians and then begin to renounce the truth that they once openly professed. And sometimes those people go on to be apathetic observers of Christian things, sort of sitting by the sideline, watching what's going on, thinking to themselves,

I gave the whole Jesus thing a whirl for a period of time and it didn't work out for me. Others go on to become hostile and openly hostile to Christian truth and to Christian things, even attacking the faith that they once said that they would have believed.

This is nothing new under the sun. In the first century, the apostle John wrote of those who went out from us, but they were not really of us.

Their going out from us demonstrated that they were of us. And John says, if they were of us, that is, if they were believers, they would have remained with us.

But the apostate leaves in order to reveal that they were never really of us to begin with. According to John, the departure of apostates from the

Christian faith gives evidence of what they were all along, professing believers and not believers at all, not really of the people of God, not one of the people of God, but just simply one who professes or pretends to be one.

And apostates eventually and inevitably leave the faith because they cannot put up airs and pretenses and the exhausting charade of what it means to try and pretend to be one of the people of God.

So eventually they depart. And sometimes we are able to see the apostasy happen relatively quickly.

Sometimes it goes in slow motion. Sometimes there are people who attach themselves to the congregation of God's people and you suspect from the very beginning that something is not right, something is a little off.

Maybe it's their profession of faith or the way they talk about Christian truth or Christian theology. Something is not quite right there.

But then over the course of time it becomes more and more evident that something is seriously and profoundly wrong in their

Christian profession of faith. And then eventually they leave. Sometimes the departure is quick and it takes us all by surprise.

And the more high profile the quote -unquote Christian is who makes his departure from the faith, the more devastating it is to those

Christians who are left behind and who observe the whole thing. And so if it is a well -known pastor or an author or a conference speaker or one who has made a name within Christian circles in some high -profile way, his departure from the faith is then used as an opportunity by those who are not believers, by the watching world, to bludgeon those of us who are true

Christians and to besmirch the name of Christ. And the more high -profile they are and the more ardent they are and passionate they are in their previous convictions, the more devastating their departure from the faith becomes.

Because Christians then watch those who have left the faith and they just scratch their head and say, how could that person not have been a

Christian? It's almost appalling. It's devastating. Last week I set a little bit of the theological table for this discussion on the warning passages in Hebrews 6 and 10.

These warning passages in Hebrews help us to understand the nature of this apostasy, who it is that apostatizes and the judgment that the apostate faces.

And so that is why, while going through this, that is why we're taking the time today to really focus in on this question of who are the apostates that are mentioned in these warning passages in Hebrews 2 and in Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 6 and in Hebrews chapter 10.

So I mentioned last week that this is a battleground text amongst those who, over the issue of the security of our salvation, there are those who would disagree with my position and say that a

Christian can genuinely lose their salvation and perish in hell. And then there are people who believe that a Christian, a genuine

Christian, cannot lose their salvation and perish in hell. And so that raises, quite naturally, a question.

The question is this. How essential is this issue if we disagree on it? Do those who believe that you can lose your salvation, does believing something like that make you a heretic or aberrant in your theology?

Does it make you wrong enough to go to hell itself? And the answer to that is no. This is not an essential issue, but it is a very important issue.

It's not essential in the sense that if you disagree with me, you're going to hell. This is not an essential issue in the sense that if you get this wrong, this is wrong enough to mean that you are not a

Christian and you don't have sound enough theology, you're not trusting in Christ, and therefore you're going to perish. This is not essential in that way where denying the security of the believer is a denial of an essential cardinal doctrine of the

Christian faith, but it is very important, and here's why. Because all of our theology is connected.

Quality stuff. I don't know what's going on. All right. All of our theology is connected. Truth is consistent. And so theologies have a way of bleeding into each other.

So if you get something wrong in one area, it's inevitably going to crop up in other areas of your theology because truth is consistent and all attached to each other.

So if you get this issue wrong, I can guarantee that there are some other issues where your thinking on it is going to be unbiblical simply because the other doctrines that are attached to this are, in some cases, very essential doctrines.

Like, what did Jesus actually do on the cross? For whom did he die? What is the nature of justification, sanctification?

How certain is our glorification? What is, what does God's predetermined plan, what does his purposes actually accomplish from eternity past on into the present?

There are other theologies that bleed into this, and so it is important that we take the time to get it right. Though it is a secondary issue, it is a very, very significant issue.

So, while it's not an important, while it is an important doctrine, though not an essential doctrine, Hebrews chapter 10 gives us a chance to really kind of slow down and give some thoughtfulness to the nature of this apostasy and who these apostates are.

So that is what we're doing. Looking today in verses 26 and 27, we're going to answer three questions from this text that will help us to understand who apostates are and what it is that they do when they leave the

Christian faith. And here are the three questions. Let's read verses 26 and 27 together again, and then

I'll give you the three questions. Verse 26, For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Now here are the three questions. What is the willful sin mentioned in verse 26? What is the willful sin?

Number two, why is there no sacrifice for it? And number three, what is the judgment that is faced by those who commit it?

What is the willful sin? Why is there no sacrifice for it? And then what is the judgment that is described in verses 26 and 27?

So first, what is this willful sin? The very first word of verse 26 connects us back to the context because as I said a few weeks ago, it is an inferential conjunction, meaning that it joins what comes in verses 26 and following the stern warning with the exhortations that preceded it in verses 22 through verse 25.

So it is as if the author in verse 25 is saying, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of son, but instead encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching because, here is how the argument flows out of the text, you do these things and not neglect your assembly because there are some who will do that very thing and they go on sinning willfully.

This willful sin is connected to the exhortations in verses 24 and 25.

The willful sin is the neglect of those three previous exhortations. Let us draw near, let us hold fast and let us encourage others to do the same or gather together with others for that same purpose.

These people who commit the willful sin, they are people who have not drawn near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith having their hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water as is described in verse 22.

They are not those who have drawn near in that sense. They may have drawn near but not in full assurance of faith. They may have drawn near but not having their hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.

They are not those who hold fast the confession of our hope firm until the end. They are not those who encourage others to do the same and they are not those who obey the commandment to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

We saw back in verse 25 that the forsaking of the assembly was not just missing church on occasional Sunday because you're sick or because you're ill or you're caring for somebody or you're traveling.

That's not what's being described. What's being described there is desertion. It's the act of deserting the Christian assembly.

These are people who have turned their back on the assembly and gone their own way and done their own thing. Those are the ones that are being described here.

So the author says then in verse 26 those who go on sinning willfully, what is the willful sin?

It's connected to the previous exhortations. The willful sin is not drawing near with a sincere faith.

It is not holding fast the confession of our hope without wavering and it is not encouraging others to do the same but instead forsaking and neglecting the assembly of the saints.

That is an idea of what the willful sin is. And notice that it is called a willful sin.

He doesn't just say if anyone sins after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Has anybody here sinned after receiving the knowledge of the truth?

If that's what he is talking about all of us have. So all of us would fall into this camp. We've all sinned after receiving the knowledge of the truth but he specifically is describing a kind of sin and a duration of sin that the author has in mind here.

If you go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth. That word willfully is a word that means intentionally or voluntarily.

In fact the only other time in the New Testament that this word is used it is translated as voluntarily. It's used only two times here and later in 1

Peter chapter 5 where Peter describes the elders who quote exercise oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily.

That's the word voluntarily. And to illustrate the meaning here of this word willful you understand that Peter is using it of elders who serve in an elder capacity and they do it voluntarily.

No elder ever slips and falls into eldership. No elder accidentally elders.

I've never walked up to a guy and said hey what are we doing here today? I'm sorry I just accidentally eldered today while I was here at the congregations.

Nobody ever does this accidentally or haphazardly or thoughtlessly or without intentionality but those who serve as elders do so voluntarily willfully deliberately considerably thoughtfully.

They give some thoughtfulness to it and they do it with diligence because they plan and purpose it and that's the idea behind this word.

They do it voluntarily not accidentally. So this is not describing then somebody who falls into sin or sins accidentally.

It's not describing something that happens and you lose your temper and you sin in that way and then you wonder if you've lost your salvation.

That's not what this word is describing. It's describing a thoughtful thought through execution a planned out determined sin that continues on and on.

I don't know about you but I can't tolerate any more of that.

There we go. Maybe it's my beard. I'm sorry. So it is a thought out willful deliberate intentional thought through planned out executed.

This is done with forethought this sin. Whatever this willful sin is it is done with forethought. Not something that somebody falls into.

It's something that they willingly voluntarily intentionally you might even say high handedly or with a premeditated in a premeditated fashion they commit this sin.

Further the present participle of this word tells us that it is an ongoing pattern something that is continual.

Wayne Grudem in a chapter on this subject of the warning passages he writes this quote the present participle indicates an ongoing pattern of sin.

The new international version translates if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth no sacrifice for sins is left.

Willful and persistent rejection of the truth and living in rebellion against it are in view in this verse.

Close quote. And that comes from a chapter in a book called Still Sovereign edited by Thomas Schreiner and Bruce Ware and I would commend the book to you.

Wayne Grudem contributes one chapter in that book to the subject of all of the warning passages in the book of Hebrews and of all that I have read on the warning passages in the book of Hebrews and I haven't read everything there is to read because that would take me a lifetime but of all that I have read and it's quite a lot

Wayne Grudem's treatment is the best that I have seen out of any other author that I have seen on this subject. His one chapter in that book

Still Sovereign is worth the price of the entire book. It's not light reading but it's very very good theological reading and I would commend it to you.

So it is describing an established way of thinking and believing. It is describing a permanent renunciation of the gospel a permanent denouncing of Christ a permanent turning away and this is not something that is done accidentally it's not something that is done haphazardly it's not something that you fall into and though we haven't covered this phrase yet I want to say

I want you to notice in verse 26 that it is something that is done after receiving the knowledge of the truth that's significant.

In other words this is a sin that is committed in the full light of revelation. This is somebody who does this sin not out of ignorance not out of unknowingness or any kind of accidentalness it's just something that is done against the truth with full knowledge of the truth.

Whoever these are who commit this sin of apostasy they do so with full understanding of the truth. Now let's contrast then at the risk of being somewhat redundant but I need to be clear let's contrast this sin then with a couple other things that it is not.

Again it is not we're not describing a Christian who lapses into sin. It is possible for Christians to lapse into sin.

It's possible for something to happen and you to respond in a sinful way. It is possible for a

Christian to sin sometimes even grievously and it is possible for a Christian to sin and even for that sin to go on for a period of time.

And I'm not going to give any kind of period of time because I don't want to give anybody an excuse to think that they're justified in going on that but if I said went on for six months you say okay

I got two more months left. I don't want to do anything like that. So it is possible for a Christian to lapse into a sinful habit and for that sinful habit to go on for a period of time.

We're not describing lapsing into sin or falling into sin. And the good news is that when a Christian lapses or falls into sin like that the

Lord sanctifies that believer out of it or disciplines him like in Hebrews chapter 12 so that he may produce in that believer the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

So I see somebody falling away from the faith or lapsing into sin I always say if that person is a believer God will discipline him.

And that's what I pray for. Lord pour out your discipline on that person. Bring them back to repentance and faith.

And if I see somebody who's a professed believer who is living in a sin and not repenting of it my assumption is that they're not believers no matter what their previous testimony has been.

And my prayer is that Lord if they are believers then discipline them severely enough to bring them back to the truth and do so quickly.

And if they are not believers then bring them to faith true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ before they fall away and are and cannot be renewed again to repentance.

That's my prayer. So we're not talking about a believer who lapses into sin. Second we're not talking about a believer who strays away in their intimacy from the

Lord for a period of time. Every Christian goes through seasons in your life where because of the circumstances of life or because of your emotions or because of your hormones or because of I'm just throwing that in there because of kids in your life or things that are happening outside of us or what's going on in a political arena that our passions our affections wax and wane a little bit we grow passion and our love for the

Lord and then we grow we kind of cool off for a season a time and we kind of want some distance for a period of time those things happen just the part of being human.

I'm not talking about that. I used to have a co -worker in a job that I worked at every Monday morning he was the most on fire fervent passionate just lit up Christian you'd ever seen.

Now by Friday it was a bit of a different story but Monday he'd come back again. Why was that? Because he went to church on Sunday so that he could get the emotions going again and in our conversation the theological conversations he always feared that if he didn't keep the emotions up and the passion there and the burning fire all the time just that always turned up dialed up to 11 if he didn't have it always dialed up to 11 then he might sort of cool off for a bit and what if he died at that point?

Then he wouldn't even know if he would go to see Jesus. We're not talking about a Christian whose affections cool for a period of time of course that is not an excuse in any way of consciously allowing our affections for the

Lord to cool we need to deal with those but that's not what's being described here this is a well thought out deliberate intentional high handed act of treachery against the truth.

That's what's being described. A high handed act of treachery against the truth. Now let me give you some examples even from recent years and I point to these not to besmirch these people at all but simply to give you examples that you are probably already familiar with.

Within the last three years most notably we saw the deconversion of Joshua Harris now Joshua Harris's departure from the

Christian faith made news in 2019 ironically and providentially while we were in the middle of studying the warning passage in Hebrews chapter 6 so that may be why that sounds familiar to you because I brought up Harris's name.

Harris gained fame because of his work with Sovereign Grace Ministries and the Gospel Coalition he wrote the book

I Kissed Dating Goodbye he was instrumental in the purity movement and his family is well known his brothers are well known he was quite the

Christian celebrity and the progression of Harris was slow but it was discernible in 2014 he left his pastorate of a

Sovereign Grace Church and then he left the Gospel Coalition later on he renounced his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye in 2018 he announced that he and his wife were separating several weeks later he announced that he and his wife were divorcing and several weeks later he announced that he was kissing

Christianity goodbye so his church and then the Gospel Coalition and then his wife and then his

Christianity and his book Joshua Harris ended up kissing a lot of things goodbye by 2018 and his departure from the faith made waves throughout

Christianity in his statement he said this quote I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus the popular phrase for this is deconstruction the biblical phrase is falling away by all measurements that I have for defining a

Christian I am not a Christian close quote do you remember that a few years ago that sent shock waves throughout

Christianity that was on Fox News you can still find the article there today and he went on to include in his statement an apology to the

LGBTQ plus community and several weeks after he departed the Christian faith he posted an

Instagram picture of him celebrating in a gay pride parade I think it was in Vancouver, B .C. if memory serves or Seattle it's all

Sodom over there so it doesn't matter which city it was before Joshua Harris was

Bart Ehrman now Bart Ehrman having studied at Moody Bible Institute Princeton Theological Seminary and Wheaton College Ehrman found a way to leverage his apostasy into a celebrity gig that has paid him quite well there is money to be made in attacking the

Christian faith and Bart Ehrman is an example of that he claims to have been a believer in Christ but after leaving the faith he wrote books and he's participated in public debates he's lectured publicly he's written articles and been on television programs and radio programs all in attempts to seeking to undermine the

Christian faith and the reliability of the New Testament he has spent his apostate days attacking Christianity publicly and applying his intellectual abilities and they are substantial intellectual abilities and speaking abilities into attacking the

Christian faith Bart Ehrman studied under some of the greatest minds that this generation has produced in Christianity he was one of Bruce Metzger's final students at Princeton Theological Seminary Bruce Metzger was a conservative

Greek and Hebrew scholar and a textual critic of the New Testament Bart Ehrman learned under one of the greatest minds concerning textual criticism in the

New Testament today he departed the faith turned from the truth Marty Sampson followed soon after Joshua Harris do you remember

Marty Sampson he was a prolific worship music writer known for Hillsong Worship Hillsong United Delirious the band

Delirious and of course his departure from the faith was posted on Instagram like Joshua Harris's was and he said

I am leaving the faith losing my faith he said and then he said it brought him great peace you know why it brought him great peace because it always brings you great peace when you're finally able to shed the sheep's clothing and stop pretending to be something that you're not in front of a watching world carrying on a charade like that is exhausting to pretend to be holy to pretend to love the

Lord to pretend to be in the circle to pretend to be part of the group to pretend to have these affections and these desires to put all of that up on a public display like that is just exhausting on a level that you cannot imagine unless you're doing it and then most recently son of influential pastor

John Piper Abraham Piper has become infamous almost online for attacking the

Christian faith and that is tragic on so many levels with a possible exemption of Marty Samson all of these men were immersed in biblical truth immersed in it and I say possible exemption of Marty Samson simply because the amount of rank and gross heresy that is woven into the warp and wolf of of Hillsong culture and theology

I would be surprised if Marty Samson ever even heard the gospel in those environments but the rest of them would have no excuse for their apostasy immersed in biblical truth growing up preaching the truth and reading the truth their apostasy from the

Christian faith their departure from the truth is deliberate and willful and flagrant and voluntary and completely well thought out and well considered you don't post a picture of yourself standing in front of a mountain lake with mountains in the background on Instagram with a long explanation of your departure from the

Christian faith if you have not thought that through and thought through all of the implications of it their departure from the faith is willful intentional deliberate and well considered these men know what they are doing when they leave and yet they leave willfully and voluntarily these are not

Christians that we are talking about for them this is an ongoing established way of thinking and believing a permanent renunciation of the gospel a permanent forsaking of God's grace and a permanent turning from the truth we are not describing somebody who has a doubt about the

Christian faith we are not describing somebody who has a theological conundrum that they are trying to work through and come to a conclusion on we are not talking about somebody who falls into sin or is in a state of ignorance or apathy or just cooled off for a moment in a relationship with the

Lord wrestling through something we are not describing any of that Harris, Berman, Samson there will be others

I promise you there will be others in our culture as the price of holding to Christian convictions continues to increase the list of people willing to pay the price to hold to those convictions will decrease

I said it some weeks ago our list of allies grows thin and it is going to grow thinner it is going to grow so thin that you are going to need a magnifying glass to see it

I would not be surprised I will give you an unpopular prediction unpopular opinion whatever I will lay this out here this is my cards

I would not be surprised if we see every year from now until the Lord returns or the end of western civilization as we know it whichever comes first the departure of at least one high profile evangelical from the

Christian faith from orthodoxy into heresy or apostasy every year from now until then

I would not be surprised if we see that I could name for you five high profile evangelicals right now that are teetering on the brink of apostasy and five more whose trajectory does not bode well for them in the years to come prepare for more and don't be shaken by it the first century had their heresies and their

Bart Ehrmans and their Samsons and their Pipers the first century had those and one of the things that the warning passage in Hebrews helps us to do is to understand the true nature of what is going on in that when those people leave they are not leaving they are leaving an understanding of the truth but they are not leaving because they were once saved and have lost their salvation these are apostates who were never saved to begin with so notice now the next phrase receiving the knowledge of the truth that these people do this in full light of what they know to be true having received a full understanding and a full knowledge of the truth now this phrase is understood by many who believe that you can lose your salvation as describing those who are genuinely saved that this knowledge of the truth means that they have not only been exposed to the truth but they have seen it they have understood it they have embraced it they have welcomed it they have then been transformed by it some would even use this phrase as synonymous with repentance and true and genuine faith in Christ and so I would ask you are we justified in understanding this group having received a knowledge of the truth is that a synonymous description of a

Christian is that synonymous with repentance and faith and regeneration now it's true that that phrase is used to describe genuine believers in scripture and I'll give you some examples of it 1st

Timothy chapter 2 verse 4 says that God desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth and there

Paul is using it as synonymous with salvation in 2nd Timothy 2 .25 Paul instructs Timothy to correct those who are in opposition if perhaps

God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth that seems to be salvation that Paul has in mind 2nd

Timothy 3 verse 7 describes those who are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth Titus 1 verses 1 and 2

Paul a bond servant of God an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness in the hope of eternal life which

God who cannot lie promised long ages ago there is a knowledge of the truth that is according to godliness and I would suggest there may be a knowledge of the truth that is not according to godliness an ability to have a knowledge of the truth and receive a knowledge of the truth that does not result in eternal life and salvation so yes the phrase is used to describe

Christians but here is the issue can we always take this phrase having received the knowledge of the truth can we always take that as synonymous with salvation

I'm not arguing that a Christian is one who has not received a knowledge of the truth because obviously receiving a knowledge of the truth is essential to becoming a

Christian there's intellectual content that you have to hear receive and understand and apprehend in order for you to do what

God has commanded you to do there must be a reception of the truth and an understanding of the truth but are we justified in saying that one who has received the knowledge of the truth is therefore always a

Christian let me put it another way if the author wanted to describe somebody who had heard the truth understood the truth made an intellectual assent to the truth nodded their head to the truth maybe even repeated the truth back to others professed to believe the truth had encountered the truth in a very real but though superficial way and had even maybe conformed their lives to the truth like a sow that is washed for instance and they have outwardly conformed their lives to those true standards and enjoyed certain benefits of being in environments where the truth flourishes but had never themselves ever been transformed by that truth or regenerated by that truth but had received the knowledge would the author describe such a one would he not say that they had received the knowledge of the truth if you're sitting here and you're an unbeliever and you've been an unbeliever here for the last 10 years and you've heard all of the preaching through the book of Hebrews and you have heard the gospels presented over and over and over and the clarity of doctrinal truth laid out from everybody who has stood behind this pulpit and everybody who was taught in adult

Sunday school class and you have heard all of that and you walk away would it not be fair to say that you had received the knowledge of the truth it certainly would we would never describe you as being one who was ignorant of the truth you'd received it you had known it every

Christian has received the knowledge of the truth but not everyone who has received the knowledge of the truth as a

Christian because you can receive the truth and you can understand the truth and make intellectual assent to the truth even conform your life outwardly externally to the truth and never truly be saved this is what we encountered back in Hebrews chapter 6 and this is when the author talked about those who fall away having once been enlightened we saw back in chapter 6 what is being described there it's one who has received the light of truth every

Christian has been enlightened but not everyone who has been enlightened is a Christian because something more is necessary to make you a

Christian than simply hearing and understanding the truth if all it was necessary to make you a

Christian was here and understand the truth everybody that I've ever spoken to would be a Christian everybody I ever preached the gospel to would be a

Christian that's something more is necessary than understanding the truth a

Christian is one who has been regenerated by the truth and regeneration the new birth that is a divine act that is a divine miracle that is something a sovereign

God does you can receive the knowledge of the truth without ever being transformed by the truth you can be enlightened by the truth without ever being regenerated by the truth because believers are not just those who have been enlightened and not just those who have received the knowledge of the truth believers are those whose lives have been transformed by a sovereign work of a regenerating

Holy Spirit who gives them life and causes them to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that is a believer not one who simply nods intellectually to the truth and I would suggest that those who take this description after receiving the knowledge of the truth those who take that phrase and say that that is equal to a

Christian you're making far more out of that phrase than is ever warranted from the text so every

Christian has the knowledge of the truth but not everyone who has the knowledge of the truth is a

Christian the word translated knowledge here by the way is more than just a passing acquaintance of or familiarity with Christian truth it's more than just yeah they knew it this is epigenosco which means a close intimate proximity to the truth it's described somebody who is more than just passing acquaintance with it but somebody who knows it really really well this would not describe your average garden variety pagan on the outside who's hangs around the fringes of the

Christian church and hear certain Christian phrases this wouldn't describe somebody who just comes to church once a year on Easter and is vaguely familiar vaguely can vaguely approximate the

Christian message most people who are my age or around my age and older would have a passing acquaintance with the claims of the

Christian faith they would all be able to say well not all of them but most people of my generation or older would be able to say yeah

I think Christians understand that Jesus died on a cross and then he rose with a bunny or something like that and then he and then if I ask him into my heart he magically makes me a

Christian I go to church the rest of my life and baptized or something like that be able to kind of vaguely approximate what we believe that's not how

I would describe it that's how a lot of people my generation would describe it a lot of pre millennial people

I don't mean pre millennial eschatological sense but in a generational sense a lot of people who are pre the millennial generation would describe

Christian teaching or sorry would not be able to describe Christian teaching that way but those who are after the millennial generation would be able to kind of give you a vague idea of what

Christianity teaches that's not what we're talking about not talking about a vague approximation of it this describes somebody who sits in the middle of good preaching understands it hears it and they even experience on a real and profound yet superficial level all of the benefits of being surrounded by people whose lives have been impacted by the truth they can they can repeat the gospel to you they can preach the gospel they can write the gospel they can teach the gospel they can read the gospel they can articulate to you what the gospel is and serve and look a lot like they have been conformed to the gospel but they've never been transformed by the gospel the truth has never impacted them and regenerated them these are people who are immersed immersed in biblical truth where do apostates come from environments just like this this these are the breeding grounds for apostates inside the church this is quite a profound profound realization

MacArthur in his commentary on Hebrews writes this and this just stunned me when I read it the first time which is why

I'm sharing it here he writes quote an apostate can be bred only in the brilliant light of proximity to Christ apostates are not made in the absence but in the presence of Christ they're bred almost without exception within the church in the very midst of God's people it is possible for a person to read the

Bible on his own to see the gospel clearly and then reject it apart from a direct association with Christians but by and large apostates come from within the church close quote so we're not talking about somebody who's here once a week or sorry once once a year we're not talking about atheists and garden variety pagans who just around the outskirts of Christianity who hear it and have been exposed to it that's not what we're talking about I'm not talking about somebody walks by a street preacher and writes them off as a peanut case and even though they hear the truth they turn from it and they reject it that's not what we're talking about we're talking about people who come from environments like this from amongst your own selves

Paul says false teachers will arise teaching perverse things in environments like this with sound teaching apostates come to the surface this happens all the time in churches all across the country and no church is an exception to it what what makes an apostate as an apostate is a clear understanding of the truth and then turning from that clear understanding of the truth and then turning and we have to distinguish between apostates and momentarily faithless

Christians or disobedient Christians and to give you an example between the two of those we could just look at the difference between Peter and Judas is it possible for somebody to be immersed in the truth and to hear the truth and and and to understand the truth and to do so on a very profound level and yet be unchanged and untransformed by the truth it is

Judas Iscariot was such a man only 11 other people on the face of the planet in all of human history have received as much revelation as much truth and as much understanding as Judas Iscariot has and yet Judas Iscariot was an unbeliever when he was exposed to Jesus the first time and he died an unbeliever so compared

Judas Iscariot to Peter Peter denied the Lord under duress under pressure and in fear as a coward he denied the

Lord and he felt remorse for it but later on you can see clearly that Peter sought restoration and forgiveness and the

Lord restored him and even used him in his fruitful and then there's Judas who betrayed the

Lord and profited from it not in a moment of weakness but out of his greed out of his avarice he betrayed the

Lord and that was a thought through intentional premeditated determined voluntary willful act of treachery against the

Lord and yet Judas felt remorse but it was a worldly sorrow that only led to his death he never came back to the truth but instead he denied the truth all the way to the end and though he was overcome with remorse and guilt for what he had done because he knew what he had done he was never forgiven he was never restored and he died in the same way and in the same condition as he was when he first met

Jesus that is as a non -believer Christians can and do sin that's Peter apostates commit the willful sin and they walk away from full revelation of truth and full understanding of the truth and leave the truth never to come back to it again when a

Christian sins the Lord disciplines him and brings him back to the repentance when an apostate sins the

Lord judges them as described later in this passage and sometimes a faltering Christian can look a lot like an apostate in the early early stages and sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between the two and I'm not convinced at all that we should be trying to do so a

Christian who falters early or sorry a Christian who falters in their sin and an apostate in the early stages of apostasy can sometimes look a lot alike

I would dare say that outwardly speaking just observing Peter and Judas I would dare say Judas I would dare say it might have looked on the night that Jesus was betrayed as if Peter and Judas were cut from the same cloth but they weren't

Peter repented was forgiven and restored and the difference between Peter and Judas is not just that Judas profited from his treachery and Peter did not the difference between Peter and Judas is that Peter was a genuine believer and though he fell in a moment of weakness the

Lord restored him and brought him back now by now you've probably gotten a suspicion we're not going to get to those last two questions that I mentioned at the beginning your suspicions are well justified so let me just let me just close with one final consideration

I have to do this quickly because we are out of time why does the author then say if we go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth as if he the author was hypothetically capable of committing the sin because those who believe you can lose your salvation they would say the author includes himself and all of his readers all

Christians as if they too could commit this willful sin so why does the author do that why does he include himself in that if he didn't think that he and the genuine

Christians could actually commit that sin very quickly and easily it's just a manner of speaking it's a way that you would rhetorically speak to a mixed audience among whom you would have both believers and unbelievers and make believers people who are our believers genuinely people who are unbelievers and people who are make believers pretending see the author is speaking to a group of people some of whose spiritual condition had not yet been revealed because they had not yet walked away and he is encouraging him to hold fast to draw near and to hold fast to the confession of hope knowing that some among them would commit this sin and so just speaking generally to the group including himself in it he just uses a manner of expression a manner of speaking to say if we that is any among us commits this sin and he can do so without himself suggesting that it were possible for him to commit this sin or if it were possible for a genuine believer to commit this sin because there would be some amongst his readers and his ears who would commit this willful sin so what are we to do in light of this we are to examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith 2nd

Corinthians 13 mentions this test yourselves and see if you're in the faith examine yourselves do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail the test

Paul encourages readers to examine their own hearts the Lord's Supper gives us an opportunity to do this when we partake of the

Lord's Supper we examine ourselves we ought to test ourselves and look at ourselves and then ask ourselves am

I in this group do I come to a church like this a good church surrounded by great people great ministry good teaching

I hope it's good surrounded by good teaching and sound theology and do I remain hard -hearted and unbelieving in a state am

I just going through the motions of this have you enjoyed have I sat here and enjoyed all of the people around me the fellowship and the friendships and enjoy all of the benefits and the blessings externally and superficially of these true things and yet remain hard -hearted and disobedient and distant from the

Lord is that it's described you these are the places where apostates are bred which is why

I am so serious about this when you get to the morning passages I wouldn't want anybody who is here to walk away from here thinking that they are a

Christian or pretending to be a Christian and being exhausted by trying to look like a

Christian and yet not be a Christian at all so examine yourself am I in the faith is there fruit of genuine repentance and salvation in my life is there evidence outwardly inwardly that a change has taken place or do

I just sit here and nod my head and sing the songs and say an occasional amen to whatever gets muttered behind the pulpit and then move on complacent and apathetic toward the truth am

I falling away am I drawing near to the Lord holding fast to the confession of our hope without wavering firm until the very end are you an apostate in the making if so draw near to him in full assurance of faith having your heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience hold fast your confession faith and do not forsake the gathering of the saints together that's the preventative for apostasy recognize your sin your need for a

Savior turn from your sin and embrace him you know all that is necessary for salvation and if you disobey and you drift by the safe haven of God's provision of salvation in Jesus Christ there remains no sacrifice for your sins you have nothing to look forward to but the terrifying expectation of the judgment that is to come don't be that repent and believe today while you still can let's bow our heads father we praise you for your great goodness and saving a people for your own glory we pray that as we give thoughtful consideration to these things that you would examine us and and draw us near to you we pray that you would strengthen those who here are believers that they may be confident in their faith and have full assurance of faith and that in drawing near to you they may receive the reward and confident assurance that they have in your grace and and in your family pray for any here who are not believers who have never trusted

Christ for salvation that you by your grace would draw them near to you and cause them to not be disobedient turn their hearts open their eyes pray father that they may see their need for a

Savior and that this warning may serve its purpose that they may not be among those who receive the terrifying indignation of your judgment and your wrath but that they may turn and find safe haven in the person of Christ and shelter from their sins and from your wrath and they may find the grace that is in Christ in Christ alone in his name we pray please stand