Apostates – Past and Present

Transcript

GR 803
11/20/1988
Apostates: Past and Present
Jude 1:5-7
Gil Rugh

We're in the Book of Jude together. I had mentioned that in this study we might take some time looking at some modern-day apostates and we're not going to do that this morning. We're going to proceed through the Book of Jude and then perhaps we'll do that at the end of the Book of Jude. As I worked through some of the material I wanted to share with you, it may take uh more than one study together. And I don't want to break too long in the midst of the Book of Jude, and perhaps it would be more helpful for us to have the background and the framework of what God says about apostasy and apostates and then, Lord willing, we'll look at some of the modern-day variations.

One you ought to have noted though was on the front page of the paper last night. With something of the influence of the new age movement in Lincoln, in bookstores and what people are buying in our own city. I think this is one of the major areas of influence that is affecting the church of Jesus Christ today. Not just what was mentioned in that article, but the whole issue of new age theology and activity.

Now I have to remind you again. Some of you aren't paying attention. Remember, when you talk to your children? You tell them something and they go out and a little bit later they ask you about something and you just told them and you say, weren't you paying attention? Now listen to your pastor. Weren't you paying attention? Remember, I said apostates are individuals who have no personal relationship with Jesus Christ. These are unregenerate men.

Look at verse 19 in the Book of Jude. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. These are men who do not have the Spirit of God. If any man have not the Spirit, he does not belong to Christ. So apostates are individuals, teachers and leaders, particularly, as Jude is focusing on, who have no relationship with Christ. Now I mention that because I've gotten some inquiries, are you talking about so and so, are you talking about so and so.

Well I am if they are an individual who has no relationship with Christ and yet is professing that they do and are infiltrating the church with false doctrine. But this is not talking about Christians with whom we have some doctrinal disagreements. This is more serious than that. These are unbelievers who have infiltrated the church under the guise of being believers.

So you could mark at the top of Jude, apostates, unbelievers. Now, as you leave this morning when the person sitting next to you says, do you think Gil was talking about so and so, you say, do you think so and so is not truly a believer? They say, oh, no, there's no doubt they're a believer, then you say, pay attention. Can't be an apostate if he's a believer.
All right. Jude is now going to move to some examples, and for his examples he goes to the history of Israel. He has talked about the fact that these apostates infiltrate the church secretly under the guise of being believers, of being spiritual leaders, but they really are corrupting the church, both by their doctrine and their conduct. This is already happening as Jude writes, verse 4. Certain persons have crept in unnoticed. This has already happened in the church. Now it is possible to recognize and discern apostates. Now that doesn't mean in every single case a period of time might not go by until they're recognized, but Jude says the problem for his readers was, they had failed in discerning. They were tolerating what they should not tolerate. Now I realize there can come a point where we can't tell in certain cases whether this person is a believer or is not a believer. Only God knows. Similar to the parable of the wheat and the tares where we can't discern and it's left to God at the proper time of judgment to discern. But that does not excuse my responsibility. And Jude will be rebuking these readers for not exercising discernment and dealing with those cases that they should have dealt with.

Verses 5, 6 and 7 are going to give three examples of apostates and apostasy and God's dealing with apostates and apostasy. And one thing that characterizes God when it comes to dealing with apostates, there is no tolerance. And so for us as God's children who are patterning ourselves after our God, His character being produced in us, there is to be no tolerance for apostasy and apostates. Otherwise we are not like God is. I cannot be broader than God; I cannot be narrower than God. But I am to fit the pattern that He has set down.
In verse 5 Jude begins, now I desire to remind you, though you know all things, once for all. Strongly stated and very interesting what is stated. Jude is saying, I'm not telling you something new. I want to remind you of something you have thorough, final knowledge about. The problem was they were not implementing the knowledge that they had. This is the great difficulty that we have as believers, especially when we’ve been believers for a while, when we know quite a bit of the Bible, the doctrines of the Bible, we become comfortable and that easily moves to complacency. And we are satisfied with our knowledge. So what Jude is telling his readers is, you’ve got the knowledge, you know what I'm telling you. This is review. The problem is implementing what you know. So I want to remind you, though you know all things once for all. This doesn't mean they know everything there is to be known. But the stuff that Jude is presenting is not new. And we’re going to go back and look at the Old Testament. Three examples. They're we 11-fami1iar with these examples. You know them as well as I know them, Jude says.

Look over in Second Peter, chapter 1. After we've been believers for some time we become aware that there is not any new truth coming out, but it is a review of the same old truth. That's why it's difficult for us to keep the freshness in our Christian life. When you're a new believer or a believer who's come into uh teaching for the first time, everything is new and exciting. It's like when uh your teenager gets a driver's license. Boy, they just can't get in the car enough. Do you want me to go to the store? Do you need milk? Do you need bread? But after they've been driving 5 months, try to find them when you want bread or milk. Uh. Oh, I don't want to run to the store now. Uh. I don't. What? The newness wears off. And we go about it now without thinking about it. That happens in all areas; that happens in our Christian life. So now we as believers pick up and read portions of the Word, and we are reading over this passage and we're not even thinking about it any longer. Why? We think, I know that. I've read this passage so many times I know it. And the freshness is gone and we're not thinking deeply, if you will. With an openness to the Spirit to bring this truth to me again. And I'm encouraged as I read a book like Jude. Peter's going to say the same thing. He says, I'm writing to remind you. And I have to constantly remind myself. God wants me to review it, and review it, and review it, to be reminded, to be reminded, to be reminded. Already when Peter writes, already when Jude writes, this was a re-hashing of old material, if you will.

Look what Peter says in First Peter, chapter uh Second Peter, I'm sorry. Second Peter chapter 1, verse 12. Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things. Even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you. He goes beyond. He says it's not only that you know them, but you are established. You're a people firmly planted in this truth. But that doesn't mean that you don't need reminded about it again. That's good for me to be reminded.

Verse 13. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder. Verse 15. I will be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind. I'm going to remind you. I'm going to remind you. After I'm gone you'll be able to call these things to your mind and remind yourself. You see, there is no end to our reviewing and reviewing and reminding ourselves of the great truths of the Word. I need this for myself personally. I need it in my ministry at Indian Hills. There are times I go through when I think it would be more exciting and more fun to go and teach people who didn't know as much as you know. It would be exciting to go and teach it to people for whom it was new. And I have to come back and say, but Lord, you've called me to remind them of what they already know. To remind myself of what I already know, because when we get tired of being reminded of the great infinite truth of God, then we are in serious trouble in our Christian lives. So Jude is giving a reminder.

Back to the Book of Jude. Three examples. Israelites, angels and gentiles. What he does is pull his three examples from three different groups. The Jews. Angels and Gentiles. So three major groups of personal beings, if you will. Jews, Gentiles and angelic beings. And you can find examples of apostates and apostasy in each of those groups. The first is Israel.
Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Picture here is of the Jews who were brought up out of Egypt. Out of the bondage in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. That generation of people, all of them 20 years of age and older, are going to die in the wilderness by unbelief. Now I think you ought to note here that these are examples of apostates. Apostates are unbelievers, you remember. A number of the commentaries that I read on this verse tried to take verse 5 as an example of believers who apostatized. I do not think that that fits either the theme and content of the Book of Jude or what is said about these individuals in the Old Testament. They were those who did not believe.

Note the end of verse 5. He subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Now that does not mean there were no believers except Joshua and Caleb that were permit, who were the two permitted to go into the land. Moses was a believer, obviously. Aaron was a believer. But the general pattern is that those who died in the wilderness were unbelievers. Now, we think, well what about the redemption in Egypt and the Passover and so on. Did that not mean that everybody who went through the Passover was a redeemed individual? I think not, in light of passages like this. I think there was a national redemption that took place in Israel during the Passover in Egypt, among the Israelites in Egypt. It was a national redemption, but we know there were unbelievers who came out with is, with the Jews. So the individuals are characterized, by and large, as apostates.

The historical account is back in Numbers. Maybe you ought to turn back there just quickly. Numbers 13 and 14. I’d encourage you to read these two chapters, if you haven't done so recently, to refresh your mind. Again, Jude is assuming thorough knowledge of these matters among his readers. So he just gives a summary. Numbers 13, you'll remember the spies are sent to spy out Canaan. To come back and bring a report about the land, about the people of the land, in preparation for Israel's moving into uh conquer the land of Canaan. The spies come back and only Joshua and Caleb are positive. The rest of the spies bring a negative report. Negative but positive.

At the end of chapter 13, beginning with verse 25 and following. Verse 27: It is a land flowing with milk and honey, just as God said. Verse 28. Nevertheless, the people of the land are strong. The cities are strong. So a problem, the land is just like God said, but the people are overwhelming and we're afraid. Joshua and Caleb say no problem, God can handle it. We'll go into the land. The people choose to follow, not Joshua and Caleb or Moses, but the other leaders. And uh the result is catastrophe.

Verse 14, uh chapter 14, verse 1. All the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, the people wept that night, the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. One thing leads to another and now they’re a grumbling, complaining people. Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, verse 2, or that we had died in this wilderness. And they're going to get that prayer answered.

We wish we had died in the wilderness so we wouldn't have to go into the land of Canaan. A few verses down God will intervene and say prayer answered. You're going to die in this wilderness, just like you said. Uh. That's the picture. The nation is spared by the prayer of Moses.

So you read the rest of chapter 14. That's the background. Down in chap, verse 22. Verse 23, God speaks about the destruction of those people. Now you note, verse 22: All the men who have seen my glory, my signs which I performed in Egypt. Then in the wilderness. Have put me to the test these ten times, have not listened to my voice, shall by no means see the land. Now again, here you see apostates. They were exposed to the truth of God, but they did not believe. That's what an apostate is, it's one who has the truth but doesn't really believe it. They come under the judgment of God. Now that's what the background is for Jude.

Come over to Hebrews chapter 3. Again, that generation that die in the wilderness is an example of unbelief. And, we'll just pick up verse 7. Verse 6 tells us, we are of the house of Christ if we hold fast our confidence. It is characteristic of a true believer that he perseveres. An apostate is one who seems to be genuine, but falls away. So falling away is an evidence of apostasy. So verses 7 through 11 give the exhortation, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me in the day of trial in the wilderness. Where your fathers tried me by testing me, saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with this generation. They said they always go astray in their heart. They did not know my ways. I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God. That’s the danger. These Hebrews, who'd been exposed to all the truth and the workings of God, were in danger of stopping short of faith in Christ, going back and holding on to Judaism.

Verse 19 of Hebrews 3. So we see, they were not able to enter because of unbelief. My understanding here is we’re talking about unregenerate people. I know many commentators say that these are believers who are being punished, but it seems to me the language is too strong for believers. Verse 1 of chapter 4: Therefore, let us fear lest while promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you should seem to come short of it. For indeed. You ought to have this verse marked. Indeed, we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. The fact that all the Jews were exposed to the workings of God, that they were exposed to the Word of God, did not bring salvation. Anymore than people who come today and hear the Word of God are saved. What does it take? It takes a response of faith to the Word of God to bring about salvation. We have people who have attended this church for years, have heard sermon after sermon, yet they are not the children of God. Because coming to this church and listening to the Word of God week after week does not make a child of God. A child of God is one who responds in faith to the Word of God. You cannot have a child of God without the Word of God. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we have multitudes of people, we ought to take caution here. You have multitudes of people coming out of Egypt being exposed to the Word and workings of God who are going to spend an eternity in hell. They're worse off than the Egyptians. Why? They did not believe. The Word was not mixed or united with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed enter that rest.

I think he's talking about our salvation. He goes on to talk further about that through the rest of the bulk of that chapter. We're talking about apostates here. Examples from Israel's own history. A multitude of people. You know, this causes me to go back and ponder again passages like Matthew 7. Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this, didn't we do that in your name. And He'll say, I never knew you. We need to stop and consider carefully, not to raise doubts about everyone's salvation, but Paul did tell the Corinthians, examine yourself to see if you be in the faith. What makes you think that you are a child of God? That I am a child of God? Have I really come to believe and rely upon the fact that the Son of God died for me, a wretched, undeserving sinner? Does my life evidence that change now? I profess, oh, yes, I trusted Christ many years ago. Oh really. What has your life been like since? Is the character of Christ being produced there? Love for Him and His Word evident there, for His people. These kinds of things that are there. Many people have made professions and have apostatized.

Israel is an example. Come back to Jude. The point being made here is, the judgment that takes place in each of these cases. The end of verse 5. God subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. The end of apostates is destruction.

Now not always immediately. I want you to note something here. It took some 40 years to get rid of all these apostates. So don’t get the idea because someone seems okay for a year or two they're genuine. Well they'll, where's the judgment of God? The judgment of God will come. Remember Psalm 73? David said he was in turmoil. He just couldn't understand why he tried to serve the Lord so hard and life was so difficult. And he saw the wicked and they got fatter and richer. He said, there's no justice, until I went into the house of the Lord and worshipped and I saw the end of the wicked. We get too short-sighted, don't we? Be honest as a believer. Haven't you gotten frustrated? You look at the wicked and you say, why do they do so well? I can hardly make ends meet from month to month. Here's a person who could care less about God, and he's doing fine. Consider their end. So it is with apostates. We can be fooled for a while, the parable of the wheat and the tares again. Some will go on fooling us until the judgment. Then God, who judges the hearts, will reveal the true character. But apostates are destined for destruction. These Jews are an example. It wasn't good enough to be a Jew. It wasn't good enough to be a Jew who came out of the land of Egypt. Part of a nation that was redeemed, the elect nation of God. And note, just because Israel is the elect nation does not mean that every individual within the nation is an elect person. And so, everyone who comes to church, everyone who joins a church, is not a child of God. We have apostates. They plague the church. I believe we will be surprised when we get to the bema seat to find out how much of our trouble in our churches, I don't have any cases in mind, so, if you have cases in mind, that's your business. But churches over the years that have had difficulties and struggles and trials have to face the fact that perhaps apostates were a problem here.

Second example. Jude 6. And the angels who do not keep their own domain but abandon their proper abode is kept in eternal bonds under darkness of the judgment of the great day. Very challenging verse. First thing ought to note is the general point being made is clear. There's some questions about this verse we're going to talk about in a moment, but the point is clear. Angels who sinned were judged. That's the point. Even angels who were guilty of apostasy came under the judgment of God. So, not just Jews who were apostates were destroyed, but angels who were apostates were destroyed. Angels who did not keep their own domain.

Now there's much discussion about this verse and I have held a variety of views on it. One view is that what is in view here is the fall of angels in the fall of Lucifer. Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28. Where Lucifer rebelled against God. For that he lost his position in heaven. They did not keep their proper domain, their proper rule. They tried to move and become God. Satan tried to usurp the place of God and those angels who followed him. The result is, they have lost their position in heaven, and even though they are not all bound, they are under spiritual darkness now as fallen, sinful human beings awaiting sentencing to hell. Other view is that this refers to a specific incident in the Old Testament. Incident that happened in Genesis chapter 6. And now that I'm doing the Book of Jude I tilt toward the fact that these are angels who sinned in a lustful way. We'll talk about why in a moment.

But come back to Genesis 6 in case some of you are not familiar with that account.
Genesis 6. It came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful.
And they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Then the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he is also flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. That’s a hundred and twenty years till the flood from this point. Uh. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men. The question is, who are the sons of God here? Uh. Two possibilities. 1) The sons of God were the godly people, the daughters of men a reference to the ungodly, and there is a mixing. The other is that the sons of God are angelic beings. This is the use of the word sons of God in three out of four of the other references in the Old Testament. Those three references that use sons of God as angels are in the Book of Jude. Expression sons of God is used of men in the Book of Hosea, a reference that’s often overlooked. But if these are angels, then what you have here is a group of angels, evidently fallen angels, moving into the human realm, taking upon themselves physical bodies and cohabiting with women and producing a corrupted offspring. Now uh couple of things that make that view uh at least seem reasonable. One, you ought to note that the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament made about 200 years before Christ, translates sons of Gods here as angels. And we know that the Septuagint was the Old Testament that was used by and large by the New Testament writers. And so, as they read this, they would have read it as the angels. That was the commonly-accepted view in Jesus’ day, in Jude’s day.

Josephus, the New Testament Jewish historian, not a believer but a Jewish historian, writes of the fact that the sons of God in Genesis 6 were angels who took on themselves human form. And in effect what is going on here is Satan's attempt to corrupt the human race and make it an unfit channel for the coming of the Messiah that was promised in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. That if he would corrupt the human race in such a way that the Messiah could not be born as a human being any longer without corruption, then he would have prevented God's salvation from taking place.

Come back to Jude for a couple of points you ought to note. This is the case, not keeping their own domain would mean they left the spirit world to become uh to identify with humanity. You ought to note that every time angels manifest themselves they manifest themselves as men in the Old Testament. That would explain why the sons of God saw the daughters of men. That's going to happen a little bit later in Genesis, and it's the next example that is given in Jude, what happens at Sodom and Gomorrah. Angels went down to the city of Sodom to talk to Lot. And they looked as men, in fact the city of, the men of the city of Sodom wanted to have a homosexual relationship with these men. In Jude, verse 7, you'll note the connection, just as Sodom and Gomorrah, connects what goes on with the angels very closely to what went on at Sodom and Gomorrah. Also in verse 7, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality. The word "these" there uh in verse 7, has to refer back to angels.

In English we don't have masculine and feminine forms.
In Greek they do. These, the word these is a masculine form in Greek. The word cities in verse 7 is feminine. So if these referred to cities or to Sodom and Gomorrah, it would have to be feminine in its form in Greek. Now that has nothing to do with gender, but just the masculine or feminine uh form of the word. Not sexual qualities associated with it as you're familiar. So the closest association for these would be the angels of verse 6, since they in the same way as these, we have to look these, who is these? Well there's nothing in verse 7 that these can refer to, you go back to verse 6, it could refer to the angels. That would be the closest antecedent for these. That's probably the strongest point grammatically here. What he says in verse 7, the people in Sodom and Gomorrah sinned in the same way. Sexual immorality, sexual perversion, as these angels did. Now Matthew 22:30 says that the angels in heaven do not marry nor are they given in marriage, and Jesus may have qualified it, the angels in heaven do not do this because the fallen angels, some of them did corrupt themselves. Now uh that doesn’t resolve all the problems that are associated with this, but it would uh fit what it says in Genesis 6. It would explain where all the mythology comes from, down through history, of the gods coming down and cohabiting with physical women to produce an offspring. That would have a background in history at the time when fallen angels attempted to intervene in the human race and corrupt it.

Their sin there is so serious that they are immediately brought under judgment, verse 6. He has kept them in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Look at Second Peter, chapter 2. In Second Peter chapter 2 verse 4, If God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment. Again, the point of the judgment, he'll go on then to talk about Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 6 here, would fit the fact that certain angels are bound today in Tartarus uh in black darkness awaiting their sentencing ultimately to an eternal hell. Uh. Angels then being an example. Whether you take the point in Jude and Peter that this refers to the fallen angels and the initial rebellion of Satan or the rebellion of angels in Genesis 6, the point is the same, and the same thing happens on both cases, in both situations, when angels sinned, God immediately intervened in judgment. Now angels are a little different in their background, they were created as unfallen beings. But when given their choice as personal beings to exercise their will, they rebel against God, in spite of the life they had, in spite of the truth they had. And here judgment comes. Even angels aren't above judgment. Now if you don't get anything out of this, don't get lost in the thinking about, oh, boy, angels having relationships with women? If that did occur, evidently it will not occur again. That the intervention of God was so severe that those angels who ventured into that are judged quickly and that establishes a line that angels won't cross. But the point is, angels come under judgment when they apostatize, so second example, angels.

The third example is Sodom and Gomorrah. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh. Now these two verses to me, together, are the strongest indication that Genesis 6 is talking about angels uh in a sexual relationship with women. In the same way as these they indulged in gross immorality. Something beyond just normal sexual infidelity. And went after strange flesh. That word strange is heterous, uh there's two Greek words for another. There is another of the same kind and there is another of a different kind. This word strange is another of a different kind. Which again would fit the problem that angels had, they went after those of not their kind. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, how was that strange flesh? They were men lusting for men. Again, they were going after that which God had forbidden. The normal sexual relationship of a man and woman was being corrupted so that the men were pursuing the men, going after that which was contrary to the plan of God. Now you can have immorality even within the bounds of what God has planned, a man and a woman relationship. But it is a further step in perverting God's plan when you take that to women with women and men with men. That's where Romans chapter 1 uh establishes the pattern that the immorality comes to lesbianism, homosexuality and that kind of corruption.
Sodom and Gomorrah. And we're well familiar with these uh cities. You can read about it in Genesis 18 and 19. We won't turn there now. What happens is the angels go to the city of Sodom to bring Lot and his family out of the city. Because God is going to destroy the city. When these strangers come into the city and go to Lot's house, the men of the city come up and surround the house. They say, send your guests out so that we can have sex with them. You see how openly perverse the city of Sodom was. They hear some strangers come to visit the city, their first reaction is we're going to have a sexual relationship with them. Send them out that we may know them is the way that the Bible puts it. And the word "know" referring to a sexual relationship. Well, the angels intervene. They strike the men with blindness. But you know what happens? Sin is self destructive. You read the account in Genesis 19. You know what happens? It says they wearied themselves trying to find the door. They didn't give up. Ever see a person destroying himself in his sin? You know, drinking himself to death.

People continuing to shoot up drugs even with AIDS. Immorality and sexual immorality and perversion of all kind going on in spite of the fact of a plague of AIDS, just as an example. What happens? When sin takes hold, it consumes you. You are no longer the master; it is the master. It dominates and controls. Always amazed to read that. They wearied themselves trying to find the door. Even when the angels struck their vision and brought confusion, that didn't change their goal of satisfying their sinful desires.

They are exhibited, Jude 7, as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Uh. What happened? God rained down fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain. Immediate destruction. They're exhibited as an example of undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. That fire brought about their destruction and fire is their destiny. They are undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. That's what they're undergoing now. So the example of fire raining down on them pictures the ongoing, undergoing, present tense, continually burning eternal fire. They're just an example in history of the ultimate end of apostates. Eternal fire. In the fire that God rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Now again, the example is the corruption, the abandoning of God and the resulting judgment. That's the point in each of these. The Jews? They turned away from their God and would not believe. The angels turned away from God and would not believe. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah turned away from God and would not believe. You'll note here. They are an example of apostasy. They are people evidently that were exposed to the truth, perhaps through Lot and his family, we're not told.

But they come under judgment. Now these examples again, they're reminders to us, we're well-familiar with it. But what does the average person today think about hell,' about judgment. It's not going to happen. God is a God of love. He is an understanding God. That's not true. He is a God of love. He is a God of understanding, but He is not a God of love the way they're talking about. He is not an understanding God in the way He, they're talking about. There is no understanding from the sense of tolerance of sin in the plan of God. There is a provision in love to deal with sin. There is no tolerance of sin. And the fact that a person goes on and on and on and seems not to be judged doesn't change reality. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah. How long did those cities live in that kind of open perversion before God intervened? We're not told, but evidently for years. We still carry the names over from uh, the name of Sodom for the sin of sodomy today, that’s where it comes from. Identified in that ugly, awful way. How long had the sin, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in such open perversion? We’re not told, but you know what happens. The longer you indulge in sin and nothing happens, the more hardened you become in your sin that maybe it's okay. And that's the subtle trap of sin. As it tightens its hold around you. You know, it’s almost like a constricting snake that it doesn't do anything necessarily all at once.
But every breath you take, it tightens a little more. The next breath you take, it tightens a little more. And it tightens a little more. And that's the way sin does. You know, it's like the snake's wrapped around, and you say, I'm okay, and you say, you're an idiot, you're not okay. And gradually it tightens its hold. Apostasy, very serious matter.

Hebrews chapter 10 as we close. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 26. If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. You know what he's talking about? The go on sinning willfully means, if you continue to refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. There is no other sacrifice for sins.

People think their good works are going to compensate, their baptism, the sacraments, their good works. No. If you continue to sin by rejecting Christ, there is no other acceptable sacrifice for sin. Jesus Christ alone. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. You’re looking for something that doesn’t exist. But there does remain a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy, you ought to underline that, without mercy. On the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine. I will repay. That’s a promise. God will mete out vengeance. Can you imagine the horror of judgment and punishment that awaits a person who has sat in a group like this week after week and month after month and heard the truth of God and has continued to trample under foot the Son of God? Has disregarded Him as unnecessary and unclean? That's what they are doing when they refuse to believe. You ought to put that. Say, oh, a person wouldn't do that. I would never do that. Have you believed in Jesus Christ? Have you really understood that you are a sinner condemned by God on your way to hell? And only the love and mercy of God gives you hope because His Son died to pay the penalty for sin. Have you believed in Him?
If you haven't, God says as He looks at you, you’re just- trampling on His Son. You're treating Him as worthless.

There will be a day of vengeance coming. You may have sat in this auditorium for ten years and prospered in many ways. Don't be fooled. Don't be fooled. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. There is something awaiting. And what is awaiting those who don't believe is a certain terrifying expectation of judgment. There will not be one unbeliever who escapes the judgment of God. That's how complete it will be. Serious matter.

Have to ask ourselves. Are you genuine, or are you an apostate? What's the condition of your heart? Have you really believed? Secondly, how are we doing in being very careful as believers about the matter of apostasy? That's where he's going next; that's where he started out. Contend earnestly for the faith, verse 3. Now he's coming back around to that. But first he had to build into us God's attitude toward apostasy and apostates. The way that God deals with it. We become soft; we become tolerant. God never does. And in our softness, in our tolerance, we say something to the world that is contrary to the Word of God. That there may be some allowance for sin. It may not be as bad as the oldtimers presented it. It's not as bad as oldtimers presented it; it's worse. It's worse than you and I can imagine. It's more serious than we've been willing to face. So it's important that we as believers have God's attitude in this important area.

Let's pray together.