Intentional Sin

Hebrews: The Supremacy of Christ  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Hebrews 10:26-31

For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who has said,

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
This week, I was at a workshop for preachers to learn how to better craft our sermons. The Biblical focus was on 1 & 2 Kings. In these two books we see two Kings that all the other kings are compared to afterward: David and Jeroboam. David was not sinless: adultery, murder to try to cover the adultery, didn’t discipline his children. But because of his repentant heart, he is the one all the good kings in Judah are compared to. Jeroboam led Israel to the worship of idols and away from God, setting up golden calves as idols to worship.
David was seen as a righteous king, not because he was faultless, but because he was repentant. Jeroboam was an evil king in the sight of the Lord because he deliberately pointed himself and his kingdom away from the Lord. All of the evil kings of Israel are described as following in the way of Jeroboam.
Last Sunday we looked at the importance of gathering together as the body of believers. We saw the author warn his readers that others have neglected to gather with God’s people and that is a problem because we are Christ’s body, and all parts of the body need to work together, for mutual benefit. One of those benefits of gathering together as the people of God is that we can warn each other our sins, provoking, or irritating, each other to love and to good works.
We are to point out the faults of each other, with love, kindness, and gentleness as we saw last week. We do this in hopes that the other person will respond as David did to the prophet Nathan when confronted with his sin - turning back to God in repentance. At the same time, we are to receive that admonition from others in the church as a warning to turn back to the Lord.
Unfortunately, we will have people that we try to provoke to love and good works, who will respond like Jeroboam, ignoring the warning, walking away from God, and possibly leading others away from God in the process.
We will see in our passage today, that continuing in sin, ignoring the warnings to turn from our sin leaves us in a dangerous place. And since we are gathered together today as God’s people, I want to kindly, gently, but truthfully warn you of the consequences of sin.
Big Idea: Unrepentant sin is the road to destruction.
Hebrews 10:26-27

For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.

The author speaks of those who “go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth” – a settled, willful pattern in defiance of known gospel light, not a single lapse or the ordinary struggle of a believer.
1 John 1:8-10

If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Even after we have submitted our lives to Christ, being given new life by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are still going to struggle with sin. Paul echoed this sentiment quite well in Romans 7 when he stated that all of the things I don’t want to do, I end up doing them. And the things I want to do, I don’t do them. There is this constant battle within us, this warring between the Spirit at work in our hearts and minds and our sinful desires that are still a part of our flesh.
When we say that we do not sin - John says we are deceiving ourselves. I have heard a prosperity preacher say, “Ever since I got saved, I have never looked lustfully at a woman. And when people try to call me a liar, I just tell them, ‘I should know, I live with me.’”
As John said, if we say we don’t sin, we are deceiving ourselves.
The apostle goes on to say that when we sin, we have an advocate in Jesus Christ, the one who paid the penalty for our sins. In him we can find forgiveness of our sins.
However, later in in his letter, John tells us about those who repeatedly commit sin.
1 John 3:4-6

Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.

When John talks about committing sin, he is pointing to a consistent practicing of sin. Those who remain in Christ do not continue to go on sinning. This idea of “practicing sin” is that of a deliberate, thoughtful intent to sin.
This echoes the Old Testament category of “high‑handed” sin in which a person sinned defiantly against the Lord, not in ignorance or weakness.
Numbers 15:30–31

“But the person who acts defiantly, whether native or resident alien, blasphemes the LORD. That person is to be cut off from his people. He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the LORD’s word and broken his command; his guilt remains on him.”

This isn’t a lack of self-control where in the moment you lie about something you had said before. This is practicing sin, going out of your way to hide it from others. There is a saying that:
Practice makes perfect.
This is wrong, especially in the context of the practice of sin like we are talking about today. Instead of “Practice makes perfect,” it should be”
Practice makes permanent.
The longer you ingrain habits into your system, the longer it takes to change or get rid of those habits. Whether dealing with bad habits or good ones, the constant repetition will further cement those habits into your system, making them harder to break.
The author then goes on to say that when we practice sin deliberately, there is no longer a sacrifice for sins. What he is saying is that continuing in unrepentant sin is causing a hardening of the heart. It is pointing you away from the sacrifice of Christ, the only sacrifice that saves you from your sins, and instead is pushing you farther into rebellion.
There is a movement in Christianity called the “Free Grace” movement. The belief is that since grace for salvation is a free gift from God, there is no need for constant obedience to God’s law to prove our salvation to others. It separates the work of salvation from the obedience of discipleship. This belief leads to the idea that someone can be a “carnal” Christian, they can say that Jesus is their Savior but he is not their Lord.
I completely disagree with this type of theology. I do not believe there is such a thing as a “carnal” Christian. You are a Christian dealing with sin in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit, or you are not a Christian. When Jesus saved the woman who was caught in adultery from being stoned to death, he did not tell her, “Now go back to what you were doing because of the free grace I just gave you.” NO. He told her, “Go and sin no more.”
The apostle Paul deals with this false idea of it being okay to keep on sinning even though we call ourselves Christians in Romans 6.
Romans 6:1–2

What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul is telling his readers that grace is never permission to sin. He tells them later in the same chapter that we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.
In Galatians 5, he lists off a full list of sins, but listen to what he says at the end of that list.
Galatians 5:19–21

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The word translated as practice in verse 21, can also be translated as “doing,” like it is a continual action. It can also be translated as “collecting,” like you are holding on to those things, bringing more into your collection as you go.
Those who live like this will have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. That does not mean that they will go to heaven and just not have any extra blessings from God. It means they will have no part of the kingdom of God. It means that they are not a part of God’s family. They have not received new life in Christ.
The alternative to being in Christ’s kingdom is the expectation of judgment. The author of Hebrews calls it a “terrifying expectation” and “the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.” This is the description of hell. In multiple places hell is described as a place of torment, of burning fire, and of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Instead of the glory and grace of Christ’s sacrifice, that should be the expectation of those who will not turn from their sin.
We live in a world that thinks so highly of humanity that it believes hell is a scare-tactic, or torture tactic of a demented deity. But hell is the evidence of God’s justice upon the sins of those who refuse to follow him. Hell is proof of God’s holiness because a loving and holy God will punish sin and disobedience. By not punishing sin, he will not be showing love to his children.
This idea of continuing to sin after hearing and knowing of the love and grace of Christ is like this:
Picture someone pulling up the safety rails on the edge of a cliff because they “trust” the view; living in intentional sin after knowing Christ is steadily removing every safeguard until only the fall remains.
Hebrews 10:28

Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

This refers to cases where the covenant law prescribed death for defiant violations, not minor infractions; God built visible holiness and justice into Israel’s life.
Examples of intentional disobedience punished by death:
Deuteronomy 17:2–6 – idolaters put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Numbers 15:32–36 – the man who defiantly gathered sticks on the Sabbath is stoned at the Lord’s command.
Leviticus 24:10–16 – the blasphemer who curses the Name is stoned by the congregation.
Capital cases required “two or three witnesses” so that justice was established carefully and not on hearsay. We see the same in the legal system of our country today. Capital offenses are a long, drawn out process of collecting evidence, analyzing details, and yes, collecting the statements of eye witnesses. The idea of two or three witnesses is also seen in Matthew 18, where Jesus is describing the way to bring about church discipline. Guilt by rumor was not allowed. That’s not justice.
Yet once guilt was established, “without mercy” meant the community did not set aside God’s verdict; his holiness took precedence over human sentiment. God said that this was the penalty. By not enforcing that punishment, the people would have been in disobedience to God.
If God took disobedience to the law written on stone that seriously, how seriously do you think he takes disobedience to the law written on our hearts?
Hebrews 10:29

How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Committing intentional sins now, when we have the revelation of who Christ is and what he has done, our author describes it as trampling on the Son of God. If you have confessed Christ as your Lord, but you go on committing sins without remorse or internal conviction, you are saying that Jesus’ authority as God is worthless and means nothing to you.
Jesus told his disciples:
John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commands.

If that statement is true, then logically, we should be able to work that backward as well and say:
If you don’t keep my commands, you do not love me.
It really is that simple. Obedience to God shows love. Rebellion to God does not.
I want to say this one more time, we all sin. We all fall short of the glory of God. I am not talking about the ways that God is refining us through the power of the Holy Spirit. When I talk about rebellion and defiance of the commands of the Lord, this is being done without repentance. When we continue to sin without confessing that sin to God and asking him to forgive us, we are treating the blood of Christ as profane.
Normally, when we think of the word profane, we think of language and the use of curse words - speaking profanities. However, this word profane also means common or ordinary. Continuing in sin when you confess Christ is treating the sin washing, soul saving, redemption securing blood of the King of kings and the Lord of lords as ordinary.
The blood of Jesus Christ is anything but ordinary!
The old hymn, Nothing But The Blood of Jesus describes Christ’s blood in the chorus like this:
O precious is the flow That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Ordinary blood cannot save us from our sins. Ordinary blood cannot save our souls. Ordinary blood cannot secure our salvation. Sinning without remorse or repentance after claiming to follow after Jesus, treats the sacrifice that Christ made as nothing special.
The author also says that this attitude towards Christ and his blood is an “insult to the Spirit of grace.” Doing this means to resist and mock the very Spirit who brings the gospel and applies Christ’s work; this is a direct affront to the divine person who testifies to Christ. It means calling the Holy Spirit a liar for pointing to Jesus as our means to redemption in the sight of God.
This language being used here is very close to Jesus’ warning about resisting and blaspheming the Spirit. This is the act of knowing the truth of Christ and actively rejecting it.
Though you may claim to follow Jesus, does the way you live your life equate to calling the Holy Spirit a liar about the greatness of Jesus?
Paul tells his readers in Romans 8 that there are two ways to live.
Romans 8:13

…if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Living according to the flesh is practicing and making your sin “permanent.” That practicing will lead to your destruction. And that will not be a pleasant experience as we see in our last two verses.
Those who grieve over their sin and fight it by the Spirit are not “trampling” Christ. They are modeling after David. This warning is for those who would turn from him and embrace sin with a high hand. This warning is for the Jeroboams who ignore the Living God and deliberately turn to other gods.
Hebrews 10:30-31

For we know the one who has said,

To show the seriousness of sin in our lives and how God deals with those who sin against him, the author quotes from Deuteronomy 32. Remember, this book is called Hebrews because it is addressed to Jews who had turned from the man-made traditions around the Mosaic Law and claimed Christ, declaring that they would follow after him.
These Jewish readers of this manuscript would have known this passage of Deuteronomy very well. They would have been taught the Torah from a very young age, having memorized a lot of its passages. This passage is part of Moses’ last words to the people of Israel before his death. It is a song of warning of what will happen if they refuse to follow Yahweh. Israel has been brought out of Egypt and to the promised land, but because of their rebellion in not going in to take the land of Canaan when God told them to do it, they have wandered in the desert for the previous 40 years. And now, just before they are to be led into the Promised Land by Joshua, Moses is warning the people to not walk away from the Lord in rebellion.
Before giving this message to the people of Israel, he writes it down on a scroll, hands it to the Levites to put next to the Ark of the Covenant as a testimony against the people of Israel, calling them stiff-necked and rebellious because of their actions during Moses’ life. He then “prophesies” over the people of Israel saying:
Deuteronomy 31:29

“For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the LORD’s sight, angering him with what your hands have made.”

Moses does not have a lot of confidence in the fidelity of Israel to God. And so he gives this “song” to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 32. We aren’t going to read it all, but we are going to read a big chunk of it so we can really get the context that the readers of Hebrews would have had when they had gotten this letter or heard this sermon.
Deuteronomy 32:28-42

Israel is a nation lacking sense

with no understanding at all.

If only they were wise, they would comprehend this;

they would understand their fate.

How could one pursue a thousand,

or two put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

unless the LORD had given them up?

But their “rock” is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

For their vine is from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are poisonous;

their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is serpents’ venom,

the deadly poison of cobras.

Moses is saying that the fruit of the disobedient Israelites is rotten and poisonous.

“Is it not stored up with me,

sealed up in my vaults?

Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay.

In time their foot will slip,

for their day of disaster is near,

and their doom is coming quickly.”

Remember the illustration from earlier of pulling up all of the guard rails around the cliff because you trust the view? You are just waiting for your own foot to slip.

The LORD will indeed vindicate his people

and have compassion on his servants

when he sees that their strength is gone

and no one is left—slave or free.

He will say, “Where are their gods,

the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up and help you;

let it be a shelter for you.

The ten plagues on Egypt (Exodus 7–12) – the Lord’s judgments against a hardened king and his gods.
The drought and Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Drought was God’s judgement on the Canaanite God of rain and fertility.
The people of Israel and Judah had seen God work, revealing that the god’s of the other nations were nothing, but still followed after those false-gods leading to their Exile. (2 Kings 17; 2 Kings 25)

See now that I alone am he;

there is no God but me.

I bring death and I give life;

I wound and I heal.

No one can rescue anyone from my power.

I raise my hand to heaven and declare:

As surely as I live forever,

when I sharpen my flashing sword,

and my hand takes hold of judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and repay those who hate me.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood

while my sword devours flesh—

the blood of the slain and the captives,

the heads of the enemy leaders.”

As the author of Hebrews said,

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The warning is grounded in God’s revealed character; this is not a new, harsh God from the imagination of the author of Hebrews. He is describing the same covenant Lord of Moses. And just so you don’t get caught in the lie that a lot of people have fallen into of, “Well, that is the angry God of the Old Testament, not the loving Jesus of the New Testament,” turn with me to Revelation 19. This is where the Apostle John has a vision of what the second coming of Christ would look like. And in this description, he uses language that his readers would have been familiar with.
Revelation 19:11-16

Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war with justice. His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen. A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

This is not blonde-haired, blue-eyed, hippie Jesus in which people try to claim he says, “Just love everyone, don’t judge,” without any context of what “love” and “judging” really mean. This is not “winking, thumbs-up Jesus” either.
This is the one to whom every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God”
The God of Scripture is “living” – active, personal, not an idea. He is not an imaginary thing used to subjugate others and exert power over those who disagree with you; to fall into the hands of the living God as an unrepentant adversary is genuinely fearful.
Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan pastor and theologian who is most famous for his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which is famously rooted in Deuteronomy 32:35 – “their foot shall slide in due time” – stressing that sinners are hanging by a slender thread over the pit of hell, upheld only by God’s sovereign mercy.
Edwards pressed the reality that judgment is not only a future reality, but that sinners are even now under God’s wrath apart from Christ, and that God would be just to let them drop, cutting that slender thread at any moment.
One more illustration to help us see what walking in continual, unrepentant sin means for us. Think of a person walking across a rotting bridge over a chasm; the only reason they have not fallen is God’s mercy, not the strength of the boards. To keep jumping on the boards in defiance is madness.
You see, the same hands that will wield the sword of judgment at the end of time, told the religious leaders in John 10
John 10:28

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

The author of Hebrews has stated in an earlier chapter to watch out so that we would not have an evil, unbelieving heart.
Ask yourself:
Am I cherishing any known sin?
Am I presuming on grace rather than repenting?
Am I following in the footsteps of Israel, rejecting the grace of God and chasing the gods of my own imagination?
If you know that is where you find yourself, it is not too late.
Hebrews 4:14–16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

When you approach the throne of grace, do so with a heart of repentance, accepting your guilt, placing yourself at the feet of Jesus. That is how we receive his mercy and grace.
1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Don’t be so stuck in your pride that you refuse to repent. Don’t be like Israel and Judah who refused to repent, leading to their exile from their homeland. Call upon the grace of Christ. And don’t think that you need to clean yourself up first, but flee to Christ in repentance and faith over and over again, that his loving and merciful arms will wrap around you, holding you securely in the peace of his salvation.
For believers here today, don’t let sin gain a foothold in your life. Repent of your sin, right away. Run to the throne of grace and receive Christ’s forgiveness today.
For the unbeliever, or seeker, if you know you need to repent and submit your life to Christ, today is the day. Cry out to Jesus! Repent! Ask for God’s forgiveness and rest in his loving embrace. Do it now!
After you repent, step forward in the newness of life. Live in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit has given you a new heart, a heart that wants to serve Christ. Then, walk by the Spirit, allowing his fruit to be cultivated in your life. When you do, you will not be enslaved to the desires of your flesh anymore.
Receive that new heart today. Receive new life. Because it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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