Warning: Don't Leave Jesus

I. Danger of Apostasy v. 26-27

(ESV)

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth,

there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Numbers 15:22–31 ESV

“But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the Lord gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one male goat for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake. And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake. “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

Numbers 15:

27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

There is no other sacrifice than Jesus

Judgment will come on those who are God’s adversaries

II. Danger of Trampling Christ v. 28-29

28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Deuteronomy 17:6 ESV

On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

It is uncertain whether the “he” who was sanctified was Jesus or the apostate. The grammar can support either one.

Exodus 24:8 ESV

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

John 17:19 ESV

And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

;

To leave Christ is to blaspheme Him

This blasphemy brings severe judgment

III. Be Fearful of God’s Judgment v. 30-31

30 For we know him who said,

“Vengeance is mine;

I will repay.”

And again,

“The Lord will judge his people.”

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

Luke 12:5 ESV

But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

God will judge