Hebrews

We are looking at Hebrewies chapter 10 verses 19 to 31.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of god, let us draw near to god with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings. Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to we may spur 1 another on towards love and good deeds not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging 1 another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, No sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of the raging fire that will consume the enemies of god. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the son of god underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the spirit of grace. For we know him him who said it is mine to avenge, I will repay. And again, the lord will judge his people.

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living god. Father help us, please. These words are are powerful. We need to hear them because you've put them in the word. And sometimes we don't wanna hear things like this, but we need need to, and it's good for us.

And so please, cause us to be humble. Take away pride, help us to hear, and by your spirit respond in Jesus' name, amen. I wanna talk about, at the beginning, pigs, and sheep. Pigs and sheep, the difference between pigs and sheep in, in the, holiday club doing animals of the Bible. So I thought I'd better start with, doing, Well, they're doing 1 of these animals, but not the other, pigs and sheep.

There is a big difference, and I think it's pretty obvious. And, you know, it's not you don't have to be that old to realize there's a difference between a pig and a sheep. They're very different animals. If a pig falls into a mud puddle. It absolutely loves it.

It's where the pig feels at home. It it wallows in the mud. Mud, mud, glorious, mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. That's the sort of song that a pig would do. If it's in its natural environment of a mud puddle, but if a sheep falls in a mud puddle, it, it might get as dirty or even dirtier than than a pig, but it doesn't wanna be there.

It wants to be out. It's song is ba ba, isn't it? I'm a dirty sheep ba ba, get me out. And, it longs for the, the shepherd to come and take it out of its uncomfortable position and rescue it. The pig farmer might decide to pull the pig out of his lovely mud puddle.

He might wash it up. He might clean it. He might do all kinds of things to make it, nice and fresh. But it hasn't ever cleaned and changed its nature. Clean on the outside, but it's still a pig on the inside.

And even if the pig is put in with the sheep, and tries to identify as a sheep, and even if the sheep bond with it a little bit, and the sheep accept the pig, and the sheep thinks it's another sheep. It's not. It's still a pig. And it still wants to go back to its mud, mud puddle and wallow. The sheep will struggle in the mud puddle.

And even though it might have got there because it's its own fault, even though it may not have, followed the shepherd and the shepherd's word and the shepherd's leading, even though it might, have strayed away from all the shepherd's encouragement and it got into that mud puddle, It's still not in its environment, and it still looks forward to being rescued by the shepherd. There's the story. Why am I telling you this? Why am I telling you this? Well, it's an illustration, and all illustrations fall short, but there's 2 things I want you to get right at the beginning.

1, there is a difference between the nature of a sheep and the nature of a pig. A pig is not a sheep and a sheep is not a pig. It's obvious, isn't it? 2, just because the sheep may sometimes act like a pig and find itself in pig environment, It's never become a non sheep. It's still a sheep.

A sheep will always be a sheep. Now why am I telling you that? Because we're coming to a really amazing passage in Hebrews chapter 10. And it's a passage that is meant to be very serious in its warning, but it's a loving warning. It's a serious loving warning by a good and loving god.

But if that warning is taken wrongly, if we take it out of its context and out of the greater context of the Bible, then we'll have problems. And we'll forget what's just gone before it. It's a strong warning, and I'm going to have to take that today because I want to open up the Bible passage. It's a strong warning, but what it's not telling us when I wanna come clean right at the beginning, is that a genuine Christian can lose their salvation, that a genuine sheep can become a pig. Now a quick reminder of what's been said, up to verse, 26.

We've heard and we've seen that we have confidence to come to the throne of grace, god's throne. That we have confidence to come to the holy place, and we've been encouraged in that confidence. Look at verse 19, therefore brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place below the blood of Jesus. Our confidence isn't in ourselves, Our confidence isn't in our religion or good works or anything we've done, our confidence is in the blood of Jesus. And notice verse 20, we had no time last week to look at this, but verse 20, it says, by a new and living way open for us, through the curtain, that is his body.

It's telling us that the curtain is the body of Christ. Now, what is the curtain? Well, some of you know that there is this tabernacle, this image, which is all a picture of Christ, This shadow which Jesus is the reality of. There's the tabernacle and there's the temple and in the tabernacle and in the temple is the most holy place where it's pictured that god, the holy god, the most holy god lives, in all his purity, in all his uprightness. And there's a curtain between men, even high priests, and where god lives.

But that curtain has been torn in 2. Just as Jesus when he was on the cross, his body was ripped apart just as Jesus bled and died. The curtain was tall in 2 when Jesus died. And Jesus now is the curtain, which means he's the 1 that's been ripped open so that we can come in to the presence of god confidently because of what he's done. He's dealt with the barrier between us and god and our sins.

He's the god man. See, the curtain, 1 side you had man, even the high priest, the other side you had god. Now Jesus is the curtain that brings man and god together, people and god together. It's wonderful. And we saw that last time.

Wonderful assurance that whatever I've done, the blood of Christ can cleanse me and open up a way to the holy of holies. We can have confidence, and it's wonderful grace, and we saw that last week. But just as he's told us that, we're faced with verse 26. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we've received the knowledge of the truth. No sacrifice for sin is left.

Wow. There's a stark warning. So can I lose my salvation then? If I sin deliberately? Can I become a non sheep?

As I said, we saw last week that, I was encouraging you last week that if you sinned, you come to the friend of the sinner. You run to the friend of a sinner. You go boldly confidently because that's why Jesus has come to cleanse us from sin. But what if I sin deliberately here? And I said last week that Jesus on the cross said it is finished.

It is complete. And we see in Hebrews that he, the great high priest, has sat down. In other words, he's done his job because the high priest in the shadow never sat down. But Jesus does. He's done his job.

It's finished. He's cleansed us right to our conscience of our sins. But what if I sin deliberately after I know that? And look at verse 27. Talks about a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of god.

My goodness. Or look at verse 31, It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living god. What about that? Well, I wanna tell you, keep in mind the pig and the sheep. Just keep that in mind.

Keep in mind the pig and the sheep. Let's have a look at these verses then. First of all, the warning, and it's very sober. Now this is the fourth warning that, the writer of Hebrews has done throughout his, like, sermons, really, and they have warnings. They have encouragement and then warnings.

They have truth and then warnings. The first warning in chapter 2 is beware of drifting, drifting away from the word of god, easy just to drift, isn't it? The second warning in chapters 3 and 4 is beware of doubting or disbelieving the word of god. The third warning in chapters 5 and 6 is beware of dullness to the word of god. And the fourth warning, which is this 1 in chapter 10, beware of despising and deserting the word of god.

So do you see these warnings? They build up in power? Don't drift because if you drift, you might start disbelieving doubting. And your doubting will turn into dullness if you doubt and disbelieve you you won't be excited to hear anything because you're disbelieving it, and you're dull towards it. And then your dullness can lead to despising and deserting the very word of god.

These are warnings. I wanna say to your brothers and sisters their warnings to us. Warning are always good, aren't they? They're good things warnings. They keep us on track.

Mean, 1 of the things about parenting today, if we don't warn our kids about things, if we don't warn them about life and the things that are coming up and going to hit them, then we're not good parents. We have to guide and warn kids if we want to keep them on the track of truth. If we want them to persevere in what is right, we have to warn them. And god is a good parent. He warning us.

He's warning us. Don't go down there. Don't go out there. Don't go that down that road. Don't play with that.

If you eat that, you'll be in trouble. It keeps us in the right direction. It's part of a kindness, isn't it? Of a loving parent to warn the children. I'm warning you.

You've got a whole book in the bible called Proverbs, and and a lot of it is about a father and a and a mother warning their children warning their sons. Hey, son. Hey, son. Don't go down that road. Good parenting.

And these warnings are part of god's kind words to keep us looking to him and relying on him and not relying on self. To keep us repenting of our sin as we've just seen, and turning and going to god, to keep us drawing near to him, because we need his help in everything. This is a healthy warning, not to drift away. And not to desert the truth, and not turn from Christ, but come from come to him when you're in the battle of wanting to turn from him or being tempted to turn to him, to come to him for help, bleat like a sheep when you're in the mud. Proverb says, the book in the Bible, the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.

If we have a proper fear of god, We listen to him, and we ask him for help to follow his ways. If we have a proper fear of god, we bleed for help. We go to him for help. We go to him through Christ. In in a very real sense, the term fear of god in the old testament is, I think, the equivalent of faith in god in the new testament.

Because we fear not following him. That's faith. We come with nothing and say, you've done everything. We fear not following him. So there's a confidence, but there's a legitimate fear that helps us in our confidence and helps us in our perseverance.

So these Hebrew Christians that the writer's writing to, they're being tempted And they're being tempted away from Christ because they have the fear of people. We will see that next week that they're they've been persecuted, and they're in fear. They're in fear of not being a successful person in the world, and and they're not being seen as true religious people. And so they they they they're inclined by the fear of people to go back to the shadows and back to their old ways, and and and and back to world re religion, really. And therefore, because they have a fear of people, they need to be reminded to fear the real 1.

Jesus says this, 2 his disciples. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. That'd be afraid of them. They can only kill your body, not your soul. Rather.

You're gonna live in this world, be afraid of the 1 who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Have the right and proper fear, and you will have faith to draw near to god for help and grace when you start fearing people. Now, okay. The warning is good stuff, but let's have a look at the warning. Now in this warning, there's a lot of, he draws the writer, draws a lot of stuff from the Old Testament part of the Bible and the stories of the people of god in the Old Testament part of the Bible.

And there's a lot of illusions there, and I can't show you them all. But he's doing what Paul says. Paul says to the Corinthians Christians These things happen to them as examples. So the stories in the old testament, that's why we should read the old testament, they happen to them as examples and writ, and were written down as warnings for us. On whom the culmination of the ages has come.

All those stories in the Old Testament are there as warnings and examples to us, and then he says, so if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. So take the warnings, seriously take the warnings. And Hebrews, as I say, uses a lot of those stories. And, and when you read verse 26, it reminds you of a passage in numbers. 15.

So when it says this, and this is why we've gotta spend time on these words, if we deliberately keep on sinning, if we deliberately keep on sinning, the reference is to numbers. And in numbers first 30, which is an old testament book, it says, anyone who sins defiantly. That's the word. Defiant. If we deliberately keep on sinning, if we defiantly keep on settled as a settled path of walking away, we defiantly turn from Christ.

It's the opposite to drawing there, you see, when you sin. That's repentance and faith. If we defiantly move away from god, see the word in verse 28, rejected. If we reject, it's a defiant and deliberate turning from Christ, a rebellious direction It's a love of the mud and not the shepherd. It's annoying the shepherd's or the pig farmers taking us out of the mud.

And whatever he does is he cleans us up and makes us look like a sheep, we'll run back to the mud. And if you think I'm just making up that story, to Peter, the right of, what, disciple of Jesus writes in the new testament, in 2 Peter 2, and he's describing these people, he says of them, the proverbs are true. A dog returns to its vomit, and a sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud. This is willful rejecting of Jesus as lord and savior. This is what is called theologically apostasy.

It's turning away from Christ. It's moving to the mud. Look at verses 28 and 29 of Hebrews 10. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses, though remember we've seen that the law of Moses is only a shadow of the reality to come. Anyone who's rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses.

How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished if they reject the reality, priced? How much more severely? If you reject a picture, how much more severely if you reject the reality? If you reject Moses, how much more severely are you? Gonna be punished if you reject the 1 Moses talked about.

There's no greater sin than this. In 1 sense, I know you can argue with this, but in 1 sense, this is the only sin that will damn you. It's extraordinary, isn't it? This is the great sin to reject Jesus Christ? There's no greater sin.

There's no greater stupidity, and there's no greater sin. You're in a house. It's on fire. You're trapped in the corner, upstairs of a house that's on fire. It's all fault.

It's on fire. A fireman at great danger, at great costa himself breaks into your room and says, I'm the way out. Let me take you. And you know that he's a trained fireman. You know all about him.

He's got all the equipment. And you refuse to listen to him. Isn't that foolish? If you burned to death, what would people say? And you resist his pleas and his warnings, and he's saying, Hey, come.

And you say, no. Stupidity. You can't be more of a fool than that. But it's more than stupid. There's no greater offense to the living god.

Because Jesus sent the fireman. Jesus sent his darling son. He sent his son to die in the fire. He sent his son to die and to live for us, and we still say no. So the warnings, first 26.

No sacrifice for sin left. Of course, there isn't. There's there's no exit from the fire. If you don't go to the only exit, There's no sacrifice for sin. You won't find it anywhere else.

You turn from this 1. You won't find sins dealt with anywhere else, not in your religion. Not in your ceremonies? Verse 27. But only a fearful expectation of judgement and the raging fire that will consume the enemies of god.

Verse 31, it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living god. Because he's furious because you've rejected his son. Strong warnings, isn't it? Strong warnings. But that leads me to my second point.

Who are these people and exactly what are they doing? Who are these people and exactly what are they doing? Well, they're committing 3 horrendous acts, first 29. First 1 is who trampled the son of god underfoot, its extraordinary sent sentence. Sending back to the cross, like the jeering religious people looking at Jesus dying on the cross and not misunderstanding him.

That's how we treat him. Trempling under foot. Jesus, you're worth nothing more to me than that dust on the bottom of my foot. Jesus actually uses that term in the sermon on a male when he says, if salt loses its saltiness, it's no good for anything, but to be trampled under foot. Yeah.

Well, that's what we do with Jesus trample him under foot. Yeah. He's no use. No use to me, no use to getting on in this world. Let's trample him underfoot.

Look at the second 1. First 29 again, who has treated as, as an Sorry, who has treated as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant that sanctified them. Treated the blood of Christ, like a dog mark on your foot. Oh, god. Trampling underfoot the son of god is like he's a turd on the on the pavement.

There's a local woman. She's gone to be with the lord Jesus Christ now. Called Margaret Hayes, who probably never heard of her. She's a phenomenal woman. She lived locally.

Just up the road fair. I used to live in her house. Margaret Hayes, she was an amazing woman, amazing missionary. She spent her life in the sort of outbacks of places in Africa, saving people. No exaggeration.

She saved thousands and thousands and thousands of lives. I mean, that's not an exaggeration. It's probably undervaluing it. She, helped give birth and taught women how to give birth. Women with very complicated pregnancies that would have died.

She saved thousands of them. She went to the Congo, and she saved hundreds of lives there in the Congo. She was a savior of many people. But there was an uprising in the Congo in the sixties. And what did they do to this savior woman?

They hunted her down. They captured her, 1 that has saved their lives. They abused her. Hole load of men. A rat circled around her.

I won't go into details and abused her. And after they abused her, there she lie, but she escaped and had to hide in the jungle. She was in the jungle in Congo for months, and it was all on the news at the time missing believed dead. They just assumed she was dead, but she was hiding. They hunted her down.

They tried to find her. They treated their savior. As if she was an enemy. Well, that's what these people have done with Jesus. Third thing, look, and who has insulted the spirit of grace The Holy Spirit, the third person in the blessed trinity is insulted because his whole purpose of life and love is to glorify the lord Jesus Christ.

He's worked in the lives of these people to show them Jesus Christ. He's doing it now through his preacher. Look at Jesus and all his beauty and all his glory and all that he's done for us. We've turned our back willfully on Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is insulted We've insulted the living god. He's saying, and this is a a willful conscious determined, settled rejection of Jesus, and notice what they know, by the way, Look verse 26.

They know the truth. And then all these others are in verse 29. They know that Jesus is the son of god. They know about the blood of the covenant. They know they they have been sanctified to some degree.

I'll come back to what that means in a minute. They know something of the Holy Spirit of grace, all in verse 29. They are people that have a real genuine experience of god and his people. In Hebrew is chapter 6, which is a parallel passage here, where you are told that these people had tasted the goodness of god. Listen to it.

They had once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of god and the powers of the coming age. They had had wonderful, to some degree, even life changing experiences. Of god. Look at what they had. They have been enlightened.

They know the truth. You see, it's possible to know the truth and have some kind of enlightening. You're brought up. This is why it's a shame really that, you know, soul kids aren't here. They need to hear this.

Kids that are are brought up in in Christian families, and they they're surrounded by the truth. They know about Jesus. They're learning about him now. Notice the word tasted. We saw Tom showed us, didn't he?

In in Hebrew 6, that they're treating Jesus like a taste, like you taste wine and spit it out or the the mouthwash, and you never swallow it. It never becomes part of them. They taste and spit out Jesus. Like he's a mouthwash. Look, secondly, they've tasted the heavenly gift.

What's the heavenly gift? Well, John chapter 3 16 tells us, god gave his son. Jesus, isn't it? It's possible for someone who is not a sheep to taste something of the wonderful Jesus. They've seen the effect of Jesus on people's lives.

They've shared in the Holy Spirit, we're told. We're even told they've been sanctified. Now, this is what confuses a lot of people. I don't think that means they've been born again. I don't think that means they've become a sheep.

I think it means what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. He says, about unbelieving partners are sanctified. That doesn't mean to say they've become Christians, because they're unbelieving, but there's something of being in the presence of god's people. They've tasted the goodness of the word of god. Again, they've not eaten it, but spat it out.

They know the wisdom and the word of god. The word of god makes sense in how to live in this world. They've tasted how good it is for people who follow the word of god. How much better it is for them? They've tasted something of the power of the coming age.

They've seen Christians living and working. Hebrews is telling us that it is possible to have all those experiences, and never have saving faith, never be a real sheep. And then you get to see what they're really like. Because there's a point in their life, they're defiant. And that defiance brings big, big, big trouble.

There's no more serious trouble to be in. Had our our children's camp this summer, authentic. It's called we're we're going through pilgrims progress. And if you've got children or young people, you should get them on this genuinely. Book them up quick.

Because pilgrims progress is a marvelous thing, written by 1 of my favorites in church history, John Bunion, and it's an amazing, amazing book. And it's basically Christian He's going from the city of destruction and he's progressing, to the celestial city heaven itself. But on the way, he meets all kinds of characters, and there are a number of characters that he meets on the way to the celestial city. That are Hebrews 10 people. But let me just introduce you to 2.

Mister Byens and mister temporary. Mister Byens, He's from the town of fair speech. He knows all about the Christian faith, but he only follows the Christian faith while he gets personal gain in this world. Mister By ends. You see, the the name is a little sort of old fashioned for us, but it's like bypassing.

You know, you bypass the town, don't you, or you go another route. His other route for Christianity was to know all about the truths, but only if it was good for him, did he follow it? So he's walking alongside, a by, a by, sort of road. And you're very close to him, and he's very close. And he loves Christianity while it gives him social standing, and even an ease of conscience.

You know, it's nice to be able to have a bit of religious experience in life. And as long as the Christian truths serve him for getting on in this world, if he was blessed and he loves them. His best mates are not Christian and hopeful of who are walking to the celestial city, They're mister hold the world, mister Money Love, and mister Saveall. And as soon as he feels uncomfortable about following Jesus, He's up the hill of filthy Luca, which is means money. He's up the hill of money.

He's looking down the silver mine and loving money and turning from Christ. And he fogs in the mine, goes to hell. By ends. Bunion's so brilliant. But there's another 1, mister temporary.

Mister temporary is from the town of Graceless. In other words, he's never really been converted, but he looks like he has. He's from the town of Graceless. His best friend and next door neighbor is mister Turnback. Punnions brilliant.

And temporary had many experiences of god and god's word with Christian and with hopeful who are on the journey. And he looks like a Christian, but he's temporary. And he turns back and goes to Graceless land. And Bunion in his classic style gives us 9 reasons why he turned back, and you're desperate to hear them all, aren't you? We're not going door to door now, so we've got plenty of time.

I'll go through them quickly. 9 reasons. This is why you need your kids on contagious, on sorry. Where's it going? Authentic.

Don't get a contagion. It's authentic. Now I'm in trouble. Anyway, classic bunion style, 9 reasons. 1, he stopped remembering and thinking about god, death, and judgment.

He stopped listening to the warnings. That's why warnings are good. 2, he stopped praying and didn't curb his lust and show sorrow for his sin and bring them to god. He didn't draw near with his sin and confess them. Thirdly, he stopped meeting lively, warm Christians.

Fourthly, he stopped coming to hear the word of god preached fifthly. He picked holes in Christians where he could. Sixly, he loved to meet non Christians and be influenced by them, then he did. Christians. Seventhly, he had secret sins.

He never drew near with god with. Eightly. He openly played with what he called Little sins. And nicely, he hardened his heart and became joyless. Now that's Bunion, but there are many stories in the Bible that give us examples.

Let me whiz through some of them. In Matthew chapter 11, we're told about the cities of Corizen and Beth Seder. Now listen to this. This is about Jesus in verse 20, then Jesus began to denounce the turk towns in which most of his miracles had been performed. Most of his miracles were performed in these towns, and he denounces them because they did not repent.

Woe to you, Coruscin, says Jesus. Woe to you best say that? For if the miracles had been performed, that were performed in you had been performed in Tire and Siden, they would have repented long ago in Sacroft and ashes. Here are people that have seen most of the miracles of Jesus. They know he's the son of god.

They've seen the Holy Spirit working who fell on Jesus as a dove and worked through him in the miracles. They've seen this And Jesus says, whoa, you saw all that, and you did not repent. Not really. You're impressed with them. In John chapter 6, in the new testament.

You have a crowd that literally tasted the bread and fish that Jesus did when he did the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, and they were amazed at him. They were so amazed at that miracle. It says they wanted to make him king of this world. Why wouldn't you? If you get a free lunch, you know, let we want a king like that, don't we?

It gives us a free lunch. They wanted to make him king of this world, but Jesus understood that they weren't really his followers, even though they called themselves disciples, that Jesus said to them, no, I'm the bread of life. You must each of me. You need me in your life, You need to be changed from pig to sheep. You need me.

You need to be born again, and they didn't like that. And right at the end of the chapter, it says, from this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. You says Jesus. You. Do you want to leave me too?

Do you? Jesus said to the 12, and Simon Peter answered lord to whom shall we go? We You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you're the holy 1 of god. They had the bread in their mouth.

But walked away from Jesus. And of course, the classic is what we've been seeing of on Sunday nights is Judith. 1 of the 12. He saw all the miracles, like those cities, He heard the sermon on the Mount. He heard Jesus preaching.

He knew the power of the Holy Spirit in people's lives that were changed. He saw all of that. He saw lazarus come out of a tomb, and he'd been dead for 4 days. He had amazing experiences like the other disciples, but he sold Jesus. Like you sell a slave.

And Hebrews here, look at verse 29 again, back to our passage. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished? Who has trampled the son of god under foot? Who has treated as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant and sanct that sanctified them. The 1, and and who has insulted the spirit of grace.

We have the warnings. They're the warnings brothers and sisters. It's hard preaching this stuff. Don't think I like doing this. I'd rather not preach this sermon.

Next week is much nicer. I'm hoping I'm still alive for next week, but these are the warnings, and they're good for us. And we've had the warnings, we've seen what type of people and what they're up to. These are called apostates. They are actually back to the mud.

They're the pig. Thirdly, though. I wanna say because this is really important. Who these people are not? Who are these people not?

Because some people, and you probably know this, take these verses to say that a genuine sheep, a genuine Christian believer, a true sheep can fall away and can lose their salvation. Some people take that. From these verses. I don't think that's what these verses are saying. We must read Hebrews in the light of other parts of scripture.

That's how you interpret the Bible. People who often are erroneous in their preaching the Bible only just take select verses out. Listen to the words of Jesus in John 10. Listen to what Jesus says. My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No 1 will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. No 1 can snatch them out of my father's hand. I am the father of 1. If you are a genuine sheep, you are safe, even if you're in the mud.

If you're a genuine sheep, you have the hand of the Christ. The hands of Christ who were pierced for your sins. You won't be snatched out of forgiving hands, but you have the hands of the father. You think anyone can snatch them from father's hands and Christ's hands? Extraordinary powerful grip of love and forgiveness and bloodshed shed for us.

He's not gonna let his sheep perish, even if you're in your own hands. We must read it in the light of Paul's words in Romans 8, verse 1. Therefore now, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. At the end of the chapter, neither height nor depth or anything else in all creation, not even you will be able to separate us.

From the love of god that is in Christ Jesus. No 1 can separate it. Not even the mud puddle. And Philippians chapter 1 verse 6. I love this verse.

It it's it's very personal to me for all kinds of reasons. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. If he's begun a good work in you, he will complete his work. He's not a builder, you know, a cowboy builder that does half a job. He's not half job rob.

He's not half job god. He's he completes his work. Yeah? He doesn't leave it and run off to Spain, and we must read it in the light of Hebrews as I've already shown you. There is a difference between a pig and a sheep.

You see it very clearly in the difference between Judith and Peter, if you know those stories. Judith rejected and sold Christ and continued to do that. He never came back to Christ. Peter denied Christ and ran away, but he bleated. He bleated.

He bleated, and Jesus comes to him with his strong nail pierced hands. Jesus came to him and restored him. He was a sheep, and he was always a sheep. And even when he was running from Christ, he was a sheep, when he was in the mud puddle, he was a sheep because he bleated. If you're worried and you're sad and you're broken and you long for forgiveness and restoration, you're not an apostate.

You can't be. You're bleeding. Now the joy is have confidence to come back because he's dealt with that sin. There is a difference between an apostate and a backslider, although the backslider doesn't know. That's the warning.

If you're backsliding from Christ, you have no right to assurance. You don't sit easy in there. You might be in apostate. So come back, and here's my last point, and I'm finished. This is genuinely a Holy Spirit Christ centered plea to pigs.

You are in great, great danger pig. For we know him, who said it is mine to avenge, I will repay. And again, the lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living god. If you're not in the hands that appears for you, you're only in the hand of the living god.

In my Christian life as a pastor, I look back, and the animal myself often look back, and there's been phenomenal joys and wonderful things happening. But there are figures dotted right the way through my ministry of people that I've loved and that experienced god with and that have even helped me grow as Christians. I've got them in mind now. My prayer is that you're reminiscing, and perhaps you're focusing in online or you're listening to the recording of this. I know there are old mates that look at these sermons, is I get emails and stuff from people where I saw you put on weight.

I don't care. I don't care. Listen, perhaps. You know who you are. Perhaps you've just tuned in what's Pete Woodcock doing these days.

He's talking to you in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pig come back. Pig cry out. Pig, stop trampling on the blood of Christ. Pig come to the hands of Jesus.

You know the truth. You know it. Don't have to tell you the truth. You know all of the arguments. You've used them.

You remember the experiences. Don't you remember when you and me experienced god together? They were sweet times, weren't they? I could think of brothers in Australia, I think of brothers around this area. They were my brothers, but you weren't real, were you?

You never really followed Christ. You did all the things that temporary did. You held on to sin. You never drew near to Christ, not really. You always were a pig, and I'm pleading with you.

Did you turn? Would you stop trampling? Oh my goodness. If you're listening, god in his kindness. Wow.

He's come to your mud puddle. You wanna stay up here? Wanna keep trampling on the word of god. Do you remember the times where you nearly gave in to Christ at the camp when we were praying together? When we were laughing.

Nearly, you nearly came. I could list names now. I'm not going to. People that came to Cornerstone, people that were my mates, people that I loved. Don't stay a pig.

Remember he says in verse 32, those earlier days remember them. Now next week, we're gonna see that those who stick with Christ will not be destroyed, and they will be saved. And it's glory and good news and wonderful things, but take the warnings. Let's pray. Spend a minute thinking through those warnings is very struck in that first point about the way in which drifting, can turn to doubting and doubting can turn to dullness and dullness can turn to despising and defiance.

Let's just have a moment to think about. Is is there any of that trajectory in us to come back to the lord Jesus to bleed again knowing that he's gonna hear us and he'll come and rescue us? Let's think. Are we are we anywhere on that on that journey? Father we praise you for the the good shepherd, the lord Jesus.

We thank you that he loves his sheep and that he knows his sheep and that his sheep know him. We thank you that his sheep hear his voice, and they follow him because they recognize his voice. And we thank you lord Jesus for for so many of us here. We can testify to the the many hundreds and hundreds of times. That you have come and rescued us from the mud again.

And you have washed us clean again, and you have brought us back into your fold again. And we pray that you would please do that for us all over again this morning. That if we are in a pattern like the 1 that's been described to us where we're beginning to drift and, perhaps even that drifting has now become doubting where we're not even sure that you're good or that your word is true, we've lost confidence, a confidence that we once had in the truth. And perhaps that doubting has now become dullness where even bright beautiful lights no longer make an impression upon us anymore. And maybe even that's become a despising.

Please lord help us wherever we are, not to to do the ultimate despising and to turn yet again from Jesus. Help us please to call to him. No matter how deep we are in the mud, he will come. And he'll rescue us and bring us back. Help us pleased to do that.

Thank you lord Jesus that the blood you shed on the cross is able to pull all the sheep out of all the mud. And there is no lack of power there. So help us please to draw near to you again through the lord Jesus, and we ask it in his name. Oh, man.