So please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 through 29. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 through 29. We will be discussing the entire chapter so you understand the context. But we're going to focus on this particular part as it matches our theme, warnings from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 10, starting with verse 26, For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despot under the Spirit of grace. For we know him, that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. but call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly whilst you were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used. For you had compassion of me and my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." And may God bless this portion in a special way because it's been surrounded by controversy, it has some difficult phrases in it, and it's caused many people to scratch their heads or shake their fists or get into arguments or cause divisions. And we want to try to give you a very practical interpretation today that you'll get the main point well. You can still scratch your heads on certain phraseology if you want. And I have to settle down to the fact that all I have tried to study to deliver this message, I will not be able to teach. I know that. I know there's more I will have wished I could have said. I know that in trying to prepare for this message, I have, particularly the last three weeks, have been absolutely run to one duty after another with people. And I jokingly say ministry would be a lot of fun if it weren't for people. That's just a joke, but the fact is, there's more studying I would have liked to have done, there's more I would have liked to have gotten into this better, and you maybe are glad I didn't study more, because I'll have a mouthful for you today. But when we're all done, we're going to see this as a gracious warning from God, an explanation of things, and we get the chance to see the opportunity of disaster or of blessing. And so Hebrews very kindly is warning us, even though some of the warnings are fearful. And fearful is definitely a word for this portion of Scripture. So I'll try not to overdo the controversial stuff, but I have to show you some things, because you'll see it yourself. You'll see phrases here, and you'll think, oh, that ought to mean this, or that ought to mean that. And it's real easy text to get exasperated with, but if we patiently seek, Well, let's go back to Matthew 7. 7 says, if we ask, we shall receive. If we seek, we shall find. If we knock, it shall be opened unto you. So let's do that. Ask, seek, and knock. All righty. So we have been studying teachings and warnings gleaned from the book of Hebrews that compel people to examine their faith and their walk with God. Now, we're examining dangerous things people do, habits, tendencies, trends, things that we would naturally do if we don't watch out. Eternal vigilance is needed. And not only does Hebrews warn us about the things we might do, but also I call it the gospel-driven call to correct or protect the situation. We can prevent some things, or we can correct some things when it's made clear to us, and Hebrews is graciously doing that. Other scriptures do, but Hebrews is packed, as I'm proving, as we're on part six now of this delivery. In the past, in Hebrews 2, 1, and 3, people let things slip or drift away. Hebrews 3, 6, and 14, People do not hold fast or firmly to our confidence in Christ. In Hebrews 3, 8 through 13, people harden their hearts. In Hebrews 4, 1 and 2, people gain unprofitable knowledge of God's Word. They learn things and it gets stuffed up here, 18 inches down here it should be getting applied and it doesn't. missing the prophet of God's Word by 18 inches because we don't properly apply it and respond to it in areas where we need to submit to it. And then last week, the other very troublesome text that interpreters have battled over, and I took a bigger section here, Hebrews 5.8 through Hebrews 6.12, and basically people become lethargic and fruitless. They just get sluggish, they just get indifferent. I used a lot of words last week to substitute for this being dull of hearing that the writer of Hebrews mentioned. But now today, we're going to consider the great chapter 10 of Hebrews. And particularly the reference I just read to us, verses 26 through 39. And what we're going to say here is that people trifle with the precious blood of Christ. And like last week, we have to ask two questions. Are they apostates or are they apathetic Christians? I need to define these terms. An apostate This is something in which people turn away. I'll give a better definition later, but they turn away, completely turn away. I don't mean backslide a little. I mean they completely turn away from the truth. They completely turn away from the gospel. They reject it. They had embraced it, now they reject it. And Christians may falter and get back to it, but these people, apostates, have utterly fallen away from the teaching of grace. Okay, we'll explain that more. Apathetic, I don't care. That's what apathetic means. I just don't care. And so why bother? No big deal. Leave me alone. Don't bother me with the facts. Now, what I'd like to do is read a few scriptures to you here that embody this. Now, if I lose you after this, I haven't lost you entirely, because these scriptures are very pertinent to what this warning is all about. There's too many for me to read all of them, so I'm going to take 1 Peter 1, verses 13 through 23. 1 Peter 1, verses 13 through 23, and give you a good sampling here. But I would ask, if you would accept homework assignments, that you really meditate on this list right at the beginning, right at the heading of this message, the subheading here. People trifle with the precious blood of Christ. Are they apostates or are they apathetic Christians? A question that will be answered in time. You know, time and the devil's work and God's work all in time bring things to pass, but we get a chance to head things off before it comes to a devastating conclusion. Okay, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind." Now, gird up the loins of your mind is an expression, like Roman soldiers had the long-flowing robe-like clothing, and it was time to march or go to battle, they had a girdle, a belt, modern translations say, and they could gather up the loose ends of that garment and bind them, and the belt would pull them up, and they'd be like they were wearing some kind of a pantaloon or something. But anyways, it's the idea of mobility, action, and so gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living." Conversation. Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, Judgeth according to every man's work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Now the problem with the text like this is that's another sermon. But the idea we're trying to glean from this is that we gotta keep our minds focused. The loins girt about, that means we're ready for action, we're staying active, we're staying plugged in, we're attentive. And we have been called to holiness. Not just heaven, but to holiness. Jesus came, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Not in them, but from them. And so the need to see the holiness, which is God's goal for those that are His. Now, to do this, they had to be purchased, bought back from sin. There were other traditions in the old covenant, and one of them had to do with a certain amount of money was given as an offering for a firstborn child, and I won't describe all of that. But the fact is, no money, no efforts, no other things you could do could redeem you. Nobody can redeem their soul. Even in the Old Testament it says, for the redemption of their soul is precious. And here it is, the precious blood of Jesus. That blood that came from one, when the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem us. It had to be someone who was 100% human, that had blood that could be shed. It also had to be 100% God, divine, with no sin in it. Now, someone once said, how can you have 200%? But you do. It's paradoxical, but Jesus, the very God of God and the very man of man, he's God's perfect man and man's perfect God. He's all of that. And that blood that was shed is precious. There was none other like it ever, never will be again. It's not gonna happen a second time, which may be pertinent to our lesson today. But here we see that we had to be born again. We had to be born again to believe and receive this and come to God in the name of Jesus. Born again by the word of God. Born again as a work of the Spirit. born again and transformed into loving people. We love him because he first loved us, and we love the brotherhood in Christ because he first loved us, and we love our neighbor as ourself because he first loved us. Any good love there is on this earth, any true and perfect God-like love, the sacrificial love, agape they call it in the Greek, it had to first start and originate with God. I can't manufacture it. I can only receive it and distribute it. And so, That's saying a whopping lot for what I think the Hebrew message, that is the book from the book of Hebrews is telling us and a lot of what we're gonna study in chapter 10, this is very pertinent. But let me do one more and just partially, 1 John chapter three. See a little typo there, 1 John 3, verses 1-10. I put the three twice there. Something to fix later. Wouldn't be me if there wasn't a mistake. 1 John 3, and I just want to look at the first three verses. I'm going to try to restrain myself here. 1 John 3, verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not. That means it doesn't want to know us, it won't identify with us, it rejects us. And they do that because they knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure." We're going to see the spotless Lamb of God one day. We're going to be amazed, shocked, delighted, a whole bunch of things. But when we see him, lo and behold, by that time, we will be like him. We are like him in essence inside, but the outside's got problems, this old body. When we get new bodies or have the absence of those bodies, and I think I said this a while back, but I want to repeat myself, is that to go to heaven, nothing has to be added to you, only subtracted. Just subtract this body, and you can go to heaven, because Christ in you is the hope of glory. And then one day, we get another body. Some are going to get that instantly, and some, they're going to die, and then the Lord brings them back, and then the rapture, and 1 Thessalonians 4, and all that. But I mustn't digress here. Every man that has this hope in him will purify himself, even as he, Jesus Christ, is pure. Now, I said I was going to go to verse 3, but I better say one more thing. Okay, and I'm going to take... Where is the exact verse I want here? Verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Now, some of you will have Bibles that will word that a little differently. Because commit sin sounds like, oh, I'll never commit an act of sin. Uh-uh. Chapter one deals with that. If you say you have no sin, you're lying. You're deceived. And if and when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous in chapter two. But the idea of commit here is with a continual pattern of behavior in which you allow it, if you regard it. Psalm 66, 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. If I tolerate, allow, desire, protect, sin in my life. That's what they're talking about here. If you're born of God, of course you fail and will sin. And you'll do it more than once, I'll just be honest with you. But to say that I now, I'm a child of God, and I'm just, and Jesus paid for all this, so I just get to get away with this now, and this is okay, and this is my special sin, and God and I have an arrangement. People often say, well, God understands. Oh boy, does He understand. But not the way some people think He does. They think that God is like them, and He isn't. But he wants us to be like him, like Peter said. As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. So back to the point that he, verse 9, whosoever is born of God does not commit, that is, continually practice and allow sin, for his seed remains in him. That is, Christ is in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. You may sin, but you will not be happy with it. You will know that you gotta confess to God and forsake and let him forgive and cleanse, and you're at war with it now. It can't bring you the satisfaction like before. And some of us learn quickly, and some of us learn slowly, and some of us learn quickly here, but not there. And some people learn quickly here, but not there. And whatever it is, we just need to understand, they're saying that we will not give allowance. We will not give ourselves permission to sin. I think it might be good to quote my story again. The two Christians were arguing. They didn't agree on doctrine. And the one person said, well, if I believed in eternal security like you do, then I could sin all I want. And the other Christian says, my friend, my brother, I not only sin all I want, I sin more than I want. And that's where the heart of this is being revealed. I'm not looking for a license to sin. I'm looking for a way to get over it. So God can use me and I can have more joy and get rid of this stuff that is robbing me of my joy. Okay, I wanted to include verse 9. I just thought that's going to help us because when we get to Hebrews chapter 10, it says, if we sin willfully, I may have some good news for you because When we talk about this, we're not gonna talk about sin in just a general sense. It's a specific kind of sin called apostasy. Okay, when people turn away from the faith. In the context, I hope I can make it clear. But willful implies this persistent, stubborn thing, and 1 John 4, 9, or 3, 9, 1 John 3, 9, is counteracting that. Okay, having said that, Let me get started with verses one through 14. We're not going to read all that. You're going to have to read it, but we're talking about, and let me read verse one. For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. Okay? The Old Covenant, okay? We're talking about under Moses, the covenant with Israel, the law under Moses. The Old Covenant was a shadow of something better to come. The light of the gospel shines on the substance and defines the shadow's true significance. Okay? I tried to get my powerful flashlight working, and for some reason, it didn't. I didn't have any more time. So I'm going to do something over here. Somebody want to know if I was doing a shadow puppet show today? No. And yet, yes. OK. So I'm sorry if you can't see this, because I don't think I can go any farther here. No. So use your imaginations, but there it is. Okay, I'm not gonna do any fancy dog things. I'm not gonna do that. But I want you to see on the wall, there is some kind of a shadow. It's a little fuzzy looking, isn't it? But this is what we call the substance. And that is the shadow made by the light that shines on the substance. Okay? So the light of the glorious gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4, when we see the revelation of God, His Spirit from the Word showing Christ, now this is clear, but what people had before, they couldn't see this hand, they could only see the shadow. And sometimes it looked more clear than others perhaps, but that's the shadowiness of something better, something real. Plato talked about a theory of if a person were in a cave and chained to a wall and he could only see shadows on the wall across from him, that would be his reality. And if they unchained him and took him up and showed him the things that made the shadows, he wouldn't believe they were real. He was so conditioned to think this is all there is. But Christ is the real thing. And the Old Testament is a bunch of shadows of him, pictures of him, images of him, ideas of him. And without the Spirit of God, you might not know what you're talking about. But as people walked in the light they were given, though they were in shadow land, let's call it, God blessed their faith, and this is a strange statement, but they sinned on credit. There was an account created, and these people who truly loved God and believed Him and followed Him, their sins were put on an account, and Jesus came later and paid the account. And that included their sins and our sins and so forth. So God didn't judge them. God didn't send them to hell until Jesus came later. He sent them to a place we call paradise. And they were able to enjoy the benefits of their faith and their salvation, though they didn't fully understand, didn't fully receive it, didn't fully know it. But we're called the people to whom the ends of the earth are coming. We get to know the whole picture. So Christ being the substance is the real hand. The shadows on the wall, that's the old covenant law. And the light of the gospel shines on Christ and makes this all understandable now. If only I can make it understandable enough for us today. So, back to our thought. The new covenant with Christ has a permanent mediator or priest, and a permanent sacrifice. The substance is of lasting value and effect. In other words, it brings eternal salvation by one offering. You catch that in verses 10 and 14 of Hebrews chapter 10. By the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Verse 14, for by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Okay, the shadowy offerings of the old covenant only served as a reminder of sins and sinfulness. They taught us that innocent blood had to be shed in order for the guilty to be reconciled or for those who were enemies be made friends. And you'll see this taught very clearly also in Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 through 6. But we can't elaborate, but we have some more homework there for you if you'll look those things up. Then we move up to verses 15 through 18, where I mentioned this one offering, this perfect offering. Well, it has perfect results. In two words, we ought to get to know. One of them is remission, and the other is regeneration. I figure you may already be familiar with them, but if not, I'm here to get you familiar. Remission, the opposite of admission. You want to go see a show, you walk up and you buy a ticket, and that's a ticket of admission, means we'll let you in. Remission is the opposite, means we send it away. I want my sins sent away. God promises to remember them no more. He'll separate them as far as east is from west. He'll throw them into the deepest sea. And Corrie Ten Boom added, and he puts up a sign on shore saying no fishing. But this idea of remission, remission. My sins need to be sent away so that God will not judge them. He officially, legally remembers them no more. And you can read that in 10 and 8 of Hebrews. But the perfect and permanent offering of Christ's body brings a perfect and permanent forgiveness. It has life-changing results, giving people a new mind and heart. Oh, that's the other word that starts with the letter R, regeneration, to get a new life. It's the restoration of a life that was lost. Adam sinned and we all then died. We're in a state of death. And through Christ, and he's called the second Adam, the last Adam, and he causes us to be made alive. We were created to know God, to love him, to enjoy him, to serve him. And when Adam sinned, that all got undone. And everybody born from Adam and Eve were all born sort of unplugged, kind of like a TV set, unplugged from the wall. There's a TV there that has the capabilities of catching programming through the airwaves, but if it's not plugged in, can't do it. And you and I who were made to know God and love God and desire God and seek God and serve God, we can't do it. We don't know what's going on. Jesus said you have to be born again to see or comprehend this. So what regeneration is to get the plug put back in the wall and the thing turned on and all of a sudden, wow, I get it now. Now my Bible makes sense. Now that fuzzy-faced preacher up there makes sense. Hopefully. New birth is similar, same as regeneration. You know what a generator does? It makes power. And regenerate means we're bringing back power that had been lost. Okay. The perfect and permanent offering of Christ's body brings a perfect and permanent forgiveness. It has life changing results, giving people a new mind and heart. There will be no need for any more offerings for sins. Jesus paid it all. Jesus completes the work that he starts in us. And we got some other wonderful references here that I don't dare try to read and explain. I'm just, I'd love to. But I'm going to ask you to check that all out. But the point that needs to be clearly seen is that in the old covenant, daily, yearly, systematically, Offerings for sins were repeated over and over. They never took away sin. They never remitted the sin. They were just a reminder and a postponement of how the sin would be dealt with. If people offered the blood of an animal, God says, well, that's what I asked you to do. So because you were faithful to my word, you did what I said, now I will not charge you for your sins. They're on account. He didn't tell them that, but it's on Jesus' account. They'll find out later. Because after he died, he went down to the lower parts of the earth and he announced himself, and he took captivity captive. And now when people die who are believers, they don't go to paradise. Absent from the body is present with the Lord. That's good news. So anyways, we have to also consider now in verses 19 through 25, a new and living way draws us together to follow the Lord. Now I would like to read these verses. Verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, 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 profession of our faith without wavering. for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching." This is an important matter here. Now, he's using pictures of Old Testament things from the tabernacle or temple. how they washed in a laver of water, how they sprinkled animal blood and different things like this. And there was the Holy of Holies and there was this veil and nobody could go past that veil except the high priest when he had the blood. Once a year, he went in and made the offering of atonement for the whole nation. And without that blood, he couldn't go in there. And so now we're told the veil's taken away. Jesus has come in and made it wide open. You don't have to be afraid now. Boldness means without fear. We now can come and fellowship with God, because Jesus has shed his blood and made a new and living way for us to approach unto him. So we just bow our heads and we pray in Jesus' name, and we go right into the throne room of grace. Our feet are on earth, but our heads get to be in heaven, because we're seated in heavenly places in Christ. So it's beautiful pictures. And if you just take more time to have it explained to you, all the different particulars of the Levitical law, the law under Moses, you get these pictures saying Christ is the perfect completion of that. We don't need to do this anymore, or that anymore, or this anymore, because Christ has done it all, and He's on the cross, and before He dies, He says, it is finished. Completion. I fulfill all these things. And now he ever lives to make intercession for the saints. Now he's our great faithful high priest. We now come in to that throne room of grace and seek to get grace to help in time of need. And we don't have to be afraid. These are very good things for us to know. So as he pictures the old covenant shadows of the priesthood and the tabernacle and the temple, Christ is seen as our high priest whose blood has made it possible to take away our sins and give us all access into the Holy of Holies. We can fellowship with the Lord without fear. The references to sprinkling and the washing of water, which is in verse 22, they do not have anything to do with any form of baptism. And some people are quick to go to that conclusion. These references to various aspects of the tabernacle and temple describe the clean status we hold with God through the blood of Christ, the word of the gospel, and the work of the Holy Spirit. And again, a luscious list of verses, delicious verses of scripture for that. Where Jesus says in John 15, now you are clean through the word which I have spoken. That's great. But also, it's not just about me and the Lord, but it says, we followers of Christ also unite with one another, and got two other luscious places in scripture here, Ephesians 2, 11 through 22, and Colossians 3, 12 through 17. I'd love you to meditate on those things. But what we saw here, and you've heard it, I'm sure, from time to time, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day, approaching. And, of course, this is used to scold people for not coming to church enough, for skipping church, for being haphazard, and not being regular enough. And, you know, that's where the warning starts, is we don't want to let these things slip. But there's also something going on here that gets pretty serious. I'm going to revert to 1 John 2, And verses 18 through 19. Verses 18 through 19. 1 John chapter 2, verses 18 through 19. Little children, it is the last time. And as ye have heard, that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists. A bunch of little ones. whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us because they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." Now, when we talk about forsaking the assembly, we're not simply talking about missing church too much. We're talking about people who forsake it. It ties in with this word apostasy that we're about to dig into. And now, there are those who have turned away from the gospel-preaching church. They've turned away from the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the shed blood, and the resurrection, and the virgin birth, and all those important things. They have turned away from it, and they're not coming back. If they had been of us, they would have remained. Oh, they might have wobbled, but they'd be back. because Christ in them would have brought them back. But when they can go and forsake and go do something else, whether it's become irreligious or become other religious, philosophical, worldly, whatever it is, they were never really of us. If they can do that and continue doing that and there's no conviction and no correction from God, they were never of us. And this is where some of our good Christian brothers and sisters get off on the wrong tangent. Because they say, well, you see, that person was saved and then they lost their salvation. Well, that's not what the scriptures teach about salvation. Eternal life is eternal life. But for by one offering, they have perfected forever them that are sanctified. And when the Lord starts something, he finishes it. And faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it. I'm repeating myself, I know it, but I got to here. They went out from us because they were not of us. Never really were. He's talking about apostasy. And that's what now is gonna happen when we go to Hebrews 10, verse 26. After we've talked about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, now it says, for if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. And this has brought horror to some people's minds because they thought, oh no, I started up an old habit again. I've committed a sin, oh no. And I allowed this, and oh no, there's nothing left for me. Some people can get the idea that if you lose your salvation, you'll never get it back. There's no more sacrifice for sins. That's it, Buster, you blew it. And that's a terrible way to live. That is a legal type of fear, a legalistic type of fear that has plagued the Christian world. But he's talking about something more specific, not sin in general. It's tied in with that word forsaking. And it's about the utter and final and complete turning away from the faith. Okay. If you haven't turned your page, roll up your sleeves, put on your seatbelts. Here's where we get really into it. The fearful warning of trifling with God and the gospel of his son. This portion of Scripture is not only fearful, it is full of difficult expressions that require comparing Scripture with Scripture. Some particular phrases could be taken in diverse ways, but the overall message can be plainly understood. And that's, if you don't get anything else here, this, I kind of wrote a little paragraph, I got it indented. I want you to get, this is the essence of what we're trying to learn from Hebrews 10, verses 26 through 31. And I may or may not be able to satisfy your questions about some of the difficult verses. There's only so much I can do in one message. But I can point you to commentaries. I can sit down with you myself and share more of what I have learned here. But here is my summary statement. The sin of turning away from God's gospel, from turning away from the Son of God, from turning away from the blood of His covenant and the gracious Spirit of God is apostasy. We offer the words abandonment, renunciation, rebellion against the truth of God and all that is holy. Apostasy is abandonment, renunciation, rebellion against the truth of God and all that is holy. Now, as I've said already, some may backslide and drift temporarily, but God will correct them and bring them back. Philippians 3.15, be thus minded, and if you be otherwise minded, even God shall reveal this to you. What a great promise that is. However, this state of apostasy that we're dealing with in this portion of Scripture describes a person who is hardened and full of contempt for that which is precious, sacred, and holy. They are described as adversaries, in verse 27, adversaries or enemies. They're enemies of the gospel of Christ and his cross. And Philippians 3, 18-19 is a vivid description here. And I want you to know this, that when Paul describes them, it says, I tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross. He isn't gloating, he isn't shaking his fist, and he isn't, you know, threatening and acting all big. He says this with sorrow. And we cannot deal with sinners unless we have the godly sorrow in our hearts for them. But by the grace of God, that could be us in those awful traps of lies and deception and lust and pride and so forth. So with tears, he describes the enemies of the cross. But back to our paragraph, because they have known the truth and now despise it, they shall receive the most severe punishment from God. And you'll read there in 2 Thessalonians 1, 7-9 that he's coming in flaming fire to take vengeance. on his enemies, to them who willfully know not God." I used to feel sorry, like, oh no, the poor things, they just didn't know God, and God's gonna be so hard on them. No, it doesn't mean they were ignorant of God accidentally. They knew about Him and chose not Him. They willfully did not want Him. They are deliberately not knowing Him, not just accidentally or passively. And Peter's statement, powerful stuff in 2 Peter 2. Boy, I wish I had time to read that to you. But part of it talks about the dog goes back to its vomit, the sow go back to wallowing in its mire, and Peter says it would be better if someone had never heard the gospel than after hearing it and receiving it to turn away from it like this. We're talking about a permanent change. It's not so much the act of apostatizing, because sometimes Christians get in spots, they get in situations where they're weak, they're fearful. They're being pushed, and they may deny their faith, but they'll repent and come back to it. This is the state of apostasy. They are settled. They are resolved. And I'm probably going to repeat myself now, because my mind skipped ahead in my notes here. God's use of this scripture is twofold. God can use this passage to alarm a person who is lost, particularly a person who has been religious. particularly a person who has called himself a Christian, and it's all, eh, and more and more getting indifferent to it. And this could alarm them and arouse them to repent. A true apostate, And the one that's in a permanent state here, they've been given over by God to reprobation, and they will not come to repentance. And Romans 1 has some concise statements here. They did not want to retain God in their knowledge, so God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not proper. That's scary stuff. And in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 24 through 26, we are not to strive with men. We're to be gentle, reasonable, have to teach and patient because we have to meekly reach out to those who oppose themselves. If God perhaps Peradventure is the old King James word. If God perhaps will grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Now this is hard things, folks, but God's given people light and they're responsible for that light. And when they deliberately make themselves enemies of that light, God has every right in his sovereignty to seal them off and say, have it your way. Have it your way. People act like they've got years and years to live and do whatever and change their mind maybe later somehow. But God, if he hardens a person, and reprobation's a tough doctrine and it's rarely taught in the regular church world, but reprobation means God has said, you have made your decision and I'm gonna quit talking to you about it and I'm sealing you off to your own destiny. And there's people that are literally walking dead men And Hebrews 10 is going to tell us, all they got left is a fearful judgment awaiting them. These are solemn truths, folks, and it should put the fear of God in us all. For ourselves, but also for others. We know people who may be in this state, or so dangerously close to it, and Hebrews 10, understanding it, might give us motivation. in our prayers, in our way we live, in the way we speak to people. We need to be open to how God might use that. But the second use of this scripture, God can use this passage to alarm an erring child of God who has become apathetic, or is under the influence of the world, and in the weakness of the flesh has succumbed to pride, fear, doubt. I told you I'd repeat myself there. But this text, Hebrews 10, 26 through 39, is going to grab them and say, oh, wake thou that sleepest, Christ shall give thee light, and hopefully go forward. So before we look at how to respond to this passage, we need to mention one particular difficult phrase. There's more than one, but this one is maybe the hardest one. And it's in verse 29. And it says, of how much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and here's the part, and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. Now that's that particular part. They have counted the blood of Christ. When you see me give a quote and I put some slash marks there, I'm gleaning from other translations that use words you're more familiar with. "...and has counted or regarded or treated the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, an unholy, common, profane, unclean thing." Okay, so when people despise Moses' law, there were death penalties for certain things. And Moses was a holy prophet of God and to be respected. So if they had a death penalty for that, how much worse when they have taken the Son of God? God the Son, the majestic one, the one who shines with the brightness of the glory of God. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 proclaims that very boldly. How much more punishment when people disrespect the Son of God? You can disrespect the preacher. You can disrespect the evangelist. You can disrespect a missionary. You can disrespect that, and that's one thing. But the actual Son of God, when you start blaspheming Him, this has got to be a terrible thing. Now, some suggest that this blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, they think that refers to Christ, because we just mentioned the Son of God in the first part there, and that Christ was sanctified, and sanctified means to set apart for holy purposes, and it's Christ who is sanctified, and that blood of the covenant refers to Christ's blood. Now others don't see it that way, and they look at this as the person who is now an apostate had followed the outward form of godliness for some time when they had believed the truth of Christ's blood. This is not an internal sanctification where they were cleansed and then lost it. It's more of an outward thing. It's surface. It's in forms. Okay, they did things, they changed things. Because of the gospel of Christ's blood, they quit doing stuff, started doing things. And anyways, it's an outward thing. Now, if it had been an internal sanctification, they would have continued with the Lord. And again, chapter 10, verse 10, by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So this is not a verse 10 person, but a person who has the form of godliness, but denies the power thereof. And Paul mentions that, I think, to Timothy. We have a shepherd and those that he sanctifies, he shepherds them. He finishes the work that he's doing. Now, this is something that, you know, when this series on Hebrews is done, I really want to probably end on this, but chapter 13, verses 20 and 21, let me give you a little help here. Now, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And if I had time to go to John chapter 6, I would point out that Jesus said, it's the Father's will, but of all that he has given me, I will lose none. I will lose none. And so, We're talking about people that have only made a surface, outward relationship, and maybe even became teachers of it. And then they turn away. They stay away. They don't just get neutral. They get hostile. They get blasphemous. You see, one thing we can know for sure, is that the precious sanctifying blood of Christ should never be treated with contempt. Another great little list of scriptures there. People who mock the blood of Christ, they mock his death, they mock the cross, they mock the resurrection, they mock regeneration, new birth, they make fun of these things. And I've seen them, haven't you? There's nothing, you see, Let's take a person who is a Jew. After all, this is the book called Hebrews, right? So let's take a person who's a Jew. And they say, okay, I'm going to leave the old covenant and take on this new covenant. Now I believe in the offering of Jesus once and for all. And then let us say baloney. Can they go back to the old law? Well, it's already been shown that it doesn't work. It doesn't take away sin. That's not going to work. And it's especially no good to them because the job of the old covenant law was to be a schoolmaster to point us to Christ. Now they're not listening to that. Is Jesus going to come again and make another offering? Is somebody else going to come and make another offering? What other offering is there for sins? So it kind of makes sense now in Hebrews chapter 10, when it says there remain no more sacrifice for sins in verse 26. Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? You have renounced what the old covenant law was teaching you, bringing you to Christ. Now you've rejected Christ. You really can't go back. You can't go forward. You got only one thing to look forward to is a fearful judgment, a certain fearful looking for of judgment. Now they may not be actively looking for it. They may say, I'm fine. But when it happens, it's going to be the most dreadful, fearful thing you can imagine, when they find out they were wrong, that they knew the truth and they walked away from it, they denied it. It's going to be worse than the person who never heard. Peter says that. And that operative word, adversaries, in verse 27, we're talking about enemies, not about sheep. We're talking about people who are adversaries or enemies of Christ's cross, So that's what this willful sinning is really all about. And in verses 30 and 31, he cites Old Testament references of how fiercely God judged in the Old Covenant. It's going to be more fierce than ever at the end of time. And everyone is brought and judged by their works. Fearful thing. Just quickly, in Hebrews 10, verses 32 through 34, you're told to take an inventory of yourself. Look yourself over now. In view of all this, where are you exactly? Are you walking carefully with the Lord? Are you slipping and drifting? Are you starting to get more in line with the people who mock the gospel? What's going on? So verse 32, but call to remembrance the former days in which you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly while you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used, for you had compassion of me and my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Go back to where you've been. If you have to relive in your mind the dramatic change that Jesus made in your life, call these things to remembrance. What has he done? Maybe it's kind of like when Jesus spoke in Revelation to the Ephesian church, go back to your first love. Go back to your first love. You don't want to forsake and dump all that. Well, that's exactly what's said now in this last little section. is the call to deliberately go forward with Christ. Verse 35, cast not away therefore your confidence. Don't throw this away! which you have great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, endurance, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise." Don't give up. I told you about that guy who was caving all by himself, which is kind of stupid. But he went in there with a rope, and he had a way always back to the entrance, and this cave went deep and dark, and there was no light at all. And if you've ever been in a total cave situation, the blackness is unbelievable. Well, he saw something that attracted him, and he didn't want to drag the rope over there, so he left the rope here, and he walked over there, and something happened. He tripped and he fell, and the light on his head went out. Now he's in the dark, and he knew there was drop-offs and all kinds of terrible things, and he's terrified. And he didn't show up for dinner. And his friends got worried, and they came out, and they looked for him. They found his rope, and they were tracing the rope, and they saw that his hand was only inches from that rope. His hair had turned completely white. The horror, the terror he experienced, he died from it. He was only inches from that rope. And that makes me think every time about something like this. If I just hold out for the promises of God, I got to go on and just to see this all come to pass. Why quit now? I might be only 18 inches from the fulfillment of all these things. Why give up now? Don't cast away your confidence. There's great reward in it. You need more patience that after you've done the will of God, you will receive the promises. You shall reap if you faint not. For yet a little while, he that shall come will come, and not Terry. Oh, I'd love to tell you what that means from an Old Testament quote, but now we have another great Old Testament quote here. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. That's a theme three times repeated in the New Testament from Habakkuk 2 verse 3. And here it's telling you, go forward. It's by faith. You're not going to get satisfaction any other way than living by faith. And so the just shall live by faith. But if any man draws back, if any man turns away, I'm talking about apostasy, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not. Now here Paul, the writer of Hebrews, Paul is saying, we are not those kind of people. That's not us. We are not of them who draw back unto perdition. He's got a hopeful outlook here. You guys may be tempted sorely by persecutions and by struggles, and you're getting persecuted by not only the Romans, but you're getting persecuted by the Jews too. It's gotta be hard. And you realize that when this book was written, it was only gonna be a couple years or so, and all of Jerusalem was gonna be torn to shreds, besieged, destroyed, and all the props would be gone. All the temple stuff, all the festivals, all gonna be gone. Book of Hebrews was getting them ready for that. And we have no idea what God's getting us ready for. You may think today's a better day, and indeed it may be, but persecution and people getting worse and worse and unbelieving, these are radical things, and our way of living as Christians could be greatly challenged. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of the soul. God help us, we're going to get on to chapter 12 next time. And we're going to find out what a great person Jesus is to keep our eyes on. Keep our eyes on Him and never give up. He doesn't give up. And I'd love to say more. I told you this would happen. Wish there was more I could share. But this helps us through, I hope, the hardest part of some difficult passages. And I'm more than happy to have you call me or text me or something and email me and ask me, hey, what about this? What about that? And if you read commentaries, you'll get questions. If you didn't have them before, you'll get them when they're done with you. Can't help it, I guess. But I hope you've seen the plain teaching of this Scripture, and you'd be motivated to follow on to know the Lord. Never give up. My sheep know my voice, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall not perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Father, please take this Scripture, make it clear, reinforce it, make it important, and give us transformation. the power to change and become more like Christ, and to represent Him in this unbelieving world. I pray it should do these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.