Hebrews - Week 13

Sermon #
13
in the series
Hebrews 10 closes with a sobering-yet-hopeful charge: cheap grace that shrugs at sin has no sacrifice left, but costly grace—won at the price of God’s own Son—calls us to wholehearted discipleship. Remember how you once endured public scorn and loss for Christ, the writer says; don’t toss away that hard-won confidence now. The Coming One is near, and those who live by faith will receive the promised reward. We are not quitters; we are a people who press on, warned by judgment yet propelled by an unshakable hope.

Gareth L. Cockerill – “It takes both warning and encouragement to sustain perseverance.”

“Respond… to the Warning” – vv. 26-31

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, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 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? 30 For we know the one who has said, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, and again, the Lord will judge his people. 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

“Remember... the Call” – vv. 32-36

Hebrews 10:32-36 - Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way.34 For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession. 35 So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.

“Rejoice… in the Hope” – vv. 37-39

Hebrews 10:37-39 - For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.38 But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.39 But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.

We Are Not Those Who Quit (v. 39)