Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:19–39
Chapter 10 for our meditation tonight before the supper, Hebrews chapter 10. Our focus will be on verses 26 to 31. It's a warning against apostasy. At first glance, it might seem an odd choice of a passage relative to our Lord's Supper, but I think if the believer understands what the apostle is saying here, it affords great comfort.
There is that tendency in the people of God to fear that they've committed the unpardonable sin, or they've engaged in sort of a sin or practice in which there is no recovery. Again, when you look at this passage, or when we unfold this passage, I think you'll conclude that the people guilty aren't afraid that they've committed the unpardonable sin. They're not the sorts of people that have sensitive consciences and who oftentimes bemoan their sin. They're the sort of people that have repudiated outright the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So there is a wonderful encouragement in a proper understanding of verses 26 to 31. But I do want to read beginning in verse 19 and read to the end of the chapter.
Reading of Hebrews 10:19–39
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. It's that page just particularly.
Beginning in verse 26. counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace. For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. Amen.
Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the fact that You have given it to us, that it is truth, that it abides forever. We thank You that the Spirit has called us not only to read and study, but to preach that Word. So give us ears to hear and hearts to receive it even now.
And may it afford great encouragement to Your people, and may You build us up in our most holy faith. As well, may we glean the warning, and may we take from it that that which the Apostle intends in terms of those who are perhaps tempted to go back in terms of redemptive history. We just pray now for your blessing, we pray again for the forgiveness of our sin, and we ask now that you would be glorified, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Now this message was supposed to be connected to this morning's message. So if you go back to just a moment to John chapter 10. John chapter 10 in our study in the Good Shepherd discourse, we stopped at verse 18. But in verse 19, we find that there was a division based on the sayings of our Lord.
His teaching concerning being the Good Shepherd promoted that schism or division that we've seen in John's gospel. And notice what one group responded with. Verse 20, many of them said, he has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to him?
Again, this is the religious leadership, the same religious leadership that Jesus condemns in Matthew's gospel. You can turn there, Matthew chapter 12, specifically at verses 31 and 32, the sin against the Holy Ghost. So in Matthew chapter 12, verses 31 and 32, the Lord Christ says, therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." So my intent this morning, and God willing, when we come back to John's gospel, is to see that in chapter 10, verse 20, they were guilty.
They had committed the unpardonable sin. They had seen the power of Jesus Christ in their midst. They had seen the glory of Jesus Christ in their midst, and they reject it. They despise it.
They repudiate it. And then they blaspheme him and say that he has a demon and that he's mad. Again, when it comes to this sin against the Holy Ghost, the people who have committed it don't care. They don't ask the question, have I committed it?
They don't weep over it. They don't concern themselves about it. And when we come to the book of Hebrews, specifically here in chapter 10, verses 26 to 31, and then again in Hebrews chapter 6, we see the sin of apostasy. And it's just like it.
The sin against the Holy Spirit. The sin against the glory of God. A repudiation of the truth as it is in Jesus.
The Nature of the Sin of Apostasy
When we look at verses 26 to 31, we ought to appreciate two things. First, the nature of the sin of apostasy. We'll see that in verses 26 and 27, and then in verse 29b. And then secondly, the judgment of God against the sin of apostasy in verses 28 to 30.
So let's look first at the nature of the sin of apostasy, and notice the willfulness of it.
The Willfulness of Apostasy
Verse 26, for if we sin willfully, Now, every sin that we engage in is willful to one degree or another. It's not that anybody puts a gun to our head and calls us to engage in a lustful thought. It's not like there's some divine coercion that comes upon us that makes us go into a bank and rob it. It's not like there's something outside of ourselves that forces us to engage in fraud on our tax returns.
So there is a willfulness to be sure about the sins that the people of God commit. We see that treated in Romans 7 and in Galatians chapter 5. It is the doctrine of remaining corruption. In other words, when a man is born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, he's a new creature.
All things are new. There is nevertheless remaining corruption in him. There will never be a time on this side of heaven in which we achieve perfection. there'll always be a degree of remaining sick. So again, the Apostle treats that.
And we could argue that when we engage in that remaining corruption, again, we do so willfully. But this willfulness needs to be conditioned by the context in which we find it. So this particular sin cannot be those sins that are dealt with by our Lord Jesus Christ. Look back to Hebrews chapter 2.
Hebrews chapter 2 to see what Christ does in terms of our sin. So in Hebrews 2.17, therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Christ makes propitiation for the sins of the people. Look at Hebrews chapter 7.
Hebrews chapter 7, specifically at verse 25. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. So whatever the sin is in view in chapter 10, verse 26, it cannot be those sins that are dealt with by Christ. Neither can it be those sins by which or of which we confess to God and find forgiveness. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
My little children, I write these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. So whatever the sin in view in chapter 10, verse 26 is, it cannot be those things that Christ dealt with, cannot be those sins that we have confessed and found forgiveness with God from. As well, it cannot be those sudden and surprising sins that God's children sometimes commit.
Think Peter. Think denial of his Savior. Think denial of his master. Brethren, Peter is in heaven.
His sin was not unto death. His sin was not to the place where he was rejected ultimately by the Savior. As well, it cannot be large and vile sins. Think of David.
David, according to 2 Samuel 11-12, committed the sin of adultery, and he covered that sin by conspiracy to murder, which made him guilty of the sin or crime of murder. David himself is in heaven. He rejoices in the forgiveness of sins in Psalm 32. He rejoices in the forgiveness of sins in Psalm 130, verses 3 and 4.
If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. So when it comes to this Hebrews 10, 26 to 31 sin, this willful sin, it cannot be those things dealt with by Christ. It cannot be those sins forgiven by God.
It cannot be those sudden things that come upon believers in certain times like Peter, and it can't even be the great big benchmark sins that David committed. Now notice as you move through verse 26, the person's involved.
The Persons Involved
After we have received the knowledge of the truth, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth." So whatever's in view here can't be symptomatic of the pagan or the heathen, the person in the bush that never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. So not everybody out there who's not a believer in Christ is necessarily an apostate. The apostate must fall prey or must fall into this particular description. So what this is predicated of is that the one guilty of this sin makes an outward profession of faith in the gospel.
They've heard the truth. They've looked like they've received the truth. They look like they've confessed the truth. John Owen says, they were such as unto whom the gospel had been preached, who upon conviction of its truth and sense of its power had taken upon them the public profession of it.
So again, not your garden variety unbeliever or the heathen that hasn't received the knowledge of the truth. This is case specific. This is persons within the context of the professing church. They receive the knowledge of the truth.
They look like they embrace the knowledge of the truth, but then they go on to repudiate or reject that knowledge of the truth. The one guilty of this sin is identified in Hebrews 6. You can go back there for just a moment. Let's read verses four and five.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the son of God and put him to an open shame. It's a particular class of persons that are in view in this section. Notice, back in Hebrews 10, 26, the finality involved. So you see that willfulness involved, you see the persons involved, but then the finality involved in verse 26c.
The Finality of Apostasy
There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. So for the person guilty of this particular sin, or this apostasy, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. In other words, there's no hope for him. It is impossible to renew him unto repentance.
Now again, before you say, well that doesn't sound fair, That seems pretty unjust. I mean, this man is weeping, he's sad, he's hurting, and he wants nothing more than repentance. No, the man who is guilty of this sin does not have that. He does not have sorrow.
He does not have repentance. He does not have a sensitive conscience. He has no desire whatsoever for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This isn't the sensitive saint who's having trouble with remaining corruption during the week and cries out to God for forgiveness and who cries out to God for strength to resist that temptation.
That's simply not the sinner in view in Hebrews 10. It is an apostate. The sin in view has specific reference to Christ and His sacrifice. The sin in view cannot be atoned for by the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ because the sin in view is an utter rejection of that once-for-all sacrifice.
It is a repudiation, dropping down. It is a trampling of the Son of God underfoot. It is crucifying anew the Son of God, according to Hebrews chapter 6. Listen to John Calvin, and later on in the sermon, at the time of application, there's going to be a historical argument.
Basically, I'm just going to suggest we listen to the brothers that have gone before us and who have commented on Scripture, and men who have thought through Scripture theologically, exegetically. It is good to reflect upon the gifts given by Christ to His Church, and I want to cite Calvin, I want to cite Owen, Ursinus, and Gill concerning this particular sin. But for right now, listen to John Calvin in his comment on this. He says, Christ's sacrifice is efficacious to the godly, even to death. though they often sin, nay, it retains ever its efficacy for this very reason, because they cannot be free from sin as long as they dwell in the flesh.
The apostle then refers to those alone who wickedly forsake Christ and thus deprive themselves of the benefit of his death. So this is the people, this is the person in view. Now the identification of the sin comes out in verses 27 and 29. Look at verse 27, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour, notice, the adversaries.
The believer in Jesus Christ is not an adversary of God. The unconverted, there's a sense where God has enmity or wrath toward the unconverted in general, but this particular individual has heard the word, he's made some external profession of that word, and then he has repudiated that word to the point where he has set himself against the God of heaven and earth. Now, brethren, in the scriptures, you will see that Christians are referred to in ways like sheep. And again, that's not a commendation.
Sheep aren't brilliant. Sheep are pretty ignorant. So we're likened unto sheep. We are called sinners in James 4.
I know MacArthur thinks that the New Testament doesn't call Christians sinners. I think he's wrong. I think it does call us that. This idea of remaining corruption.
There is the reality that we're prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love. But we're not adversaries. We're not enemies of God Most High. And He is not our enemy.
When you go out and sin this week, and I'm not saying this to encourage you to go out and sin this week, but realize that there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We don't put ourselves in the camp of the adversary of God Most High for the remaining corruption that is in us. That is simply untenable in light of the entirety of God's Holy Word.
So the particular sins or sinners here are adversaries. They are opposed. They are contrary. They are hostile to the Word of God, to the gospel of our salvation.
And then notice, he gives a three-fold description of these apostates in verse 29.
Three Marks of the Apostate
He tells us three things that they do. Notice, the apostate tramples the Son of God underfoot. The apostate has counted the blood of the covenant as a common thing, and the apostate has insulted the Spirit of grace. So those are three things that describe the apostate.
Again, this isn't you on Wednesday bemoaning the reality that you've got remaining corruption. This man doesn't bemoan that. This man doesn't, not just men, women can commit this sin as well, but they don't have this sorrow. Their conscience is not penetrated.
They don't have any concern whatsoever. They are open rejecters and despisers of the crossword of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at those. The apostate has trampled the Son of God underfoot.
Turn back to Hebrews chapter six, you see the same language employed by the apostle there in a similar context. Hebrews 6.6, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame. Same idea in Hebrews 10.29. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot?
So you see where this particular sin, this particular apostasy has sort of its focal point. It is a rejection of the cross of Jesus. It is a repudiation of the means by which God has purpose to save his people from their sins. It is to understand it, it is to nod along with it, at least for a time, and then to come to the place where, no more, I'm done, I want nothing to do with this Jesus, I want nothing to do with His sacrifice.
Now brethren, if you're thinking in terms of the context, what particular temptation might have been facing the original audience when the Apostle writes this concerning apostasy? Well, it's the Levitical system. It's the temple that's still standing. It's the sacrificial system that's still in play.
So what is it for someone to confess faith in Jesus Christ and then come to a place because of societal pressure, familial pressure, job threat, or the threat of a job loss? You need to come back to Moses. You need to come back to the temple. You need to go back with your sacrifice to the priest.
It is a rejection of the once-for-all sacrifice of our blessed Savior. In fact, Owen notes that the two things primarily renounced here are the blood of Christ and the Spirit of grace. He goes on to say, such were they who fell off from the gospel unto Judaism in those days. It's very important that you keep that in your mind.
Hebrews is written at a time prior to the destruction of the temple. The temple is standing. The temple is still engaging with the priesthood and the sacrificial system and all that stuff. So a first century Jew that confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, no doubt came under pressure.
No doubt came under some degree of coercion. some degree of badgering. You need to forsake this Jesus of Nazareth, and you need to come back with us to the temple. Collect your bull, bring it to the temple, and offer it up through the priest to Yahweh. That would be to repudiate what Christ has done, and it would be to crucify anew or afresh the Lord of Glory, or to trample underfoot the Son of God.
Now notice, secondly, the apostate has counted the blood of the covenant as a common thing. Now notice in that next clause. So it says, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing. Now the typical interpretation is, is that the he here, it's not a capital H, so that refers to the person.
In other words, the person was sanctified by the blood of the covenant. Sounds like he's saved. Sounds like the real deal. Sounds like he had it, but then he lost it.
I want to suggest that the he here is Jesus. It's not the person. Notice again. counted the blood of the covenant by which he, Jesus, was sanctified a common thing. Jesus was set apart or sanctified to function as a priest.
And as a priest who is not only the offerer, but the offering. Jesus functions in that particular capacity. John 17 in verse 19, in the high priestly prayer of our Lord, he mentions or he references this reality. 17, 19, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. And then in Hebrews chapter nine, specifically at verses 11 and 12.
Hebrews chapter nine, verses 11 and 12. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is not of this creation. not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. The he in our passage is Jesus.
It is a repudiation. He tramples the son of God underfoot. He counts the blood of the covenant by which Jesus was sanctified as a common thing that doesn't deserve or demand my attention. And then thirdly, notice he insults the spirit of grace.
So you see, there is this opposition to the second and third person of the triune God. There is this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. There is this forsaking and rejecting of the Lord Christ in His person and in His offices. It is a repudiation.
It's not remaining corruption over which a sensitive saint or any saint is sorrowful and repentant. This is the kind of sin that says, I see what God has provided, but I also feel the pressure that family is placing upon me, so I'm going to reject Jesus, I'm going to go back to Moses, and I'm going to do my thing. That is to defect, that is to fall away, that is to apostatize, and that is what happens in this particular instance. Owen says it is Christ Himself that is spoken of, who is sanctified and dedicated unto God to be an eternal High Priest, by the blood of the covenant which He offered unto God.
As well, with reference to this insult of the Spirit of Grace, the Holy Spirit is referred to in other warnings. There are several warning passages in the book of Hebrews, and in a few of them, the Spirit is specifically mentioned. So again, when we compare this with Matthew 12, 31 and 32, the sin against the Holy Ghost, the unpardonable sin, it is to reject our blessed God. It is to repudiate the means by which He has purposed to save His people from their sins.
I like what Berkhoff says. He says, it is not so much a sin against the person of the Holy Spirit as a sin against His official work. in revealing, both objectively and subjectively, the grace and glory of God in Christ. So it's not just one comment here or there, but as I said, it is a rejection of the office of the Holy Spirit, whose purpose it is to shine the light upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the sin in 10, 26 to 31, the sin in six, four to six, the sin in Matthew 12, 31 to 32 is not the saint who's struggling with remaining corruption, but typically those are the persons who get affected when sermons like these are preached.
Now, I don't wanna tell you when and when not to be affected under preaching, but I do wanna suggest that the person guilty of this is probably not here. The person that is guilty of this probably has no desire whatsoever to be in a church, to be in a place that celebrates the once-for-all offering of our blessed Savior. That person is gone. That person is an adversary.
That person has consigned himself, as it were, in opposition to God Most High. Now, brethren, I should say we don't know who apostates are. We don't know. As long as there is breath in a person's lungs, as far as we can tell, there is hope for them.
They don't wear an A. They don't have some, you know, pitchfork and horns sticking out of their head to sort of identify themselves as apostate. We don't know. But God knows, but as far as we're concerned, we preach the gospel indiscriminately to every creature and call upon them to believe the gospel and promise with absolute certainty that those who believe will be saved.
It is a most blessed emphasis. Our God tells us to be faithful in proclaiming the truth, in calling sinners to believe that truth, and we trust in God to deal with the application. We trust in God to deal with the salvation or the rejection as He deems fit. So we don't know who the apostate is.
We use that word sort of casually from time to time. We use it like we do heretic. Well, heretic is a very strong, powerful word. And heresy is not, or heretic, is not something that an individual should, you know, label.
It should be an ecclesiastical sort of deliberation. But with reference to apostate, it's the same sort of a thing. Just because somebody's not a believer or somebody's a heathen that hasn't heard the knowledge of the truth doesn't necessarily include them in this unpardonable sin or make them an adversary in this particular way. And then notice as well what he says in verse 27.
We bypassed much of it just to deal with the word adversaries, but notice, "...but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." So with the believer there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. It's not the case with the believer that you are an adversary of God Most High and He is going to destroy you. That's the way we typically respond to passages like these. The Geneva Bible makes this observation.
They say, it is another matter to sin through the frailty of man's nature, and another thing to proclaim war, as it were, to God as an enemy. That makes sense, doesn't it? It's one thing to sin through the frailty of man's nature. It's another thing to proclaim war, as it were, to God as an enemy.
Guess which one the apostle is dealing with? He's not dealing with the frailty of our nature. He's not dealing with those sins propitiated by the blood of Jesus in Hebrews 2.17. He's not dealing with that salvation to the uttermost of Hebrews 7.25.
He is dealing with the person who at least looks like they've received the word of truth, They've confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, but they have gotten to the point where they have made themselves adversaries against the true and the living God. They don't sing prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love with a tear streaming down their face. They don't think about those things. They despise those things.
They reject those things. And in the language of the apostle Paul in this passage, they trample the Son of God underfoot. So that's the nature of the sin of apostasy.
The Judgment of God Against Apostasy
Notice quickly, secondly, the judgment of God against the sin of apostasy. Note this covenantal comparison.
Old Covenant and New Covenant Penalty
The punishment in the Old Covenant, verse 28, anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. I think the backdrop here is Deuteronomy 17, verses 2-7. Again, there, in context, it's a repudiation, a rejection of Yahweh. It was an act of treason in the old covenant commonwealth of Israel.
To repudiate Yahweh was religious in nature, but it was also civil in terms of its application. To repudiate Yahweh was to engage in treachery and treason against the civil state. Well, of course, on the basis of two or three witnesses, they would be executed. They would be punished with death because that was, in fact, a capital offense.
But then notice the penalty in the new covenant of how much worse punishment You think that Old Covenant Israel was tough? It's a walk in the park compared to the New Covenant in terms of a repudiation and a rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I don't want to minimize the warning aspect either. I want the Saint of Christ to be encouraged to identify that, no, I haven't engaged in making myself an adversary of the living and true God, but also we ought to take notice that this was happening in the first century, it's happened in centuries since then, and it will probably continue to happen in perpetuity.
There is that reality where persons come under the sound of the gospel, for a time they make a profession, and then they fall away. Now hopefully passages like this will promote fear in the hearts of God's people so that they will not do that, so that they will not depart, so that they will not defect, so that they will not let go of their faith or let go of their hold on our Lord Jesus Christ. So notice in verse 29, of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy of, worthy, and then he mentions those three things. And then notice, dropping down to that reality of the justice of God in both covenants in verses 30 and 31.
For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. We know this, right? The person that commits this particular sin, again, he's not ignorant. He's not some rube that just fell off the turnip boat and said, wow, what's this religion of Jesus?
He knows who the God of Israel is. He knows God as he's revealed in the New Testament. He knows that it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And yet in light of all that, in spite of all that, he counts himself or he makes himself an adversary of that particular God.
Now this act of vengeance, I think Gil gets it right, vengeance belongs to God, not as to the affection, as if there was any such passion in Him, but as to the effect there being that produced by Him, which answers to the effect of such a passion among men, namely punishment. So he cites or invokes this statement. We know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people.
And then the consideration of his judgment in verse 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Look at the way that this is sort of a bookend to what was said positively in verses 19 to 25. Notice in 19, therefore brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith.
So in verses 19 to 22, we see the blessedness of the people of God in terms of the presence of God. We can draw an eye, we can enter in, we have access, we have boldness to access His presence through the blood of the covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a good thing. But then notice in verse 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The curse of the presence of God for the apostate. When it comes to hell, when it comes to destruction, it's not as if God is not present. We saw that this morning. We touched on that a little bit in our study in the Confession, chapter 31.
It's not that hell has no presence of God. It just has no presence of the goodness of God. God is present, God is the one who sustains it, God is the one who punishes people there. So it's a blessed thing for the people of God to fall into the hands of the living God.
It is a most horrific thing for the apostate to fall into the hand of the living God. There is blessing and benefit and joy for the believer, and there is curse and punishment for the unbeliever. So hopefully, as we move our way through this text, you get the gist, or you get the drift, that he's not dealing with the remaining corruption in the hearts of God's people. I take it that Paul wrote Hebrews, so Paul wrote Romans 7, Paul wrote Galatians 5.
He understands remaining corruption. He understands it in his own heart. He understands it in his own experience. He understands it in his own life.
And as well, he understands that that's not what's in view in Hebrews 6 and in Hebrews 10.
Application
So in conclusion, just a couple of things. First, the connection the text assumes. Notice how verse 26 starts, 4. That's an argument or a reason or some sort of a proof or inference or implication.
Well, it's an implication or an inference from what precedes it in the preceding section. So there is this close connection between verses 19 to 25 to verses 26 to 31. There are three exhortations given in verses 19 to 25. Notice, draw near, verse 22, hold fast, verse 23, and consider one another, verse 24.
He's not saying this is what you must do in order to be saved. No, he's come to deal practically with what God's people now have in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that, verse 19. That's a therefore.
It comes on the heels of a long discussion of the priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ. Based on what he's done, based on the giving of his own life, based on his resurrection from the dead, based on the superiority of the New Covenant, based on the promises involved in the New Covenant, based on the better hope afforded by the New Covenant, you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Therefore, Therefore, just like he does in Romans chapter 12, after explaining the gospel in chapters one to 11, he comes with a therefore in Romans 12, one and following. This is practical application.
So the justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone believer, now has the ability, now has the power, because God has granted it to him, to draw near, to hold fast, and to consider one another. This is not how we are saved, this is a result of us having been saved. Now to reject those, the drawing near, the holding fast, and the considering one another, is to give evidence that there's no justifying faith in your heart. If there is justifying faith in your heart, you'll do these things.
These are exhortations you'll embrace. You won't whine. You won't cry. You won't say, I don't want to assemble with the people of God, even as the day is approaching.
No, you want to go to the house of the Lord. You want to draw near into the presence of God. You want to hold fast that confession of faith. You want to do this because you've been justified freely by God's grace.
Now I think the implication that we ought to derive is that if you are justified by faith and you are not doing these exhortations, you put yourself in a precarious position. In other words, it may demonstrate or indicate that there is no justifying faith. We know the tree by the fruit that it produces. We know the saved sinner because he draws near, he holds fast, he considers one another, he attends the means of grace as God's ordained for his benefit and blessing.
So if these things are lacking, or these things are wanting, or these things are absent, guess what might be the inevitable outcome? Apostasy, declension, a falling away. of making yourself an adversary. And I don't think Paul's doing this in a manipulative or a passive-aggressive way. There is just this connection.
If you don't live according to your confession of faith, it may ultimately betray. Your confession of faith is spurious. It's false. It's not the real deal.
So there is this close connection assumed by the apostle between verses 19 to 25 and 26 to 31. In short, if you don't fulfill or you don't carry out or you don't engage in these exhortations, it might indicate you don't have justifying faith. And if you don't have justifying faith, you're an unbeliever, but you may set yourself up to become an apostate, to engage in that sort of adversarial conduct wherein you see God as an enemy.
The Warning the Text Communicates
Secondly, the warning the text communicates. The apostate willfully rejects the truth of the gospel. The apostate willfully rejects the truth of the gospel. Again, there's no gun to his head, there's no coercion, but he willfully does that.
There might be some external pressure, there might be friends and family, there might be the threat of job loss, there might be the threat of imprisonment, there might be the threat of martyrdom, there might be those things. But the apostate, in the final analysis, willfully chooses to side against Jesus. Now, he doesn't fear that he has committed this sin, like believers do. As well, the apostate places himself in a position where repentance is impossible.
Again, he has no desire for it. He doesn't want to repent. Every believer I've ever talked to that is sorrowful over his or her sin They want to repent. They want to forsake.
They want to be holy. They want to glorify God. Now, that's ebbs and flows too. There's no formula in the Christian life where we're all operating on the cylinders, all eight cylinders all the time.
No, we've got the ebb and flow of the Christian life. But the true child of God sorrows over their sin against the Lord Most High. The apostate doesn't. There's no desire for repentance.
As well, the apostate makes God his enemy and will be dealt with according to justice by the Almighty. Believers can't. I mentioned Romans 8, 39 this morning. There is nothing that shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And then I would suggest the apostate is not only one who publicly repudiates Christ, There's this sort of open rejection of the cross, but also one who privately repudiates Christ in his self-righteousness. Isn't self-righteousness, if not apostasy, dangerously close on the precipice, dancing around it? Self-righteousness, when I think that I'm good, I'm okay, never done anything really bad, I have every hope in myself that I'm gonna enter into heaven. Isn't that to repudiate the very crosswork of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Paul says in Galatians 2.21, I do not nullify, I do not set apart the grace of God. For if righteousness comes to the law, then Christ died in vain. I think Paul makes that close connection between a self-righteousness and a repudiation of the crosswork of our blessed Savior. So it's not just the guy standing out on the street corner with a sign that says, Christianity is bad, Christianity is wrong, I want to trample the Son of God underfoot.
It could be the person that has heard it, made a profession, but then turned back to their own works, their own law-keeping, their own righteousness, in a repudiation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
The Comfort the Text Affords
Thirdly, the comfort the text affords. The text speaks specifically to apostasy. Several arguments here. First, the lexical.
The word adversaries. Again, you've got to get around verse 27 to try and explain how this is true of the people of God. They are adversaries. They are in opposition to.
They are hostile toward God. Secondly, the contextual argument, the description of apostates in verse 29 and the larger concern of the book itself. Hebrew Christians tempted to renounce Christ and go back to the old covenant, to go backwards in redemptive history. We have the once for all sacrifice.
We have everything that God has provided in and through our Lord Jesus, but we're not gonna do that. We're gonna go back to the temple. We're gonna bring our goat. We're gonna hand it, cut its throat, hand it to the priest and let him do his thing.
As well, the biblical argument. Brethren, in terms of persons that have entered into heaven by the redeeming power and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, we've got three pretty solid evidences that there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I mentioned David. David sinned horrifically against God.
David did horrible things against God. Typically, if you ever evangelize, you ever ask somebody, Do you think you're going to go to heaven? If they're not Christians or have some semblance of normalcy, they say, yeah, I think I'm going to go. Most people, at least outside certain denominations of Christianity, think they're OK.
I'm OK. I'm going to go to heaven. And they typically cite benchmark sins. I've never killed anyone, and I've never committed adultery.
I used to say this as a young papist. I thought everything was cool because I'd never killed anybody and I'd never committed adultery. Those are the benchmark sins. You can't go to heaven if you've killed somebody or committed adultery.
David is in heaven because of the virtue of the Son of God. Jesus Christ atoned for the sin of David. But then you've got Peter. Peter says that he will follow Jesus unto death.
Jesus says, no, you're gonna deny me. Oh no, everybody else may deny you, Lord, but not me. What happens? He denies the master to not the police, not to the emperor, not to the, you know, the SS.
He denies Jesus to a slave girl. But I want to add a third. My brother reminded me of this this morning. I cited the thief on the cross as one who departed and went to be with Jesus.
The spirit departs and is present with the Lord while the body goes into the ground in terms of the intermediate state. What happened just a few minutes before he said, Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom. He was blaspheming Christ right alongside of the other thief. Now, if that's not a display of mercy, if that is not the communication of grace, if that does not underscore what God reveals at Sinai to Moses and the children of Israel after they transgress, after they break the covenant, after Moses says, show me your glory, How does God show him his glory?
God is gracious. He abounds in mercy. He abounds in long-suffering. He has forgiveness for sin and transgression and iniquity.
Just in case you think there's any difference or shade of variation in those three things, whatever you've done that is against Yahweh, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Now listen to the brothers, listen to the brothers in the church commenting on these apostasy passages. Calvin, on Hebrews 6, there is a twofold falling away, one particular and the other general. He who has in anything or in any ways offended has fallen away from his state as a Christian.
That's what I said at the outset. Every sin we engage in is a willful sin, and this is what he says. He says, therefore all sins are so many failings. But the apostle speaks not here of theft or perjury or murder or drunkenness or adultery, but he refers to a total defection or falling away from the gospel when a sinner offends God, not God in some one thing, but entirely renounces his grace.
I think there's a fear in the heart of the modern preacher to say such things for the thought that persons might go out and steal. They might go out and murder. They might go out and get hammered. Well, if that's true, then I can go do whatever it is I want.
No, the gospel counters that double logic. What shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? May it never be.
Oh, and on Hebrews 10, wherefore the sin here intended is plainly a relinquishment and renunciation of the truth of the gospel and the promises thereof, with all duties thereunto belonging, after we have been convinced of its truth and avowed its excellency and power. Oh, and on Hebrews 6, it must consist in a total renunciation of all the constituent principles and doctrines of Christianity whence it is denominated. Such was the sin of them who relinquished the gospel to return unto Judaism, as it was then stated, in opposition unto it and hatred of it. This it was, and not any kind of actual sins that the apostle manifestly discourses concerning.
Again, he's not talking about the sins that we commit with which there is forgiveness with thee. Gil, on Hebrews 10, it intends a total apostasy from the truth against light and evidence joined with obstinacy. And then there's Sinus in his discussion of church discipline on the Heidelberg Catechism. An apostate is not one who occasionally or even often offends in doctrine and life and repents again of his sin, but is such an one who, being convicted of error and open wickedness, is still unwilling to abandon his sins and to renounce his errors.
This is not the saint who has a tear rolled down his face when they sang, prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. This is not the saint who says with Paul, the good that I wish to do, I don't do. The evil I don't want to do, I find myself doing. crying out, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? This is to renounce, this is to reject, this is to repudiate, this is to crucify anew the Son of God or trample Him underfoot.
The gospel speaks to believers. There is remaining corruption, as I said, Galatians 5 and Romans 7. Our confession speaks to this, and though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein. whereby they incur God's displeasure and grievous Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others and bring temporal judgments upon themselves." That's a horrific laundry list of things that our remaining corruption can do. But it goes on to say, yet they shall renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end.
There is a difference between the remaining corruption in a believer and that one who is now the avowed enemy of God Most High as specifically seen in his rejection of and the repudiation of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So believer, be encouraged. Be warned, guard the heart, engage in the exhortations, draw near, hold fast, consider one another, do the things consistent with sanctification, which is yielded by justification, but be encouraged that there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. Unbeliever, the fact that you're here tonight, argues that most likely you haven't committed the unpardonable sin.
There is hope in Jesus. There is forgiveness with him that he may be feared. Ask anybody in this room what it's like. We weren't born coming out of the womb as little reformed Baptists.
We weren't, you know, cutting our teeth on the catechism and declaring the chief end of man when we were, you know, in our cribs. It's a blessed thing to see the families in the church catechizing their children to be sure, but some of us didn't have that. Some of us were not only prone to wander, we had wandered. We were in the far country.
We were way gone, way far off, way distant, and it was God who sought us, it was God who found us, it was God who blessed us, and it was God who brought us nigh. So we can testify There is forgiveness with Him that He may be feared. We have tried and proven our God, and we know for a fact that He does abound in grace, He does abound in mercy, He does abound in long-suffering, and He does forgive sin, iniquity, and transgression. So believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.
He saves to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through Him.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this, your word. And on the one hand, it is a scary passage in terms of warning. On the other hand, it's an encouraging passage in terms of identification, who the particular adversaries are.
Give us grace, Lord God Almighty, to walk in righteousness and holiness, not so that we will be saved, but because we have been saved. And help us to draw nigh, help us as well to hold fast and to consider one another. and to glorify you. Protect us, preserve us, watch over us, we pray and we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, you can turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26 as we rehearse the supper