Now let me ask you to take your Bible and turn please to Hebrews chapter 10 as we continue our study in this 10th chapter. I've slowed down a little bit. I went fast in several places. I've slowed down at some point here. I'll pick back up. These verses seem so daunting to me that I feel I must give it the adequate attention that it deserves. The Bible teaches that salvation is altogether by grace, altogether by grace. God chose by grace. He redeemed and justified and reconciled and forgave altogether by grace, conditioned on one thing, and that is the obedience of Christ unto death. The Spirit of God in time and experience brings light to our hearts, brings knowledge to our minds. There is a firing and the moving of our will to come to Christ, and it is the promise of God that He will preserve us and keep us. Yet also there is the persevering on our part. God preserves and we persevere. God preserves and we persevere. So it's not to say that all your troubles are finished, but it's the constant learning to walk and to live by faith. and to walk in faithfulness to Him and to one another. So that's what we have in the book of Hebrews. Because laced through the doctrinal sections and divisions of this book, we find these tremendous passages of warning. And this is the last major warning. that we're looking at. We're going to conclude it today, the Lord willing, and we'll move on to the rest of this chapter and then into that wonderful 11th chapter where he talks about men and women of faith. But he's talking about us persevering in the faith. So God's elect, chosen from the foundation of the world, will not only come to faith, they will continue to come to Christ and they will persevere in the faith. And those who turn away There is a name given to them and that is that they are apostate. They turn from the faith that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want you to look with me please. This text is actually from verse 26. down through 31. This is our third message on these few verses. I'm going to read them all and then come back and talk about them and I'm going to finish up today no matter what I get done. Today will be it. Verse 26, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, we also 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 be thought worthy of 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 despite unto 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. Seems to me there are three basic warnings here. First of all, don't sin willfully. Don't purposefully, thoughtfully, knowledgeably think on and turn from the gospel and turn from the assembly where the gospel is preached in verse 25. Secondly, Don't turn from Christ's effectual sacrifice. When he said there is no more sacrifice from sins, he means there is no more effectual sacrifice for sins. And then the third thing is our warning for today, and that is don't Die without mercy. There is such a thing as dying without mercy. And He is warning us, don't die without mercy. Let us be reminded again of the lengthy arguments of the completely saving sacrifice of Christ. So I want you to look back with me to chapter 9. We've looked at this more than once. But I think it's so important that it ought to be in your minds. I want you to look at the last statement in verse 24. And that is that Christ has entered from the beginning of the verse into heaven itself. So that's His ascension. He came to earth, He lived among us, He died, He was buried, He resurrected, He ascended into heaven itself. And He now to appear in the presence of God for us. He added that little prepositional phrase to tell us who Christ came into the world for. He ascended into heaven just like He went to the cross for us. And he tells us who that he is in the very first chapter when he calls them the heirs of salvation. An heir of salvation is not someone who decides to become an heir. He doesn't work to become an heir. It is the one who has something to bequeath. who says you are an heir. So he calls them the heirs of salvation. And then there are other places throughout the Scriptures here in this part of Scripture where he identifies the ones for us. Then I want you to look down to the end of verse 26, 9-26, but now once Several places in the book of Hebrews, he uses this truth of once, and now, which is a time word, now, once, in the end of the world. Not before the foundation of the world did he bear our sin, but now in the end of the age. hath he appeared to put away, and I believe it is an ellipsis here from back here in verse 24, to appeared to put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. If the death of Christ was not adequate to fully forgive, fully redeem and fully justify all the Father chose and gave to the Son, then nothing is adequate. Not what I do with it makes it adequate. It's what He did and the way the Father looked upon it that makes it adequate. If it is not adequate, then God will not and cannot take any further measures to redeem. And the Son cannot and the Son will not die again. That's the argument of the Apostle. And the Spirit of God has nothing else to reveal. You notice that in the epistles, they're not talking about the good deeds that he did of feeding the hungry or taking care of the powerless. But what they're talking about is this matter of salvation. Why is that? That's because the apostles knew what a grave matter this was for it to be set forth for their age and the ages to come. the effectual working of Jesus Christ. If He didn't perfectly obey, and He didn't earn righteousness, and if God didn't accept the righteousness, and God didn't impute the righteousness in connection with that obedience, then it is not also true that He did not put away our sin. But if He did bear our sin to its exhaustion, And if God did accept that as righteousness, and God did reckon that to the account of His people, then it cannot also be said that He appeared to put away sin by, through, in connection with the sacrifice of Himself. That's what I declare to you that He did. If He didn't do it, we remain in our sin. But He did. Therefore, Paul preached to that congregation in Ephesus just before he was about to leave them, and they wept to see his face no more, and he called what he preached to them the gospel of the grace of God, because the grace of God touches everything. It's grace because Christ did all of the obeying, and it's grace because God did all of the justifying. The Holy Spirit reveals this one way of salvation to all of His elect. Now I know there are scores and scores and multitudes and thousands and I guess millions that are meeting today and they're talking about the opportunity that Christ won. But neither Christendom at large nor the narrow forms of neo-Calvinism know this one gospel of a sin put away by the body and the soul of Jesus Christ. In all of the same forms, They condition something to have a just standing before God upon a decision or a deed of the sinner. That is not the true faith, it is the Christianity of confusion. Listen to the Apostle as he says, I urge you, I plead with you, I exhort you, do not turn from this one simple message in Christ. In verse 26, He said, if we sin willfully, knowledgeably, thoughtfully, carefully thinking about it, and then we depart from the assembly in verse 25, and we depart ultimately from the faith, After we have received, we've heard the knowledge, we've made a profession, he's referred to in verse 23, according to it, if we turn from that, there is no more sacrifice for sins. This is not a blind slip, not an occasional slip, but a purposeful departure from the Gospel and the Lord of the Gospel. He spoke of the man or the woman who made the profession of faith, who received that knowledge. They departed slowly, probably from the assembly, where the only place they could find the preaching of salvation connection with the blood of Christ. At some point, their mind changed. They were lured to some other doctrinal and religious thoughts. Their attendance became less consistent and their doctrinal positions more wandering. The result is fatal and profound. They have departed from the gospel of free grace and for them there remains no more sacrifice for sins. They have given up the gospel they once say they believed. What's ahead? Verse 27 begins to tell what is ahead for that man or woman. A certain fearful looking for a judgment, we talked about that last week, and a fiery indignation which devour, which shall devour the adversaries. Notice he doesn't call them brethren here. Other places he loosely calls them brethren. Sometimes he's talking about them as brethren for in a sense of being fellow Jews, but here he doesn't call them brethren in any sense, he calls them adversaries. The ones whom the gospel spoke to once, they think of themselves as having life, but they simply turned back to the religion of their fathers. That's the way it was with these Hebrews, and so it is with most in our day. And they departed from this gospel of free grace, and he said they are adversaries. Now let's move on to verse number 28 and we want to complete this portion of our study. He says, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Now the purpose of this verse is to quote the Old Testament for clarity, for support, and for comparison. This is actually a reference to a passage in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy Chapter 17, I wanted to take time to go back and read all of that, but I didn't, but I'll tell you what the passage concerns. It concerns faithfully offering the spotless sacrifices that must be offered, which foreshadowed the sinless and effectual sacrifice of Christ. And if they didn't do it just like they were supposed to, very precisely, It was called in that passage an abomination and wickedness and he goes ahead to say that he counted it to be idolatry. So when we come to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not enough for one to have this tradition and another to have that tradition, and for us to say we can meet in the middle and call one another brethren, and you have your view and I have my view of this death of Jesus Christ. The Apostle said, no, that cannot be. And God said to them in the Old Testament, that cannot be. Now, if you read on in that passage, when you come to verse number 7, those who had committed this turning away from offering the sacrifices as they were supposed to, and had become what he referred to as idolaters, when it was affirmed before two or three witnesses, they were immediately stoned to death. And that is the reason that Paul was stoned when he went preaching in various places, and also they wanted to stone the Lord Jesus Christ because they considered them, in the light of this passage, as committing blasphemy. And that's why they wanted to do this. So list what he says. He said, He that despised Moses' law of making the sacrifice like he was supposed to, he died without mercy. And he that looks upon the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as anything less than, anything other than, completely effectual, completely effectual, he will die without mercy. That's his point. There is no other way. There is no compromise in between. Now Paul referred in 2 Corinthians 1 and 3 to God as the father of mercies. And he is the father of mercies toward his elect. But he is not the father of mercies toward those who are doctrinal reprobates. He is rather the God of judgment and that's the way that the apostle is presenting him here. The apostate, the one who heard the gospel of free grace and turned away from it despite making that early profession of faith, will die without mercy. God taught Moses and then Paul declared the need for mercy when he quoted in Romans 9 15 from Exodus 33, I will have mercy, God said, on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation is altogether of God's mercy conditioned on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So now watch what happens. He quotes from the Old Testament, and he said, he that commits this apostasy of looking ill upon and acting ill toward the sacrifice as it's supposed to be, he will die without mercy. Now look at verse 29, of how much sorer punishment. If you think that was rough, if you think that was strict, to stone someone, because they abused and misused and looked wrongly upon the sacrifice. You think that was bad? How much sorer punishment is this? So when he says how much sorer punishment, he means that the physical death inflicted upon the transgressors under Moses' law. Jeremiah asked this question, if you have run with footmen and they have wearied you, how can you contend with horses? It's his way of saying, if you have run with the law, And it has wearied you, then how much are you going to be wearied when it comes to trying to run against God's grace? And that judgment was severe. Think how much more punitive is that judgment that is to come. And when he says, suppose you, He means, you Hebrews, think about this for yourselves. It's not just me telling you, but you suppose this for yourselves. How much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall be thought worthy. The Apostle's thought is that the apostate's punishment is his own dessert. How much sorer, how much worse punishment. Suppose you shall be thought worthy. He deserves it himself. And then he comes to this, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God. In chapter 6, in verse 6, he used the phrase, crucified them to themselves, the Son of God afresh. But the present verse, it seems to me, a phrase seems even more severe. He hath counted The blood of the covenant, an unholy thing. Now, when he says an unholy thing, he means that blood that obtained our redemption. That's what he had said earlier. He means that blood that established righteousness. He means that blood that satisfied justice. He means that blood that substituted for the heirs of salvation. He means that blood that enacted the terms of the covenant. Jesus spoke of this blood as my blood of the covenant. And the apostle termed this here a necessity as the death of the testator to ratify and to enact this covenant. He closed the book of Hebrews with talking about the blood of the everlasting covenant. We have been called, those of us who preach the blood, we have been called the slaughterhouse religion. While I make no effort to reason with rebels or to convince the cynic, the scriptures say that God required blood and that is good enough for me and I will preach that blood or I'll close the book and I'll preach nothing else. Of how much sore punishment, suppose you shall be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted, and this is how they have trodden him underfoot, by counting the blood of the covenant, and he goes ahead to say this unholy thing. Now, let me, I'm going to come back to this other part, the blood of the covenant in a moment. But when he calls it an unholy thing, it's not the word holy for, that word is hagios. The word that he uses here is the word koinos, and that is the word for common. He said he counts it a common thing. In other words, it is not sin remitting. It is not righteousness earning. It is not redemption obtaining. It is not soul saving. There is no efficacy to it. It is common. That's what he means by it. When he says they have counted it a common thing. And so here this blood they have counted a common or unholy thing and being reduced in our day to a opportunity winning value makes this blood a common or unholy thing. And it is around this commonness. that the world of religion can come together. So you can be an Episcopalian or a Methodist or a Baptist or you can be a neo-Calvinist or you can be whatever you want to be. You can join together and you can sing praises together and you can meet together and you can sway back and forth. Because it has all become a common thing. That's what it's meant. It has become a common thing. Now when he says, wherewith you were sanctified, this effectual blood of Christ was what they had heard preached. And it was the profession that they had made back here in verse 23. And so when he refers to them being sanctified, he means that they counted themselves sanctified. They weren't truly sanctified, but they professed to be sanctified, just like those in John 6 that I referred to, and it's easy to find other places. It was like many we have seen in both the Old and the New Testaments. They counted themselves to be sanctified, but they counted this blood of Christ a common thing. And furthermore, they have done despite unto the Spirit of grace. That word despite is a word that means reproach. Anything other than the completeness of salvation and the completeness of the death of Christ is a reproach and treats the death of Christ and treats the Spirit of God in a despiteful and a reproachful manner. Because the one thing He will reveal to you, to the heart, and that is the completeness of salvation in the completeness of the death of Christ. Holy Spirit, of course, He means the Holy Spirit. And He calls Him the Spirit of Grace. Charis is the word. God's saving favor condition on Christ alone. He's referred to the throne of grace, and now he refers to the spirit of grace, and in chapter 12 and verse 15, he will refer to the apostates who fell the grace of God. The Holy Spirit reveals salvation is by grace alone, therefore he is the spirit of grace. Verse 30, he refers to vengeance belonging to God, and then he comes to this verse that is I don't hardly know what to think about it. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. All men and women are in the hand of God by creation and by providence. We can say that. But here the apostle spoke not of creation and providence, but he spoke of salvation, and he spoke of God's judgment against apostates, a fearful thing. The root word is phobia, but it's altered a little bit to mean something dreadful, terrible, and horrifying. The apostle knew this fear, but the apostate knew it not. He goes on his way with a merriment and a lightness in his heart that all is okay. He pushes the gospel of free grace out of his mind and he says, oh, they're all the same. We're all up in heaven, end up in heaven in the same place. And he would say, Pastor Simpson is just too narrow. He is just too narrow. They would say the same thing of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore he said narrow is the way and few there are that find it. Notice he used the word to fall. This is a word that means to lose control and to fall into an unwanted state. He has fallen into a state of criminal justice. He's arrested. He's arraigned. He's brought to the bar of God's justice. He's faced with his own sins. He's given the sentence of condemnation. He's fallen under the weight of the law and the fierceness of God's wrath. The apostle said this is a fearful thing, into the hands of the living God. The apostate reprobate once walked in the privilege of rejecting the gospel. He saw no problem with mixing law and grace. Judgment seemed a far away thing or maybe not possible to come at all. Now he stands there with the most important thing, his own soul, but he can do nothing about it. He fell out of control of himself and he fell under the control of the living God. His power is now evaporated. He is under the control of the living God. He is subject to God's power. He stands before the holy, immutable, and righteous God. His soul is now the principal thing. He wishes to go and tell others, don't follow after the way that I have gone. But time has expired. He stands there under the curse of the law with it over his head. He stands there with no appeasing sacrifice to offer in his hand. He stands there with no covering of righteousness to protect him from God's anger. He stands there with the reality of his many rejections that I heard about God's sovereignty. I heard of free grace, but I turned from it. He stands with no possibility of bribing the God of the universe. He stands with no room of escape, but most of all, he stands with no mediator at his side. The only difference between us and Him as we have a mediator that represents us to God Almighty. And He said, You gave Him to me and He is mine. And the Living God in opposition to the idols of the Jews and the lifeless deities of the Gentiles. And the Living God is revealed in the Living Christ. The Apostle Warren, we read it earlier, take heed brethren, lest there be any of you having an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. That's his warning. This is the living God who never dies, therefore his judgment never ceases. He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart. He knows every reservation and rejection of his gospel. So when the reprobate, the apostate walks away, God is not surprised. Jesus warned, and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. He's talking about the living God. Let us give heed to Christ and to His sacrifice by God who cleansed and covered and who now keeps His people. For this is not us, if We sin not willfully if we turn not from that effectual sacrifice and if we do not give in to die without mercy.