The book of Hebrews chapter 10, we'll be reading verses 26 through 31 this morning. Our sermon will almost entirely be on the first half of verse 26. To do so, I can't help but just briefly mention almost the irony as we come to celebrate the Christmas holiday and in the spirit that most people celebrate this month. How ironic it is that Hebrews 10 seems to be not in keeping with the spirit of love and joy and peace. We come this morning to a tongue lashing, if you will. But I do remind you that this is God's word and that we preach in season and out of season. And so we ought to pray that we receive these words as God's words. So please read with me, follow along as I read from Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 through 31. Please hear the word of our God. 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. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 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? For 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. Thus far, the reading of the Lord's Word. May he bless it. Please join me in prayer. Oh, our great and kind Savior, as we come to this text this morning, we would pray that you would grant us the faith to receive your word. We know that all Scripture is useful for encouraging us, for training us, and indeed even at times for rebuking and reproving us. We pray that you would help us to humbly submit to your will and to your gracious work, even as we have just sung in joy to the world, as we have sung of our Savior who has come to rid this earth of the curse as far as it is found. and how far it is found in our own hearts, in our own minds, in our own actions. And so we pray that you would help us to be receptive of the work of the Spirit of grace, that you would purge from us all transgressions and iniquities. You would purge from us even the neglect that so often leads to apostasy. Help us to be faithful, and help us to persevere in Jesus Christ, and we ask this in His name. Amen. Well, we've mentioned several times over the course of the last several weeks, but I do so again, that as we have been preaching through Hebrews, we've come to the section of chapters 7 through 10. And these chapters, by far, are very, very encouraging and comforting chapters. We've seen throughout the last several months in going through these that the writer of Hebrews wants us to be assured of our faith and of our salvation. He doesn't want us to needlessly worry or doubt. And in order to prove that point throughout chapters 7 through 10, he has directed us over and over again to the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Because that's the only ground of assurance that we have who He is and what He has done for us. These last chapters have been very comforting. And two weeks ago, we finished up looking at the section that came immediately before this, that's verses 19 through 25. And if you were with us, you remember that as we came to these verses that we looked at the three commands or the three fruits of assurance. The writer of Hebrews in those verses three times gives us, let us, statements. We drew out that because of what Christ has done, because of who He is, that we ought to do these things. And so three weeks ago we saw that the first commandment given here is that we ought to draw near to God. The second commandment is that we ought to hold fast to our confession of hope, and the third let us of those verses encouraged us to let us stir one another up towards love and good works. And two weeks ago, we came back again to that third commandment, and we looked at the way in which this third let us consider how we might stir one another up towards love and good works. Embedded within that command is a duty that we all have to gather together as the Church to worship Christ. So we come with that type of background. And perhaps you don't remember, but several weeks ago as we came to Chapter 10, I warned you that the encouragement was going to stop. But before we got there, I really wanted you to feel the warmth and the pastoral heart of the writer of Hebrews. And I really wanted you to feel that and to see that Hebrews wants us to be assured because this morning we come to the very, very sobering verses of 26 through 31. And even as we have read through it, I don't think it escapes even a casual glance that these verses aren't comforting, they're a tongue lashing. They actually have a way of making us feel very uncomfortable. So as we come to these verses, my hope is to take two weeks to look at them. I want to first look at the meaning of these verses. What is the writer of Hebrews driving home? And Lord willing, next week to look at the rebuke that is embedded in these verses. So I just want this morning briefly explain where the writer is going here and next week we are going to turn our attention to the seriousness of what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. So as we come this morning, we just want to explain briefly, we're going to look primarily at the first half of verse 26. Because if you don't understand that, you're not going to understand what comes after it. So we just want to explain this, and I want to do it by asking four questions of verse 26 this morning. First question that I want to ask is, why the harsh language? Second question that we want to deal with is, what sin is being spoken of here in these verses? The third question is, who is in danger of falling into this sin or committing this sin? And the fourth question is, what are some of the telltale signs of this sin? So we just want to look at four questions in explaining this text. Why the harsh language? What sin is being spoken of? Who stands in danger of this sin? And fourthly, what are some of the telltale signs of this sin? So the first question we want to grapple with is why the harsh language? For almost four chapters, this writer has been doing nothing but exuding comfort and encouragement. Remember that for almost four chapters, there is not a single command that is given to us. Merely, what the writer is doing is painting the glory and the supremacy and the person and work of Christ to assure us, to comfort us, to encourage us. I can tell you that as a pastor, these chapters were almost fun to preach because they're so comforting, because they're so precious, because they're filled with so much grace. You'd have to be insane to be offended by them. And as a pastor, I can also admit to you, especially as one who is from Minnesota and succumbs to the Minnesota niceness, as we often refer to it, I could wish that every sermon that we ever preached exuded such promise-saturated, gospel-centered, and Christ-exalting words as these last four chapters. But as we come to these verses, we note that there is definitely a change of tone. And that's because we cannot preach only on the comforts of the gospel. You remember Paul, as he was leaving the elders in Ephesus, told them, I have not withheld declaring to you the full counsel of God. And so if we desire to preach and we desire to hear the full counsel of God, as indeed we ought to, we need to listen to these verses with as much earnestness, with as much zeal, with as much faith, with as much attentiveness, with as much thankfulness as we've heard the previous four chapters. Perhaps an illustration helps drive this point home. You go to the doctor because something is wrong with you. You are going to hear his word just as attentively if he tells you all the tests came back negative as you would if he were to say all the tests have come back positive. We need to go into surgery this minute. So the writer of Hebrews here is going on and he is doing surgery in order to proclaim the full counsel of God. And we're not so naive as to think that such a tongue lashing is a really good way to offend people. But I would ask you or beg you as a minister of the gospel to not be offended, but to let these words sink in. So I think if we look at our culture and why the writer uses harsh words here and apply it to our culture today, I think we would probably agree that there are some of us, perhaps even among us here this morning, who need to learn how to be rebuked. We live in a day and age of spineless and gutless and wimpy victimization type of culture that capitalizes on self-esteem and on self-helpisms and pop psychological anecdotes that we do need to learn how to be rebuked. We need to learn how to be shaken up and unnerved when faith calls for it. Even as the writer in Proverbs 27.6 says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy. So the writer of Hebrews wants to show us how to be rebuked. And as I say that, I also am very aware that there are some, perhaps even among us, who need to learn the opposite lesson. Some who are so rigid and so confrontational and so critical that they can't exude even a spirit of encouragement or grace or comfort, especially to those who are weak in the faith. that there are some who hear these rebukes and that seems to be all that they hear and they would all too readily break the bruised reed in their overzealousness to make sport of Christ's sheep. Well in reality we need both of these. We need to both be rebuked and we need to be comforted. And for four chapters he has brought comfort and now he brings rebuke to drive this point home that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So why these harsh words? Because these words teach us, they remind us, that the gospel of Christ afflicts the comforted and it comforts the afflicted. The Bible and the Gospel of Christ is a masterful counselor. And that's what the writer is drawing out here for us. So the first question, why these harsh words? We need to learn to be rebuked. But secondly, this morning, what sin is being spoken of? This is very important. You read with me in the first half of verse 26. The writer says, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. These are very weighty words. And it's very important that we understand what sin is the writer speaking about here. So think if we're honest with ourselves, if you were to evaluate your own sins, how often do you deliberately sin? What man has ever accidentally looked at pornography on his computer? Or what woman has ever accidentally entered into a gossip circle with her friends? How do we undeliberately cheat on our taxes in order to further our pocketbook? So many of our sins are deliberate. And if the writer of Hebrews is saying here that every sin that we commit deliberately means that there is no longer a sacrifice for sins, we're all in trouble. So it's important to define precisely what does he mean here by sinning deliberately. I believe that what this bears out is that the writer is talking about a particular class of sins. There's three things I just want to briefly draw your attention to here in the first half of verse 26. First thing that you note is that here in this verse there is a connection between these words sinning deliberately and the words after receiving the knowledge of the truth. So whatever this particular class of sin is, what the writer wants us to see is that this is a sin that's conscious, that this is a sin that is willful, that this is a sin that we know we are committing. The second thing to note here from verse 26 is this word, sinning. Sinning. It is not he who has sinned deliberately, but it is sinning. And the aspect of this word carries the idea of a continual act of sinning. A habitual act, if you will. A continual act of sinning. Or we could put it this way, it's the continual act of not repenting. for whatever sin is being spoken of. The third connection that I want you to see here is to define briefly what does this knowledge of the truth mean. The connection there is that if we go on sinning intentionally, willfully, deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, well, what's this knowledge of the truth so that I know if I'm sinning against it? Really briefly, what the knowledge of the truth here is, the writer is not saying the knowledge of everything that is true. He's not saying if you sin against the math equation that 1 plus 1 equals 2, as some in our society are apt to do. He's not talking about that type of knowledge of truth. Rather, knowledge of the truth here means the truth of the gospel or the profession of the gospel. Paul uses almost a very identical phrase in 1 Timothy 2.4 where he says that God desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. That is to come to a knowledge of the gospel, to make a profession of faith, to understand what it is that Christ has done for me on the cross in order to pay for my sins and to justify me and to adopt me and sanctify me. So this knowledge of the truth is gospel. So this particular class of sin that the writer is speaking about here is a sin against the profession of the gospel. It is, in its very simplest definition, apostasy. Or to put it another way, it is falling away. It is to give up on the profession of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to see further here how the writer describes this type of apostasy. Because here in verse 26 there is both, and this is important to grasp, there is both a cognitive and a volitional form of apostasy. That is, there is both an apostasy of belief and of practice. Both of these are important and addressed here. First thing that we note here is that the writer is addressing an apostasy of falling away from belief or falling away from sound doctrine. So it's encapsulated in that phrase, the knowledge of the truth. We can't stress enough that doctrine matters. It is very, very important that we have right beliefs about who God is and who I am and who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for me. We can say that you can't be saved without at least some right knowledge of who God is. You can't be saved apart from doctrine. Doctrine is important. Doctrine divides. That's important to remember because truth divides. And there are people on the Day of Judgment that I would imagine we would not want to be standing and holding hands with. Even as Christ has said, do not think that I have come into the world to bring peace, but I have come to bring a sword. Doctrine isn't a child's toy. And it is not trite. And it is not meant to be novel or innovative. It's important. And you don't have to be the smartest person in the world. You hear that often, this theology is too deep for me, I'm just a simpleton. It's a bad excuse. You don't need to be the smartest person, you don't have to have it all figured out. But all of us do need to endeavor to think God's thoughts after Him. And to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. in order that we can discern truth from error. As Paul was writing to the young minister Timothy, he reminded Timothy that in the latter days there would come apostates, those who will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. And again, in 2 Timothy, Paul seeing this so important, told Timothy, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Where there is theological lackadaisicalness, apostasy is almost sure to follow. So the writer of Hebrews here wants us to be on guard against this apostasy of doctrine, but secondly, he wants us to be on guard against a falling away from holiness. It's not just doctrine that he's commending to us here, but he does write if we go on sinning, This is a volitional act. This is an act of my will. We teach, and the Bible teaches us, that right action always flows from right belief. That is, that our actions are affected through our minds, what we believe about God or not about God, about the world, about different aspects. Right actions always flow from right belief. We always do in accordance with our beliefs, never vice versa. Our minds are never affected by what we do. You can't do rightly until you think rightly. It's what Paul teaches us in Romans 12, that we ought to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then we will be able to test and approve of what God's will is, his good, pleasing, holy, and perfect will. But as we come to consider this apostasy from holiness, It's also true that there are many who think rightly, but do wrongly. The Pharisees had some of the best theology in their day and age, and yet at every corner they were doing wrongly. Apostasy isn't only an issue of doctrine, it is also an issue of holiness. And the preeminent theologian on apostasy, John Owen, wrote of the apostasy of holiness that on many accounts this is more dreadful and dangerous than a partial apostasy from the truth of the gospel. Paul again in speaking to Timothy not only warned him that there would be apostates in doctrine, but apostates in action. In 2 Timothy 3, verses 1-5, Paul warns Timothy, for people will be lovers of self. They will be lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable. slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." So the apostasy that is being spoken of here is an apostasy both of doctrine and an apostasy of holiness. So what this sin here means is deliberately the falling away from truth and holiness. We come thirdly this morning to ask the next question. Who is in danger of falling into this sin? Who is in danger of committing apostasy? And again, this is important. Because like our forefather and mother, Adam and Eve, we love to play the blame game. It's not difficult for us to look out at the culture, people around us, and point the finger at them and say, you're in danger of apostasy. To point to the Pharisees of our day and age and say, don't you see that you've loved man more than you've loved the glory of God? Or to point the finger at those who disagree with the fundamentals of the Christian faith and say, see, you've apostatized. Or to look at the unrepentant homosexual and say, this verse is for you. You deliberately sin against these things. Or look at the churches that we've split from and say, they're apostate. Some may actually be apostate. The writer of Hebrews has a greater concern here than them, and the concern is us. It's you. You stand in danger of falling into apostasy and committing this sin deliberately. Having been around the Reformed camp for some time, I can't believe how many times I have heard people skirt the issue of apostasy by saying something like, I'm elect and God's going to grant me perseverance to the end. I don't have anything to fear. Now don't get me wrong, the doctrines of God's sovereign election of individuals and his continuing perseverance in them to bring them to glory, there are few doctrines as precious as the doctrine of election. But there are also few doctrines that have been so abused with such callousness to numb our consciences and our faith as the doctrine of election and perseverance. The Prince of Puritans, John Owen himself, wrote, there is a danger at all times of defection among professed Christians from the truth. Whether you're young, whether you are old, whether you are a man or a woman, whether you are a mature Christian or you are a spiritual babe, whether you're a pastor or an elder or a deacon or a lay person, whether you are smart and intelligent or you are simple, the danger of apostasy is always present. so long as we continue on this side of glory. Now, in order to drive this home, we see this from verse 26. Because the writer of Hebrews uses a very small but very potent word there. He says in the beginning of verse 26, for, if, we. He doesn't exclude himself from this danger. This minister, this man who is divinely inspired by the Spirit to write these thirteen chapters, this man who is preeminent in intelligence and in godliness, sees even before him this ever-present danger of apostasy, of falling away, of deliberately sinning against the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in order to do justice to these verses, dear friends, we must let this word, we, pierce our hearts and our consciences and our faith to such a degree that we tremble. that we are driven and compelled to fly again and again to the foot of Jesus Christ and to lay a hold of Him each and every day because in Him and Him alone is the security of our salvation. We must let this Word sink into our minds and into our faith for if we go on sinning deliberately. If we abandon this profession of faith, if we forsake the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we will show that we never possessed faith, but merely professed faith. So who is it that stands in danger of falling into this apostasy. It's everybody who makes a profession of faith. The fourth and final question that I want to ask with you this morning, hopefully to bring it around to some closure, is what are the telltale signs of apostasy? I think most of us probably treat our spiritual health in the same way that we treat our physical health. I had a dear friend a couple of years ago who got home from a long trip with his family and he was resting comfortably at his home. All of a sudden he got this searing pain in his legs. And he thought, oh, this must be because my legs were cramped up while I was driving. And he went to sleep that night, and he woke up the next day. And all throughout the next day, his legs were hurting, and he could barely walk. He was a Scotsman. He said, I'm not going to go into the doctor. I'm not going to go waste my time. I have more important things to do. I'll walk it off. I'll shake it off. Throughout the course of the day, the pain continued. His wife kept saying, I really think we should take you in. It's the weekend, yes, we have to go to the ER, but I really think you need to go in and get checked out. I don't want to go in and get checked out. It's too cumbersome. I have no interest in that. I don't like doctors. Finally, his wife encouraged him and said, you really need to go in. And humbly, he submitted to his wife's urging, and he went into the hospital. And as he got there to the doctor, Doctor took one look at him for some sort of scan and he said, do you understand that you're hours away from death? You have blood clots that were filling your legs and they've broken loose and they're making their way to your heart. And if he had gone to sleep that night, being so negligent over his physical health, undoubtedly he wouldn't have woken up in the morning. So often we can be negligent of our physical health. The consequences are physical death, take it or leave it, it's your choice. To be negligent towards our spiritual health will usher in not just physical death, but eternal death and condemnation and suffering. That's the heart of apostasy. It's neglect. I don't think you can point the finger at a single apostate throughout church history. who woke up one morning, stretched his arms, and said, today I am going to apostatize. But as we looked at when we came to Hebrews chapter 2, apostasy is a drifting. It's subtle. It's subtly neglecting things that we ought not to neglect. And so in this final point, if you can bear with me for a couple more minutes, I just want to offer some helps. so that all of us can diagnose our own hearts and to discern, are we headed towards this apostasy that the writer of Hebrews speaks of here? Or do I have time to see that apostasy and neglect is growing in my heart and to be snatched back to where I ought to be in order that I might persevere even to the end? I want to give you just this morning four tests, if you will, to discern your heart. Are you headed towards apostasy or are you running in the opposite direction? And undoubtedly we could give more than four, but I will only give four. Feel free to go home and to improve upon these. The first test, if you will, is to ask yourself, are you neglecting the enmity of sin? Are you neglecting the enmity of sin, or to put that in other language, are you cherishing any sin? The preeminent theologian of holiness, J.C. Ryle, once wrote, a small leak will sink a great ship, and a little allowed sin will ruin an immortal soul. All sin, every sin that we neglect to repent and turn from, whether it's anger, whether it's lust, whether it's complacency or pride or self-sufficiency or greed, every sin, no matter how small, If we neglect the enmity and the hatred that we ought to have against every inkling of sin, if we don't consciously fight against all sin, these sins would see us drake down to hell for all of eternity. It's important to remember that our love of God and our love of spiritual things, friends, they don't come naturally. We can't neglect this. We can't neglect hating sin and loving righteousness. We can't neglect the enmity of sin and think that we shall not be burned in the end. The second test, if you will, not only neglecting the enmity of sin, but secondly, Are you neglecting the knowledge of God? We have a simple saying in our day and age and culture that familiarity breeds contempt. And contempt against the knowledge of God is a sure-footed path to apostasy. When our love and our devotion and our commitment and our wonder and our awe begin to simmer, and God becomes commonplace to us, and the gospel becomes that same old boring story I've heard for so long, and the mysteries of the gospel become all too commonplace in our hearts, and in our minds, and our faith, and our interactions with others. These are warning signs. These are warning signs of apostasy. We ought never to take a knowledge of God for granted. But as the prophet Hosea prophesied, let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going out as sure as the dawn, He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. Neglecting the knowledge of God was in part the greatest sin of apostasy that the nation of Israel committed. Even as God, by the prophet of Isaiah, thundered against them. In Isaiah chapter one, verse three, the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not understand. So secondly, do you neglect or find yourself neglecting the knowledge of God, or having more thirst to know him and to press on? A third test is to ask, are you neglecting the means of grace? That is, are you neglecting the preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, and prayer? Because as the Bible teaches us, these are the most glorious means that God uses this side of glory to preserve His people, to build His people up, to encourage us in the way that we should go. I hope that as we have been preaching through the book of Hebrews, that this has settled in your mind how important these means of grace are, how important it is to sit under the preaching of God's Word, because as Paul tells us in Romans 10, that faith comes by hearing, and that is hearing the Word of God. How important it is to remember that these sacraments have been given to us to encourage us and to build us up as the body of Christ here in this day and age. To think of prayer, even as Paul in Ephesians 6, as he culminates the armor of God with prayer. That it's in prayer that we put on all of these pieces of armor. I hope that as we looked at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 that you saw the need of gathering together as the Lord's people on the Lord's day to worship with the Lord's people that the Lord might be glorified and we might be built up. Are you neglecting the means of grace? This is the broad road that leads to apostasy. But the fourth and final question, or test if you will, are you neglecting the warning? Do you hear the words of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 through 31, and do you neglect it? Do you think little of it? Do you brush it aside and say, ah, I'm too busy to deal with this? Don't ask me to be introspective. Don't ask me to look into the depths of my own heart and soul by the word of God to root out all sin. I don't have time to fear and to tremble. Remember that our Westminster standards remind us so well that true and saving faith, in part, trembles at all the threatenings of God's word. And this has been the testimony of all true saints down throughout history. Think of Hezekiah. Isaiah comes to him and he tells him, Hezekiah, you are going to die. And what does Hezekiah do? Does he throw his hands up and go, Lord's will be done. He's decreed this from eternity past. No, Hezekiah trembled. And he prayed and he pled with God and he said, please don't take my life. His faith caused him to tremble at the threatening of God. And we know from Isaiah 38 that because of that, the Lord added 15 years to his life. or think even of our own writer in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, when we came to that, therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear. lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it." Or you look at the Israelites as they gather together under the ministry of Ezra in chapter 9 verse 4, and we have recorded that they trembled. when they heard the Word of God and of their sins, and of the grace that they needed. True and saving faith takes to be true whatever is revealed here in this Word of God, even the threatenings, and it trembles at them. And faith teaches us the seriousness of it. Hebrews is writing here to those of us who may have calloused minds or hearts, who ignore these warnings and aren't unsettled by them. We all know this to be true. A child has to learn to tremble at his father's warnings or he's bound for destruction. And so, too, we must learn to tremble at our Father's warnings when He gives them in His Word. You can't neglect the warnings of Scripture without a detrimental effect to your soul. So here in these verses, what we've seen is how the very tender-hearted shepherd now becomes the warning shepherd. how the one shepherd who comforted and encouraged now gives way to the weighty and the serious warnings that a faithful shepherd gives to his people. In a particular way, if we needed to envision these chapters in a picture, he has brought the sheep beside the still waters in chapters 7 through 10. But here at the close of chapter 10, this shepherd sees the church standing as it were on the precipice of apostasy. And he takes his goad and he prods and he yanks and he pulls these sheep back in order that they might persevere by seeing the reality that confronts them. That if we go on sinning deliberately, After receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Lord willing, next week we will come back to these sobering verses to consider the seriousness of apostasy. But until then, may the Good Shepherd himself keep us in the faith. Amen. Please join me in prayer. O Lord our God, how precious are the promises of the Gospel, and how encouraging you are even to weak sheep like us. And yet as we come to verses such as we have before us, we pray that you would make us humble, you would help us to receive from your hand both the good and the evil, you would help us to receive both the encouragements and the rebukes, That you would open our minds and our faith again to a renewed vision of the seriousness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That it cannot be laid aside, that it cannot be rejected, that it cannot be trampled upon without enduring the fierce wrath of our God. And while the world rages on and thinks so lightly of this, we pray that you would help your church not to think lightly. but to with soberness receive these words for our good and for the glory of our triune God. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray these things. Amen.