Kids, I haven't forgotten you. Hebrews chapter 10, our text for today, is gonna be verses 26 and following that can be found on page 1007 in the Pew Bible in front of you. And let's go ahead and dismiss the junior church kids before they burst. Everybody in third grade and under can head down to your junior church time downstairs. What a precious thing, all those kids. Well, in our last study together here in the book of Hebrews, and as I said, we've been studying our way systematically through this book. Started out with the incredible truth that in these days, God has spoken to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Logos, the Word was with God, the Word was God. We know that that Word, Jesus Christ, became flesh. And in these last days, the writer says to these original recipients, and of course by extension to us, God has spoken to us through His Son. If you want to know anything about God, if you want to know how to reach God, if you want to know how to please God, if you want to know about the attributes of God, if you want to know God, know Jesus. Wherever you are in your Christian walk, maybe you're a new believer or you've been a believer for a long time and you really haven't grown in your faith, maybe you're sort of stultified, maybe I don't know, but wherever you are on that spectrum, the answer, the next step, the best thing you can do and I can do is just get to know Jesus better and that's been the focus of our study here in Hebrews. In our last study together we examined this new and living way open to us by Christ's bodily sacrifice. In their frame of reference this would have been stunning And it should be to us as well. How often do you, in the moments where you're alone, just stop and bask in the amazement of the fact that Jesus Christ did this for me? He's in control. He's the one who created this world. We see in John 1 and Colossians 1, and we're going to see in Hebrews 11 shortly. And He did this for me. Because of this sacrifice, His sacrifice, we have access to God. We have access to God Almighty. And as we said in previous studies, at this point, at the writing of this letter, their temple still dominated their culture and their religion and their city and every aspect of their lives. And there would be no worshipper under the old covenant that would have dared to go into the temple and go into the most holy place which represented the presence of God. There wouldn't be anyone that dared to do that. The priests only did it once a year to make atonement and then had a rope tied to their foot so that if they sinned or if they weren't pure when they went in there and they died, God struck them dead, they could drag them out. But now, because of this new and living way, the way is open for any and all of us to go directly to God in prayer. That is awesome. Isn't it? Say yes. Yeah, it is. Now, before we go any further, let me just remind you once again of those to whom this author is addressing this letter. We said at the very beginning of our study that these were people who knew the scriptures. They were not novices. In fact, the author here, we don't know who that is, we've said that in our study as well, quotes almost exclusively from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. There was a quality of intellect here. They were very intelligent and they understood that all of the amazing events that occurred surrounding Jesus. Even if you don't count the prophecies, but all of the amazing events, the miracles, the healings, raising Lazarus from the dead, the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ, and then of course the rejection, the mock trial, The murder. The burial. When he died, there was a massive earthquake. Rocks split open and in the middle of the day, darkness descended. graves burst open and people, righteous people, who had died were brought back to life and came walking out of tombs into the city. No wonder this centurion said, truly this was a son of God. But it got better because not only did they put him in a tomb, he burst forth, he raised from the dead. And then he was seen by many witnesses and then in front of all of them he had a visible ascension into heaven. And the angel said, this same Jesus is coming back. All of this was real. This was their Messiah. Nobody could fathom this kind of power, this kind of proof. They knew it, they believed it, they had seen it. These were eyewitnesses of some of the things, maybe all of them that I've just described to you. People were coming to Christ by the thousands. In fact, we're told in Acts chapter 6 and verse 7, And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And get this, a great many of the priests, a great many of the priests had become obedient to the faith. You see, a different kind of earthquake was happening, wasn't it? There was nothing for the creator of heaven and earth to shake the ground. Jesus, when he died, he could shake his creation, but now he's creating something totally new. He, the Creator, came Himself to sacrifice Himself to provide this new and living way. So in our last study together, as we looked at this, we said this provides four critical components for our faith. Four critical components for our faith as it did for theirs. The first, we said, is our confidence. Our confidence in all of this. We can have complete assurance in every aspect of our relationship to God. All His promises, our eternal standing, our current standing. We can be assured that we are accepted by Him. I loved one of the things we had at our Right Now Media Conference here yesterday. If you missed it, you missed huge blessings. One of the things one of the speakers said in passing that just resonated with me is that God doesn't love the future you. He loves you right now, isn't that cool? One commentator said, one of the most profound truths that I learned from scripture is that Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. And another said, Jesus knows me, this I love. We're accepted by Him. We can have confidence. We can have assurity in that. So this means, all of these truths, all of this that happened in Jesus Christ means that our confidence is there. Second, our consecration. Our consecration, what's our response to this amazing truth? Means we can come close to Him with a true heart. With assurance of faith. With a clear, clean conscience. And we can come cleansed. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Third means our confession. Our confession. The demonstration of our faith. The confession we make. We don't just come near to God. We stay there. We have a faith that doesn't waver. Regardless of the circumstances around us, as we sang a couple minutes ago, we can know He's in complete control. Our confession of faith, our testimony without wavering, is huge to a society. It doesn't see that anywhere else. And finally, fourthly, our consideration. Our consideration. It says in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see that day approaching. We said that word consider means to observe carefully. Don't miss anything. our consideration, we have a responsibility based on all of the above to stop and realize what God has done for us, to realize where God has put us, and then to think about how we can encourage each other in our faith. Because as I said, they would really need that in the days ahead. Their temple, their society, their culture would be gone, decimated by the Romans in 70 AD. They faced much uncertainty. They didn't know what lay ahead for them. We don't either, right? We don't know what the new normal is gonna look like. And many churches in this past season have been tempted to be closed. Our government has tried to close them. And Jesus said, don't stop meeting together, as the habit of some is. So their situation parallels our scenario in a striking way. So, I brought all of this back to the front burner this morning because in today's text, our author turns their attention and ours to what happens when we don't integrate these four components into our lives, into our walk. Want to see some scary verses? Look at verses 26 and 27 with me. For if we go on sinning deliberately, in other words, if we willfully choose to keep up a pattern of sin in our life, if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment in a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. He addresses here the unthinkable, or almost unthinkable, because it does happen, that some of them would choose sin over sacrifice. The perfect sacrifice. His sacrifice. We said in chapter 9, verse 26, Jesus appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The greatest sacrifice possible. The greatest sacrifice anyone, anywhere, for all time and eternity could even fathom that God Almighty, as we've said, would become one of us and then sacrifice Himself for our sins. And there are some, there were then, and there are today, that forsake that. Perfect sacrifice clearly has been made for all time and eternity. They saw it. We've seen it through the pages of Scripture. Now, before we dive into these verses, I want to just clarify a few things here, a couple things, to avoid any confusion. We know that he's writing to believers here. This is the letter to the Hebrews. And in our Bible, there are chapter and verse divisions. There weren't in the original. So he's writing to the same people he's been writing to since the very beginning. We've seen that already again today, as I've mentioned. That hasn't changed. And I mention that because some people try to teach that in this text, as we saw back in chapter six, there are some who were part of that group who weren't actually of the group. They were just kind of going along to get along, along for the ride, so to speak. And these were the ones who had tasted God's goodness, but hadn't really swallowed it. There's a difference, they say. And while there, I'm sure were at that time, people who fell into that category and still are, there always have been. But he's talking to believers here. He's addressing not pseudo-believers, those who hadn't already trusted Christ. He's writing to believers here. And it's important to understand that, and you'll see that as we go through our text here this morning. Second, we know from Scripture that he's not talking about anyone losing their salvation here, okay? We've gone through that in previous studies and shown from scripture that when Jesus is holding on to us, we can't lose that. We've crossed over from death into life, from darkness to light, we've talked about that. So I wanna just highlight that fact as well. Now, let's go back to the text, verse 26. He is saying here, you have received the knowledge of the truth. You've received the knowledge of the truth. I hope that's precious to you. So many people today don't know truth. So many people today say we can't know truth or that there is no absolute truth. It's interesting, in the Greek there are primarily two words that are translated knowledge in English. The first is gnosis. It means general knowledge. The second, the one that's used here is epagnosis. And that means a very full knowledge, complete knowledge, complete discernment. You're not lacking anything. You have the full range of knowledge. And we're being told here, we've received the knowledge of the truth, the full knowledge. It's an amazing fact that we've been given full knowledge and discretion in Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice. And it is here that this morning, early, I decided not to go on several rabbit trails. Like, for instance, in Colossians 2, where it says that in Him is all the fullness of wisdom and knowledge. Or in chapter 2 and verse 10 of Colossians, where it says, we've been given all fullness in Him. So when we come to this realization that we've been given the fullness of knowledge and truth, first, we should say, wow. And second, we should say, why? Why? Why did God do this? for me? Well, I can help you with that one. I can address the why part. Let me just share some passages with you. From our scripture reading this morning, 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 4, we're told that God desires all people to be saved to come to the knowledge of truth. God's desire, God's plan, He wants us to have the full knowledge of truth. But even beyond that, he wants us to share that knowledge. Look what it says in 2 Timothy chapter two, verses 24 through 26. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of truth. There it is again. God may grant them repentance, a change in their thinking, in their direction, their course of life to focus on Him and receive this knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. God wants us to have this full knowledge of truth, and God wants us to share it with others. The apostle Paul, in fact, dedicated his ministry to this. Titus chapter one, verses one through three, Paul says in writing to Titus, Paul, servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and for their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began." He, God, promised truth before the ages began. "...and at the proper time manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior." We've been given the fullness of the knowledge of truth. What does that mean to you? We could talk a long time about this. Again, there's lots of rabbit trails waiting right here. We're told in scripture in John chapter 1 verse 14 that we saw Jesus, the Word became flesh, full of grace and what? Truth, right? We could go a little further in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 31 and 32, one of the most misquoted passages in Scripture. People like to say, and the truth shall set you free. And it will. But the verse before that says those who received His Word, who became followers of Jesus Christ, would come to understand truth and then the truth would set them free. Not some generic cliché. But you get the picture, right? I like the way Peter says it in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3. His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His glory and excellence. And right now the tech people are back there scratching their heads because I skipped over one of my favorite verses. That's John chapter 18 verse 37 where Jesus before Pilate stood there and Pilate said to him, so you say you're a king? Jesus answered, you say that I am a king? For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I came into the world to bear the witness of truth. We've been given a full knowledge of truth. Do you see why I said earlier it's almost unthinkable? to some who would know this, and then would turn back to anything else? Back to our text. If you turn away from this, there is no other sacrifice. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. He's not talking here about the fact that this will happen if we stumble and fall into sin. We're all gonna sin, right? Right? We're all gonna sin, right? All right, except for pastors. Just kidding. We're all going to stumble. We're all going to sin. We have a sin nature that sometimes wins out. Nobody expects sinless perfection. He's talking about repeated continual disobedience. People that choose to ignore this and walk in a lifetime of sin. He's talking about people like we talked about back in chapter 6 who are going to leave the believers, leave this truth behind and go back and align themselves with those who mock this. And God will punish. God will discipline believers who do this. We're gonna talk about that in chapter 12. There remains, verse 27, a fearful expectation of judgment and fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. All the people, these who forsake the believers and go and join themselves to non-believers are gonna realize God's fire, God's fury, God's judgment will destroy everything. So in essence, what he's saying here is if you choose to forsake Christ, if you choose a life of sin, be afraid. Be afraid. Verse 27 teaches that you will be scorched by God's wrath. You remember the passage in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 13-15, where we're told that we are to use these eternal precious materials that God has given us to build the foundation of our lives, and verses 13-15 goes on to say, each one's work will become manifest for the day we'll disclose it. because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through a fire." That's a scary picture, isn't it? everything people live for, gone. Nothing left for eternity. You're gonna be saved as somebody that barely gets through a fire. I said earlier, believers aren't gonna lose their salvation. They can lose everything they spent their life trying to do. Those who should know the truth through them don't know the truth. But it gets worse. The Bible says in 1 John 5, 16, that for believers there is a sin unto death. there is a sin unto death. God will not only burn your house down, He might just take you out. You understand that? And I'm not trying to be overly dramatic here, but I'm not watering anything down either. And there are examples in Scripture of those who fell into that category, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Those who abused the Lord's Supper, made a mockery of it. He tells them, because you did that, many of you are weak, and many are sick, and many are asleep. That means dead. There's a point where God will say, after all I've given you and after what you've done with it or not done, you've had it, I'm taking you out. And if you think that sounds harsh, consider this. Under the old covenant, There was no sacrifice at all available for those who chose deliberate and willful sins. Those who chose to follow other gods. You can look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses one through seven and see that. They were taken out in stone to death. And here, we've been given all this and the greatest sacrifice possible, Jesus Christ himself. And if we forsake that, There aren't any other options. What's really harsh, though, is what deliberate sin really does. Look at verse 29, 28 and down through 31. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. That's a reference to what I just told you about. those who could testify against somebody who had forsaken God, they were taken out in stone. Verse 29, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace? We know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Second time, the word fearful is used there. The first time was in verse 27. We have this fearful expectation. Now we fall. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the angry God. The Greek word that's used for fearful there, we get phobia from. I don't think we need to do a whole lot more explaining what those verses mean, right? To trample underfoot the Son of God, to profane the blood of this new covenant, this new and living way? To choose a life of sin over this sacrifice, this full knowledge of truth? Unthinkable. Unthinkable. By now the writer has their attention. in verse two, right? And so he softens it a bit. In verse 32, he turns to encouragement. Remember, he's getting them and us ready for trials, ready for difficulties. They didn't know what to expect. They knew future trials were on the horizon and this author under the direction of the Holy Spirit is getting them and us ready for those trials. And so he turns his mind back, turns their hearts back to their former days. Look at verse 32. But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and abiding one. Therefore, don't throw away your confidence." And we're back to our confidence and our consecration. and our confession and our consideration for all of this. He turns their hearts back to this and he says, don't let the warfare wear you down. Next verse, for you have need of endurance. It's not going to be easy. Stay faithful. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for." And then in verse 37, he quotes from Isaiah 26-20, and then back at 2-3, he said, "...Yet a little while, and the coming one will come, and will not delay." Jesus is coming back soon. Look forward to that. When it happens, it's going to happen like that. Be ready. And you'll be so thankful you've been faithful. Verse 38, but my righteous one, talking about the one who has followed Jesus, the one that's part of this group, their group, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. He softened the words, he's reiterated a truth we've talked about numerous times in scripture, the righteous will live by faith, the just, the ones who are truly trusting Jesus Christ are going to put their faith on display. We're not gonna be perfect. He shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. You see, our faith is a gift from the one who came to provide us with this, the knowledge of truth. Verse 39 goes on to say, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. We're going to see in the next chapter some incredible examples of faith by way of encouragement, what faith can accomplish. We're going to see the definition of faith. Stop and realize that the faith you have, however small you might feel it is at this point in your life, the faith you have is a gift from God. Ephesians 2, 8-10. He gave it to you. Peter goes on to say we need to add to that faith and he tells us how to do it. We need to stay faithful. Realize how precious it is to have this full knowledge of truth in and through Jesus Christ and dedicate your life to Him. Consecrate your life to Him and don't waver. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You again for this reminder of who You are and what You've done, Your sacrifice for us, the challenge for us. With all the distractions of the world, all the stuff we see and hear, all the things people tell us are important, and all the temptations we face, You rise above all of that, clearly. through who you are and what you've done and the truth, the knowledge of truth you've given us. It, you, are worthy of our full investment, full obedience. You are the one thing, if we trust and if we follow and if we obey, we'll never ever regret it. Not now, not tomorrow, not a hundred years from now, not in eternity. So Lord, as I close this time together, this study, so much is left unsaid, but enough has been said so that as hearts turn to you, open to you, your spirit can and does work through these words, through your word in our hearts. And I pray for each one here and each one hearing this. Impress upon us, Lord, how important it is to surrender our will, our way, to repent and follow you, the one who is truth, who is the way, the truth, and the life. We pray and commit all of this to you in your magnificent holy name, the name of Jesus Christ, amen.