1. "Why would you leave a movie to go watch the trailer? And the trailer's one purpose is to tell you about the movie and once the movie's out, then the trailer's really done. That's what it was like with the temple."

2. "This is the difference between God and so many of the false gods who, their worshipers try to figure out how to appease them. The volcano is rumbling. What can we throw in it to stop it? Now the real God has revealed Himself. He's told us about what He's like. He's told us how we can approach Him. In fact, He's made the way to do that."

3. "What's brought us all together is not a shared past, regardless of what the racists or the Marxists may think. It's not all of our shared interests in that sense. No, it's the shared future. Instead of spiritual nostalgia longing for something past, we Christians have a kind of longing for a coming day."

4. "Forsaking the assembly is the first outward visible step to apostasy."

5. "Meeting virtually is precisely not meeting together physically. It is done instead of gathering. It's not gathering in the sense it's commanded here. It's done so that we don't need to do what we're commanded to do here. And while there may be something to say for such streaming, a virtual church is about as useful as a virtual spouse."

6. "The church is not only what happens up here. That's a great Roman Catholic view of the church, but a terrible biblical view of the church. The church is what happens all over the place here."

7. "All of the inconveniences that happen to make this meeting happen. And those inconveniencings of ourselves is spiritually healthy. It's putting a priority on the meeting and the loving each other."

8. "If you're rightly valuing Jesus, but beware of sin. Sin is always a step away from Jesus. Apostasy is a process. It always begins with a single sin. Sin causes us to devalue Jesus, to begin to see Him as something that's in the way of what it is you really want."

9. "The idea that you can defend something is good just because you naturally want to do it, that's not a Christian view at all. That won't help you understand the world you live in very well at all either."

10. "Friends, if you understand who Jesus is, you're just not gonna wanna throw Him away. Oh, you're gonna be needing that Savior. That's what a sinner needs. A sinner needs a Savior."

Observation Questions

1. According to Hebrews 10:19-21, what two things give believers confidence to enter the holy places, and how did Jesus open this "new and living way"?

2. In Hebrews 10:22-25, what three commands (each beginning with "let us") does the writer give to believers, and what specific actions or attitudes accompany each command?

3. What does Hebrews 10:25 say about the "habit of some," and what motivation does the writer give for not following this habit?

4. According to Hebrews 10:26-27, what happens to those who "go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth"?

5. In Hebrews 10:29, what three offenses does the writer describe as deserving "worse punishment" than death under the law of Moses?

6. How does Hebrews 10:30-31 describe God and His actions toward those who reject Christ, and what concluding statement does the writer make about falling into God's hands?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the writer use the imagery of the Old Testament tabernacle—the curtain, the holy places, and the high priest—to explain what Christ has accomplished for believers? How does this background help us understand the significance of Christ's work?

2. The sermon emphasizes that the "deliberate sinning" in verse 26 refers to apostasy rather than every sin a believer commits. How does verse 14 ("He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified") help clarify this interpretation and provide assurance to struggling Christians?

3. What is the relationship between the three "let us" commands in verses 22-25? How does drawing near to God connect to holding fast our confession and stirring up one another?

4. The writer argues from lesser to greater in verses 28-29, comparing punishment under Moses' law to punishment for rejecting Christ. Why does rejecting Christ deserve a "much worse punishment" than violating the law of Moses?

5. How does the sermon's explanation of God's vengeance (verse 30) differ from how our culture typically views vengeance? Why is it appropriate for God to exercise vengeance even though it is wrong for us?

Application Questions

1. The sermon describes how some first-century Christians were tempted to drift away from Christ due to social pressure and persecution. What specific pressures in your own life—whether from family, work, culture, or unrestrained desires—tempt you to devalue Jesus or soften your commitment to Him? How can you actively resist these pressures this week?

2. Verse 25 warns against "neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some." The sermon argues that virtual participation cannot replace physical gathering. What personal inconveniences or competing priorities have you allowed to erode your commitment to gathering with your local church? What concrete step can you take to prioritize physical presence with God's people?

3. The command to "stir up one another to love and good works" (v. 24) calls for deliberate, catalytic action toward fellow believers. Who is one specific person in your church community that you could intentionally encourage this week, and what practical form might that encouragement take?

4. The sermon warns that sin causes us to devalue Jesus—to see Him as "in the way" of what we really want. Is there a particular sin in your life where you find yourself viewing Jesus more as an obstacle than a Savior? What would it look like to bring this struggle into the open with a trusted Christian friend or pastor?

5. Hebrews 10:23 calls believers to "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." In what area of your life are you currently struggling to trust God's faithfulness—perhaps in waiting, suffering, or uncertainty? How can meditating on God's past faithfulness strengthen your grip on hope this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Hebrews 4:14-16 — This earlier passage in Hebrews also calls believers to draw near to God's throne with confidence because of Jesus our great high priest, reinforcing the same invitation found in chapter 10.

2. 2 Samuel 7:8-16 — This passage contains God's promise to David that his offspring would build a house for God's name, which the sermon identifies as fulfilled in Christ who is "a great priest over the house of God."

3. Deuteronomy 32:35-43 — The source of the quotation "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" in Hebrews 10:30, this passage reveals God's character as both judge and vindicator of His people.

4. 2 Peter 2:20-22 — Peter warns that those who escape the world's defilements through knowledge of Christ but turn back are worse off than before, paralleling the warning against apostasy in Hebrews 10.

5. Matthew 18:15-20 — Jesus' instructions for confronting sin within the church community demonstrate the practical outworking of believers stirring up one another and caring for each other's spiritual welfare.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Choices Have Consequences: The Context of Hebrews

II. The Privilege of Having Christ (Hebrews 10:19-25)

III. Let Us Draw Near to God (v. 22)

IV. Let Us Hold Fast Our Confession of Hope (v. 23)

V. Let Us Stir Up One Another to Love and Good Works (vv. 24-25)

VI. The Fearful Fate of Rejecting Christ (Hebrews 10:26-31)

VII. A Warning Against Falling Into the Hands of the Living God

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Choices have consequences.

So we know this. We take that turn and we go to Baltimore. We take this one and we go to Richmond. We click here and that means we've now purchased the grill.

Agreeing on that date could lead somewhere. Undertaking that crime. Could ruin your life. Choices have consequences.

In this series of studies in Hebrews this year, we have been looking at a fearful choice that was being contemplated by some Christians, likely in Jerusalem in the middle of the first century A.D. It seems that some Christians were considering giving it up, forsaking the assembling of Christians and heading back over to the temple with their sacrifices and laws.

Why would they make such a fearful choice?

Perhaps they were under pressure socially, maybe from the officials. Judaism had an exemption by the Romans to allow them to practice their own religion, including not venerating the Roman gods like the emperor. But what if the Christians now in the first century were growing in number and they were no longer understood to be a sect of Judaism? What if the Jews themselves were increasingly defining the Christians out?

That would have the effect of leaving them without any cover before the Roman officials, exposed to the powerful Roman intolerance toward exclusivity. I'm sure that some of us here this morning sense that same intolerance growing in our own culture today. The Romans were powerfully inclusive of other religions. As they conquered people, they let people keep their religions as long as their religions could make a place for the Roman pantheon of gods. And as I mentioned, especially especially for worship of the Roman Emperor.

The Jews had this long-standing exception. But what of this new group, the Christians? No legal status was granted them by the Romans for centuries, and those centuries were marked by intermittent periods of intense persecution. It seems that one of the realities this letter is addressing is that some Christians are beginning to avoid church gatherings.

The whole book argues for the superiority of Jesus over Moses in his person, Jesus' superior role as the true, eternal High Priest presenting himself as the offering before his heavenly Father. And the lengthy defense of this would suggest that some of these Christians were considering reverting to their earlier, lower, less controversial opinions about Jesus. Perhaps he would no longer be regarded as the Son of God, the unique atoning sacrifice, but merely as a rabbi, and perhaps not even a very good one at that. You could summarize the Hebrews kind of like this: Bunch of Christians looking at Jesus and then looking over at the temple, back and forth thinking, Do I stay here? Or do I go back to that?

That's what's going on in this book. That's what's going on in Hebrews. It's like people who are watching the movie and the trailer is right next door and they're wondering, maybe I should just go watch the trailer. But friends, why would you leave a movie to go watch the trailer? And the trailer's one purpose is to tell you about the movie and once the movie's out, then the trailer's really done.

That's what it was like with the temple. So what does all this have to do with us? Well, it brings us to this idea of choices and the reality that choices have consequences. Now I wonder, in a gathering this large, are there some of you who have yourself thought of yourself as a Christian but now who are considering revising your opinions about Jesus. Maybe it's through the attractions of the synagogue, or maybe some other earlier religious background you've had, or maybe it's not religious at all.

Maybe it's really through the secular world around you, or through a secular school or some reading that you've done. Maybe it's through some mocking arguments that you've heard online or from your family or friends.

Behind it all is there some pressing sin that is tired of being restrained and held back? Greed, selfishness, some sexual sin, drunkenness, just general foulness that you're tired of Christianity making you feel guilty about? And you just want to think, couldn't I just let it go? If we can just overthrow Jesus as the Lord, then all would be well with my life. Well, if you'll only walk away from Jesus, that activity that is forbidden by the church can be celebrated by the world as your identity.

Christian, beware.

Look at the book of Hebrews. Our passage this morning is Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 to 31. If you'd open your Bibles and find that in the Bibles provided here, it's found on page 1007. If you're not used to listening to sermons, you'll be helped make it through this next undefined period of time by having your Bibles open in front of you. You're not saying you believe it just because your Bible is open there, you're just engaging with the text.

The large numbers are the chapter numbers, the small numbers are the verse numbers. We're going to be in chapter 10, starting with verse 19. I'm going to start reading now a little bit earlier in the passage for the context from a few of the verses that we were considering last week as the writer was concluding his main argument about Christ. So I'll start reading, let's say, up in verse 11.

I'll start reading in verse 11. So in our passage, which is verses 19 to 31, the writer presents a stark choice that we have. On the one hand, the incomparable high priest, Jesus Christ, who has brought us access to God. And so the first half of our passage, verses 19 to 25, tells Christians three implications of that, three ways that we should use this access to God that we've been granted through Christ.

And then starting in verse 26, he writes, as if Christians can go to hell. And again we see that the neglect of those three duties laid out in verse 22 to 25, the neglect of those can suggest a far darker path with fearful everlasting consequences. So listen carefully about how you can come to God Himself or literally go to hell.

Forever. Let me start reading chapter 10 with verse 11.

And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days,' declares the Lord, 'I will put My laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.' Then He adds, 'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.' Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God?

And has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace. For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So the passage we're considering this morning are these verses 19 to 31.

So the next two paragraphs there in the ESV Verses 19 to 25, the privileges of having Christ. And then the second paragraph 26 to 31, the fearful fate of rejecting Christ. So having Christ, privileges and responsibilities, rejecting Christ, fearful consequences. I pray that you will not reject Christ, but that you will hold fast to Him. Let's consider first our privilege of having Christ, we see in this paragraph 19 to 25.

Look at verses 19 to 21. This is really just the opening phrase of a long sentence, but it gives us the basis for the three commands that we get. You see there, three commands in 22, let us, 23, let us, 24 and 25, let us, the three let uses. But they're all based on these two senses, these two because's here in verses 19 to 21. Let's just notice these first.

Verse 19, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, So these are the two suppositions that the writer begins with. You see what he's saying, he's really summarizing the argument that he's been making. He's saying since Jesus has brought such an offering, his own blood, his flesh, and since he is such a great high priest over the house of God, since those things are the case, because they are the case, then we have these privileges and responsibilities that he outlines here in verses 22, 23, 24. 25. So Jesus Christ is the great offering.

Jesus Christ is Himself the great priest. Such an offering and such a priest should give us confidence to enter, as he says here in verse 19, the holy places. So the image here in 19 and 20 is specifically the echoing of the setup of the earthly tabernacle and temple where you have the holy place, but then separated beyond that by a thick curtain the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. That was the place where the high priest could go only, and then only once a year. In that Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, crowned with the mercy seat, representing the virtual presence of the sovereign God.

So the mention here in verse 19 of entering through the curtain there in verse 20, that is into this Most Holy Place, this entering is entering into the presence of God. That's what he's talking about here. And this is what we believers in Jesus Christ now do through Jesus Christ. We enjoy this privilege of entering into the most holy place, the presence of God, now through this new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain. He opened this way for us.

Who did that? Well, look at verse 20. Jesus Christ did that. It was through His flesh. This is the difference between God and so many of the false gods who, their worshipers try to figure out how to appease them.

The volcano is rumbling. What can we throw in it to stop it? Now the real God has revealed Himself. He's told about what he's like. He's told us how we can approach him.

In fact, he's made the way to do that. I pray that you will have confidence, brothers and sisters, as you teach your children to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. What name could be more encouraging of us to come into the presence of God?

What more could he have done to gain entry and favor in the presence of God than to have given up his very self in our place? I pray that our families will be places where we testify of the presence of God, of our confidence of being able to come into His presence in the name of Jesus Christ. As a church, we've had fresh reminders through the hymns we've been singing even this morning.

Through our celebration of the Lord's Supper this past Sunday evening. I pray that this very day you will join with us in the joyful confidence that we can have entering into the Lord's presence through the blood of Jesus. He says here that we do this because we have this one who's a great priest over the house of God. And when he uses that phrase house of God, does it make you think of anything in the Old Testament? I think of the place where David goes to the Lord, says, He's gonna build him a house.

And the Lord in 2 Samuel 7 says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not gonna build me a house. I am going to build a house through you. I will make your family, your heirs, my house. Do you remember that promise he makes back in 2 Samuel 7:12-13?

The Lord had told David, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring and that's in the singular. He's not just talking about a line of kings, it's in the singular. He's talking about an offspring in particular. After your, who shall come from your body, the incarnation, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name.

And here we read, that's what Jesus has done. He is a great priest over the house of God. He is the one who has built this Christ, great David's greater son. Has built God a house that will last. So in these verses we see Christ's offering in His office as the basis of His offering.

And this is the basis of these following three commands that He gives us. The first of these implications that will bring with it a responsibility, we see here verse 22, Let us draw near... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So because Jesus has made himself the offering that he has for our sins, he's made himself that offering to his heavenly Father, we should come on this new and living way that he's built to God.

He says, Let us draw near. It sounds like what he says back in chapter 4, you remember? Chapter 4, verse 14.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus has drawn near and so we can draw near through him. Drawing near to God means having fellowship with him. The writer here is describing the Christians continuing relationship with God.

The image of sprinkling is from Exodus where Moses ceremonially sprinkled the people with blood to get them ready for the Lord's presence. And then later through Ezekiel, the Lord said to his people, In exile, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. Well, this is what God has done for us in Christ. He has prepared us, He's repaired us, He's given us the new birth that we may draw near to God. And this is one of our privileged responsibilities now.

Really in many ways, it's the very heart of our privilege, that you and I, sinners though we are, can now relying on our Savior Jesus Christ, draw near to God. Christian, are you taking advantage of this? Do you spend any time praying, reading God's Word? Even when you come here, are you aware that you're participating in the privilege of being able to come not as a mere auditor or an onlooker, but you're able to come into the very presence of God with his people because of Jesus Christ?

Another privilege with the responsibility that he urges is in verse 23. He says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope, so let us draw near. Let us also hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Verse 23, For he who promised is faithful.

That word confess, we often use the word confess about what we do with our sins, so earlier today we confessed our sins.

It means to say the same thing God says about our sins. We also use the word confession about our faith. We will use the words, let's say, of the Apostles' Creed to confess our faith. But here we read of confessing our hope. Not meaning so much our action of hoping, but the content of our hope, that which we hope in.

Because Jesus Christ has done what He's done. He's been the offering and the priest that we need.

We are a future-oriented people. Friends, what's brought us all together is not a shared past, regardless of what the racists or the Marxists may think. It's not all of our shared interests in that sense. No, it's the shared future. Instead of spiritual nostalgia longing for something past, we Christians have a kind of longing for a coming day.

The great future that's held out to us in Christ. So just like the bride or groom longs for their wedding day, so we anticipate the great blessings that are ahead. We make plans along those lines that we're going to be together forever with the Lord, and so we live our lives to do that. This congregation is full of people who seem to just get married. There are weddings here often by God's grace.

And one of the common complaints that I hear is how terrible engagement is. And I understand, you know, you've identified the person, you're beginning to make the commitments, but you've really got none of the privileges and a lot of the plans still to do right now. It's an awkward time. I think the Christian life is a little bit like that. I think after we're converted, but before we're with the Lord fully, we have all of these arrangements and plans and privileges, but they're partial, but they're certain it's going in that direction.

That's a lot like what it's like for us. We are in this time where we are defined by this thing coming in the future. We have this hope that we have and we are called to hold without wavering. Four in verse 23, he who promised is faithful. We can trust him.

We sing sometimes from Deuteronomy 32, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are just a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

But friends, of these three lettuces in this patch, I want to spend most of the time on the last one, all right? That's the one I want to pick and hold and think about for a while. It's this privilege and the responsibility that it brings. Where he talks about here in verse 24, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now a lot of us actually thought of this two years ago in June when we met together for the first time after not having met for a few months because of COVID-19. We were there in Franconia in their yard and this is the passage that I thought was appropriate for us to meditate on. I think now we can guess that this urging might have been especially needed for these people when they were going through a time of trial. That's what some of our friends in China are thinking right now. If the pressure's on, what do we do?

Is this a time to scatter so we can keep ourselves bearing witness to the gospel wherever God and his providence has us, or is this a time for us to sort of stand visibly and take whatever comes? Here he tells Christians that because Christ has become an offering and a priest for us, that he has purchased not just us as individuals, but he's purchased all of us who are his. Therefore we all, not just pastors, have a role to play in each other's lives because of how Christ has purchased each one of us. So you should think not just of yourself, but of the fact that the person to your right and to your left is precious to the Lord. And therefore, if you call yourself someone who follows the Lord, you need to have some of that same affection and concern that he has.

So we're to stir up, he says. As best I can tell, this was a negative word. He was using it provocatively, kind of like if I talk about positive gossip. You know, I'm grabbing a negative word, gossip, but I'm talking about positively, Hey, why don't you say good things about people behind their back? Things that are true.

I'm getting your attention. I think that's what he's doing here with this word stir up. Uh, this, this is a provocative word that was often used negatively, but he's saying our job is to stir each other up, to love and good work. So that the call here is for the Christian to consider, that is to give time to think about something and to give attention to it, even in our schedules. What is it that we're to think about?

How to stir up how to provoke, how to motivate one another.

Who's the one another? Well, fellow Christians that we meet with regularly. What does he say we're to stir them up to? Love and good works. This is interesting.

So this is not just an exhortation for Christians to go out and do good. But it's for them to do good to a particular set of people, fellow Christians, and a particular good to stir them up, to stir them up to what? To love and good works. That is to do good to others. So instead of the writer here merely calling for random acts of kindness, he's calling for a deliberate plan of actions which are intended to provoke other actions which are in turn to affect yet a third cycle of people.

So Hebrew calls them here to this catalytic action, encouraging an ongoing chain reaction of charity among the members of the congregation. You know, some people may think that religion is a private matter, and some religions may be, but Christianity is never private.

Personal, yes. Has to be personal to be sincere, but private, no way. You look at the pattern of Christ's own life. It's a pattern of stunning, self-exhausting love for the good of others. That's what he calls us to as his followers.

And especially the way Christians encourage each other was by gathering around the Word of God. This pattern was established from the very first resurrection day. Do you remember what Jesus did the day he was raised from the dead? Okay, he left the tomb. Yep, that's big.

But then what? He went to church. I mean, he created church. Two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He comes along with them.

They sit down, they open the Bible together. He explains it. Same day. Luke makes the point. Luke 24:1 on the first day, Luke 24:13 same day.

Then later, same day, Luke also makes the point, he's in Jerusalem. What's he doing? With a group of disciples, what are they doing? He's opening the Word, explaining the Word to them. Why are we doing what we're doing right here?

Because this is what Jesus has been doing ever since the day he got up from the tomb. This is what Christians do. They begin each week as a testimony that all the days of the week belong to God. They take the first part of the first day and they give it to the Lord very obviously by opening up his word and reading it and explaining it and understanding it and pledging ourselves afresh to hold fast to its promises. That's what we're doing.

Not neglecting to meet together. This is the special way it seems we can stir one another up. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now whether this neglecting to meet together was directly connected to a number who were no longer coming to the church because they were going to the temple, we can't say. That's all speculation. But it seems clear that some people, whether out of going to the temple or for some fear of persecution or apathy for whatever the reason, some were no longer regularly coming to the church. John Gill, a pastor in London, said that forsaking the assembly is the first outward visible step to apostasy.

I'm thinking in a group of six or seven hundred people you know what I'm talking about. You have had periods of your own life where you just didn't go to church for a while. Very clear you were Christian, but you know, it wasn't a good church around or something you had in the last church or you just felt bad or you just into other things that you needed to do right then. Friend, I hope you see that's very close. That's the way you go to become a non-Christian and even sometimes an anti-Christian.

Today, the habit of some is to replace meeting together with meeting virtually.

But meeting virtually is precisely not meeting together physically. It is done instead of gathering. It's not gathering in the sense it's commanded here. It's done so that we don't need to do what we're commanded to do here. And while there may be something to say for such streaming, a virtual church is about as useful as a virtual spouse.

Or a virtual family, or a virtual body, or maybe you'd be satisfied with a virtual resurrection. Let your avatar be raised. I understand that sometimes God in His providence may hinder us from participating in normal obedience. I've got that. So when I'm sick, I don't think I'm incurring guilt because I don't come to church.

No, the thief on the cross, when he's not baptized there, I don't think he's incurring any guilt by not being baptized, right? There are providential hindrances where the Lord will put us in a situation where he has not allowed us some normal obediences. I think we were in that situation as a church in April and May of 2020. So we received it from the Lord as a chastening. As a time for serious reflection, extra amounts of prayer, communicating with each other about our souls in any way we could, but not by our normal meeting together.

But because we understood that the local church is a visible, audible, tangible gathering, we didn't attempt to present a webcast or a live stream as a substitute, even a temporary substitute. For gathering with God's people. Brothers and sisters, you realize the church is not only what happens up here. That's a great Roman Catholic view of the church, but a terrible biblical view of the church. The church is what happens all over the place here.

Thus you'll notice this is circular, you can see each other. Thus you notice the light is there so that you can see, it's bright, you can see each other's faces. You may occasionally want to close your eyes in sublime devotion individually, But you can do that in your quiet time. I'd encourage you generally to open them right up and look around. See the people that Christ died for, that he's called you into particular covenant with.

That you are supposed to be stirring up to love and good deeds. The way Brittany's caring for Maxine and Maxine loves Brittany. This is what's supposed to be typical of our church. The way Courtney served us for three years, our deacon of community outreach. That's supposed to be typical of the way we care for and serve each other.

The way Mark Feather is loving our youth right now. I could just go on and on, naming people sitting all around here. Friends, this is what is supposed to typify to us as a church and failing to gather just weakens the connections of the members. Our true knowledge of each other declines as struggles that normally would be things we could see on somebody's face. When we see them or tell something's not right, those become hidden.

I know I can share information on email or sounds on the web, but the bodily resurrection is best represented by physical proximity. We are called the Capitol Hill Baptist Church because we've been meeting here for about 150 years on this corner. On Capitol Hill. This is where we church, we assemble. And we are one example of a faithful church.

My concern for you as a Christian is that you commit to an assembly like this one. It can be this one, but it doesn't have to be this one. You can commit to another one. Just commit to one where the Bible is preached and be there regularly. Let them get to know you and you get to know them and care for them.

That's how you can best love them, and that's how they can best love you. Corporate worship gatherings like this one preview our togetherness in our resurrected bodies. The planned and unplanned happenings when we gather, some of the most significant interactions are the ones we don't try to have. We just have, because Jim was sitting near me, so I got to say hello to Jim.

Are hearing this person being moved in the sermon, or in a prayer, the hug from that person, or this quiet conversation with this other, the greeting of the first-time visitor, or seeing the old member who is back, and sharing the gospel with the non-Christian seated next to you after the service, or helping this person from out of town figure out what to do next.

What we see and the sound here in this room together is part of who we are. The unity we have in Christ by all sharing his spirit is best represented by us immediately physically being together. Even in the inconveniences that are represented. You realize here, what do we have? Six or 700 people?

Do you notice how inconvenient this meeting is? I mean, every single one of us have had to make decisions. Okay, I'm not gonna do that now. I'm not gonna get that done. I'll try to find a parking place.

Okay, I'm gonna leave 15 minutes early. I'm gonna do this. I'm not gonna take my kids to that. We're not gonna be in that league because then we'd have to miss Sundays. It was all of the inconveniences that happen to make this meeting happen.

And those inconveniencings of ourselves is spiritually healthy. It's putting a priority on the meeting and the loving each other. It is healthier for us to meet together in that sense. If this were just live streamed, as much as you may be able to sleep here while I'm preaching, you could sleep even more at home. There are advantages aplenty of doing what we do in gathering together.

Getting together like this has forced a choice in every person's schedule. We've had to choose between coming to church at our own convenience, a trip we might take. Lots of individual costs are born to make this assembly happen every single week. The various teams of members coordinated by deacons, nursery workers and sound systems and preachers preaching and ushers ushing. All of it happens so that we can sing and pray and hear God's Word and the before and after conversations happen that are full of opportunities to experience the fullness of God's work and minister to others in the body and to visitors.

Why don't you try to baptize online or celebrate the Lord's Supper together online? No, friends, you can sing at the same time a speaker is like making noise in your house. But it's not the same thing as being here together with others singing. And though it comes at inconveniences to gather like this, it is often the joy of the Christians week.

We start by celebrating together Christ's resurrection in a way we couldn't do if you all didn't decide to come. So just realize that yes you are paying a price for coming and so is everybody around you. And if you don't pay this price meetings like this one don't happen. And don't worry about this particular local church, I don't mean this particular local one, I mean the hundreds of thousands of them in the United States and the millions of them around the world. They just don't happen.

If Christians don't make the individual decision that you are having to make to be here today. We start each week with this joy, I think of John in 2 John 12 where he says, I could write to you, but I would rather not use paper and ink instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. I feel sure that when I've been out of town, I am so happy to come back and see a whole lot of you. It's just wonderful to see and to know that you're here, you're okay, hear a little bit about what's going on. If you're not here, you can't greet people with a holy hug or a holy kiss or whatever culturally appropriate version you have of that.

So we come together to stir up one another and encourage one another, as it says here, mutual edification is embodied in the church's weekly gathering. It's of the very essence of what a church is. And it's a foretaste of what we will be forever together with the Lord. To miss this should normally hurt. Just like something being out of place in your body is gonna cause pain.

This is the meeting with God that he uses to shape us and to prepare us to be personally present with him forever. Not just virtually present with him, but in person present with him forever. Friends, there's so much more, I feel like I'm just getting started on this, but you get the idea. Alright, that's all for let us stir one another up to love and good deeds, not neglecting meeting together. I just thought God's providence would be beyond this verse in the Bible with all the virtual church stuff going around.

So, virtual church is not church.

Let's consider how to stir up one another. To love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together.

Well, the first part of our passage was summed up masterfully by John Stott, as always, when Stott said, Access to God by faith, waiting for Christ in hope, and stirring one another up in love. It is the familiar triad of faith, hope, and love. But all of this rejoicing in the instruction of the faithful Christian takes a darker turn in the next paragraph. Perhaps coming off this reference in verse 25 to the day of the Lord drawing near, the writer turns to consider the fearful fate of rejecting Christ. Put plainly, this is what so many of them were considering doing.

And our writer warns that there is no hope without Christ. It is a hopeless thing to sin with no Savior. Look at verse 26. Hebrews 10:26.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. The writer is warning here that these adversaries of God will be consumed. That is not in the sense of being annihilated or ceasing to exist. That would really be avoiding the punishment of God that he's warning of. But in the feeling of the fury in the fire.

That's a terrible image of being surrounded and enveloped and even consumed, but never being finally exhausted and extinguished by it. Being subjected to a divine fury through it.

Who will be subjected to that? He says here, these adversaries. Who are these adversaries?

Well, it looks like it's those who are sinning deliberately. Luke 26, those who are sinning deliberately. Let's begin by acknowledging that there are some non-deliberate sins. That is, the Bible in the Old Testament in a number of places talks about unintentional sins, sins that we've committed without realizing it, sins that God says are wrong that Neither our conscience nor our knowledge has given us wisdom about and we just, we didn't know and yet we committed them. And they're not made virtuous just because we're ignorant of God's law.

They're still sins. But let's admit that surely many of our sins are deliberate. We know what we're doing. We might even use language about we lose control, but, well, we don't really lose control. We know what we're doing, and that's a sin, and we are sinning, and that sin in that sense is deliberate.

But if that's what this means, isn't this verse an absolutely hope-sinking verse for you and me?

No. And the context should be helpful. I'm going to tell a little bit of a story about this tonight if you come back, Lord willing, that will involve Bill Barrens. In John Piper. But for now, let's just look at verse 14 of above.

We talked about it last week. This should help you. You see it says, He has perfected. Christ has perfected whom? Those who are being sanctified.

So if you sin, you still may be counted among those whom Christ has perfected. That is, He has regarded as sanctified. He is set apart, and you are now in the process of being sanctified. What a hope-giving thought.

For sinners, like you and me. So this deliberately sinning would not necessarily then include every person who sins.

So verse 26 is not about just any sin that we commit. Because if it were, that would rob Christ's sacrifice of its glorious substitutionary power. It would make our union with Him by faith a smaller, less total, less life-changing thing than it is. No, this sinning deliberately, when you look at it in the context of all of Hebrews, in the context of the verses just before it, and in the context of the verses that follow, especially say down in verse 29, this is clearly referring to a self-conscious turning away from Christ by one who has been, at least as far as we can tell, as far as they've known themselves, has been following Christ.

Remember, this is what this whole book is really written to warn them against. That's what disobeying the instructions even in the previous paragraph that we've just been considering would be. No longer drawing near through Christ. No longer holding firmly to the hope that we have in Him or the confession they'd made about Christ. No longer gathering with a local congregation by people who had once drawn near or appeared to at least, who had once held firmly or appeared to at least, who at one time had assembled with us.

Now this would be reflecting their continuing deliberate rejection of Christ. He's warned about that in chapters 3 and chapter 6. This seems to be the kind of blasphemy against God's Spirit that Jesus warned about in Matthew 12:31. This is apostasy. And that's why the sin is described so graphically there in verse 29 as an anti-Christian action, because that's exactly what apostasy is.

It is aimed against Christ. At this point, I understand that some may be confused, thinking, well, I thought the Bible taught that Christians persevere, that you can't lose your salvation. If you're a Christian, I think that's true. Our own church's statement of faith summarizes it like this in Article 11, We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end; that their persevering attachment to Christ is the this grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors. That especial providence watches over their welfare and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

But you see friends there is a difference between a church member and a Christian and the elect and the regenerate and the real believers. You have to sift through and think, Well, what am I talking about here? Is it possible that I can sincerely think I'm following Christ and yet deceive myself and deceive others? Yes, that's very possible. Does that mean then that someone who's truly regenerate has become unregenerate?

No. No, that caterpillar can become a butterfly and if you cut off its wings, it's not a caterpillar again. Just a butterfly with its wing cut off. Now, a Christian cannot become a non-Christian, but over time, someone who appeared and may sincerely themselves have thought of themselves as being a Christian can be revealed to themselves and others as someone who's not a Christian. And you say, well, that sounds scary.

Ah, I think you're hearing these verses. Listen carefully to these verses, friends. If you're here today and you've made a plan in your own mind about how you're going to sin deliberately, please will you talk to me or one of the other elders or some mature Christian here that you know. Talk to them about this plan. Bring it into the open with them.

Help them to bring the light of God's truth into your life on that point. If you want to continue to persevere, you need to keep on rightly valuing Jesus. If you do, there's no fearful expectation to haunt you. If you're rightly valuing Jesus, but beware of sin. Sin is always a step away from Jesus.

Apostasy is a process. It always begins with a single sin. Sin causes us to devalue Jesus, to begin to see him as something that's in the way of what it is you really want. So when you're looking over in that direction and you see that sin, you see Jesus between you and the sin, if that sin is looking more and more luscious to you and Jesus is looking more and more of a pain, that's a problem, friend. That's something you want to understand yourself that's going on, wake up, become aware of it.

That doesn't mean it's hopeless. The very fact that you come to realize it is God's kindness in your life. But you want to notice that and you want to start praying about that. You want to confess that to others. Part of what we do in joining a local church is we pledge to help each other, to continue to lift up Christ, to value Him more than we do our sins.

The best way we can fight our sins is to love Christ more. There's no hope without Christ as our priest and our offering. Now in the next verse, in verse 28, the writer kind of backs up to take in the time before Christ came in order to make his main point in 29 to 31. So here in verse 28, he notes the results of sinning back in Moses' time, in the time before the Messiah came. And he talks about this merciless death before Christ.

Look at verse 28. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. So what he's doing here very simply, he's just arguing from the lesser in verse 28 to the greater in verses 29 and following. But throughout the book he's been comparing Jesus with Moses. Now here he compares the penalties that are appropriate for disobeying Moses.

Here in verse 28 versus those that are appropriate for disregarding Jesus himself. In verses 29 to 31 he observes accurately that there were a few sins in the Old Testament that were punishable by physical death. But then in verse 29 he'll go on to detail even more horrific sins and simply ask, how much worse punishment will be deserved by those who commit such sins? So here, verse 28, he's talking about the person who refused to obey God's law revealed through Moses and so was put to death with no hope of appeal on the testimony, he says here, of two or three witnesses. So when we look for that in the Old Testament, we find that the death penalty was used for murder.

In Leviticus 24, for blasphemy in Leviticus 24, and for idolatry. And Deuteronomy 17 is the key passage for that. If you want to look at that later this afternoon, you look at Deuteronomy 17 at the beginning and you see there it is that the law expressly requires two or three witnesses. They say, no one is to be put to death on the testimony of one witness. So two or three witnesses, it's right there in Deuteronomy 17.

But if convicted, they were, as we read here, and I think that's where the writer to the Hebrews gets it, he's quoting Deuteronomy, they were to die without mercy. That's what he means here, this death without mercy. The book of Hebrews itself is of course all about mercy. It's all about forgiveness. It's all about sin.

It's all about God's holiness. So this argument dissolves, it becomes meaningless to you if you don't understand how terrible sin is. So the good news we have for you is all predicated upon you understanding that there is a God who is morally good and you by nature are made in his image and you are not morally good. So you've got to understand the idea God don't make no junk is just going to confuse you. That's, there's a sin in which that's true.

Everybody's made the image of God. They're to be treated with dignity, of course. But the idea that you can defend something is good just because you naturally want to do it, that's not a Christian view at all. That won't help you understand the world you live in very well at all either. There's something called sin.

That is where you and I begin to desire and want to do something, actually do something that is against what God tells us to do and what he's made us to do. It's extraordinary as it may seem. Our public education system is trying to define that out of existence. Trying to make sure that we cannot even think the thought that there could be something that is actually bad that we desire to do. If I desire to think of myself as an animal, that must be a good thing.

It must be okay that I am really an animal. That's my identity. Friends, the Bible doesn't have anything like that. The Bible says God has made us in his image. There are things that are very clearly good and right about that, and things that means that are very clearly wrong that we might choose to do or be.

Part of the way you need to understand yourself is to understand what your sins are, to understand how it is you disobeyed God and what moral position that brings you in before God. He will punish you because he is good, because he is right. And that's where Jesus comes in as our savior. He has borne that punishment for all of us who will turn from our sins in faith and trust. In Christ.

That's what we want you to come to know more about if you're thinking about following Christ. Speak to the person you came with, or me, or any of the folks at the doors on the way out afterwards. We want you to come to know the good news of how God has loved sinners like you and me. This church is full of people whom God has saved from being enslaved to our sins to now following Christ. Struggling with sin still, but struggling against it in loving the Lord and wanting to live for him and with him.

So here in verse 28, the writer is simply saying that for few sins in the Old Testament, like idolatry, there was punishment without mercy. And he's saying this really to make it seem slight in comparison to the enormity that some are thinking about walking away from Christ. It's one thing to be in the Old Testament when Christ hasn't come yet. But now, to have heard all of this truth about Jesus and to turn away from it.

Boy, I hope you're really confident you have no sins because you're going to find yourself in need of a Savior.

Brothers and sisters, one of the reasons we study the Old Testament as much as we do is to understand the New more fully. The Old begins to fill out God's character. We understand what Christ has done, how He has helped us by looking through the Bible's account of Creation and the Law of Moses and the history of the kings of Judah and Israel and the Psalms and the Proverbs and the Prophets. They set up the moral vocabulary that the New Testament assumes. In them the lock is constructed that Christ will open.

In the Old Testament the riddle is set out. Exodus 34:6, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty? Wait, how could he be so merciful and yet by no means clear the guilty? Ah, there is the riddle of the Old Testament. Jesus is the answer to that riddle.

He explains how God could be all of that. So, having understood that, can you imagine throwing Christ away? Friends, let's say you have a car, and for whatever reason, through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, you're down to one key. You've got one key left. Can you imagine the car is locked and you're standing in front of the key, in front of the car, and you just like throw it down a sewage drain?

You're just not going to do that. Let's say you've got one key left your house, and you look at it, you go, yeah, I just throw it in the trash. You're not gonna do that. Cause you understand that key is how you open that lock. Friends, if you understand who Jesus is, you're just not gonna wanna throw him away.

Oh, you're gonna be needing that savior. I mean, that's, that's what a sinner needs. A sinner needs a savior. Now, if you're not a sinner, that's no problem. Then you're not gonna have anything to worry about.

But if you are a sinner, then you will need a savior. And that's who Jesus Christ is. That brings us to the last verses in our passage, verses 29 to 31, where we see how much worse punishment will be. Those in the Old Testament before Christ, even they died without mercy. But here, for those who've rejected Christ, well, look at chapter 10, verse 29, chapter 10, verse 29.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Friends, that image of falling to the hands of God is not a comforting one, like leaning on the everlasting arms. No, this is assuming you're coming under somebody's power in judgment negatively, to fall into the hands of God in that sense. There in verse 30, the writer is quoting from Deuteronomy 32, the Old Testament is full of statements of God's commitment to justice and warnings about turning away from God.

Jesus taught a lot about judgment, so did those who followed him. And now that's hard for us today. I think for many people today vengeance is seen as a negative thing.

But friends, that's because it's not our responsibility. You and I are not competent for vengeance. We're too limited in our knowledge. We're too twisted in our service to beings other than God, especially in serving ourselves.

I wonder if you're used to thinking of vengeance as wrong.

It's really simply wrong for us. Just like driving is wrong for a 10-year-old. That doesn't mean it's wrong in itself. For another driving would be appropriate. So vengeance, vengeance is for God.

It's for His vindication of Himself. His image, his vindication of all that we have done against him. And he's especially interested in vindicating his son from the false charges against him. Can you imagine how people who would turn away from Christ misrepresent him publicly? The Lord will judge his people.

Reminds us that God has a special interest in judging his own people. This is repeated in various forms throughout the Old Testament. The same thing finds expression in our church today in obeying Christ's instructions in Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 about confronting and finally, if need be, expelling from our membership those who are claiming to follow Christ but are in fact following their sin. It's a loving thing to the person lost in sin to confront them and speak the truth to them, even if they write articles decrying us. And denouncing us.

It's loving to other Christians in the congregation. It's loving to those outside to speak the truth. It's loving ultimately to God, to the one whom we are called specially to represent. So when we warn, we warn in love.

You see how true warnings are loving, don't you? It's vacation time.

Some people are not with us today because they're at the beach. Others of us have been at the beach. And you know, there are notes of undercurrents and strong tides that can be dangerous. And if you've got a little three or four-year-old, well, what do you do? Do you tell them about that or not?

Well, if you tell them, you warn them, you do it out of love. Now, let's say you don't really believe the currents are there or they're really that important. Oh, well, then you're just worried you're scaring the kids. But if you think the warnings are true, if you think they're accurate, then you know it is a loving thing to say something about it.

Warnings that are true are loving warnings. Brothers and sisters, for us this means that we help to prevent our wandering away from the Lord by continuing to study Him and giving special attention to what the Bible teaches about God and reading and believing His promises to us and His Warnings. So pray that God cause your heart and mind increasingly to be absorbed with Him and His ways. Give yourself regularly to reading His Word. The character of God and His moral distance from us, He is completely good and we are not, is one reason we never want to approach God carelessly or flippantly.

The writer concludes this section with a simple statement. Resonant with Bible truths about God, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Do you need to hear this warning today about rejecting Christ?

You're here for some reason in God's providence.

We should conclude.

Friends, we don't want any of us here to come to a surprising destination.

That's why we work for a culture of discipling here where we try to help each other know the truth about God and about ourselves as we work together in each other's lives. What a fearful destination the writer here is warning them against. I was reminded of 2 Peter, 2 Peter 2. Peter's concern, if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

What the true Proverbs says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to swallow in to wallow in the mire.

One of the most encyclopedic treatments of the Christian life ever written was presented in a story. It is John Bunyan's book Pilgrim's Progress. And as the very last paragraph in his original story, part one, he sketches out a chilling picture of the damnation of the man who is religious, but not personally relying on Christ.

Now while I was gazing upon all these things, I turned my head to look back and saw ignorance come up to the riverside. But he was soon got over, and that without half that difficulty which the other two men had met with. For it happened that there was then in the place one vain hope a ferryman, and with his boat helped him over. So he, as the other I saw, did ascend the hill to come up to the gate. Only he came alone.

Neither did any man meet him with the least encouragement. When he was come up to the gate, he looked up to the writing that was above, and then began to knock, supposing that entrance should have been quickly administered to him. But he was asked by the men that looked over the top of the gate, Whence came you? And what you would have? He answered, I have ate and drank in the presence of the king.

He has taught in our streets. Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go in and show it to the king. So he fumbled in his bosom for one and found none. Then said they, have you none? But the man answered never a word.

So they told the king, but he would not come down to see them. But commanded the two shining ones that conducted Christian and Hopeful into the city to go out and take ignorance and bind him hand and foot and have him away. Then they took Him up and carried Him through the air to the door that I saw in the side of the hill and put Him in there. Then I saw that there was a way to hell even from the gates of heaven. So, brothers and sisters, we want to keep drawing near to the Lord, keep holding fast our hope, keep stirring up one another to love and good deeds as we gather together.

We want to be those who think more highly of Jesus and more accurately of our sin and more carefully of God and His Word as He makes promises and gives us warnings. We want to believe Him and keep taking Him at His Word until that final judgment comes. At the return of Christ, and our faith becomes sight, and our hopes are realized. What consequences our choices have.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we pray that yout would enable each one of us to savingly believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray, Lord, that we would heed the warnings of this book and that we would respond to the invitations. We thank you for the new and living way made through the body and the blood of Christ. We pray that you would draw each one here to you. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.