Hebrews 10

He's talking about the better sacrifice. And in Hebrews 10:1-10, the sacrifice of Christ is better because it takes away sin. The Old Testament sacrifices did not do that. They covered sin. In Hebrews 10:11-18, we discovered that the sacrifice of Christ is better because it is final. He sat down. "For by one offering," says Hebrews 10:14, "he has perfected forever them that are sanctified," those who are being set apart.

Now, Hebrews 10:19-39, you have the third characteristic of this sacrifice that makes it better. Not only does it take away sin, not only is it final, but it opens the way to God. No Old Testament sacrifice opened the way to God. The worshiper got as far as the brazen altar, and that's as far as he got.

Now, once a year the Old Testament high priest could go behind the veil into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood. Once a year. But that's all. No Old Testament worshiper ever got behind that veil. But the work that Jesus did on the cross takes care of this, and we now have an open access to God.

Hebrews 10:19, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Therefore. Therefore because of what? Because of Hebrews 10:18. "Now where remission of sin is, there's no more offering for sin." If you have trusted Christ as your savior, your sins have been remitted. Now, what does the word remission mean? It means to send away. There's to send away.

You remember in the Old Testament ceremony of the Day of Atonement, on the Day of Atonement, they got two goats. And after performing the necessary ceremony, the high priest would take one of those goats and kill it. And take the blood of that goat, turn around, go into the Holy of Holies, sprinkle the blood, and he would come back out, and he would put his hands on the head of the other goat, and he would confess the sins of the people of Israel.

He would say, "Oh Lord God, we have sinned," etc., etc., etc., and then somebody would take that goat out into the wilderness and turn it loose. And it was never seen again. Now, it was a picture of what God does through Jesus Christ.

Now, that goat could never take anybody's sins away. He was glad to be turned loose and not be killed, I'm sure of that. You know, when they cast the lots to see which goat was going to die and which goat was going to live, the one who lived was glad to live. The one who died, his blood could not take away sin, it covered sin.

The one who lived, it was just a picture of taking our sins. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." He has buried our sins in the depths of the sea. In fact, he says he's not even going to remember them. Hebrews 10:17, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Now, because he remembers our sins no more and because our sins have been sent away and buried and washed, and he remembers them no more, therefore, brethren, we have boldness to come into the presence of God.

Now this leads me to say this to you, and I hope you learn it. Your fellowship with God must not depend upon your feelings. It must depend upon what God's word says. Too many Christians, too many evangelical Christians, build their whole life on their feelings. And so they come and say, "Oh Lord, I don't feel good today, and so I'm not going to pray." Or, "Lord, I did something wrong, and you don't want me anyway." And that's, that's wrong.

Now, there's a difference in the Bible between being accepted and being acceptable. There's a big difference. We are always accepted, even if we are not acceptable. Now, we should be acceptable.

When we come to God, we ought to confess our sins, we ought to be faithful to him. But if we are not, we should not listen to the devil's trick. The devil comes along and says, "Oh, you have sinned. Oh, you have been a naughty girl. You have not done what you should do. Or you did what you shouldn't do. So, God doesn't want to hear you anymore. So, you can't pray. You can't read the Bible." And you go worse and worse and worse and worse. Why? You're going by your feelings instead of by what God says.

So, he says, "Having therefore," therefore because of the finished work of Christ", therefore because he has done the job, "therefore, brethren, having boldness," and this word boldness is a marvelous word. It means freedom of speech. That's basically what it means, freedom of speech.

Now, there are some places where you can't say what you want to say. And there's some places you can't be what you'd like to be. But when it comes to the Lord into his presence, we have freedom of speech. We can come and tell him just how things are.

"To enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way." Now, the word "new" here means "recent." Remember I've told you that the Greeks had two different words for new. One means new in time and one means new in quality. Here we have a brand new, recent way that God has— not the old way, but "a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh." Let's stop there. Let's stop there.

You remember that this Old Testament tent had two parts to it. This is not according to scale, as you can tell. Back here was the Holy of Holies, and here was this thick veil. Now, what happened to that veil when Jesus Christ died on the cross? Do you remember? It was rent. It was torn from top to bottom, not from bottom to top. God's hands reached down and rent that veil, tore the veil.

Now, in the veil was this mercy seat, this cedar chest with the cherubim, the golden cherubim, the mercy seat on it. In front of this veil was the altar of incense, the golden altar. They never sacrificed blood on this altar. The other— that was out here. And, of course, there was the candlestick. And then there was the bread with the— the table with the bread on it. And every Sabbath day, they put 12 new loaves on there picturing the 12 tribes of Israel.

Now, once a year, the priest went through this veil. He parted the veil and went in. This veil was a very special thing. In fact, it would do us good, I think, if we went back to Exodus 26 and take a look at the veil because what he's saying is this: what the veil was to the Tabernacle, our Lord's flesh is to us. Exodus 26. I think that's where we find it. Verse 31, Exodus 26:31. I've got to put a marker in here. All right.

"And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen," which is white. So, you have four colors: blue, purple, scarlet, and white. Now, it wouldn't be necessarily white as white as the white wheat white, but it would be white. "And thou shalt hang upon it four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold upon four sockets of silver."

It goes on and tell them how to hang it up and everything. Now, the number that is identified with the the veil is four. Notice that? Four colors, four sockets, four clasps. [Interlude - Get myself some more. Yeah, I'm caught in the bullrushes. like Moses here. There we go. All righty.]

Now, the writer says that this veil speaks to us of the flesh of Jesus. Okay, what lay behind this veil? The glory of God. When God— when— when Moses dedicated the Tabernacle, God's glory moved into the holy place. Where this ark was, that was the glory of God. The— the flesh of Jesus Christ veiled for us the glory of God.

John 1:14: "And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us." That's what the Greek word is. "Tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." So, his flesh had in it the glory of God, but that glory was veiled. Only once when he was here on Earth did that glory ever shine through. When was that? The Mount of Transfiguration, all right.

Now, the second thing we notice is you have four different colors. We have four different Gospels. The Gospels are the record of when Jesus was in the flesh. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I wonder if there isn't a suggestion here of the four Gospels. Now, maybe not, I don't know, maybe not.

Purple certainly is the royal color. Matthew is the Gospel of the— of the King. White is the color of absolute purity. John is the Gospel of the Son of God. Scarlet speaks of sacrifice. Mark is the Gospel of the suffering Servant who sacrificed himself for us. And here you have the heavenly Son of man, Luke.

Just a suggestion; don't build a doctrine, don't start a new denomination on that, whatever you do. The veil was hung upon four hooks placed in four sockets. And so the number four is definitely related to the four Gospels.

Now let's go back to Hebrews 10 for just a minute now. We have boldness to enter into the very presence of God. Well, you remember that anytime, anyplace, no matter what situation you are in, you can enter into the presence of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. No matter how you feel, no matter what the situation may be, no matter what you have done, you can come through the blood of Christ. If we have sinned, we come for cleansing. If we're suffering, we come for grace. "And having a high priest," really it's a great priest, having a great priest, "over the house of God."

Now we have these things. We have remission of sin. We have our sins forgiven. We have a high priest. We have a new and living way. We have an open way. The veil has been rent. We can come into the presence of God. Therefore, what should we do? He gives us three exhortations here. Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near." Verse 23, "Let us hold fast." And verse 24, "Let's consider one another."

Now there's a beautiful parallel in these three exhortations. I'm going to change one word because in the original manuscripts that's what it is. But it's "let us" (have our salad today). Let us do what? Let us draw near. What's the next one? Let us— hold fast. Hold fast. What's the third one? Let us consider one another. Okay.

Now would you notice the parallel here? Beautiful. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." Hebrews 10:23, "Let us hold fast the profession of our hope." Now King James has faith, but the Greek manuscript is not faith, it's hope. Hebrews 10:24, "Let us consider one another to broke— provoke unto love."

So let's draw near in faith. Let's hold fast in hope, and let's provoke and consider one another in love. Here you have the three great Christian virtues, which you can trace all over the New Testament: faith, hope, and love. "And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, the greatest of these is love." Writing to the Thessalonians Paul says, "knowing your work of faith and patience of hope and labor of love." Romans 5 you have the same thing: faith, hope, and love.

Let's draw near by faith, faith in what? Faith in what God says in his word. Do you know what's wrong with most Christians? Apart from allergies and anemia and all these other things. You know what's wrong with most Christians? They don't really believe the Bible that they defend. They don't believe it. They go by their feelings. They go by what people say. They go by circumstances. As a consequence, they're— they're— they're on Great America all the time, up in the roller coaster one day, down the next day. Up one day, down the next day. They don't really believe the Word of God. They believe Satan. They believe their feelings.

Now he says, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." In order for me to have faith in the Word of God, I've got to make sure my heart is right with God. You know when a child has disobeyed father, he has a hard time going in and saying, "Hey, Dad, I need some money," right? And dad says, "Wait a minute, I told you to mow the lawn. I told you to carry out the garbage and which you didn't do anything." "Yeah, well, I know, Dad, but..."

You see, if your heart condemns you, you have an awful hard time coming to your father with freedom of speech. There's some things you won't talk about.

I have some friends, I can't say they're very close friends, but I have some friends, there are some things when we are together we just don't talk about because we disagree on them. And rather than have a discussion that may lead into an argument, we just agree to disagree and let it go at that.

"Let us draw near with a full heart— with a true heart in full assurance of faith." Now what should we do with our hearts? "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Now, does this say you have to take a shower before you can pray? No, he's not talking about that at all.

Once again, he's talking about this— the— the Day of Atonement. The priest used to wash himself. He had to wash himself completely and then offer a sacrifice for his own sin before he dared to minister in the tabernacle.

Now what he's saying is this, that before you and I come to pray, walk into the presence of God, we've got to have our hearts right, our conscience right. Now how are we cleansed? What is the water in the Bible? It's the Word of God. "The washing of water by the word." And the blood— the the— the Old Testament priest used water and blood to purify himself that he might be able to fellowship with God.

You know a lot of people rush into prayer. They just come and say, "Oh, Lord, you know," instead of stopping and saying, "Now is there anything on my conscience I should confess?" Just wait before God and say, "God, I want you to cleanse me now. Use the Word of God to cleanse me and I want to confess this sin, and confess that sin." And get our hearts right before God. That makes prayer much more meaningful. So faith.

Then verse 23, "Let us hold fast the confession of our faith," or our hope, really, "without wavering; for he is faithful that promised." Now, let us hold fast not our salvation. Let's hold fast the confession of our salvation. Now, how do we confess our salvation? By the lives that we live and the words that we say.

Now, here were these Jewish Christians. They were having a rough time. The boss comes in and says, "Hey, you're fired." Now, the way he responds to that will confess his salvation. If he gets up and says, "Well, praise the Lord. My life is in God's hands and so he'll take care of me. Thank you for letting me work for you. Goodbye." Then he's confessed his salvation. If he says, "Oh, the Lord doesn't care anymore. Here you hire all these heathen people and I'm a better worker than they are." He's lost his confession of his salvation.

See, the danger to these Hebrew Christians was that they would give up their confession of faith. You can't give up your salvation. You give up the confession of your salvation. Now, why were they tempted to give up their confession? They had no hope. Because they— they'd had their goods spoiled, they'd lost their friends, they'd lost their loved ones. The future looked bleak.

Now, faith looks back to the cross. Hope looks ahead to the coming of Christ. And the writer is saying, "Hey, don't give up your confession. Don't give up your testimony because the best is yet to come."

Now, let's just imagine for a moment that we are a group of— of Jewish people. Let's say that part of us are saved and part of us are unsaved. And the holy days are coming along. Say the Day of Atonement's coming along. We're in Jerusalem. And the unsaved crowd says to the Christian Jews, "Oh, you going down to the— to the celebration?" "Well, no, we— we've— we have a finished sacrifice. All over—" "Ah, yeah, sure. We've got a temple. We've got this. We've got that. You— what have you got? You have no future." What happened to that temple in a few years? It was destroyed. Where'd the priesthood end up? Dead. Where'd the altar end up? Broken. Where'd the sacrifice go? No more.

So, you see what he's saying is, "You hold fast to your confession because you have a greater confession than these unsaved Jews do." They are trusting Jerusalem. It's going to be wrecked. They're trusting the priesthood, the sacrifices, the temple. It's going to be wrecked.

You have your hope in Jesus Christ. Therefore, you hold fast the confession of your faith or your hope "without wavering. For he is faithful that promised." Now, here it is again. We hold fast not because we are faithful, but because he is faithful.

How many of you have read, and if you haven't, don't be embarrassed, how many of you have read the book by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret? May I see your hands? All right, the rest of you are in for a treat. You can buy it at Moody Bookstore.

J. Hudson Taylor was one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived. As a young man in London, England, he decided to trust God for everything. He wouldn't even tell his boss when his wages were due. He'd just pray about it. He said, "If I can't trust God in England, I'll never be able to trust him in China." And so he trusted God in England. Oh, the experiences he went through. Then he went to China, and he made it his policy, he would never get up and ask for money. He'd just present the work and that was it. George Mueller was the same way.

And he was in China, Hudson Taylor was, and he was going through a period of frustration. He was working harder and harder and getting less and less done. And he was getting bothered and he— he just wasn't getting things done like he should. One day he got a letter from a missionary friend of his that changed his life, completely revolutionized his life. So that he— he called it the exchanged life. He said, "I have learned now," and here's the secret, "I have learned now that it's not by looking to my faithfulness, but looking to his faithfulness that I get through each day."

You see, you're trusting your faithfulness. You say, "Boy, I can make it for one more day." You know, "If I try real hard and pray real— I can make it for one more day." And Hudson Taylor said, "I learned just to take all my burdens, give them to him, and trust in his faithfulness to work in and through me. It's not that I am working for him. He's working in and through me." Now, he said, "I started getting more done. I was working harder, but having less toil and less abrasion and less wearing out, and there was a new buoyancy— a new joy to my ministry." Why? The faithfulness of God.

You say, "Well, is God faithful?" Of course he's faithful. He says so. It says so right here, "He is faithful." And so when you come to me and say, "Oh, pastor, the Lord let me down," I'm going to say to you, "You're a liar." The Lord didn't let you down. You didn't trust the Lord to let you up. The Lord has never let anybody down.

Now, you're asking me to believe you or believe this book; I'm going to believe this book. I get in the hospitals visiting people; I know what it's like. I've been through it. I've had tubes and pumps and all kind of needles and stuff in me. I know how you feel. And you say, "Oh Pastor, the Lord's forsaken me." I say, "Dear friend, the Lord didn't forsake you. You may feel like he has, but he didn't. He can't forsake you because it says in his book, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' Are you going to believe that, or are you going to believe your feelings?" See, we pamper ourselves.

So, he says you don't give up your confession of faith because you got hope and he says you consider one another, not yourself. Selfish sainthood, we have a lot of that today. People go away from church and say, "Oh, I didn't get anything out of it." What did you do for anybody else? Did you walk up to anybody and say, "Hey man, can I pray with you? You look kind of sad today." "Well, I am kind of sad. They just re-claimed my aquarium." "Well, let me pray with you." We walk around like a bunch of selfish people, "We got our problems." Nobody else got problems but us. We're the only ones with problems and therefore everybody should stop everything they're doing and take care of us.

Well, I have a reaction to that: Baloney. Because he says here, "Let us consider one another." If you're drawing near with a clean heart in faith and if you're holding fast to your confession, you aren't wavering, oh the wavering saints, in hope, then you reach out to somebody else and get your arm around them and say, "Hey, I want to encourage you a little bit." That's what church is all about.

Now there are in the city of Chicago a lot of isolated saints. These are people who will not become a part of a fellowship, they don't want to meet anybody, they don't want to know anybody. If they do come to church, they find a corner someplace where they sit. And then when they're in the hospital, they complain because nobody came to see them. I said, "Does anybody know you're in the hospital?" "Well, no." "Do you know anybody who should know that you're in the hospital?" "No." "Well, whose fault's that?"

You see, we are sheep and sheep flock together and when sheep get off by themselves, they are in trouble. So, we need the church. You say, "Oh the church is full of hypocrites." Fine! There's room for two or three more. Come in! I would rather have the family of God with all their faults than be out there by myself with that other crowd.

Now, if you want it otherwise, you get out there with that crowd and find out where they are when the chips are down. You know, "The church is something like Noah's Ark," said St. Augustine. "If it weren't for the judgment on the outside, you couldn't stand the confusion on the inside."

Let's consider one another. To do what? To provoke one another. Oh, we do a lot of that. Man, we got provoking saints. Boy, they can provoke. "Provoke one another to love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is." They had that problem even back in that day. The saints of God who were forsaking the assembly. "Oh, I don't feel like going to church today."

You know, the thing that amazes me, I— maybe I shouldn't talk like this, but the thing that amazes me are mothers and fathers who say, "I can't get our little children to go to church." You know, we never asked our kids if they wanted to go to church, they went. And you know, when— when relatives— when— when friends came to see us and it was church time, if they didn't want to go, they stayed home, but the kids went with us. Went to church. And that was Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. I notice here in the city of Chicago, people can't bring their kids to anything. There's something wrong.

"Not forsaking the assembling of the— of ourselves together as the manner of some is." Now, why should we assemble together? Because one of these days we're going to be assembling together up there. That's what he says. "But exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching." What day? The day when we're going to be gathered together up there. You know why we come to church? Because one day we're all going to be gathered together up there.

I hope the Lord comes on a Sunday morning. Now, I'm speaking purely from pastoral prejudice. I hope the Lord comes on a Sunday morning. And I hope all the saints who are home in bed and home going to church on television, going to the electric church, I hope that— that on the way up, they get the most embarrassed look in their face. I really do. You say, "Well, you're carnal." All right, I'm carnal.

But for 30 years, I've been preaching and I've pastored three churches and I have discovered that the saints of God who neglect the assembling of themselves together backslide. And they have family problems and then, do you know where they go to get the answer? They come running to the pastor of the church and I say, "Hey man, where were you 3 weeks ago when I was standing in that pulpit telling you the answer?" "Well, yeah, well."

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." You know what he's talking about? Don't tell me, says the writer, that you can come up to heaven to the Holy of Holies and talk to God, if you can't talk to the saints down on earth. They go together. Let's provoke and consider each other unto love.

Now, we get into that nitty-gritty fourth admonition. And I think we have enough time to cover it, probably just enough time to finish it and not leave any time for questions. Next week. There are five admonitions in the book of Hebrews. I do not call them warnings, because Hebrews doesn't call them warnings. They're admonitions. Now, let's look at them. Let's go back to Hebrews 2 and catch up on these admonitions.

Hebrews 2. "Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we've heard," all these admonitions have to do with listening to the word of God, "lest at any time we should drift away from them." Now, here's the first admonition. The danger of drifting from the word by neglect. And there's some Christian here this morning who's been neglecting the Bible. You're drifting. You're drifting.

Now, the second admonition comes over in Hebrews 3:7. "Wherefore as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you'll hear his voice," there it is again, what are you going to do with the word of God, "harden not your hearts." He talks about the Jews back in the Old Testament who didn't enter in. Hebrews 3:12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be," brethren, not— not unsaved people, "take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God."

So, drifting through neglect, then you start departing through hardness of heart. Can Christian people have hard hearts? You bet your life they can. You know how you get a hard heart? Knowing what the word of God says and resisting it. That's how you get a hard heart.

All right, now the next admonition is over in Hebrews 5:11. "Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing." Here we have not departing from the word, but now dullness toward the word. And what causes this dullness toward the word? Well, sluggishness. They're slothful. "Solid food," says Hebrews 5:14, "belongs to those who are mature, who by reason of use have exercised themselves," and they've grown because of this. So, first we're drifting from the word, then we're departing, then we're— we're dull toward the word.

Now, we turn over to the next one, which is in chapter 10. Dullness through lack of use. Now, what happens here? Let's look at it. "For if we sin willfully after 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, under grace, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who's trodden under foot the Son of God? He's counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified a common thing. He has insulted the Spirit of grace. For we know him that has said, quote, 'Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord.' And again, quote, 'The Lord shall judge,' notice, his people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

What is the sin here? Despising the word. How? Through willful sin. Now, he's not talking about anybody losing their salvation. In none of these exhortations is he saying one word about anybody losing their salvation. First, you start drifting through neglect. Now, when you drift from the word of God, you start departing from the person of God. Your heart gets hard. There's no more love to God like there ought to be. Then you get dull toward the word because you aren't using the word, exercising, which leads to despising the word of God.

Now, let's see what he really says here. In the Old Testament, there were no sacrifices for willful, presumptuous sin. Did you know that? You knew that. There were for sins of ignorance, there were for sins of omission, there were sins of neglect, but if someone willfully, deliberately sinned, he was dealt with in a very harsh way. Oh, in some cases they would kill him. Sure.

For example, go back to Exodus 21:14. Exodus 21, Exodus 21:14— 21:14, "But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from my altar, that he may die." He couldn't come with a sacrifice, "Oh, I— I killed my neighbor. Here's my sacrifice." No. No sacrifice for presumptuous, willful sin.

Numbers 15. Numbers 15. Sure. Sure, if they blaspheme their parents, they were disciplined and killed. Numbers 15:27, "If any soul through sin— through ignorance, then shall he bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.

Ye shall have one law for him who sinneth through ignorance, both for him who is born among the children of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the soul that doeth anything presumptuously, whether he is born in the land or a sojourner, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he has despised the word of the Lord."

Now, that's the very word we're looking at. So, when he wrote to these Jews, they said, "Hey, we know about that. There was a sacrifice for trespasses, a sacrifice for ignorance, a sacrifice for this. But for presumptuous, high-handed, willful sin with your eyes wide open, there was no sacrifice." Because according to Numbers 15:31, they were despising the word of God. [Thank you, Jean.]

Now, back to Hebrews 10. I'm going to read it to you just as exactly as it was written in the Greek, "For if we go on sinning willfully," he's not talking about one sin. Now, some of our friends say, "Oh, you know, adultery, that's the sin God can't forgive." God forgave David's adultery. "Oh, murder is the one sin God can't forgive." He forgave Paul's murder, Moses' murder. He's not talking about any one sin.

I get more letters from radio listeners saying to me, "Hey, I think I've committed the unpardonable sin, Hebrews 10." I write back and say, "Tell me what it was. What's the unpardonable sin?"

He doesn't say if we commit a certain kind of a sin. He says if we go on sinning in a certain attitude, willfully, presumptuously, "after we've received the knowledge of the truth." Now, that means that we're saved. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." If God looks upon one of his children, and sees that child presumptuously, willfully, despitefully sinning against him, he's going to do business with him, the way I would with my children. Chastening.

Now, what do we look for? "A certain fearful looking for of judgment, fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." "Hey, wait a minute, I'm not one of the adversaries." "But you're acting like one of them." You see, either I'm walking with God in faith, hope, and love, and I'm one of his friends, or I'm living in the world, and presumptuously sinning against God. If I am there, I'm going to be treated the way God treats them.

Who can you think of in the Old Testament, who was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reason, and got exactly what the world got? Lot. Now, Lot knew better, but Lot was over in Sodom with the perverts, and so everything he lived for got burned up.

"He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses." Now, we are not under Moses' law. Therefore, if two or three witnesses come and say, "We saw you do this," the church doesn't stone anybody. We have other ways of making people miserable. "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy," who has done three things? Here's the whole Trinity. Number one, "he has trodden under foot the Son of God." How?

Well, by despising his word, by not living for him. "He has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified," and this takes us back to Hebrews 10:14, takes us back to Hebrews 10:10, we have been set apart by the blood, "a common thing." In other words, he's saying here, when you willfully disobey God, it's just as though the blood had never set you apart, the Lord had never died for you. And you've done despite, you've insulted the spirit of grace.

Can Christians do that? Sure they can. Of course they can. You see if I deliberately, willfully, repeatedly, constantly sin and I am a poor testimony for God, I'm taking the Jesus Christ and treating him in the wrong way, his blood, the Holy Spirit who lives within me. "For we know him."

Now he's talking about— talking about Christian people. We know him. Unsaved folks don't know him. "We know him that has said, Vengeance belongs unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again, The Lord shall judge his people." His people, not outsiders. A lot of folks apply these verses to unsaved people. He's not talking about that, he's talking about Christians.

It is a fearful thing for Christians to fall into the hands of the living God. Can you think of some saints in the Bible who fell into the hands of the living God because of their willful repeated sin? Sure, you can. Lot is one of them. Ananias and Sapphira is one of them. Samson's one of them. David's one of them. The people of Israel. See.

Now you know what this passage is saying? The fact— if you want to put the whole theme of Hebrews into one sentence, it's this: there is no cheap salvation. We have today a cheap salvation being preached— preached in a cheap way by people who ought to know better.

Well, if you're going to get saved and live for God, there's a price to pay, and one of the prices we pay after we're saved is obedience. God doesn't want these pampered children. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now David knew that, but David said, "I'd rather fall into the hands of God than fall into the hands of man."

Now he says, "Don't get discouraged. Call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated," they got saved, "you endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly while you were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions," they were publicly exposed and publicly laughed at, "and partly while you became companions of them that were so used." They identified with people who were in prison. "You had compassion on me in my bonds and took joy for the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance."

Now he doesn't say, "Hey, you're going to lose your salvation because of what I've say." He said, "Wait a minute. You people have given every evidence of being truly born again. You've suffered for the faith. You've stood with those who were suffering." Now he says, "You have need," oh, Hebrews 10:35, "Cast not away therefore your confidence," same word is boldness back in Hebrews 10:19, "Don't cast away your boldness, which has great recompense of reward. You have need of endurance that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise."

He's saying, "Hey, hang in there. Sure you're going through suffering. They've stolen your goods, they've fired you at work, you've lost your friends, you've lost your relatives. Hang in there. Don't give up. Why? Because the best is yet to come. What's going to come? He's going to come."

"For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and he will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith." That's the third time this verse is quoted in the New Testament. Romans 1, Galatians 3, and now Hebrews 10. "The just shall live by faith." Not just saved by faith, live by faith. Faith in what? Faith in the word of God.

"But if he," now it says any man in your italicized King James, it's he, "but if he," this man who lives by faith, "draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure from him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition." And boy, the folks who think you can lose your salvation really have a lot of fun with that word perdition. They say, "See, if you don't keep going on, you draw back into perdition, and perdition means going to hell."

There are places in the New Testament where perdition means judgment. No question about that; I won't argue it. There are places in the Bible where the lion refers to David. There are places where it refers to— to Jesus. There are places where it refers to the devil. You always examine a word in its context, not from the Webster's dictionary.

Perdition. What does the word perdition really mean? It means waste, loss. We are not among— it's the same word that was used about Mary. Mary came and gave this ointment, anointed Jesus, and— and— and Judas said, "Why this waste?" Same word. You know what he's saying here? He's saying, "If you keep walking by faith, you endure afflictions, you come to the throne of grace, you love your brethren, you assemble with your brethren, you are going to go on to perfection, on to maturity."

But if you say, "Oh, it's too hard, I guess I'll just compromise. I won't tell anybody I'm a Christian, I'm just—" then he says you're going to go backward. "We are not of them who shrink back unto waste." Waste what? Waste your whole life.

You know what Hebrews is about? Turn to Hebrews 13 and keep reminding yourself what the book of Hebrews is all about. Hebrews 13:20-21, "Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, make you perfect to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight." That's perfection.

So, the believer who keeps walking with God goes on to perfection. The— the— the— the saint who says, "Oh, it's too hard to be a good Christian"— see, he goes back to perdition. Now, what's perdition? Waste. What's waste? Wastes his life, wastes his  opportunities. I don't think he's talking one bit here about losing— losing salvation.

Now, you say, "Wait, what about the rest of the verse?" "But of them that believe to the saving of the soul." They say, "Oh boy, if you don't keep on believing, you don't save your soul." Change that word saving to preserving. That's what it means. The preserving of the life, the maintaining of the testimony. So, what he's saying here is simply this: don't you despise the will of God and the word of God. Don't live in willful sin. God will deal with you. Hebrews 12, he goes into that in greater detail.

Our time is up. We'll pick this up next week. You may have some questions to discuss, and we can talk about it there. So, the theme of Hebrews is either on to perfection or back to perdition. But perdition doesn't mean losing your salvation. Perdition means wasting your life, and many saints of God are wasting their lives.