Danger! Do Not Reject Christ – Hebrews 10:26-31

1. [Intro] Nothing destroys relationship like sin. (or you might say) Sin is the great destroyer of relationship. (even our communication issues are rooted in sin)
   1. As you’re letting that sink in, let’s put this all in perspective with relationship to God in Hebrews 10:19ff (Since we… Let us… don’t let sin block a genuine relationship.). – What happens when that relationship is broken by sin? Or what if sin reveals that a sincere heart relationship never truly began? What if one party simply saw the other as a means to personal benefit? Is that a genuine heart relationship? – The ongoing sinner that doesn’t care about the relationship-destroying result of that sin is a telltale sign of insincerity.
   2. I want you to listen to these verses today with relationship as the underlying context. READ
2. [Main thrust and application of our text for today is this:] If we go on sinning deliberately… we are spurning Christ’s sacrifice. (spurn – pass up, turn down, refuse, reject – Heb. 3:12 – This is to willfully reject faith – what we call the sin of apostasy.) – And if we do that, we should fear God’s punishment. (How should we apply this warning?) Let fear of God’s punishment drive you into the arms of Jesus. Turn from sin to Christ.
   1. If we go on sinning deliberately… we are rejecting Christ’s sacrifice.
      1. Sin is violating a divine law (even simpler, it is doing, saying, thinking, or desiring what is contrary to God’s command and character) – Now of course we all sin, even after genuinely coming to faith in Christ. That’s bc, while we are no longer enslaved to the flesh, we are not yet rid of it. (We can still be pulled toward it, enticed by it.)
      2. But this is more acutely about deliberately sinning, which the context gives us indication to mean willful rebellion against God. Because we’ve received knowledge of the truth.
         1. What he means is that this person is within the Christian community, having heard the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ (but again, the author doesn’t assume every individual within their midst is unquestionably saved – even after our kids make a profession of faith, ever vigilant of evidence that they are growing in grace, learning more and more to walk in the Spirit)
         2. “Sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth” or clearly understanding the gospel, is where we can glean that these individuals were never genuine in the faith they professed. (Rom. 1:19-21 tells us that we are all without excuse even by observing creation. We should know that there is a God and that we should seek Him.) But these are even more those who have heard and understood that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose on the third day.” (from 1 Cor. 15:3-4) What did he die for? Our sin. So if we go on sinning deliberately, we spit on God’s kindness and reject His authority and his promise.
         3. I’ll illustrate this with how man’s sin began: When Adam and Eve sinned, what had they done? They had spit on God’s kindness, they had rejected God’s authority and his promise. What did they get? Judgment. What did Adam earn for the human race? A straight-ahead trajectory for punishment. But GOD had a plan to intervene, and he DID intervene. But NOW if we know of Christ’s intervening work to pay for sin and we reject him, “How much worse punishment” do you think we store up for ourselves? [but I’m jumping ahead… we’ll come back to that]
      3. Our text says that when we go on sinning like it doesn’t matter, we have spurned Christ’s sacrifice, we have rejected his atoning work. We have sabotaged our relationship before it can truly begin.
         1. “No longer remains a sacrifice for sins” doesn’t mean that it disappears, like Jesus didn’t pay it or that it wasn’t complete, perfect, effective. But it means that you’re rejecting the benefit of that sacrifice for you!
         2. Sometimes we make it seem as though sin is no big deal, but it is the very reason for which Christ died! (1 Cor. 6:19-20) – Don’t go on sinning like it doesn’t matter. It matters so much that the Lord of the universe condescended from glory to die a deplorable death to save us from sin’s dominion and ultimate destruction.
      4. To go on willfully in sin is to reject Christ’s sacrifice for sin, which is to, v. 29, trample underfoot the Son of God, profane the blood of the covenant, and outrage the Spirit of grace! This is rejecting Christ. And rejecting Christ brings what? Punishment.
         1. Our translation spurn is literally to “trample under foot.” – The intent here is to say that you trample on what you despise, what you are treating with disdain.
         2. Profane – to regard as common or unclean, ordinary, as having no special distinction or quality or value à so to treat as unholy that which makes holy (the blood of the covenant) – and here “by which he was sanctified” presents an interpretive challenge. But in context of Hebrews, which teaches that evidence of saving faith is endurance to the end (3:14), this “sanctified” almost certainly is used to mean “set apart” in the sense of being identified with God’s people and even actively participating in the Christian community… yet in the broader context that identification proves to be superficial and not genuine.
         3. Outrage – To insult by being offensively disrespectful, because of pride. – The Holy Spirit of grace: I offer you freely what you do not deserve to take away sin, and yet you utterly disrespect me proudly continue in your sin. You have no part in me.
         4. However, the author believes this kind of stern warning will be motivation for those who are truly elect to persevere. (the emphasis in v. 32ff)
      5. By contrast to endurance in faith, what does deliberately going on sinning demonstrate? (a wrong view of sin and a refusal to repent) Which could mean… You haven’t turned from a love of sin to a love of a holy God! You haven’t embraced Christ’s sacrifice for sin to be the atoning work that restores you to a right relationship with God.
   2. [Fear God’s punishment.] – If we go on sinning deliberately… we are rejecting Christ’s sacrifice. And if we do that, we should fear God’s judgment. (v. 27)
      1. Now judgment is something we will ALL face. But for those who are willfully rejecting faith (demonstrated by going on in unrepentant sin as if Jesus didn’t die for that sin to free us from its bondage to pursue him in holiness by his grace)… those should have a fearful expectation of judgment.
         1. Yet those who are IN Christ do NOT fear the judgment: Rom. 8:33-39
         2. But if you refuse Christ, you remain God’s adversary, and what awaits is fury of fire that will consume—punishment (eternal damnation) – Rather than the Son of God on your behalf, rather than the blood of the covenant which sanctifies, rather than gaining God’s indwelling Holy Spirit of grace…. What you can expect is punishment. A fury of fire that will consume God’s adversaries. (We remain enemies of God and enemies of the gospel.)
      2. For motivation, the author is putting out a huge sign that reads: Warning! Dead end. Warning! Point of no return. Danger! Disaster lies ahead. – If you go down this path, you won’t be coming back up it! (Heb. 6:4-6) What awaits those? A “fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”
      3. To illustrate the severity of the sin and corresponding punishments, in v. 28, the author uses an example from lesser to greater, from the law they know so well, of the penalty for spurning God’s covenant. Deut. 17:2-7.
      4. Refusing Christ will reap harsher punishment. – Why does the warning ring true?
         1. Why does the trampling, profaning, outraging we discussed DESERVE worse punishment than stoning to death? Because the rejection is of greater proportion and reaps a consequence of greater proportion. – Knowledge of the truth, remember?
         2. If you remove your mediator, you’re in deep trouble. And the better mediation of Christ has been the entire point of this letter to the Hebrews!
      5. The bottom line is that God judges justly. (30-31)
         1. Most of the time we quote and even the Bible quotes God saying “vengeance is mine; I will repay,” the emphasis is that we should not seek revenge for ourselves but let the God who judges justly deal with it. But here the emphasis is on the fact that God WILL repay. Wrong against God will be avenged. That’ll put the fear of God in you! – “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
         2. I absolutely love a quote from the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where Susan and Mr. Beaver discuss Aslan for the first time: “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” – He isn’t safe, but he is good. He isn’t safe, but he is good. … Christ is King. Whether or not you worship him as King will determine your eternital life—which is a spiritual life that begins at the moment of conversion and will one day be perfected at the Return of the King… and continue on for time without end in his presence.
         3. It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the having of the living God who judges justly. But it is a blessedthing to fall into the arms of the living God. – That only happens through the mediation of Jesus, our perfect sacrifice and our permanent high priest. Let fear of God’s punishment drive you into the arms of Jesus. – Have you received God’s goodness through Christ? He isn’t safe. But he is good.

• Conclusion: (Fear God’s punishment. Do not refuse Christ!) Instead, turn from sin to Jesus. He is sooo much better than your sin! Turn from sin to Jesus. Repent and believe. Agree and Accept. – & What a contrast!: to gain God through Christ or to refuse Christ and get judgment. (let me think. I wonder what I should do?)
  1. There were two thieves flanking Jesus on crosses similar to his own. Two sinners on either side of our sinless Savior, a perfect atoning sacrifice for sin. One heaped out contempt, the other responded in saving faith. (Luke23:39-43) In your heart of hearts, which are you? – I am one of those thieves saved by grace. Do you know how I know? Because in my heart of hearts there is a growing love for my Savior and a growing hatred for the sin that my Lord hates. Which one are you?
  2. We gain God by repenting of sin and believing in Christ. Believers must be mindful that we also maintain fellowship and grow in intimacy with God by the same means—repenting of sin and increasing our faith in Jesus.
  3. So we dare not sin like it doesn’t matter. We dare not reject our Lord. How do you think sin impacts your relationship? – Since we, and since we… let us, let us, let us
     1. What impact do you think sin has on drawing near to God in intimacy?
     2. What repercussions can your sin have on holding fast to your confession of hope in Christ alone?
     3. And undoubtedly, in what concrete ways does sin stifle our ability to stir up one another to love expressed in good works?
  4. Hebrews 12:28-29

More Application for Discipleship Groups pertaining to Hebrews 10:19-31

1. Our mission at BBC is to Multiply Mature Disciples.
   1. We believe that mature disciples are those who themselves will multiply mature disciples who will multiply mature disciples… you get the point. All other versions and gimmicks are too cheap and weak to last.
   2. Are professed conversions real? I don’t know, let’s observe when they are tested and see if they endure. Can their faith withstand persecution? Let’s be patient and keep buttressing that professed faith to help it stand in the storm.
2. But here’s the point I’m driving at about multiplying mature disciples for this passage in Hebrews 10:26-31: “The best discipleship always happens in the context of rich relationship. Rich relationship starts with deep communication.” (Chap Bettis, The Disciple-making Parent) – That means we must be authentic in our relationships for accountability and application of God’s word.
   1. Warn one another about sin, encourage each other with evidence of the Spirit at work, and challenge one another to flee sin and pursue Christ. – It may be:
      1. “What is the Spirit of God doing in your life that gives you assurance of your saving faith and growth in Christ?” OR
      2. “Listen, I know you’re battling this sin. But I think I see evidence of the Spirit working to help you battle it. Don’t let your salvation be shaken. You need to lean on Christ more! Don’t be ruled by sin, but let the Spirit of God rule in you. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying that’s what ALL of us need to do.” OR
      3. “Great job serving with such a good attitude. That reminds me of Christ’s humility in Philippians 2!”
   2. The bottom line: Help remind each other of the awfulness of sin versus the awesomeness of God. – This will motivate us to desire a genuine heart relationship with God. (Heb. 10:22)