Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10 is where we're going to be this evening. And Chuck has prayed for the Lord's blessing upon the Word. I'm going to ask you to stand while I read it. Hebrews chapter 10, I'm going to read verse 26. down through verse 31. Hear the word of the living God. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under the foot the Son of God, and has uncleaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For if we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again, the Lord will judge his people, It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Thus ends the reading of God's Word. Please take your seats. Beloved, it may be It may be good to take a little bit of a quiz. Open book, of course. Concerning these serious warnings out of the book of Hebrews, but wonderful for the Christian who is serious about progressing in faith, serious about walking with the Lord. And remember, this book was written to Christians professing Christians, those who were in dire straits spiritually, the culture, their surroundings was having such a dramatic impact upon them, they were actually thinking about giving up the faith. And so these warnings are interspersed in the book. And these warnings are there to really appeal to the hardest of hearts. I mean, they're there to appeal to the hardest of consciences. They do act as that splash of cold spiritual water that gets our attentions, and when we read them, we ought to give it everything we have. Our first warning dealt with carelessness. I mean, all of us have been careless at some point in time. I mean, we all have had moments and opportunities in our spiritual life, where we've not given attention the Word of God deserved. We haven't, that we didn't give our lives the attention the Word of God deserved, the application of it. And that warning addresses that. It addresses, it warns us not to be careless with the things we hear to make application. The second warning dealt with stubbornness. Stubbornness. Two things. that fostered stubbornness, a desire for sin, a desire to want something God does not want you to have will lead to stubbornness, but also unbelief. not trusting, not resting, not believing the promises of God. Like the children of Israel in the desert, they didn't believe that God, they didn't believe in God's hesedness, his loving kindness, his covenant kindness to them. And they were constantly complaining and challenging his goodness. And the Bible tells us that God didn't like being challenged. The Bible tells us that God didn't like being complained against. He didn't like having to prove himself over and over and over. And that portion of scripture is very serious. It says he laid them low in the desert. We've got to be careful about stubbornness. If you find yourself stubborn, ask yourself, what sin am I harboring? Or what sin am I desiring? And where am I lacking unbelief? I mean, where am I lacking belief? Where am I promoting unbelief? Maybe the unbelief is not believing that you're going to be judged. I don't know. Maybe you need to sort that out. Our third warning dealt with dullness of heart, dullness. In each of the warnings so far, you know what, there was not a problem having the truth. They had it. It was at their disposal. It wasn't like they longed for a preacher. It wasn't like having a church that had no preacher. They had a preacher. They had several good preachers. And yet, they were dull. What makes a person dull? Lack of practice. not taking what you know and using it, not applying it, not wrestling with it, not seeking to understand it prayerfully, not seeking to apply it prayerfully, not seeking to understand it deeper. You know, brothers and sisters, I don't care what preacher you have. Every preacher you have to preach to you the gospel, that man can't save you. You have to take the word and take it home and apply it. You have to seek it. You have to desire it. You have to make it useful. There is no preacher that can make it useful for you. You have to do it. And if you lack practice, you will become spiritually dull. What's the sign of spiritual dullness? Can't discern between good and evil. Lack of discernment. not being able to discern between that which is good and almost good. That's a sign of someone who is spiritually dull, slow, sluggish concerning the Christian faith. There's a warning we need to press on. We need to not only apply what we have, but seek to progress in what we know and understand. I mean, beloved, there's so many Christians that are seeking the next best thing, they're seeking the next new book, they're seeking the next, I want to say the word, conference. You know, there are those who chase conferences. There are those who chase the next marriage manual, child manual. Are you putting into practice what you know? Not a lack of information. It wasn't a lack of information for these Hebrew Christians. And you know what, beloved? It's not a lack of information for us. We have the Word of God so accessible to us in how many ways? Stephen probably knows. I mean, he's a media guy, Chuck. Christopher, y'all like all the media stuff. I mean, does a preacher in the next few years say, open your Bibles or open your telephones? I mean, who knows what you do? iPads, iPod, whatever. I mean, but we got the Word of God everywhere. It's everywhere. You can have an application to memorize it, notify you to memorize it, test you if you've memorized it. Do we lack? What do we lack, beloved, in growing up in the faith in our day and time? I mean, if the first century Christians were extremely culpable, what about us? Well, tonight we're gonna deal with a very more serious warning in Hebrews 10. We only have two more left. I'll finish the last one when I come back from the conference out of Hebrews 12 next Sunday night. But tonight we're gonna deal with deliberate sinning. Deliberate sinning. This would be described in the Old Testament as high-handed sinning. which raises many questions for us in the 21st century. Honestly, the doctrine of sin by and large is almost gone in many churches. I have read books. I have listened to seminar speakers. I have heard sermons say, you know, you want to minimize the conversation about sin. You don't want to hit sin hard. You want to keep it to a minimum, if you mention it, because it brings people down. People don't like to hear about how sinful they are. They already know. And they don't need the preacher to remind them of their sinfulness. So keep it at a minimum. And I think that kind of, that mentality, I think that's the kind of mentality that The fruit from that kind of thinking has produced now when sin is mentioned almost an offense, how dare you kind of thing. So Christians don't really know what to do with sin because it's not mentioned, it's not hit upon, it's not dealt with by and large in many Christian circles. And we need to be aware of this. We need to take it seriously. I mean, it's one thing to mention sin, but it's really another thing to understand it. To understand like the preacher said in the past morning, right? That deceitfulness of sin. That deceitfulness that comes along with sin. That is, when we indulge in sin, there's something taking place. There's something happening to our consciences. There's something happening to our hearts and sensitivities. We are numbing ourselves. We are numbing our spiritual senses. We are numbing our sensitivity to righteousness. I come across this statistic the other day. I found it a very profound one. I'll share it with you. Basically, the idea was that Most people, if they're going to come to faith, if they're going to be burdened and convicted by their sin, they're going to do it no later than their mid-20s, by and large. By and large. I mean, there's always exceptions, right? We know some of the people. I mean, Dr. Barnes, I think, saved in his 30s, maybe. I think Keith, Miss Paula. So there are exceptions, praise God. But by and large, the majority in the church have come to faith in their mid-twenties. Also another stat compliment to that one is that when most people fall into those grievous sins, the older you are, the less you're willing to repent. The older you become in age, the harder your heart is, the harder your mind is, the harder your sensitivities are. Now when you look around the demographic of the congregation, now for our children, cultivate righteousness because sin is going to dull your senses. For us older people, we need to be aware of sin's deceitfulness. and be aware that subtle hardness is happening if we're giving ourselves over to any kind of sinful activity. Anything that we know from scripture has pointed out to us is sin. You've got to be careful. And I think this is very applicable to our warning because this is one of, and particularly these two, last two, are the strongest warnings in the whole book. Look with me at this dangerous situation. I mean, that's exactly what this is. This person being described in these verses, he is in the most dangerous of spiritual situations. How so? Verse 31, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The whole description starting in verse 26 is describing a person who sins in the face of truth. Who sins in the face of God's revealed will. Deliberately, that's what the word means. Guess what the word deliberate means? Deliberate, in the face of. I mean, there's nothing in the Greek word that's tricky or secret. It basically is to sin without compulsion. That is, it's not somebody making you do it. You willfully do it. You sin willfully. You have a, I don't care attitude concerning this sin. I don't care. I'm going to do what I want to do. In fact, let me give you the positive of most words. I mean, they're very neutral. And this word's very neutral. It depends on how it's being used, right? Turn with me to first Peter chapter five. First Peter chapter five. uh... in verse two shepherd the flock of god among you uh... let me back in reverse therefore i exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder in witness of the sufferings of christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed shepherd the flock of god among you exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sorbid gain but with eagerness. That's the positive side of the word. The negative side of the word is the person who is sinning is not being provoked to sin. He's not being made to sin. He sins because he wants to sin. I mean He's taking some form of pleasure or some form of delight in it. Now I don't want you to think of it as just sin in the pleasure sins. I want you to think of it, the delight is basically doing it because you can do it. Exercising your own will over that of God's. And of course we can see rebellion in that, can't we? In our text, it's the continuation of sin in light of proper biblical instruction. Verse 26, the last half of that verse, tells us the dangerous situation that that person is in. If that person deliberately continues to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. I mean, that right there, if you have any sensitivity, I mean, maybe tonight, this is what God, God has this as an arrow in your heart. God is shooting this arrow into your heart. And maybe this phrase right here is going to be one of the barbs that gets your attention. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. What? I thought I could sin and just run to Jesus anytime I wanted to and repent. Kind of begs the question about repentance, doesn't it? Do we really understand repentance? Are we using repentance as just a form of personal indulgence? Well, all I got to do is ask for forgiveness. All I got to do is ask for, you know, all I got to do is repent and I'm back, I'm back restored with God. Never realizing the damage that you're doing to yourself. Never realizing the damage you're doing to your mind and to your heart, to your sensitivities, to your own, to your ability to listen to the truth. You see, beloved, listen to me. The whole point, if you take the book of Hebrews all together, the whole point is as you and I continue to participate in careless activities and sin and unbelief, we could even damage ourselves from having any productivity from the Word of God being preached. Those are consequences. The consequences to damning our consciences and our minds and our hearts that we can't even profit from the word of truth? You see, beloved, we've got to get out of that mindset of welfare, spiritual welfare, that God owes us something. You know, we have a whole nation on welfare. And I don't mean, I'm not speaking down to a demographic. All of us have the mentality. We all suffer from this attitude of welfare that has been fostered by and large over a generation of psychology. Because when we talk about needing something, oftentimes we talk about the government giving it, getting it done. We need this. I don't mean I need to be responsible and do something. We need somebody to do it for us. Where do you think that attitude comes from? And by and large, we bring that attitude with us spiritually, don't we? You know, we're Calvinists, right? God, do something. Zap me. Sanctify me. Make me more holy, God, without any responsibility. You think we're just going to become spiritually strong without ever exercising a spiritual muscle? What happens to a muscle when you don't use it? It atrophies. I can give you a little exam, something I learned in my awareness, physical awareness. I don't care how strong you are. There was a test given from Olympic athletes all the way down to housewives and common day workers. And they took a leg and put it in the cast. And then again, I don't think anybody would argue how in shape you have to be to be an Olympic athlete. They are the best of the best. Put the leg in the cast on every one of them. Fed them high protein diets. I mean, you did everything that you needed to do in order to build muscle. What happened when they took the cast off of everybody? I don't care if it was the Olympic athlete all the way down to the housewife, the muscle was atrophied. It didn't matter what shape they were in when they put the cast on. Lack of use rendered the muscle weak. and in need of being built back up again. That's what we're talking about spiritually. That's what we mean spiritually. And I have such a great burden for our covenant children because I think they tend to grow up under these blessings and under these promises and in the protection of the church and the protection of their Christian homes. And they don't really appreciate, they don't really appreciate those boundaries. don't really appreciate and understand the depth of that grace. Beloved, this person is in dire straits because they are deliberately sinning in the light of truth and the Bible tells us that there is for that person no longer a sacrifice. No longer a sacrifice. The word remain, where there no longer remains a sacrifice is in the present tense. As long as that person is bent and deliberate on their sin, guess what? There is no sacrifice. As long as that person is dedicated to, I'm going to do what I want to do attitude, I don't care what my authority figures say, I don't care what the word of God says, the preacher says you have no sacrifice. Chilling. chilling. To have no sacrifice, beloved, is not to be right with God. It's not to be right with God. There no longer remains a sacrifice of sin. This is a high-handed person. This is a person that ascended high-handedly, a person that is determined to sin and has no sacrifice for that sin. He has nothing available to him to help him be right with God. There is no means by which he can be made right with God with no sacrifice. You know that? With no sacrifice, you have no chance of ever being at peace with God in your sin. His determination to sin in the light of the truth makes his propitiation impossible. God cannot. be pleased with him ever because Christ cannot smooth his anger. In the Old Testament they had this situation as well, this nothing new, and there was no Old Testament sacrifice, beloved, for those who sinned high-handedly in God's face. You know, there were sacrifices for ignorance, There were sacrifices for sins. We fall into sin. There were those sacrifices that dealt with various kinds of sin in our lives. But there was no sin in Israel for the one who was high-handed in his sin against the light of the truth. That is, I know what God says, but I don't care what God says. I'm going to do what I want to do. There was no sacrifice. Look with me at Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 17. Deuteronomy 17. Let me read these first six verses. You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or a defect, for that is detestable thing to the Lord. If there is found in your midst in any one of your towns which the Lord your God has given you a man or a woman, who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the heavenly hosts which I have commanded. And if it is told you, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and a thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out that person, that man or woman, who has done this evil deed To your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. Now here's the point. First of all, ask yourself this. Did they know that God required them to serve Him and Him alone in their worship? Did they know that? Yes. Did they know that worshiping the moon and the stars and anything else was idolatry and they knew that was sin? Did they know that? Did God make it known to them? Yes. See, that's what he means when he says, does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing his covenant. The idea of the covenant is what I've established with you. This is what I've given you. I've made it known to you how to walk with me and how to please me. And when that person says, I know you've made it known to me, but I just really don't care. The Lord says there's no sacrifice for him. In fact, he's excommunicated. He's cut off from the people. Turn with me to Numbers 15. You know, it would probably go a long way in our churches. I mean, when we're talking about sin, really to begin really addressing our theology, right? Who is God? What does God require of us? Why is it okay for God to require these things of us? Verse 27, Numbers 15 verse 27, Also if one person sins unintentionally, Then he shall offer a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, make an atonement for him that he may be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is a native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything defiantly Whether he is a native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord and that person shall be cut off from among the people because he has despised the Word of the Lord and has broken his commandments. That person shall completely be cut off. His guilt will be upon him. I believe that's exactly what the preacher in Hebrews has in mind, but he's applying that sacrifice to Christ. He is saying, you are not going to abuse the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to sin defiantly and then think that you can have a sacrifice that when you sin in the light of knowing the truth, beloved, you cannot claim Christ as your sacrifice. We must repent. And of course, that does beg the question, what is repentance? You know, repentance doesn't look at somebody else and say, Christopher, I'm sorry I did this, but if you hadn't have done what you did, I wouldn't have done what I did. But would you forgive me? That's not repentance. Repentance is you between you and God. And it says, Lord, I'm wrong. You're right. I'm wrong. I need you, O Lord, to cleanse my heart. I'm a sinner. I need you, O Lord, to change my mind, change my thinking. It's corrupt through and through. And, Lord, I need you to change my emotion, my will, and my desire. I need you, O Lord, to reform me in my sin. I need you, O Lord, to grant me the grace to overcome this terrible, heinous sin that requires the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look at the situation this person finds himself in. For the one who continues to sin in the light of the truth, there is nothing more, J. Adams says, there's nothing more that can be done. Because in their sinning, in their deliberate sinning, what do they do? The text tells us why he's in trouble. The text tells us they reject Jesus Christ, the only sacrifice for sin. How do they reject Jesus? Deliberate sinning by a commitment to sin in the light of the truth. That's the way they do it. But we get caught up in word games today. Oh, I did that, but that's not what I meant. And all we're doing, you know what we've done, really? We're just proving how dull our senses have really become. Because we can lie to ourselves so well, can't we? We can't lie so well and we will even believe our own lies because we've dulled our senses so much we'll believe anything. Beloved, we need these kinds of scriptures. We need them. Forgiveness does not belong to them because they've rejected the only sacrifice there is for sin. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 27. But a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of a fire that will consume the adversaries. Notice the psychology of this punishment. This is all psychological. This fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. This word fearful means terrible, awful. It is caught up in the whole being of the person. The wicked do flee, but no one pursues. People are afraid who are guilty. Guilty people are afraid. They're fearful people. And what are they afraid of? Judgment. only way that they can alleviate that guilt and that burden of terror is true repentance. Is putting away that sin, repenting and clinging and embracing that only true sacrifice is Jesus Christ. Two things, that fearful expectation of judgment and that fury of fire. Notice what it says, that will consume. That word consume means to devour them, God's adversaries. Who are these adversaries? These adversaries are the ones that have high-handedly sinned against God in the light of what God told them to do. What's God going to do with His adversaries? He's going to terrify them and then He is going to consume them in fire. That whole sermon on judgment this morning, beloved, I wish it could have been better. Do you know what the point is about the Book of Life? It's obvious who's in it and who's not in it. How is it obvious? By their deeds. By their deeds. It's obvious that those who are loving the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting and resting in Him look a certain way. They look a certain way. It's obvious those who claim the Lord Jesus Christ but don't take Him seriously, they look a certain way. Isn't it like clothes we put on? And you like the clothes we put on? We may like, we may be from Texas. We may wear some cowboy clothes. We may be from the Northwest. You know, I don't know how they dress. Punk rockers or something. I don't know. I mean, you know, where you are, you may be from the South wearing overalls or something, but you know, you, you kind of identify people by what? The way they dress. By the way they talk. There's characteristics, right? Is it not that way spiritually? I don't care if you're a baby Christian or the most mature Christian, can you not tell a lover of Jesus Christ when you see one? By talking to them? Interacting with them? Can't you see? I mean, it can be on the immature level, but you can tell even when we speak to children who love the Lord Jesus Christ, there is something noticeable, recognizable, beloved, that those who are in the book of life, are recognizable and those who are not are recognizable. Make no mistake about it, it's not a game show. You're not going to get to that judgment day and it'd be like, guess what's behind door number three? Maybe you got in, maybe you didn't. No, you know now, don't you? You know right now under this kind of a teaching, I bet you're scared. I'm scared. I'm fearful. Because all I can do in the face of this kind of scripture is tremble and beg for grace. Tremble and beg for sustaining, persevering grace. Oh Lord, don't let this be me. Don't let me be deliberate. Lord, don't let me fall into these deliberate sins. Don't let this psychology be true of me. Don't let me be a guilty, fearful person Now, beloved, not everybody's fearful and terrorized all the time. I mean, I think you can actually sin so much and sin so long and sin so hard that you think you're okay. You are absolutely blind. I think a person can get to that kind of situation. I encourage you, we won't do it here, I encourage you, go home, take your confession of faith out, Then there's a table of contents in the back. Look up the word conscience and read in your confession of faith everywhere the word conscience is used. I think you'll benefit from it. A lot of counseling, a lot of solid counseling material in the Westminster Confession, but that's what our lesson is describing here. Notice what he goes on to say. Now, he's building this argument. One thing about the preacher in the book of Hebrews is he's logical. He's expounding the Old Testament and he brings in these Old Testament arguments. Now, what has he just told us? The one who sins deliberately has no sacrifice. In fact, he's under the terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. Now, notice how he builds his argument because you may be here tonight and you may not be convinced. You may be sitting there thinking, Pastor Jess, we pay you to be fearful. We pay you to try to convince us of these things, but don't worry about it. Well, here's the argument. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. I read to you the Old Testament passages. Anyone who sets aside the Law of Moses, what's this setting aside? Forgetting about it, ignoring it, not obeying it. That's what it means to set it aside. It means to not be making it of use. He says, notice what he says, if anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy. Okay, that's the Law of Moses. Verse 29, how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God? Now notice what it said in verse 28, on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Look at the witnesses in verse 29, the Son of God, the blood of the covenant, and the spirit of grace. Beloved, It is true, when you and I sin in the light of knowing better, we are trampling underfoot the Son of God. And for that reason, I tremble. We trample under the foot the Son of God who gave himself for us. who took upon himself the wrath of Almighty God, who bore God's justice and anger and offense. And when we choose to sin in the light of that, we are trampling on the Son of God. We're worse than that Old Testament sinner who transgressed the law of Moses. Not only do we trample under the foot the Son of God, notice who He has regarded unclean the blood of the covenant. Unclean? The only thing that can make you and I clean is the blood of Jesus. There is no cleansing apart from the blood of Jesus. He's already established that in Hebrews 9. He's already established that the blood of bulls and goats could not cleanse the conscience. I don't care how many bulls you offered. I don't care how many goats were offered. I don't care if how many, how many millenniums of sacrifices were offered. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse the inner man. And when we sin deliberately, high handedly, We are rendering the blood of the covenant unclean, as if it's unclean. What about our third witness? It's just as strong as the previous two, by which he was sanctified. This blood, only that blood of Jesus can cleanse us and purify us and sanctify us. And notice this, and has insulted the spirit of grace. We can greet the Holy Spirit. We can offend Christ as Christians. You know, beloved, we think about the fruit of the human psychology and the devastation it's had upon this country. But I think upon the church, because I think there would be so many people that profess to know Jesus Christ, it is foreign to them to think they could do anything to offend God, and offend and agree to the Holy Spirit. It's foreign to them. I've heard Christians say, I have no theology of self-examination. I don't need it. It's done. I don't need to worry about sin. I can do whatever I want to. I've heard this. In their minds, they have no idea that they are offending the Spirit of Grace, trampling under their foot the Son of God, and rendering the blood of the covenant as unclean. But that's what happens when we deliberately sin, willfully sin. Notice what else he goes on to say. For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. Beloved, listen to me. When there is such greatness and grace at stake as the Son of God, the blood of the covenant, the spirit of grace, what else can God say but vengeance? You shall not trample my Son under your foot and get away with it. You will not render the blood of the covenant unclean and get away with it. You will not offend the Spirit of grace and get away with it, for the Lord will judge His people. You want proof? Did we not learn this in Revelation 2 and 3 with the churches? Did Jesus not come to some of those churches and say, I tell you this, repent or I will remove your lampstand? Absolutely. Repent. Work on your holiness, your sinning. Repent. Seek my face. Remove this offense or I'll come and I'll take your influences away. I'll shut this church down. I will remove this lampstand. The Lord does not need Zion Presbyterian Church in Macon, Georgia. He doesn't. The Lord doesn't need one church in this county to glorify his name. It's by grace we're here. It's by privilege. We have a privilege. This church is on the foundation of a grace and a privilege that we would have an opportunity, beloved, to exhibit the crown rights and the Grace privileges of Jesus Christ in this place, and if we won't do it, shut this place down, bulldoze it over, and put a church here that will. It's a terrifying thing, beloved, isn't it, to fall into the hands of the living God? He takes His salvation seriously. He takes His Son seriously. He takes your salvation seriously. And if God's offended, if the spirit of grace is offended, He cares. He cares. What's the response? Well, I started to read several things out of Robert Shaw's exposition at the Westminster Confession, but I think it would be too lengthy and it might lose the moment, might not be able to, you know, might distract us a little bit. What should we take away from this? Hopefully encouragement. I want you to be encouraged. I don't, I want you to be serious, but I want to, I want you to take courage here and that's why I want to read the rest of chapter 10. Okay. Let's read that together. And this is what the preacher does. The preacher doesn't stop there. He gives them this serious warning that I just gave you. Look at verse 32, But remember the former days, when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous ones will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the persevering of the soul. Hey beloved, let's do this. Leave tomorrow. Maybe you're struggling with some sin. Maybe there's been one particular sin in your life that you could say, maybe it's deliberate. I'm not sure. You know, when we come to passages like this, don't act like the lawyer. Sorry guys, I'm not trying to be ugly. But don't act like the attorney. Here's what I mean by that. Don't argue with God over verb tenses. Oh, that's a present verb tense. I'm not always doing the sin. I don't do it every day. I may only do it once a month, once, twice a month, not every day. Don't be an attorney with God. Don't argue about what does this present tense verb look like. What should a Christian, how should a Christian respond to sin anytime? Woe is me. Get thee behind me because I will fall if I am tempted. I am so weak. Don't even get me in the universe of sin and this temptation. Remember, beloved, I bet you, all of you, if you're struggling with that sin and you're struggling, think back. Let your mind reflect back to some days of solid perseverance and let that encourage you because you know what? You know what that teaches you? by God's grace. You've done it before. You've done it in the past. God was faithful to you in the past when you were walking with him and you're struggling with this sin that has become deliberate. Guess what? Repent, bring true repentance, and begin to think back and say, yes, God was faithful to preserve me then. He'll be faithful to preserve me now. I've got to flee to my God. I've got to forsake myself. Lord have mercy upon us. And bring these warnings richly and really into our lives as Christians. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for your blessings, the blessing of your word, these warnings. We have been cut to the heart. We have been laid open. Exposed. We're naked before You, O God, and You see it all. Clean us up. Lord, let there not be found in us a deliberate sin, a sin that we've been overtaken in, Lord, that we have just given ourselves to, and it's become something that we do willfully. O Lord, help us to tremble before the truth. Oh Lord, let us not be trite with it. Help us to be a people that takes your word and applies it. Make it useful in our lives and in our hearts and our minds. Lord, let us take encouragement of the things you have done to each of us in the past. Let us see those things, those fateful times. Lord, help us to see and remember. We may have forgotten about it. Help us to be reminded of faithful. And then Lord, help us find great satisfaction in your grace and make sin a stench to us. Make sin ugly and nasty and evil in our sight. And Lord, bless us for Christ's sake. Our communion, our unity, Lord, our future we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved, let's stand tonight and