Hebrews 10.35
Meat
June 8th 2014
Welcome welcome.
For those of you who have never been here before we stream these gatherings live.
Our purpose for gathering together is to hear the word of God (which scripture says produces faith) and to encourage each other in our respective Christian walks believing that we “are Christians” all the time – worshipping and praising every minute of every day through our mouths, hands and the lives we live.
We are in Hebrews chapter 10 at verse 26 – which is where we left off last week.
So let’s pray, sing a bit, reflect in silence and when we come back – Hebrews 10 – picking it up at verse 26.
Okay.
The writer has been encouraging Jewish converts to the faith to avoid apostasy.
And last week we read verse 26 where he wrote:
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
And I think we covered what this could and would not mean when we consider the context along with other passages from John, and Paul and Ringo (I mean Peter).
So read verse 26 again with me and we’ll move on into our text for the day where the writer continues on with the thought he presents in verse 26 itself.
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,” saith the Lord. And again, “The Lord shall judge his people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
All right, in verse 26 the writer warns us saying:
26 For if we sin wilfully (which we interpreted last week as, “For if we willingly walk from faith once and for all”) after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
We also noted last week that the writer is clearly speaking to believers (in this case believers who had, as he says, “received the knowledge of the truth”) there remains no more sacrifice for sins . . .
What does remain, we might ask at this point? (verse 27)
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Now, when we read certain in English we think of it to mean inevitable, right. I’m not so sure this is what certain means here.
There are differing opinions and granted most translations keep the English word certain in place but I think when we look at the Greek the word translated into certain (tis) in this case better reflects apprehension, which is not the same thing as a “certainty.”
Certain here SEEMS to have the meaning we mean when we say something like,
“There’s this certain type of feeling in the air that I cannot describe,” rather than, “If you speed on that road it is certain that you will crash.”
In any case, the writer says that if a person walks from faith once and for all a certain “fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,” that can be expected.
In other words, you can expect nothing other than a discomfited judgment to come.
The gospel is the only hope – reject it and you can expect a very unpleasant judgment awaiting you.
In addition to this expected fearful judgment the writer adds “and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”
Hebrews 10:27 (BBE) But only a great fear of being judged, and of the fire of wrath which will be the destruction of the haters of God.
Hebrews 10:27 (RSV) but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.
Hebrews 10:27 (TCNT) there is only a fearful anticipation of judgement, and a burning indignation which will destroy all opponents.
Hebrews 10:27 (WNT) There remains nothing but a certain awful expectation of judgement, and the fury of a fire which before long will devour the enemies of the truth.
Hebrews 10:27 (YLT) but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery zeal, about to devour the opposers.
Now, we can (and should read this passage and it’s warning) in two distinct ways.
First, the writer has told them – warned them – in verse 25 (which we covered two weeks ago the writer advised these readers) to
“Not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
In this sense, the writer is warning them about the oncoming judgment and destruction of Jerusalem which fell with consuming fire.
For the Jews, and the Apostolic church of that day, Jesus had promised to return and to apostatize from the faith (which would be to sin willfully) would amount to nothing but fearful expectation, judgment, and fiery indignation.
We KNOW this is the contextual case because in the Greek the writer says “it is about to happen.”
How can I say this?
The use of the Greek term mello is why because it means “it’s about to happen.”
So in the King James English verse 27 reads:
27 “But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
Which shall is translated from the Greek mello and does not mean eventually but “IS ABOUT TO” devour the enemies.
I would suggest that this could only be a prophetic reference to the fact that all the signs were there for the eminent destruction of Jerusalem (which again, Jesus tied directly to His return) and if they were to have walked from faith they would have experienced His judgment which included “fiery indignation.”
In Matthew 23, after thoroughly thrashing the Pharisees Jesus asks:
Matthew 23:33 “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
In the Greek what He really said, “Oh you generation of vipers how can you escape the judgment of Gehenna?”
Now, many today have taken this line and suggest that Jesus was talking to the Pharisees about going to hell.
I would strongly suggest that what Jesus said was exactly what He meant.
Gehenna also known as “the valley of the sons of Hinnom” which is a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem where at one time the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to Molech.
Because of its history this valley afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse and trash of the city including the bodies of dead animals and of criminals and all sorts of filth.
Because it was a place of refuse fires were constantly burning there to consume the material.
When Jesus asks this about the Pharisees He was SPEAKING to was He picturing Gehenna as a symbol for hell?
I would say not at all.
He was literally describing a place, the valley of Hinnom or Gehenna where the bodies of thousands of Jews would be tossed during the Roman invasion of Jerusalem.
This is the literal fiery indignation the writer is FIRST prophetically warning these Jewish converts to avoid by clinging to the faith.
The second application has to do with the place after this life where fire consumes, mars, and people suffer loss.
Biblically, this is not hell but the Lake of Fire.
Fire is often used in the Scriptures as an emblem of purification and punishment. Fire refines, it purges, and it removes impurities. It also destroys.
In the case of the Hebrew converts the writer plainly tells them to cling to faith – to do otherwise would expose them first, to the justice and fiery indignation coming quickly upon Jerusalem.
What happens after the loss of physical life to them is questionable.
I would finally suggest that since the Nation of Israel were a materially based economy of faith, that the converts at that time actually had the physical Messiah and apostles that the judgment was clearly physical in nature.
I would also suggest that as non-Jews who now walk by faith the events described here are played out for believers today spiritually.
For the Jews in the apostolic church waiting Christs immediate return the reward was the fact that they were saved from judgment, Gehenna, and loss by fire by the rapture of the church, so every Gentile convert today who abides in faith will be individually (and spiritually) raptured at the time of death, they will escape judgment and go straight to God
with a resurrected body.
Those who die without saving faith will individually experience judgment, by-pass the spiritual resurrection that will come later, go to sheol (or hell) wait there in the absence of God’s presence and therefore in utter darkness and misery, be let out, judged according to their works, and if their name is written in the Lamb’s book of life enter heaven and if not, experience the Lake of Fire the writer mentions here.
The writer continues with an illustration to support his warning to potential apostates at that time by going back to the Old Covenant (which he is fond of doing) and saying:
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
In other words those who apostatized from Moses and the law and died died without mercy when death was inflicted by the witness of two or three witnesses.
There was no other provision for their pardon do they died without mercy.
(And then He makes his point in saying all this to these converts to the Christian faith)
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Under the law there was a punishment for apostasy or rebelliousness and if a person was guilty under the law of witnesses and were put to death that was it – there was no system of mercy available for them.
And then, as if looking at believers, regenerated believers in Christ, he says:
29 “Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye” (or how much worse do you think the punishment will be) shall he be thought worthy (Will a person justly receive), who
1 Hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and
2 hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
3 and counted it an unholy thing
4 and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
In other words, a person who renounces Christianity ought to be regarded as deserving a much severer punishment than the man who apostatized from the Jewish religion.
Why? The Jewish religion was founded on inferior elements but Christianity is founded on the life and shed blood of God’s only begotten Son.
Throughout this epistle the writer has been making the case for Christ and everything about Him being “better.”
If this is so (and it is) to receive Him and then reject Him – something better – automatically means that the punishment would be worse.
To have rebelled against the Law would have bore one type of punishment. To have experienced Jesus and the grace He freely gives and to reject that would bear a punishment more severe.
And again, since He is speaking with Jews, he once again cites scripture they would in all probability be familiar with, saying:
30 For we know him that hath said, “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,” saith the Lord. And again, “The Lord shall judge his people.”
“For we know Him,” the writer says referring to God who uttered scripture.
For we know Him that said:
“Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense.”
This quote is found in Deuteronomy 32:35 and it means leave the vengeance for reprobate souls up to me for ONLY he knows all the facts of every given situation.
But to quote this passage at this point clearly infers that those who do walk from faith in His Son will experience vengeance of the Lord.
Then the writer adds another passage, this one also taken from Deuteronomy 32:35 which says:
“And again, The Lord shall judge his people.”
This is quoted from the next passage in Deuteronomy 32 (verse 36) and it essentially echoes the first sentiments – He will judge and He will exact vengeance.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(beat)
I wonder if this quote comes from the history of King David.
Remember the story? It’s found in 1st Chronicles
Satan moved David to number the people of Israel or as the first verse of chapter 21 says:
And Satan moved against Israel and moved David to count them.
It seems there was no necessity or purpose but possibly pride or an internal desire on David’s part to know how numerous (or powerful) Israel was in the flesh.
But by verse seven we read:
7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee
12 Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
David, acting on faith and knowing what men are capable of doing petitions for God to take the punishment into His hands and says
“Let me fall into the hand of the Lord for very great are His mercies, but let me NOT fall into the hand of man.”
Maybe the writer of Hebrews was thinking of this when he said that it is
“Fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
As we read on in the story of David we discover what the result was of David’s choice. It says in verse 14
“And the Lord being merciful and kind only tooketh four souls – each of them being gray in the crown and with a foot stepping on the edge of the grave.”
No?
No.
Actually David said, “I don’t want to pick but I want to leave it in the hand of the Lord because He is so merciful and verse 14 says:
14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
Seventy THOUSAND men.
Truly, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Is this still the case? Well the writer of Hebrews, who wrote after the advent of Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension intimates that now its worse.
Yes, for true believers who love the Lord it is a wonderful thing to fall into the hands of the Loving God.
But for those who are not (specifically those who have apostasied from the faith) the writer says it’s worse because, his reasoning seems to suggest, those who once knew of God’s only begotten Son and turn from Him have
1 Have trodden under foot the Son of God, (and)
2 have counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing
4 and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
The idea here, as much as it is not taught or addressed in this day and age very much (or is OVER stressed which is just as wrong) is that to fall into the hands of the God after having despised his mercy and rejected the salvation He offers would be utterly horrific.
I must admit that after years and years of being in the word of God that my views of God and His relationship with Man have grown more and more polarized rather than centered.
What I mean by this is we cannot fathom the love and grace and all the characteristics that come with such things that God pours out upon any and all who are His by and through true faith on His Son and His sacrifice.
Eye has not seen and ear has not heard the glory that awaits those who love Him.
We preach grace, we are saved by His grace through faith, and the promises are beyond compare for those who are of faith.
Nevertheless, to trod the blood of the Son underfoot, or to reject it out of hand and all together must, in my opinion, be met with incomprehensible fire.
I am not making this up – the writer of Hebrews is the one who says it.
And while I believe that mercy will triumph over justice, and that just as there was a limit to the number of Israelites God took as reparations for David’s sin there will be an end to such purging, nobody would ever want to experience even a taste of hell let alone losing their soul in the second death or lake of fire – that would be falling into the hands of the living God rather than the all-together loving.
Some suggest that the term, “living God” gives us insight into the term of His punishment.
The living God is opposed to idols who have no life in them at all. But since God always lives, and never dies, His blessings and His punishments are equally eternal.
In other words the idea is it is far more fearful to fall into His hands than a dying or idolatrous god because His wrath doesn’t end.
(beat)
I’m not sure I agree with this. It is certainly what is taught, and has been taught over the ages – that God is eternal therefore His blessings and punishments are eternal.
You’ve heard my arguments to this and so I won’t re-articulate them here. All I will say is I do agree with scripture, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
One final thought.
The writer here is speaking to converted Jews who believed, were illuminated, came to know the truth of the Lord.
He is warning them of the dangers and punishment for apostasy. His threat of punishment includes fiery indignation and because of this I would suggest that true apostates make a trip to a place that was not created for them in the first place – the Lake of Fire.
But before we move on I have wondered about something.
Let me sort of bring it up by my explaining what I think scripture (take as a whole) describes about the after-life experience of all men since the destruction of Jerusalem.
First, there are true believers in the Lord Jesus and then there is everyone else – from the “said believers” to the downright rejectors of Jesus to apostates.
True believers who believed in Him and loved God and man as a result die and go to heaven.
But when we look at those who die and go to hell who are then released to stand before the Great White Throne and the Lambs book of life is opened to see if their names are included in it we have to ask:
Why would someone who has been in hells name be written in “the lamb’s book of life?”
In the Gospel of John Jesus says that if a man believes on Him he should never die.
We know that isn’t speaking of spiritual death because man enters this world spiritually dead.
And we know this doesn’t refer to physical death because all men die physically and all men are physically resurrected – whether they were good or evil.
So what death do true Christians avoid?
What revelations calls the Second Death, which occurs in the Lake of Fire, which was prepared for Satan and His angels.
What dies there?
Jesus asked a question when He walked the earth. He asked: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”
Where would such a loss take place. Certainly were fire exists. Certainly where things die.
So I would suggest we can safely suppose that people who go to hell do not necessarily come out of it suffering the loss of soul.
Could it be that their time therein is to reflect and mourn over their failing Christian walk?
I say this because according to scripture it seems that some will come out of hell and stand before the Great White Throne and it will be discovered that their names are in fact written in the Lamb’s book of Life – and they then enter heaven.
Again, whose names would be written in the Lamb’s book of Life but experience hell and yet escape the loss and the second death in the Lake of Fire?
Carnal Christians? Apostates? Believers overcome by their flesh?
I realize that we have historically taught that to believe means to escape hell. But I wonder, the more I read and contemplate the Word contextually, if this is true.
Again, for clarities sake – the place created for Satan and His angels is not hell but the lake of fire.
Again, hell is NOT the place of burning flames – again that is the Lake of Fire.
Again, Jesus said that those who believe o His will not see death – and this second death He was speaking of is described in Revelation as the Lake of Fire.
Again, hell gives up its dead – and all the inhabitants will stand before the Great White Throne of God.
Again, at that time we read that the Books are opened – The Lambs Book of Life – and those whose names are not written in it are cast into the Lake of Fire.
Could this intimate that some who have been in hell’s names ARE written in the Lambs book of life?
(beat)
If this is the case, and no man gets to the Father but By Him, then can we assume that those who have been in hell whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of Life have at one time believed and either forfeited that belief OR never let the belief bear fruit?
Admittedly, this is a lot of hypothecation and to dwell on such things is not the point.
The writer is writing to guide his reader to the better things, to the point of being a Christian, and is warning the reader that alternative paths are NOT worthy of any type of consideration.
Typical of the apostolic writers, he continues (after this stern warning to cling to faith on the shed blood of Jesus Christ) to encourage them to the remedy, and antidote, the answer to such apostasy.
Let’s read through this section (from verses 32 to the end of the chapter) which will help us understand that we are not to fear but to recall where we came from in our faith, and to continue in it for a good finish.
So he begins at verse 32 with BUT.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” he has warned, then verse 32 . . .
Hebrews 10:32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
Remember after you were born again and illuminated by the Holy Spirit . . . recall how you have endured great afflictions . . .
33 Partly, (he says) whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
And then he gives them some specific examples from his general description given above, saying . . .
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
You were willing to suffer both for me in my trials and afflictions and you spoiled your own good, lost your own wealth or abundance in the process because you realized that in heaven there was a far more enduring substance or wealth waiting for you.
And so having said this he continues to encourage and direct them in the faith, saying:
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
Don’t let go of your faith, your boldness in Christ to enter in through the veil of His flesh, because with this confidence comes are great reward!
In verse 36 he gives them some insight about their current situation saying:
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
Be patient in these trials – it will pay off. God works this way. First the trial, and after we have seen the trial through and done the will of God His children, His Sons and Daughters receive His promises – see them come to fruition.
And then he reiterates the fact that the time was pressing and near for the Lord’s return saying:
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
And after having encouraged them to remember where they came from, and all that they have suffered, and their need for patience . . . to wait, the Lord is almost there, he reiterates:
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
(beat)
A lot to think about and consider.
Questions?
Prayer
