"The Holiest of ALL" part XCIII

OF WILLFUL SIN.
Hebrews 10: 26-27  For if we sin willfully after that we have Received the Knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more a Sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of Judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries.

Continuing in the SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10: 19 - 13: 25.
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.

Subsection THE FOURTH WARNING. 10: 26-39.
Against sinning willfully and drawing back.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

In our mentioning those who forsake the Assembling together of God's people, the writer has touched one of those sore places which, to him, are the symptom of imminent danger. This neglect of Christian fellowship is at once the indication of that indifference which is so dangerous, and the cause of further slothfulness and backsliding. All this leads him once again to sound the alarm, and to point out how neglect of outward movement stalls, apparently secondary duties, opens the way to positive sin and Eternal Loss. He has scarcely finished his wondrous exposition of the Glory of the Heavenly Priest and the Heavenly Sanctuary and the Way into it, he has only just begun to speak of the life and walk to which that Opened Sanctuary calls us, when, thinking of the state of the Hebrews, he sounds a trumpet-blast of Warning more terrible than any we have heard yet. In the three previous Warnings he had spoken first of Neglect (2: 1-4), then of Unbelief and Disobedience ( 3: 1; 4: 13), then of Sloth, Standing Still and Apostasy leading to hopeless falling away ( 5: 13; 6: 19): here he now speaks of Willful Sinning, with the awful rejection of God's mercy it implies, and the sore and certain punishment it will inevitably bring. John Bunyan, in his dream, saw a way leading from the very Gate of Heaven down to the pit. It is not only the Holiest of All that is set Wide Open for us; the Gate of Hell is Opened Wide, too, to Receive all who Neglect or Refuse to enter the Gate of Mercy and of Heaven. Let all who believe that it is indeed God who, by His Spirit speaks in this word, listen with a holy fear.

For if we sin Willfully after that we have Received the Knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more a Sacrifice for sins. As we had in chapter 6, mention of those who were once Enlightened, and tasted the Heavenly Gift and the good word of God, and who yet fell away, so here he speaks of those who, after having Received the Knowledge of the Truth, yet sin Willfully. The expressions used show us that in the case of these the Enlightening and the Acceptance of the Truth had been more with the mind than with the heart. Their judgment had been convinced, through the mind their desire and will had been affected and wrought upon; and yet, the heart, the Whole Inner Life, had never been Truly Regenerated, had Never Received that Eternal Life, which cannot be taken away. And so there was a possibility of their still sinning Willfully and being shut out forever from the one Sacrifice for sin. As we saw before, the True Assurance of Salvation, the Assuring of our hearts before God, can only be enjoyed in a life under the teaching and training of the Holy Spirit, and a walk in Obedience to God's Will ( 1 John 3: 19-24 ) True Assurance of faith is the witness of the Holy Spirit that is given in Living fellowship with and Obedience to Christ as Leader.

If we sin Willfully. The question will be asked, But what is willful sin? How are we to know when we are guilty of it? No answer can be given; no one on earth can draw the line between what is and what is not willful sin. Only He who sits on the Throne, and who Knows the heart, can judge. But how will this warning profit, if we cannot see what willful sin is? The warning will just thus profit us most if it will make us fearful of committing any sin, lest it might be, or lead us into willful sin. He that would know what willful sin is, with the thought that he is safe, as long as he keeps from that extreme, deceives himself. The only sure way of being kept from willful sin is to keep far from all sin.

A captain of a ship, sailing between two harbors on a rocky coast, was once asked by an anxious passenger if the coast was not very dangerous. The answer was, Very. And was he not afraid?--- No; our way is perfectly safe; you can be at ease. But how, if the rocks are so dangerous? Oh, very simply!--- I put out to sea, and keep far from, the rocks. O Christian! Here is your only safety: launch out into the deep of full Obedience to all the Will of God; keep far from all sin, and you shall be kept from willful sinning.

For if we sin Willfully, there remains no more a Sacrifice for sins. What a terrible contrast to the same expression as we had it before ( 10: 18): No more offering for sin. There it was the Blessed Secret of the Glory of the Gospel and Redemption, the joy of Christian faith and life--- no more offering for sin: Salvation finished and Perfected forever. Here it is the awful Revelation of the Highest sin and its terrible doom: the one Sacrifice Rejected, and now no more a Sacrifice for sins forever to be found. How awful to sin Willfully.

There remains no more a Sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful Expectation of Judgment, and a Fierceness of fire, which shall devour the Adversaries. Fearful Judgment, Fierceness of fire, devouring the Adversaries,--- these words are in God's Gospel; they follow close on its highest teaching; they are words He speaks to us in His Son. In the religion of the world--- alas, in a great deal of the Christian teaching and the religious literature of our day, professing to honor the God of Love whom the Bible reveals--- these words are set aside and rejected. And yet there they stand, and behind them stand the Divine Realities they express. God help us to Receive them with our whole heart, and to exhort one another, if so be we may save some, snatching them out of the fire!



A Special note is entered here: sense this book was written there has been revealed to those who are a hungered and full of thrust for the full Knowledge of Truth, Righteousness and Revelation of Christ Jesus and of God our creature what may will be the clue to the secret of Willfully sinning. The church of this day (2011) is in gross sin by such a willful disobedience, as having tasted the good things of Life in Christ and turning its back on Him with whom they have to do. They've embraced a false gospel, a misleading and often times a deceptive gospel, a feel good worldly gospel and a twisting of the word of God to say or mean something other than what the spiritual truth is. Thereby leading many astray and taking them to a place they did not count on ever seeing or even being counted as worthy of. The church is following the same course as the Hebrews of this Epistle were heading in the direction toward. In the same way of the first Hebrews before Jesus Christ mead His first visitation.
Then when they turned their backs on Him and His offer of the Kingdom that they had been waiting on as had been promised them as sons of  Jacob or Israel and heirs of Abraham in the flesh. They remain as Jesus' parable of the seed which remains unproductive and does not germinate or does germinate but fails to grow any farther than a stalk with a few leaves, in other words they remain spiritually dead because His New Life is not allowed to become productive in them. They've denied the call to self-sacrifice and the forsaking of all others including the worlds goods and deceptiveness of sin and the renouncing and having NO part of all the rites, rituals and traditions of mans religion. They've mead themselves enemies of the very Blood and cross of Christ upon which the Gospel and New Covenant of Grace, Life and Truth of God is based. Which this Epistle so aptly uncovers.

1. Let all who have entered the Holiest of All turn round and look to the hole of the pit--- the horrible pit--- whence they have been drawn up. And as they see the multitudes going down to the pit, oh, let them remember that the Highest Glory of Life in the Holiest is, even as it is of Him who Opened it with His Blood and sits on the Throne, to go out and bring others in.
2. Even though you Know, through Grace, that you have Escaped the Judgment and the fire, take time to gaze upon them. Take upon yourself the burden of those who are asleep, and plead with Christ to use yourself to warn and to save them if possible.