21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? And tough! The person who spurns God’s grace in Christ deserves far greater punishment than physical death by stoning. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I’ve ever encountered in my life or in my readings. The 18th century was a remarkable time of divine awakenings. At times we may even recognize that we planned our sin quite carefully, or at least planned to walk into temptation, knowing full well (in our hearts, if not in our minds) that we would give in. In willful defiance they turn away from Christ, the gospel, and the church. He declared, “No man can come to the throne of God and say, ‘I’m a better man than Rousseau.’” When he knew death was close at hand, he boasted, “Ah, how happy a thing it is to die, when one has no reason for remorse or self-reproach.” Then he prayed, “Eternal Being, the soul that I am going to give Thee back is as pure at this moment as it was when it proceeded from Thee; render it a partaker of Thy felicity!”, This is an amazing statement when we realize that Rousseau didn’t profess to be born again. Apostasy is determined by what you leave, not where you go after you leave. This poll includes many liberal and 'mainstream' ministers, but it would be naive to think that porn was not a problem for some Bible-believing ministers. Charles Spurgeon tells about a church that was asked to accept as their minister a man who did not believe in hell. God said to …William G.T. 'Lo, I am come to do Thy will. It is doing what one what one wants to do even when he knows it is wrong. 6:12-17) describes the terror of God’s judgment as it overtakes kings and commanders, the rich and the poor. This is the will of God, even your sanctification.' It is not necessary to confess your secret sins to everyone, for it is none of their business. A fire in the bones! My unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it authority over me greater than I understand. Don’t let sin break the connection. It was a favorite jest in seminary to ask, Who wrote the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, no one knows for sure. Even in those days of symbol the faithful looked to God alone for deliverance from sin's intolerable load, much more now, when types and shadows have vanished at the appearance of the dawn. And as the writer of Hebrews warns, it is impossible to renew such a one again to repentance. Here he says, “For we know Him who said,” and then he cites two references from the Song of Moses (Dt. As His grace (ED: cf Spirit of grace - Heb 10:29+) strengthens our hearts and minds (2 Ti 2:1+), we can overcome our own worst inclination to make foolish choices. Psalm 32:3-5 (David when he sinned with Bathsheba) When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. here is thy only safety: launch out into the deep of full obedience to all the will of God; keep far from all sin, and thou shalt be kept from wilful sinning. Every apostate is an unbeliever, but not every unbeliever is an apostate. . Young's Literal: For we -- wilfully sinning after the receiving the full knowledge of the truth -- no more for sins doth there remain a sacrifice. To reject Christ willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth is to reject God’s only sacrifice for sins and to fall under His certain, terrifying judgment (Hebrews 10:26, 27). Vincent adds that this phrase is an adaptation from Isaiah 26:11. In the will of God we have the union of His Wisdom and Power. Selah. Watch over your heart with all diligence. It will be observed that one thing is not, and need not be, specified in the text. This does not mean that the early church took sin lightly, deliberate or accidental. It has been said had Templeton continued as an evangelist, we would be asking ourselves “Billy who?” Such was his power and influence. (Luke 21:25,26), Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and the terrifying expectation…, But Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. After having received the experimental knowledge of the gospel truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins - None but that which we obstinately reject. 8-12. And in the context of sin, especially the sin which so easily entangles a person, it is the idea of even planning out a situation that might place us in the path of temptation to commit that sin. A total of 18 percent of clergy said they visit sexually explicit Web sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a week. Willfully (1596) (hekousios from hekousios = voluntary) means willing to do something without being forced or pressured. It was not that there were no professing Christians in these villages. He sighed deeply and wiped away a tear. Beloved, do not confuse what the writer of Hebrews is saying and not saying -- he is NOT teaching sinless perfection, but he is teaching about the "general direction" of your life as indicated by your day to day behavior. "oh, he's an atheist now," was the reply. And if it’s not true, we don’t want you. Come, then, first of all to THE READING, MARKING, AND LEARNING OF IT; and you will observe that in it there are three things very clearly stated. I. 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. It was as if he suddenly felt relaxed and comfortable in talking about an old and dear friend. him!”. Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All. (Nah 1:2,3), Fire also came forth from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense. Texts: 2 Samuel 11:1-17. After long lingering, the broken heart bethought itself of what it ought to have done at the first, and laid bare its bosom before the Lord. To such are addressed the thunderous warnings in verses 26–31, in which the brilliant writer summons his own prodigious logic and literary talents. I once conducted a funeral where I got to the service and read the little bulletin that the mortuary prints up. Tertullian, who was more strict, condemned Hermas for this concession, which he saw as the thin edge of a dangerous wedge. most of our sins are willful! My God is a God of love.” If you subscribe to that view, then your “god” is not the living God who reveals Himself through His Word! Apostasy has two major characteristics: knowledge of the truth of the gospel and willful rejection of it. So then, in a sense we need to be clear, all of us are guilty of deliberate or "willful sinning" in the sense that there are (many) times when we know the truth of God's Word regarding what would constitute righteous, godly behavior (i.e., obedience) and yet we stubbornly walk down the path of temptation until we are guilty of overt, deliberate disobedience. No Small Deviations in God's Economy! The particular intellectual problem I was wrestling with, for the first time since my conversion as a teenager, was the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. If we sin wilfully. In the religion of the world, alas, in a great deal of the Christian teaching and the religious literature of our day, professing to honour the God of love whom the Bible reveals--these words are set aside and rejected. Hard Sayings of the Bible: Walter C. Kaiser Jr. Hebrews 6:4-8 When Repentance Becomes Impossible, Take about 45 minutes and listen to Max Maclean's reading of the sermon with about 4 minute introduction by R C Sproul - if you dare, give it a listen -. "Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, 'FALL ON US,' AND TO THE HILLS, 'COVER US.' We must as far as possible unveil the secrets of the soul, dig up the hidden treasure of Achan (Josh 7:20, 21), and by weight and measure bring out our sins. If he were, then who could be saved (? So the author is saying, in effect, “In light of the superiority of Jesus to Moses, and in light of the severity of punishment under Moses, go figure what will happen to the person who deliberately rejects Christ!”. The main difficulty for this view is the phrase “by which he was sanctified” (Heb 10:29). He repeats it in Heb 10:31-note (the only other NT occurrence is in Heb 12:21-note). The Wisdom decides and declares what is to be: the Power secures the performance. TEXT: HEB. Paul commanding believer to "make no provision (stop making provision - pronoia - present imperative with a negative) for the flesh in regard to its lusts." God help us to believe them with our whole heart, and to exhort one another, if so be we may save some, snatching them out of the fire! (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Hebrews). John MacArthur amplifies the idea of Judas as the perfect prototype of an apostate and goes on to give us an excellent definition of apostasy... "Judas Iscariot is, of course, the classic apostate. A TERRIFYING JUDGMENT Marvin Vincent answers "Of course not. The nurse who attended Voltaire in his last days said "For all the wealth in Europe I would not see another infidel (an opponent of Christianity who disbelieves the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the divine origin of Christianity) die. Although the apostates had formerly been associated with God’s people, their rebellion has put them on the side of God’s adversaries (Heb 10:27). Come, then, first of all to THE READING, MARKING, AND LEARNING OF IT; and you will observe that in it there are three things very clearly stated. 30 'But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Like those mentioned in Hebrews 6:4–8, they have been fully initiated into Christianity, for the phrase “knowledge of the truth” is common in the later New Testament writings for having come to full Christian conversion (Jn 8:32; 1 Tim 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim 2:25; Tit 1:1; 1 Jn 2:21; 2 Jn 1). But their enthusiasm was cooling and the cost of being a Christian was becoming too high. What could one say about him except that this was a form of greatness?”. Hi, this is Jimmy. In the second, that of our text, he warns of the consequence of apostasy, the deliberate turning away from faith in Christ and association with the church (Heb 10:26-31). Any system that teaches the loss of salvation or penance to restore it is contrary to God’s free grace in Christ. When we, as believers, confess our sins, we receive parental forgiveness (1Jn 1:9); this maintains fellowship with God our Father. You will find in the average church that there is a Band-Aid of silence wrapped over the cancer of sin. Others more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins. Counterfeit New Births - What the New Birth is Not! (a) John Owen (An Exposition of Hebrews [The National Foundation for Christian Education], 4:545) argues that it does not refer to the apostate, but to Christ Himself, “who was sanctified and dedicated unto God to be an eternal high priest, by the blood of the covenant which he offered unto God….” This is possible grammatically, although it seems to force into the context something that is specifically taught in John 17:19, but only alluded to in Hebrews (Hebrews 2:10; 5:7, 9; 9:11, 12). yes. God has no other plan for saving those who regard Christ’s sacrifice as useless. Why not? (ILLUSTRATION) To glimpse his passion, we can imagine ourselves as parents raising our children along a boulevard on which huge trucks regularly pass at great speed. The "full" knowledge of the truth about Jesus the Great High Priest and His better covenant promises. God used that powerful sermon to convert many to Christ. In other words when one knows the truth about Jesus and rejects Jesus, the "time is up!" After a few more awkward moments, he waved his hand dismissively. He is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His nature, and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:1-3). Reprinted by permission. An apostate, however, is well acquainted with the gospel. Many (WOE! THERE NO LONGER REMAINS A SACRIFICE FOR SINS: ouketi peri hamartion apoleipetai (3PPPI) thusia: REJECTION OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE It also lines up with Hebrews 10:39-note, which contrasts those who shrink back to destruction with those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Or the public denials of Christ by Peter, the most public of Jesus’ disciples? (The Only Options: Christ or Judgment? Think little of the suffering of lost souls, and you will soon think little of the Savior who delivers you from them.”, Although Jonathan Edwards based his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” on a verse from Deuteronomy, he got the title from verse 31 of our text. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. . The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was no delicate, entertaining sermon, but a striking exaltation of God in his righteousness and exposing of man in his sinfulness. “Men in conservative Christian colleges?”, “Most of them, yes,” he said. They said, “You have come to tell us that there is no hell. One particular switch begins with just the thinnest piece of steel to direct a train away from one main track to another. And things I'd never seen the meaning of or the essence of I began to appreciate for the first time." Not to my fellow men or to the high priest, but unto Jehovah! They have not been given a "watered down" version of the good news. Spiritually speaking it would describe a "conversation" as it were with one's conscience regarding whether one should take a particular action in a certain direction! And my iniquity have I not hid. And just as so man modern men still do, for men's depraved, wicked hearts have not changed! 3. ". I acknowledged my sin unto Thee. "For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' “You sound like you really care about him,” I said. A man could go to the Levitical sacrifices twenty years running, and yet be … DEEPLY as our feelings may be moved on a day such as this, deeply as our hearts may be affected with a sense of sin, and at the same time filled with thankfulness for the mercy from on high, that planned to save us by God not sparing His own Son, we can only be sure of having found the right and true use of the day, when we bring our thoughts and feelings to the test of Scripture. Scripture: Hebrews 3:12–14, Hebrews 10:23–25. You don’t want to go there! How will I respond to the light I have been given? To go on sinning willfully means deliberately and knowingly to renounce the faith by repudiating Christ’s sacrifice for sins. It is those who think, “I’m a child of Abraham! They'll pierce us like a sword. I don’t have the time or the intellect to examine all sides of the theological dispute, so I’ve decided once for all to stop questioning and accept the Bible as God’s word.”, “But Billy,” I protested, “You cannot do that. So instead of Graham, it was Templeton who began to have serious doubts about the Christian faith as he was planning to enter Princeton Theological Seminary. Don't sweep sin under the rug. So either way, we can do without you” (Spurgeon's Expository Encyclopedia [Baker], 10:149; slightly edited). (Preaching the Word - Hebrews). (2) A second view is that the author is talking about genuine believers who renounce the faith, but the punishment he describes is not hell, but some awful temporal judgment (Zane Hodges, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, ed. DIRECTION NOT PERFECTION. True assurance of faith is the witness of the Holy Spirit that is given in living fellowship with and obedience to Christ as Leader. My sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders. This is a part of the description which God himself gave to Moses, of His own nature and attributes. Greek: phobera de tis ekdoche kriseos kai puros zelos esthiein (PAN) mellontos (PAPNSG) tous upenantious. After discussing the procedure for obtaining forgiveness for inadvertent sins in Numbers 15:22–29, the author adds, “But anyone who sins defiantly, … that person must be cut off from his people” (Num 15:30). So can you see how subtle and persistent the lust of the flesh is to take us down the path of provision for later willfully or deliberately committing a sin? Maybe they viewed His death as a noble tragedy, but nothing more. Selah. Kingdom Compassion and the Killing of Children Sanctity of Life Sunday. Spiritual light brings personal responsibility. . He is there because of his own sinful choices. These are surely words that should cause any enemy of God great woe. Here are a few examples to ponder…. --HEBREWS x. All jokes aside, Hebrews 10:26 is an oft-abused scripture. but . And at the end of the chapter (Heb 10:39+), the writer makes it clear that he considers himself a true believer by including himself in the "we" who do not "shrink back to destruction". 29How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? These were people whose hearts had been warmed toward the gospel of Christ, who had made a superficial commitment of faith in Him, and had identified themselves visibly with the true church. But our fallen flesh is very clever and will attempt to make provision for stirring up your unforgiveness. iv. We are also forced to admit that some of our sin is deliberate. Hebrews 2:3-note the writer asks his wavering readers "how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" so to speak. 1. If you wanted to use this verse to scare people, there are a couple of angles you could take: 1. Newton observes that "Willfully stands at the front of the sentence (Ed: In the original Greek text) in an emphatic position as a reminder that the ones he addresses are not the weak or immature or ignorant or occasional doubters that are true believers but struggling with their perseverance. But how will this warning profit, if we cannot see what wilful sin is? Twenty-Sixth Day. Epígnosis always describes moral and religious knowledge in the NT and especially refers to full and comprehensive knowledge of God’s will that rests on the knowledge of God and of Christ found today in His Word. Here it is the awful revelation of the highest sin and its terrible doom: the one sacrifice rejected, and now no more a sacrifice for sins ever to be found, How awful to sin wilfully. If the Law of Moses had stiff penalties for disregarding it, the penalty will be much greater for spurning the Son of God who fulfilled the Law (Heb 10:28-29-note). So say I now – and so help me God. 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