“The Danger of Rejecting Christ”
(Hebrews 10:26-31)
Series: Captivated by Christ (Hebrews)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take your Bibles and join me in Hebrews Chapter 10.
While you’re finding that I want to share something with you. Last Tuesday Brother Ken Lupton and I went to an evangelistic training conference in Owensboro. There was a lot of information and a lot of ideas, but the main thing I took away from it was that I cannot expect our church to be any more concerned about lost people than I am myself. I can’t expect the church to be any more evangelistic than I am.
So I’m asking you to pray for your pastor as I endeavor to improve in this area. It is too easy as a pastor to allow so many other things to get in the way of personal evangelism. It’s too easy to get up in the morning and study and come to the office here and meet with church members and go home and go a whole day without being around a lost person.
And so I’m bringing back a threefold prayer I intend to pray every day with the goal of sharing Jesus Christ at least once a day. I’ve shared this prayer with you all before as I’ve encouraged you to use it as well. In fact, let me encourage you to write it down:
“Lord, give me an opportunity to share my faith today.
Enable me to recognize this opportunity when it comes.
When it happens, give me the courage to proceed.”
We share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. So while the task of sharing Christ may seem great at ties, “the task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.” So pray for me as I endeavor to share Jesus at least once a day. Hold me accountable to it. Ask me how it’s going from time to time. And I’ll endeavor to help you as well in the days ahead. Thank you for this.
It also seems fitting that the text for our study this morning is a text that underscores the need to get the gospel out to folks who are lost. There are lost people in every setting, even in a church setting such as this. The writer of Hebrews acknowledges as much as he has provided in his letter five (5) warning passages, warnings about not rejecting Jesus Christ. We have studied three of these already back in chapters 2-6. And today we find ourselves studying the fourth warning passage. It begins where we left off last week at verse 26.
We start at verse 26 because we left off at verse 25. And verse 25 concludes with a reference to the coming judgment. Judgment Day. The writer, you’ll remember, says let us exhort one another “and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Judgment Day.
It would seem the mention in verse 25 about “the Day” approaching, the Day of Judgment, leads the writer to think more upon that subject and to warn folks who may not be prepared for that day. I wonder if you are? If you are, then you are encouraged about that day.
The author does not seek to unsettle those who are true believers. For true followers of Christ, the “Day approaching,” the return of Christ is a great encouragement. That specific encouragement begins at verse 32 which we hope to address next week, Lord willing. It is good for us today, however, to stop short of that encouragement and spend time talking about the danger of rejecting Christ and the judgment to come to those who “draw back” (38-39) and turn away from Jesus.
- Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord (says the Lord not in NU). And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
- Pray.
Sometime back I was listening to a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the godly pastor of a previous generation at the Westminster Chapel in London England. He was preaching one evening about the true gospel and what it means to be a true Christian. And he made this statement. He said: “There are many people in the world tonight who are not Christians very largely because they think they are Christians.” That’s one of those statements that causes you to stop and sit up a bit. “There are many people in the world…who are not Christians very largely because they think they are Christians.” What does that mean?
Well, among other things, it certainly means that one may think he or she is a Christian simply by virtue of being exposed to the external things of Christianity—worship attendance, small group Sunday school attendance, feeling good when in the presence of Christians, help from biblical teaching, a sense of love and goodness through musical worship, a concern for fellow neighbors and society, good works to improve the state of others and the state of the community—but these are not themselves the gospel. These are things that accompany the gospel, but they are not the gospel itself. They are not the things that make one a Christian.
Becoming a Christian is about loving, receiving, and following Jesus Christ. True believers are they who have acknowledged their sin, confessed it, repented of it, and turned to Christ, believing Him to be their only Savior, living a perfect life for which they can receive credit, and dying a substitutionary death in their place, rising from the dead, and walking in the same resurrection power as they grow in their love for Jesus. True believers go on believing to the very end, they persevere in their faith. True believers will not reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They will go on believing Him.
The writer here, in verses 26-31, is addressing those who are not true believers. He is addressing those who have turned their backs on Jesus and have rejected Christ. Now the writer does not know who those people are. But he knows they are in the congregation there because there had been some already who had walked away from the church for fear of persecution. They turned away from Jesus and went back to their old ways of thinking and living. So the writer is writing about what happens to those who forsake Christ.
In our present context, I don’t know who the true believers are and neither do you. So we all listen to the warning considering ourselves, considering ourselves, considering our friends and considering our loved ones. What is the danger of rejecting Christ? Let’s consider the danger along three lines of thought. First:
***The Danger of Rejecting Christ…
- Consider the Calamity of it (26-27)
Let’s consider the calamity of it, the utter peril of what it means to turn away from Jesus Christ.
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Now the first time I read verse 26 I was alarmed because I said to myself, “Well, I am a sinner. I have sinned willfully. I have sinned with my eyes wide open. I mean as a Christian who knows better. I have sinned willfully so what does this mean that there is no sacrifice for sins?”
Remembering the writer’s main concern is helpful to us. He is here addressing those who have rejected Christ and gone back to their old way of living. He is not suggesting that Christians never sin. He is addressing a state of mind and a state of living that leads to total abandonment of Christ and the gospel. If you turn from Christ and refuse to repent, to turn back to Him, then you have rejected Him and you will remain separated from Him forever.
The writer is not talking here about Christians who “slip up” from time to time; battling the sin that remains, giving in to it at times when we know it is wrong, but then immediately confessing and getting back into the race. No, he’s not talking about that here.
The tense of the verb is present continuous action “sin willfully,” to go on sinning deliberately, as another translation has it. To go on turning away from Jesus Christ. To go on rejecting Him.
The writer addresses those who have rejected Christ as Savior. Thus, they were never true believers. They had “received the knowledge of the truth” but did not trust Christ savingly. So they abandoned Christ as evidence that they were never true believers.
This is very similar to what the Apostle John writes about those who did not continue in the faith in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
True believers do not go on sinning, deliberately, willfully. True believers are different. God’s law is written in our hearts and minds. His Spirit is within us to empower us to live as those who delight in Christ.
Some hearers had only “received the knowledge of the truth.” They did not accept the truth and thus “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” That is, there is no sacrifice other than the “once-for-all” perfect sacrifice of the One they have rejected. Rejecting Christ means there is nowhere else to go. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Sins are not atoned for in any way other than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
I can preach the gospel today to some 500 people in our services this morning. I can preach the truth and everyone listening can “receive the knowledge of the truth” inasmuch as they can understand it and even intellectual assent to its teaching. But that does not mean every single person hearing the truth accepts the truth. Receiving the knowledge of the truth does not mean that every single person actually believes the truth savingly, receiving Christ as Lord and Savior.
You’ll recall from Hebrews 6 that there were some who merely “tasted” the good Word of God (Hebrews 6:5), tasting it but not digesting it.
As James teaches in his letter, it’s one thing to “hear” the Word and another thing altogether to “do” the Word.
Today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart. Don’t allow your heart to be as the hard soil in the parables of Jesus. The Word tries to get down into that soil and bear fruit, but it never really takes. Allow your heart to be the soft, fertile soil that receives the Word gladly and bears fruit, and goes on bearing fruit.
What calamity awaits those who reject Christ? Verse 27:
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Verse 27 here in chapter 10 reminds us of verse 27 in chapter 9. Hebrews 9:27 says, “…it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”
There is a judgment day that awaits every man and woman, every boy and girl, every person of every race, tribe, tongue, and nation. It is appointed unto man to die and after this the judgment.
And the writer says that if we reject Christ, the day of judgment is bound up with “a certain fearful expectation” and “fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries,” devour those who reject Christ.
Well, that’s pretty plain, isn’t it? The Scriptures can often be alarming to us. This is God’s Word for our good. It’s good to read the Scriptures and pause and allow the teachings to get down inside us. This is God’s Word.
The reading of the Scripture is not like the reading of the minutes in business meetings. Unlike the reading of the minutes, “there are no corrections or additions; the scriptures stand approved as read!” This is God’s Word.
Those who reject Christ have only “a certain fearful expectation of judgment.” That phrase intimates that those who refuse Christ have an inner sense of a judgment to come. A person may suppress the truth of that judgment, trying to bury it down deeply within, cover it up, ignore it, drowning out the sense of judgment with the noise of music, entertainment, drink, and drugs. But it is there.
The sense of judgment is a grace of God. He gives it to us to awaken us, alarm us, alert us to repent and trust Christ. So when we don’t, when we sin willfully after we have received the truth, all we have is “a certain fearful expectation of judgment,”—and—“and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries,” which will devour those who reject Christ. The calamity of it. Secondly:
2. Consider the Severity of it (28-29)
Consider the severity of rejecting Christ. In verses 28 and 29 the writer argues from the lesser to the greater. It’s one of those statements that goes like this: “If this is bad, then how much worse is this?!” If this is bad—verse 28—then how much worse is verse 29? He argues: “If rejecting Moses’ law is bad (verse 28), then how much worse is it to reject Christ (verse 29)?!” See it now, verse 28:
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Under the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, if an Israelite turned his back upon the One true and living God, he was to be killed by stoning. The writer of Hebrews is referring to Deuteronomy 17, let me just read this for you:
Deuteronomy 17:2-6, 2 “If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing His covenant, 3 who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. 6 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses…
That’s bad, isn’t it? Aren’t you glad you’re not under the old covenant? I’m reminded of the preacher who was preaching from Acts 5 where Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for lying. The preacher said, “What if God did that today, struck people dead for lying? If He did, where would I be?!” And the congregation kind of snickered. Then, the preacher said, “I’ll tell you where I’d be—I’d be preaching to an empty sanctuary!”
The severity of judgment under the old covenant is great—however!—the severity of judgment under the new covenant is even greater. Verse 29:
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Again, the point is: “If rejecting Moses’ law is bad (verse 28), then how much worse is it to reject Christ (verse 29)?!” The thinking is similar to what the writer wrote back in chapter 2, Hebrews 2:3…how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Rejection of Christ is illustrated in three actions there in verse 29: trampling the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant…a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of grace.
Trampling the Son of God underfoot is a vivid image of stepping on Christ as though He were nothing. The same word “trample” is used by our Lord in Matthew 7 where he warns that we ought not cast our pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet. Treating something pure and lovely and worthy and infinitely valuable as a common thing to be trampled on. To scorn Him. To besmirch His good name. To spit upon Him by refusing to be identified with Him through Christian faith and Christian baptism.
Counting the blood of the covenant…a common thing is to treat Christ’s blood and Christ’s sacrifice as no big deal, just a common, ordinary, even vulgar thing. The phrase is literally: “counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing…”
Sanctified—not theologically as we usually understand the term; sanctified with reference to salvation, but sanctified in the broadest sense of the word: being “set apart.” These are people who had identified externally with those who were followers of Jesus. They were numbered among them, visibly “set apart” in that sense. But not true believers.
And insulting the Spirit of grace, insulting the Holy Spirit! Incidentally, that’s the only time in all the Scripture that the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace.” That’s a good term, isn’t it? I encourage you to use that in your prayers. Talk to God from time to time calling Him, “the Spirit of grace.”
If rejecting the law of Moses meant punishment, how much more severe is the judgment and punishment of the one who has rejected Christ, trampling His good sacrifice underfoot? It is Christ alone who saves! Apart from Christ we can never be saved!
We are sinners. And since our sin is against a holy and infinite God, no amount of human works and good deeds will ever be enough to pay the penalty of our sin—because a holy infinite God requires a holy and infinite number of works of righteousness. Only Christ can save us! Christ who is holy and infinite and perfect and pure.
The danger of rejecting Christ, the calamity of it, the severity of it, and then:
3. Consider the Finality of it (30-31)
Finality on the day of judgment.
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord (says the Lord not in NU). And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
These statements are from Deuteronomy 32. Moses spoke these words just before the Israelites entered the promised land. It was a warning to them that God was watching and God would judge them. And the Lord watches you and me and He will judge us. So the solemn conclusion of the thought in verse 31:
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
It is a fearful thing for those who are lost. There’s a finality to it. God will treat us justly, just as our sins deserve. If we have spurned the good name and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it will indeed be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
It was this truth Jonathan Edwards preached in that famous message nearly 300 years ago. I encourage you to Google it later: Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Luke 12:4-5, 4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!
If you are saved, a true believer, then it’s a good thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 2 Samuel 24 tells the story of David. Remember his sin when he counted the fighting men, taking that census? He was punished for that sin and was given the choice of punishments. And he made the statement: “Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great (2 Samuel 24:14).”
RESPONSE:
Are you a true believer? Have you received Christ? See, there are just two categories of people in this room—those who have received Him and those who have rejected Him. If you are among those who have received Him savingly, then you will go on receiving Him, living for Him, loving Him. True believers persevere in their faith, go on living for Him. The writer will press that truth in the following verses. True believers will endure suffering and hardship and will go on living by faith. They will not “draw back.”
But if you are here this morning and not a believer, then hear and heed the warnings in this, the Word of God. Turn to Jesus this morning and be saved. In a moment when we sing I invite you to turn to Christ. I will be up front here and will meet with you after the service and pray with you that you might leave here in peace today. If you have questions about your soul, or baptism, or what it means to be a Christian and join the church, I will be available after the service up front here and then in the Response Room right outside these doors. After every service this morning.
Whether you are a believer, not a believer, or unsure, the answer is the same: turn your eyes upon Jesus. His word shall not fail you. “Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell.”
- Let’s pray.
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