From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I would imagine most of us in here know what it's like to be insulted. Some time in your life, you have been insulted. 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.

Larry Nobles: Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, who's in his sixth message from the seven lesson series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. Now today, we're going to look at the book of Hebrews as it tells us about the first century Jews who were in danger of insulting the Holy Spirit of God. But what does it mean and how do you insult the Holy Spirit? Today's message insulting the Spirit of Grace will explain. It's from Pastor Jeff's series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. The series is also our gift of thanks to you this month for your support to From His Heart of any amount.

Just go to fromhisheart.org to get yours. Now though, open your Bible to Hebrews chapter 10 and let's begin to discover what it means to insult the Spirit of Grace.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hebrews chapter 10. I would imagine most of us in here know what it's like to be insulted. Some time in your life, you have been insulted. If you've been in the ministry, I think every pastor knows what it's like to be insulted, to get an insulting email or anonymous letter or something like that. 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. Hebrews is such a great book of the Bible. As I told you, Dr. Walter Martin, he said about the book of Hebrews.

The book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to other Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews. We have left the old covenant and we are in the new covenant and it is a much better covenant and Jesus is a better priest and it's a better priesthood and it's a better covenant and it's a better tabernacle. Everything is better in the new covenant. But in Hebrews, even though everything is better in the new covenant, there were Jews that were tempted to go back to their old ways. Tempted to go back to what they knew, tempted to go back to the old mosaic law and to the sacrifices.

Now remember this, in the book of Hebrews, one thing that gets people kind of confused, Hebrews is a sermon that was put into writing and the writer of Hebrews, the speaker of Hebrews, he's talking to a congregation of people, a congregation of Jews. But just like in the congregation today, not everybody is a Christian here. One theologian said in the average Baptist church, 50% of the people in the congregation have never been born again. Now he's just throwing out a number, who knows? But no doubt in a congregation this size, you have a lot of people that have never been born again.

And so the writer of Hebrews, the speaker of Hebrews, he was speaking to people. Some were true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jewish Christians. Some were those who were really close to making a decision for Christ and they had knowledge of what the gospel was all about, but they haven't hadn't arrived yet in surrender and others were just kind of checking it out. And so he's speaking a blanket statement to believers, to almost believers and to those who are just checking it out. And he tells them that Jesus has sacrificed himself and his blood and we have a great high priest whoever lives to make intercession for us and Jesus has opened the the door and opened the way for us to go to heaven.

And he says in verse 19, 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 so since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now here's the warning. 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. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies 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. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Such a sobering passage of scripture talks about insulting the spirit of grace. That word insulting means to outrage with insolence and the insolent prideful treatment of the Holy Spirit to spit in the Holy Spirit's face, so to speak. That kind of an insult that brings outrage. Well, what does it mean to do that? I mean, if anybody if you have a modicum of sense, you would know, hey, whatever it's talking about in verse 29, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to insult the spirit of grace. 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. 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? Now I believe that he is referring to non-Christians in the warning in verse 29. 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 he's saying, hey, you have to be careful here. This is what Jesus did for us 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 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. You choose the works of the law over the grace of God. Who would do that? Choose works over grace? Well, the Pharisees would do that. The religious leaders would do that. Why would people want to do that?

Because they all had this attitude. Look at me. Look how great I am. And they would give their offering and blow a trumpet. Hey everybody, look at me. And they'd offer long prayers for appearance sake and they love the respectful greetings in the marketplace and and you know, if you're going to come by grace, you have to come humbly and they weren't going to be humble. And so they wanted to to just hold on to works and the system of religion that they had established as they twisted and perverted what God had said in the Old Testament.

And they created a relationship with God that was not based on faith. It was all based on works. So they choose works over the gospel. And they want to keep going that direction. It means secondly, you choose tradition and familiarity over truth. 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. You know, they knew about the lamb of God that was slain at Passover. And what did John say?

That was in Exodus chapter 12, the Passover lamb. They'd been celebrating Passover for a long long time and they knew about the lamb and you and you sacrifice the lamb and you put the the blood of the lamb. What did they do on that first Passover? They put it on the the door posts and on the lintel, that middle part of the door and and you would have blood there and when God sees the blood, he will pass over you. And what did John the Baptist say when he saw Jesus? Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It's fulfilled in Jesus. But these folks they they want to hold on to the shadows. Hebrews 10:1 says this. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. It's just a shadow. And they would be offering sacrifices day after day, month after month, year after year. But that can the blood of bulls and goats can never really take away sin. They just push the sins of the people forward just one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year until finally Jesus came, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and by one offering he's perfected forever those who are sanctified.

But they say, well, wait a minute. Yeah, that that that sounds good, but I'm just more comfortable holding on to the shadow. Why would you hold on to the shadow when the substance is here? That's dumb. That doesn't make sense at all. 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. But here's the thing. This happens today. People are used to what is familiar to them. They like their traditions. Tradition is fine if it's rooted in scripture, but if tradition goes up against truth, tradition needs to lose every time.

And so the truth said, hey, this old stuff is designed to lead us to Jesus and we need to jettison all our rituals and our ceremonies and we need to embrace Christ and we need to embrace his grace. That's what the truth said.

Larry Nobles: And Pastor Jeff will have more truth in just a moment. Now your support of From His Heart is making an incredible impact on people around the world. Through Pastor Jeff's lessons, listeners are hearing the gospel. They're applying God truth to their lives and experiencing the transforming power of God's grace. And that's what your partnership makes possible. People need to hear the gospel. They need to be grounded in God's truth so that they can stand firm when trials come and trials are going to come and they need to grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus.

Your support remains vital today and as our way of saying thank you for your donation this month of any amount, we'll send you Pastor Jeff's appreciation gift, the seven lesson series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God. And you can receive it on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or as an immediate MP3 download. Go to fromhisheart.org or simply call 866-40 Bible. 866-40 Bible. Request the series Beyond Amazing. Remember, in these seven messages you'll explore the riches of God's grace, discover how grace strengthens us in temptation and trial, and you'll learn how it guards us from both legalism and compromise and allows us to grow into mature believers.

Go to fromhisheart.org, call 866-40 Bible. Request the series Beyond Amazing. Now let's continue with today's lesson, Insulting the Spirit of Grace.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: People today, you see them. Sometimes they're in churches that are deadder than a hammer and nobody's preaching the gospel at that church and the preacher, truth be told, is probably not even a Christian. And they say, well, you know, grandma goes to that church. Uncle Fred was buried out there. I just got to stay here. Go down with a ship. I mean, it's kind of like, hey, and unless the Lord just really lays it on your heart that you're supposed to be there, then you you get out of there and especially with your kids. You don't want your kids growing up in a church that doesn't preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They're not going to come to Christ that way. But see, people hold on because it's familiar. It's comfortable. This is our family's pew. This is this is what we know. What does the truth say? Well, I just don't look at the truth. I just look at tradition. You're in a serious issue if you hold tradition and familiarity over the truth. Years ago, I remember Calvin Miller told a story about an old bedouin. One night he's in his tent. He's getting ready for bed and the the candle is there. It's dark and the candle is on.

And he says, well, I'm going to have just a few dates before I go to sleep. And so he picks up a date and he puts it in his mouth and there's a worm in it. He says, oh. He throws it down. He picks up another date, puts it in his mouth. There's a worm in it. He throws it down. Picks up a third date, puts it in his mouth. There's a worm in it. He throws it down and he thinks to himself, at this rate I'll have no dates to eat. And so he blows out the candle and eats his dates.

People are doing that today. They're not responding to truth. They just say, yeah, but this is the way I'm comfortable. This is what is comfortable to me. This is my shadow that I like. As one man told me who came to Christ, he said, you know, I am drawn to the ritual and the smelling of incense and all the things that were in my old church, his old church that didn't preach the gospel. You have to come out from among them and be separate. 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 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?

Hey, there was judgment that came if you blew off the law of Moses. You can read about that in Deuteronomy 17. You know, if you go worship false gods and you break the the commands of the law on the testimony of two or three witnesses, if it became true that you were actually doing that and worshiping false gods, you would be stoned to death. But that's the old covenant. That's the the shadow. How much more when you reject the substance and you trample under foot the son of God and regard his blood as unclean. 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 one verses 18 and 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal 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 that. Can you imagine trampling under foot the blood of the son of God?

You know, the phrase trample under foot is used in Matthew chapter seven where Jesus says, do not give what is holy to dogs and do not put your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and devour you. Pearls before swine, they would trample them. The swine have no sense of value of the pearls. They might as well be gravel. And that's the way people are treating the son of God. See, I don't think this is talking about a Christian. How could any Christian trample the blood of the son of God of their Savior?

Now it does say un unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. But I think what that just means is that's by means of sanctification. It's not talking about his personal sanctification. It's just saying by the blood of the covenant which provides sanctification. It's just like it says about the false teachers in Second Peter chapter two. And it says, they deny the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. That doesn't mean they're believers. That just means the master, the Lord Jesus, paid the price for their sins on the cross and they deny him.

And they deny the payment that he made. There's nothing more precious than the blood of Jesus. You know what's interesting? In the Old Testament when you had the Passover and God told Moses, this is what's going to do. I'm going to send this is what you need to do because I'm going to send the death angel in and you take a lamb, a one year old lamb, an unblemished lamb, and you kill that lamb and you put that lamb, the blood of that lamb on the door posts and on the lintel, on the sides of the door and on the top of the door.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the death angel won't come to your house. The blood on the sides, the door posts, on the top, the lintel. You would pass under the blood. Never put the blood on the threshold. You're not going to walk over the blood cuz that blood symbolizes the blood of God's own son and you come under the blood, not over the blood. There's nothing more precious than the blood of Jesus and there's 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 across of the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing about that. We preach about that. We talk about that.

Larry Nobles: Yes, that is praiseworthy. Jesus Christ gave his very life so that sinners like you and me could be reconciled to him. How can that happen for each of us? Through confession of those sins from a repentant heart and choosing by faith to make him the Lord of your life. And when we do that, he'll receive us and forgive all of our sin to be thrown into the sea of forgetfulness. That's good news from God's word that is irrefutable truth to stand on for life on earth and for eternity. If you'd like to know more about what it means to come to Christ through repentance and faith, please go to fromhisheart.org and click the why Jesus link.

There you'll find some free resources to download and to read and to hear from Pastor Jeff that'll help you begin a new journey with God and strengthen your faith in Christ. Hey, listen. We hope you were moved by today's program, part one of the message Insulting the Spirit of Grace. Pastor Jeff will have part two tomorrow and you can get a single copy of this lesson or download a free MP3 of today's broadcast when you go to fromhisheart.org, click the listen link. We also hope you'll visit our website each day where you can hear the daily real hope minute from Pastor Jeff.

Sign up for the weekly real hope email encouragement letter that you'll get every Friday morning in your inbox or download an MP3 of any broadcast you may have missed, all for free, of course. Plus you can easily join Pastor Jeff on social media channels for comments, commentary, and encouragement throughout the week. Just go to fromhisheart.org to do that. Our time is gone for today. I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for joining us and we trust that you'll be here tomorrow as we continue our message Insulting the Spirit of Grace from Pastor Jeff's series Beyond Amazing, Understanding the Grace of God.

Join us on Friday when we'll again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.