"The Holiest of ALL" part XCIV

THE SIN AGAINST THE TRIUNE GOD.
Hebrews 10: 28 - 31  A man that has set at nought Moses' Law died without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, think you, shall he be judged worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the Blood of the New Covenant, wherewith he was Sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite to the Spirit of Grace? For we know Him that said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.

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

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

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

This Epistle has set before us the more excellent Glory of the New Testament. We can draw near to God as the Hebrews never could; God has indeed made His Grace to abound more exceedingly. But let no one think that greater Grace means less stringency with sin, or less fierceness of the fire of Judgment and the Wrath of God to come upon them. Nay, the very opposite. Greater Privilege brings Greater Responsibility, and, in case of failure, Greater Judgment. As elsewhere (2: 2; 12: 25) we are reminded that the New Testament exceeds the Old not only in its Blessing but also in its Penalty or Curse. As he had asked " How much more will the Blood of Christ cleanse?" So here he asks, " How much more sore will the punishment be?" Oh! that men would believe it; the New Testament, with its Revelation of God as Love, brings on its ejectors a far more fearful Judgment than the Old. May God in mercy show us what it means, for our own sakes and that of others.

A man that has set at naught Moses' Law died without compassion--- note this terrible word, without compassion: of how much sorer punishment, think you, shall he be judged worthy, who sins against New Testament Grace? The measure of the Superior Greatness of the New Testament will be the only measure of the greater fearfulness of the punishment sent; as in the first Warning the Greatness of Salvation was connected with the part each person in the Holy Trinity had taken in it, so here too. The Father gave His Son: of how much sorer punishment shall he be counted worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God. The Son gave His Blood: here is one who has counted the Blood of the New Covenant, wherewith he was Sanctified, an unholy thing. The Father and the Son gave the Spirit: he that has done spite to the Spirit of Grace. Under Moses' Law a man died without compassion: how much sorer punishment, without compassion, shall be the fate of them that reject Christ. Hear what all this means.

Who has trodden under foot the Son of God! There was once an aged father, who had often pleaded in vain with a dissipated son to forsake his evil ways. One night, as the son was preparing again to go out, the father, after renewing his entreaties, went and stood in the door, saying, " My son, I cannot let you go--- if you do, it will be over my body." The son tried to push the father aside. The old man fell, and in rushing out he trod underfoot his father! Jesus Christ, God's Son, comes and stands in the sinner's way (now the sinner is a churched person who is to Know the Truth and Revelation of God in Christ Jesus), pleading with him to turn from his evil way. He casts Himself in the way, with His wounded, bleeding body. And the sinner, not heeding what he does, passes over it: he has trodden under foot the Son of God! What a sin against the Father and the Love and Grace that gave the Son!

And has counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was Sanctified, an unholy thing. The Father gave the Son. And the Son gave His Blood--- the Blood of the New Covenant of God's Grace, Securing and Conveying to us all its wondrous privileges--- the Blood with which he was Sanctified, admitted to the Holiest of All and the Holy One, he has counted an unholy thing. When I come to water in which I wish to wash, and find it impure, I reject it; I throw it out. Christ calls the sinner to wash in His Blood and be Clean. He rejects it as an unclean thing. Yes, the Blood that speaks of the Love of Jesus, and Remission of sins, and the Opened Heaven, is rejected and cast aside! Oh, what sin! If the rejectors of the blood of bulls and goats died without compassion, how much more--- the despisers of the Blood of the Son of God!

And has done spite to the Spirit of Grace! I can put no greater affront on my King, or my Father, than by shutting my door in His face. If they come to me with a message or a Gift of Grace and Love in my wretchedness, to turn them away is to do them spite. The Spirit comes as the Spirit of Grace, to convince of sin and stir to prayer and lead to Jesus. To close the door, to refuse surrender, to open the heart to the spirit of the world instead of Him, is to do spite to the Spirit of Grace! The Son trodden under foot, the Blood counted unclean, the Spirit of Grace despised and rejected,--- alas, what terrible sin!

For such there remains no more a Sacrifice for sins! And such are they among us and around us who reject the Christ of God! And such their fate! For we know Him that said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will recompense. And again, the Lord shall judge His people.--- For we know Him! How many there are who profess to believe in Scripture, and to worship God, but who do not Know this God. They have framed to themselves a God, after their own instincts and imagination; they believe not in the Holy One in whom Righteousness and Love meet in Perfect Harmony. They refuse to say, We know Him that said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will recompense. Oh, let us seek so to Know Him, that our hearts may be filled with Compassion for all who are still exposed to this fearful vengeance. For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Let us think in terms of Love and Grace on all who are still exposed to this judgment and the impending wrath of God still to come, until it stir us to thanksgiving for our own Redemption, to an Infinite Compassion for all who are in danger, to new fervency of prayer for their Salvation, and to a Consecration of ourselves to the one work of Warning them of their danger and leading them to Christ.

1. In accepting God's word let us remember theft as little as we could have devised or under stood the glorious Redemption In Christ, such as God's Love has provided, without a Divine Revelation, can we arrange for or understand a judgment day such as God's Righteousness requires. The one Is a mystery of Love and the other a mystery of wrath, beyond all we can think or know.
2. It was to meet the judgment and the wrath of God Christ's Blood was needed. The Blood stands midway between the judgment threatened and the judgment yet to be poured out. As we believe in the judgment we shall honor the Blood; as we believe In the Blood we shall fear the judgment.