The word apostasy is for obvious reasons not a popular word in the church. On the one hand it sends shivers down your spine, on the other hand many people don’t even believe in it. Frankly, I would prefer not to preach a sermon on it especially on a long weekend, but I said I would preach through all of chapter 10 in Hebrews and there it is, so I can’t avoid it. This section of Hebrews is actually the third warning about apostasy, the others occurring in chapters 2 and 6.
I want to start by defining the word. The word used here twice in verses 38 and 39 which we have various translations of, literally means to withhold under. Depending on your bible it may say shrink back, draw back, turn away, and the key to understanding that word is that it refers to withholding or hiding out of sight because of timidity or fear.
The word apostasy never actually appears in the Bible, but our English definition of it is basically, “abandonment of your religious faith”. That is a somewhat accurate word to use here but it misses the nuance of the original Greek meaning and context. I think maybe we have misused that word at times in the church. It is not so much an outright choice to turn away from God, but it is a fearful denial or hiding of your faith once you have believed, that often turns into sinful compromise with the culture.
It is basically what Peter did when Jesus got arrested and taken away to be crucified. He denied knowing Jesus because he was afraid of what would happen to him if he were associated with Jesus. And remember what Jesus himself said, “anyone who is ashamed of me before people, I will be ashamed of before my Father”.
So looking at apostasy that way, as a fearful hiding the fact that we are Jesus followers, as opposed to an outright falling away from the faith, should make it more relevant for all of us as believers. And it can be overcome, but continued apostasy can be fatal as we’ll see.
Now this passage tells us in verses 23-25 what it looks like when we are not in apostasy.
1. We hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering (v 23)
Another way to say that is that we keep professing our expectation of what is to come through Christ without yielding, literally without tipping over. This hope comes from what God has done, and what he has promised, as referred to in Heb 6:17-18.
2. We stir one another up to love and good works (v 24)
The word is literally provoke each other to love and good works. Obviously if we are teaching the New Testament it will do most of this for us. I’d rather have Jesus doing the provoking than myself, but the intention of this verse is to literally provoke in a potentially irritating manner, those who are not loving and doing good works.
3. Don’t neglect to meet together to encourage each other (v25)
This one is pretty obvious and if you recall from the book of Acts, the believers met daily, so at the very least we need to be making the commitment to attend Sunday services on a regular basis. Even better to meet more often in more intimate settings to encourage each other.
And why does it say we should do all this? “Because the day of Christ’s return is coming near”. We say, “Well they thought it was near 2000 years ago, I think we may have some time”. But the point is that they lived their lives as though it was imminent and so should we because the Bible is very clear that Jesus will come like a thief in the night when we least expect it.
Now starting in verse 26 we see what Apostasy does look like.
1. Deliberate ongoing sin
I want to make sure we understand this one. First of all this sin is voluntary, we knowingly choose to do it. Secondly it is repetitive and unrepentant. So it’s not a one time mistake, but to literally continually choose to miss the mark according to the Word of God. Now the full meaning of missing the mark, which is the most common word for sin in the New Testament, is to miss the mark as in a competition resulting in not gaining the prize.
James defines sin well as the giving in to one’s own desires as opposed to God’s. But for now in this context of “after receiving the full knowledge of the truth”, sin is to voluntarily continue to go against what God says is the truth in Scripture. So for instance would not attending church regularly when you could, constitute sin? Well, Scripture just told us that we should not neglect this, so yes it is.
And if it continues by choice, our text says there is no longer a sacrifice for sin, only expectation judgment. If you know what Scripture says about something and you consciously choose to continually disregard it, it is sin and there will be judgment upon it because you’re saying you don’t care about the sacrifice Jesus made. Chapter 6 reinforces this (vv 4-6). If that’s the case one has to wonder about salvation, but even if saved, we read in 1 Cor 3:15 it is like being saved as through fire, whatever that is – it doesn’t sound good.
In essence this sin is what we read in verse 29:
2. Spurning the Son of God
Literally trampling the Son of God, so it would be like intentionally aiming your car at the gopher on the road, it is an intentional trampling of Jesus when we disregard His words, and as we know, it means we don’t love Him if we don’t seek to obey what he says. God says if you trample my son under your feet, you will be His footstool.
It is also:
3. Profaning the blood of the covenant
It is to treat the blood that Jesus spilled for us as common or no big deal, like going through the motions at communion, and in some ways treat his death with contempt. We may not say that we feel those things, but continually sinful behaviour shows it. It is also:
4. Outraging the Spirit of grace
This word outrage is also to insult, and carries the meaning of doing something in spite of. So imagine you’re a parent with your child standing right in front of you and you say don’t eat that, and they look you straight in the eye and put it in their mouth. That is the idea here. And when we choose to go against His truth we are doing this to the Spirit of Grace, or the underlying meaning of God’s forgiveness toward us.
Whether you make it to heaven or not, would you want to stand before Jesus and have him say that you have trampled, profaned, and outraged me?
Then finally starting in verse 32 we begin to read about how to keep from falling into this kind of apostasy.
1. Recall former days when you were enlightened
Do you remember how you felt when you first really realized who Jesus was and what he has done for you? Do you remember your conversion, when you accepted this as truth? Was the first thing you did to go out and get drunk? No you wanted to please Him, you felt so much gratitude toward Him. Remember those days, it says.
2. Have compassion even on those who hurt you
Jesus had compassion on those who tortured and killed Him, the least we can do in His image is have compassion on people who maybe insult us or hurt us in much less severe ways. Here it is referring even more to having compassion for those fellow believers who are persecuted for their faith.
3. Keep your confidence
“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward”. That word confidence is translated poorly in our Bibles. The word is literally about the boldness, out spoken-ness, frankness in speaking that comes from confidence or assurance. None of us would have trouble boldly proclaiming to anyone that the sky is blue. That’s the idea here, so yes if you’re wondering, keeping from apostasy is at least partly accomplished by boldly proclaiming your confidence in Christ without wavering. But you need to believe it is true.
4. Endure
Endurance or patience, through persecution or through difficult circumstances. This word literally means standing your ground as on a battle field. Remember the reward it brings you and continue to live out your faith even when you are tired or doubting. And finally:
5. Live by Faith
Basically living by reliance on Christ. That’s so important. We need to look at faith that way. Is your life being lived in reliance on Christ, or is most of your Christian life pretty much determined only by what you are capable of doing. Just ask yourself, how many things you have actually done (that is the active word “living”) that required you to rely on Christ. Have you given up trying anything that you would only be able to accomplish with the supernatural intervention of Jesus?
Now obviously there is wisdom and we shouldn’t be wreckless, don’t stick your foot under a running lawnmower to see if God will intervene. He may intervene with a prosthetic foot for you.
But again doing what he says, like sharing your faith with someone, giving more than you think you have away for his purposes, quitting your job to serve him. You get what I’m saying. If you know you can comfortably do it on your own, then it really isn’t faith is it? Maybe faith in yourself, but not in Jesus.
You see how at the core of apostasy is essentially giving up on following Him, relying on him. You lose your faith. You may still believe in what he did to forgive your sins and that he rose from the dead and you are technically saved, but you have stopped living by faith, if in fact you ever did.
After this chapter we have the famous chapter 11 about the heroes of the faith who lived by faith through their obedience and perseverance in hope. And I just want to read verses 13-16 of chapter 11 from the New Living Translation to make it a little easier to understand.
“All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them”.
People of faith realize that there is a better place than this earth waiting for them. It is a future thing, but they lived like it was theirs now renouncing the things of the world. They could have returned to allegiance with the world, but they didn’t, and that’s why God is not ashamed of them.
Hebrews 10 spells this out for us. Sin is missing the mark, it is living by the rules of the world rather than by the Word of God. Before Jesus it was the Law of Moses. Now it is the commands of Jesus.
John spells this out in his first letter in chapter 3 verse 8, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning (there is the ongoing, deliberate sin) is of the devil… verse 10, “By this it is evident who are children of God and who are children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love His brother”.
And here’s an even more dramatic passage from 1 John chapter 2, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them”. Are you following how this relates to the apostasy I am talking about? 1 John goes on about this, and I can’t go into all of it, but here’s a key passage, ch 4 v 2, “Every Spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God”.
And in ch 5 v4, “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith”.
Now what is the point I’m trying to make? A spirit of fear is not from God John says. “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
Did you catch the part, “As He is so are we in this world” We live like him fearlessly proclaiming God’s greatness through Jesus. If we are afraid to do that, love has not been perfected in us. Love for God is tested in us when we face something that brings us fear, and the definition of apostasy here is timidly withholding proclaiming our love for Jesus when to do so would cause us discomfort or punishment. Because it shows that we are more attached to the world than to God, and that is sin.
So once we have received the knowledge of the truth and continue in deliberate sin (is hiding our faith from the world deliberate sin, I think so when we consider that we are commanded to be witnesses of Jesus in the world), there is a fearful expectation of judgment, not assurance and confidence. It talks about the raging fire that consumes his enemies.
What does James say? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Do you see why it’s so important to read the whole New Testament, including the hard parts? And I am going to say this carefully. When you fear the world more than you fear God, is that not the same as loving the world more than God? I would rather have the comforts of the world, I would rather offend God than the world.
My friends, given the context of this passage in Hebrews, which is about enduring under public ridicule and when things are taken away from you. Real faith is continuing to boldly declare your allegiance to Jesus like when you were first enlightened with the truth.
What do we have to endure? We are allowed to freely come to church, that requires no faith. We are allowed to participate in the economy, that requires no faith. We are allowed to carry Bibles in public, that might require a little more faith for some of you. We are even allowed to advertise that we claim to be Christians by putting a fish on our car (really it’s only other Christians know what that is anyway) so that doesn’t really require much faith either.
But if we start publicly proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God who died and rose again, that people are sinners, and there is only one way to God and heaven, that the Bible is the truth, the world reacts very strongly. And the more influence we have the stronger the reaction. Look at what happened recently with Chic Fil A, a large fast food company in the US who doesn’t open on Sundays and is known to have Baptist roots.
Their CEO said that they support the Biblical view of marriage and that he doesn’t think people have the right to redefine what marriage is about. This was taken as an anti gay attack and has caused an uproar, and even the Muppets have stopped supporting the company.
Does that sound like an anti gay statement or a statement of protecting the truth of God’s word? This could cost the company millions of dollars and protests and violence and vandalism, and a bad reputation. Fortunately some well known Christians have backed these comments.
Here’s my point, apostasy according to what we read in Hebrews here in this situation would be to retract that statement and somehow cater to the homosexual population. Or it would have been keeping their mouth shut in the first place.
The question I leave us with today is this. If I was put in a position where I had to declare where I stand with Jesus and His word, and there was a great cost to doing so, what would I do? Jesus says I want to you to actually go out and do that, take the message to the world, teach people to obey my word. And you know what I think, if we seek out those opportunities ourselves I believe God will bring an opportunity into our lives where we will have to make that choice. Certainly before him on Judgment day we will have to declare whether our allegiance is to the world or God. Would you rather choose to do it yourself, or let God bring something to you unexpectedly?
Apostasy as we read about it today, is hiding your allegiance to Jesus when to do so will protect you from some kind of negative reaction. It tramples the Son of God, profanes the blood of the covenant, and outrages the Spirit of Grace. Anyone can say they are a Christian in the comfort of their home or in their church. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope no matter what the consequences may be. Jesus Christ is our hope and the hope of the world, we must be willing to proclaim that. It’s not just telling people we’re Christians and leaving it there (that’s just about us), nobody really cares about that, but we are to testify about Him, and that is where real faith is needed.
Let’s close today by reading the last verse of Hebrews 10 together in the literal Greek translation of it….
Hebrews 10:39 (Literal Greek Translation)
But we are not of those who cower or hide their faith out of sight leading us to eternal destruction, but those of bold conviction who acquire and keep our breath and everlasting spiritual life in Christ.
