From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: So, what do we have today? We have people who want their sin, but they somehow want to be connected to God, so they just say, well, I'm uh gay Christian. I'm an alcoholic Christian. I'm a thieving Christian. I'm a this Christian, that Christian. They have an adjective by it. Well, homosexuality is an abomination to God. How can you be a homosexual Christian? That doesn't work. Well, I'm an adulterous Christian. Well, adultery is a sin that will get you stoned. How are you going to be a Christian and do that? You can come out of that to Christ, but you can't hold on to that and bring that to Christ.

It doesn't work that way.

Larry Nobles: Most assuredly, at some point in your life, you've been insulted in one way or another. And perhaps you've insulted someone else. Now, it's one thing to insult another person, but can you imagine insulting the Holy Spirit of God? The Bible tells us about people who were in danger of insulting the spirit of grace. That's the title of today's message on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And it's the sixth lesson in the seven message series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. This insightful resource is our thank you gift for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart.

Just go to fromhisheart.org for details. But first, if you've got a Bible handy, open it to the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Here again is Pastor Jeff to help us learn how to stop insulting the spirit of grace.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What does it mean to insult the spirit of grace? First of all, it means this. It means you understand the gospel of grace and you reject it. Now, let me just say up front, you can get 12 different commentators and they'll have different opinions as to is he referring to Christians or non-Christians? I think he's talking to those who are close to believing that that segment of people they hadn't made a full surrender of their lives yet to Jesus. And the response needs to be verses 19 through 25, the let us statements. Let us draw near with a sincere heart.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. And let us not forsake our assembling together. That's the right response to the Lord's grace. The wrong response is to say, no, I reject that. I think I'm just going to hang on to my Judaism. Now, for those Jewish people, when you understand the gospel of grace, God's riches at Christ's expense, the unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor of God and you reject it, what does that say? It says first of all that you choose the works of the law over the grace of God.

It means secondly, you choose tradition and familiarity over truth. Now, what was the old covenant all about? It was a picture. And God had pictures all in the Old Testament that would foreshadow what was going to be the fulfillment in Christ. But they say, well, wait a minute. Yeah, that that that that sounds good, but uh you know, I'm just more comfortable holding on to the shadow. Why would you hold on to the shadow when the substance is here? The Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ.

He is the substance of the shadows. He is what it was all about. You're in a a serious uh issue if you hold tradition and familiarity over the truth. But not only choosing the works of the law over grace, not only choosing tradition and familiarity over truth, you choose the grossly inferior over the totally superior. That's what's such a shock. That's what's such an insult to the spirit of grace because you're going to hold on to the shadow when you could have the substance. You're going to go back to your old way of life when the new life is here.

Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place, the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. Why would you choose the grossly inferior that cannot save, that cannot take away sins when you have the totally superior, the Lord Jesus Christ? A better priest, a better priesthood, a better covenant where your sins can be forgiven every single one of them.

Insulting the spirit of grace, you choose the law over grace. You say, I understand the grace. I hear what you're saying, but I reject it. Secondly, what does it mean? It means you regard the blood of God's son as unclean. Look at it again. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot 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? That means you look at the blood of Jesus as it's common and everyday and ordinary and unholy.

You mark it down. There's nothing more precious than the blood of Jesus. Nothing more precious than the blood of Jesus. First Peter chapter 1 verses 18 and 19 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. What was the payment that God made to purchase your salvation? The blood of his own dear son. There is nothing more precious than the blood of Jesus. And there is nothing more powerful than the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 10 19 and 20 in the ERV says this. And so, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the most holy place. We can do this without fear because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus. We enter through a new way that Jesus opened for us. It is a living way that leads through the curtain, Christ's body. Hey, the blood of Jesus, that's what sets us free. There there's nothing else that can set a person free except the blood of Jesus, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing about that, we preach about that, we talk about that.

So, what does it mean to insult the spirit of grace? Well, it means you understand the gospel and you reject it. It means you regard the blood of God's son as unclean. And thirdly, it means you place yourself in the crosshairs of judgment. Verse 26, for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. People have taken that to say, see right there, that means you can lose your salvation.

Verse 26, you you can lose your salvation if you go on sinning willfully, there is no longer a sacrifice for sins. It's not what he's talking about. See, he's talking to the Jews that haven't made the decision yet to surrender their lives to Christ. There's a and and you got to remember too, this book is written about 65 to 69 AD. You might remember 70 AD is a big date because in 70 AD, the Romans under General Titus, they come in and destroy Jerusalem and wipe it out and the temple is destroyed and not one stone is left upon another.

And there are no more sacrifices after 70 AD. And they kill hundreds of thousands of Jews in this conquest as the Jews rebelled against Rome. So, they're living in a time in the 60s during Nero in the early 60s. Nero had persecution taking place. And it was hard to be a Jewish believer. Why? Because you're leaving behind everything that you your whole tradition, your family, your your roots, everything because you're becoming a follower of the way, as they said in the book of Acts. And you remember the Jews were always concerned that they would get put out of the synagogue.

Well, you're put out of the synagogue, how are you going to conduct business? Cuz it's all mingled together and it's all joined together. And so, these Jews that had left Judaism to say Jesus is the Messiah, they suffered for that. And there was pressure. And hey, you got persecution for being a Christian in Rome during uh Nero's reign. And so, it would be real easy to say, I don't I think I'm going to go back to just Judaism. I I think I I see what you're saying here, but there's too much there's too much heat over there.

So, I'm going to just go back to what I know cuz Nero's not persecuting the Jews. He's persecuting the Christians. And so, they wanted to go back. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, listen, go back to what? Go back to a shadow? The shadow is gone because the substance is is here. And if you keep going on sinning willfully knowing the truth about Jesus and rejecting it, well, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Well, you go through the whole ritual and rigmarole of the Jewish sacrificial system, well, it means nothing anymore because Jesus has come.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is here and he's died on the cross and the veil of the temple has been torn in two from top to bottom. All this is over. Now, it is a new deal in the Lord Jesus. And so, there's no sacrifice for sins. If you try and find forgiveness outside of Jesus, you're not going to find it. There is no forgiveness apart from the grace of Christ. That's what he's saying. But you what you will find is judgment and the terrifying expectation of judgment.

Larry Nobles: Well, obviously something to seriously consider. Pastor Jeff returns in just a moment, but first a thank you for those who are listening today who provide financial support to keep this ministry going and growing. Because of your faithful support month after month, more people are hearing the truth of God's word and discovering that God's grace is greater than their guilt, stronger than their failures, and sufficient for every step of the Christian life. Pastor Jeff is a volunteer for this ministry, receives no income from it. Every day God uses From His Heart to reach people around the world searching for hope, struggling with discouragement, or slowly drifting from God.

Through broadcast and digital outreach and biblical teaching resources, lives are being changed for eternity. So, we want to say thank you for your gift to From His Heart this month by sending you Pastor Jeff's seven lesson series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. Your gift and this resource can bring an eternal difference to people's eternal lives. Go to fromhisheart.org to get your copy or call 866-40 Bible, 866-40 Bible. And thank you so very much for standing with Pastor Jeff to proclaim real truth, real love, and real hope to a world that desperately needs all three.

Now, let's get back to the conclusion to the message Insulting the Spirit of Grace. Here's Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You know, what's interesting? Jesus, we're talking about insulting the spirit of grace. Jesus was insulted. And Jesus himself said, anyone who speaks a word against the son of man, it will be forgiven him. But if you speak a word against the Holy Spirit, if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come. And you say, well, how does that work? How can people insult Jesus who is God in the flesh and he can forgive them? But if they insult the Holy Spirit of God, they receive judgment.

And even when you think about it, Jesus died on the cross. There's a thief on his right and a thief on his left. And we know about the one thief on his on his right or left where it doesn't really say. But one thief uh he was convicted of his sin. He prayed. He received Christ. Jesus said, truly truly I say to you today you shall be with me in paradise. But what we sometimes fail to realize is at the first both thieves were hurling abuse at Jesus. They were insulting him and hurling scorn at him.

Both of them were. This one, all of the sudden he sees how Jesus is responding to everything and he's convicted and he he ends up saying, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. So, how can you insult Jesus and you can be forgiven? But if you insult and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven either in this age or the age to come. Here's the difference. The Holy Spirit, he came to convict of sin and righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens blind eyes to the truth. Jesus did all his work in the power of the Holy Spirit.

No one gets saved apart from the Holy Spirit. He is the spirit of grace working through the Lord Jesus. And the Holy Spirit's job is to open your eyes to convict you of sin and of righteousness, Christ's righteousness, and of judgment that comes from those who don't trust Jesus. And when he opens your eyes and you spit in his face and stomp in his face, there is no forgiveness of sins because he's shown you that Jesus is the forgiver of sins and you've said no. There is no door number two. Jesus is it. And if you reject Jesus and his grace, then all that's left for you is judgment.

No forgiveness apart from the grace of Christ and no mercy for those who choose sin over God's son. Choose their sin over God's son. Choose what's familiar to them over the grace of Christ. You say, who in the world would choose sin over God's son? People do it every single day. Every single day. I'm going to choose my sin. I want my sin. So, what do we have today? We have people who want their sin, but they somehow want to be connected to God, so they just say, well, I'm a gay Christian. I'm an alcoholic Christian.

I'm a thieving Christian. I'm a this Christian, that Christian. They have an adjective by it. If you're any kind of adjective Christian, news flash, you're not a Christian at all. They're just Christians, those who humbly have received Christ, have seen their need and have bowed the need to him and received him as Lord and Savior. Those are Christians. Those are the blood-bought children of God. But if you try and say, well, I'm a I'm a homosexual Christian. Well, homosexuality is an abomination to God. How can you be a homosexual Christian? That doesn't work. Well, I 'm an adulterous Christian.

Well, adultery is a sin that will get you stoned. How are you going to be a Christian and do that? You can come out of that to Christ, but you can't hold on to that and bring that to Christ. It doesn't work that way. And there is no mercy for those who choose their sin over God's son, who choose their way over God's way. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 talks about the coming of the Antichrist. And it says with all the deception of wickedness he is going to come for those who perish. Why do they perish?

Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. Why would God want them to be judged? Because they did not receive the love of the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. And when the Holy Spirit opened their eyes and said Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and there is salvation and no one else, for there's no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved, and that person with his eyes wide open says, no, I think I'll wait.

No, I think I'll just have my sin. No, I want to continue in my adultery and my fornication in my debauchery, whatever it is. I just want to continue and that maybe later. And God says, okay, that's your choice. That's the way you want to go, then that's the way you'll go. Not my will, but yours be done. But that is a decision that is irretrievable. And you say, well, doesn't God want to save? Yes. But what can God do if he shows you and opens your eyes to truth and you say no? What else can he do?

Show you more truth? The religious leaders of Jesus' day, what did they do as they watched Jesus perform miracle after miracle after miracle as they heard all his sermons? They said, this one is from the devil. He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Oh, really? That's what you surmise, religious leader. You're so smart that you figure out when the son of God stands before you, you say he is Satan in the flesh. That's how twisted they were. You read about it in Matthew chapter 12. That's when Jesus gave the warning about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

And it is here too the insult of the spirit of grace. There is no mercy. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot 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. And again the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We live in a world today where there's no fear of God.

But you know what? You read in Revelation chapter 6 when the seals are open and the judgments start coming and the tribulation period begins and the sixth seal is open which causes the world to kind of fall apart and the mountains and islands are moved out of their place and the sky goes up like a scroll. And the scripture says this of that time, and the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand? No one cuz it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And we need to get back to the fear of God. Does God love us? Yes. And Jesus died for us. But if you reject that, all that's left for you is judgment. Jonathan Edwards preached that famous sermon that brought about the first Great Awakening in the 1700 sinners in the hands of an angry God.

We don't like that all. We just like the the marshmallow Jesus, the the Jesus that's just, you know, just love and sweetness. And I I've had people tell me, you know, you need to be more like Jesus because Jesus just loved everybody. He just he just was encouraging this and that. It's like, yeah, you know, it's really strange how he got crucified. The guy that just loved everybody and was just so kind and sweet and conciliatory because they hated his guts and they nailed him to a tree. How did he do that? Cuz he called him out and said, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

And hell is real and heaven is real. And this is we don't just come for fun. This isn't funsies. I just want to feel good. Here's some good music and Pastor Jeff just pat me on the back. This is real life. This is eternity. This is life and death forever and ever. It's important. People today, they choose their way over God's way. Jesus looked at those religious leaders and he said, if you guys never read the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. It was from the Lord and it was marvelous in our eyes.

And he said, everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. But on whomever this stone falls, it will scatter him like dust. Jesus is the chief cornerstone. He's the stone which the builders rejected. You and I have a choice. We can come and fall upon the stone in brokenness, in humility, in repentance, and in faith. And we can be saved, or the stone can fall upon us and scatter us like dust. Listen, if you have not yet responded to the gospel of grace that caused God's son to give his life, and if you are regarding unclean the blood of the covenant and trampling on your feet and acting like, well, it's no big deal, Jesus is just all right with me.

He is king of kings and Lord of lords and he's coming back one day in power and great glory. And he longs to save. And he will save anybody who will come to him in repentance and faith. But if you don't, all that's left is judgment. And it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Larry Nobles: Perhaps you've realized that you don't have a personal relationship with the living God. Well, that impulse in your heart is the spirit of God speaking to you, trying to get your attention and cause you to desire to repent and turn to him in faith for the remission of your sins for now and for eternity. And when you do that, you'll be changed and your desires to sin will be changed. You'll want to increasingly live a holy life out of gratitude for what Christ has done for you on the cross. And we invite you to visit our website to find out more about that.

Click the why Jesus link and it'll help you learn what it means to surrender at all to Christ and how you can find purpose and peace and joy with the Holy Spirit of God living in you. Again, go to fromhisheart.org click the why Jesus link. And today if you receive Christ, we rejoice in your decision and encourage you to make it public. And God bless you as you begin your new life in Christ. Well, I'm Larry Nobles and on behalf of Pastor Jeff Schreve and all of us at From His Heart, we want to sincerely thank you for being with us today for the lesson Insulting the Spirit of Grace.

And you're invited to return Monday as Pastor Jeff Schreve begins the last message in the series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. When again Pastor Jeff will open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.