Beware the Danger of Sin
Hebrews 10:26–31 – Jesus Is Better
3rd Sunday in Eastertide – April 19th, 2026 (am)
Prayer for Illumination: Father, as we come to the reading and preaching of our passage for this morning, I ask that you would allow us to hear and receive your Holy Word with humble and contrite hearts. And I pray that you would use your Word this morning to turn us away from our sin and towards your gracious offer of forgiveness, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:24-31
Context: As we continue on in our study of Hebrews, we find ourselves this morning in the fourth of five warning passages that punctuate this book, and as you’ve just heard, it is a strong one – perhaps even sounding harsh to some of our ears – but I think we would agree that warnings in general are meant to have an edge to them. . . .
Enroll ~ We live in a world filled with warnings, don’t we?
From our household cleaners to the instructions that come with our new lawn mowers to the text printed on the packaging of our kids’ toys – we’re constantly being warned about the potential dangers around us – Don’t eat this, don’t put your hands under there, don’t put this over your head.
Warnings are meant to have an edge to them. They aren’t worded with flowery language that leaves you feeling like you’re reading a hallmark card. They’re there to get your attention – to warn you of potential danger
But because we live in a world filled with warnings – we can begin to devalue their importance. We stop reading them, we begin to ignore them. Occasionally – we have experiences that remind us just how valuable and important these warnings actually are
A few years back, I slept in a bed that, as it turned out, had bed bugs in it. It wasn’t until I’d slept in it for a few nights that we realized this – but as the bites began to show up and especially as they began to itch, far worse than any mosquito bite I’d ever had, we finally deduced what was going on. As the itching was terrible, I was on the hunt for anything that could soothe it, and I found that the most effective product was a form of Benadryl in a spray bottle And so, in my haste to ease my suffering, I sprayed it on all the areas I had bites. And when the spray wore off and the itching began again, I’d spray it again. As you can imagine, I neglected to read the warning label
It wasn’t until I hopped in my car, with my kids, to go run an errand that I realized the danger of ignoring the warnings written on the medicine. My first clue something was off was when I nearly ran over a set of trash cans on the side of the road. My second clue was when I groggily drove straight through a red light narrowly missing oncoming traffic. It was then that I realized I was effectively a drunk driver, drunk on Benadryl spray!
God was gracious to spare me in this case, but it reveals how ignoring warnings can have deadly effects. Angel and I saw this firsthand when we were living in the Middle East.
There are many places in the Middle East where the terrain is hilly and mountainous and where the roads are cut into the hills with a steep slope up on one side and deep ravine on the other. Along these roads are warnings signs that simply say “Caution – Abyss!” – warning of the danger that lies just beyond the guard rails of the road. But despite these warnings, Middle Eastern drivers aren’t known for their careful driving – they drive fast and aggressive, making liberal use of their horns along the way. And so, I remember the day that we were traveling along one of these windy roads when a food truck when screaming around us, and we marveled at their speed and recklessness. But as we drove on, we came, a few miles down the road, to a place where this same truck had smashed through the guardrails and careened down the slope into the “Abyss”. And as we pulled up, two bystanders who had witnessed the crash were just climbing back up the slope from checking on the truck to report that both the driver and his passenger were dead.
All of that is to say that, as we look into our passage this morning and as we consider the warning within it, it is of the utmost importance that we listen carefully to it and that we consider if there is anything in our lives that needs to change in light of it.
As we do – the first thing we should note is that our passage is a clear warning against the danger of sin.
1. The Danger of Sin
When we consider what Scripture says about sin in general, one thing we see is that – while all sin is wrong, while all sin makes us guilty before a holy God, and while all sin is destructive to our relationship with God and one another – not all sins are the same.
Among the wide array of sins we commit in this life, there are different types of sins, different ways of sinning, different degrees to our sin, and different dangers these sins put us in.
The sin that our author is addressing in this passage is not so much a particular sin – like the sin of lying or of stealing or of committing adultery, though each of these might be play – rather, it is a particular way of sinning, it is the attitude and posture of the sinner as they go about their chosen sin that is in focus.
But before we explore the sin that in mind, I want us to begin by turning the bottle over and considering the warning label on this sin. I want us to look at the many phrases in this passage that highlight the danger of this sin.
The consequences that we are warned about begin in the second half of verse 26 where we’re told that, for those who commit this sin, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” To this point in Hebrews – the author has been making the argument that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is a far better one than the animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant. He’s explained that it is impossible for the blood of these animals to take way sins.[1] But in contrast to these sacrifices, he says that Christ, who “appeared once for all” has “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” [2] and that this sacrifice “perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” [3] But now he warns us that the person who commits this sin forfeits Christ’s atoning sacrifice and remain under the consequences of their sin.
Continuing on into verse 27, then, we’re warned that for those who engage in this way of sinning,
there is no hope of salvation but rather the “a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”
Much has been said in the book of Hebrews about the hope that belongs to those who follow Christ. Hope is the expectation that there is something amazingly good awaiting those who follow Christ. A few chapters earlier we are told that the hope that is found in Christ is a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”[4] and a few verses earlier, our author tells us to “hold fast the confession of [our] hope without wavering” [5] But now he warns us there is a sin by which this hope can be lost, and in its place all that is left is a fear filled expectation of God’s judgment and God’s wrath.
My friends, let me pause a moment to say, I hope these first two verses have caught your attention. I hope that you can hear in them that this is no small warning.
I’m reminded of a class I once taught on the life of Christ and, after completing the unit on Jesus’ sacrifice and all that it was to accomplish, I asked my students – what would be lost if Jesus never died for you – and one of my students aptly responded – “everything!”
The author of Hebrews wants us to hear that there is a sin that will cause you to forfeit everything Jesus’s sacrifice accomplished – leaving you unprotected from God’s holy and just judgment and wrath.
If you’re waiting for the point in the sermon where I tell you that these warnings are directed at someone other than you, you who faithfully show up week in and week out to Sunday morning worship, I can assure you that they are not. These warnings are for you, and for us this morning.
So, we might ask, what is it that is so terrible about this sin that it forfeits Christ’s sacrifice and leads to judgment and wrath? That is the question our author answers next as he brings into focus the offensiveness of this sin to God, and he does so using three poignant descriptions.
First, he says in v. 29 that this sin, “tramples underfoot the Son of God.” That is to say, it is a sin that shows utter contempt for the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is a sin that, rather than appreciating and treasuring and clinging to God’s son, it shows disdain for him and disregards any claim he might have on their life.
Second, it is also a sin that “profanes the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified[6].” This means that those who sin in this way treat as common or even unclean the very blood of Christ which has the power to make them holy. In effect, it is a sin that takes the most precious and sacred and powerful substance in all of history and treats it as if it is a soiled diaper or a dead animal.
And thus, third, it is a sin that “has outraged the Spirit of grace.” It is a sin that deeply offends and angers God. And it is a sin that turns the only one who is able to save you, against you. Such that, as verse 30 indicates, the vengeance he has promised against his enemies is now directed at the sinner as the Lord turns his judgement on his own people.
And it is because the offense of this sin is so uniquely odious to our Holy God that we are told in verse 29 that the punishment for this sin will be, both worse than death and fully deserved by the one who commits it.
That the punishment for this sin is worse than death can be seen in the argument made in verses 28 and 29. In verse 28, our author alludes to two passages in Deuteronomy where we are told that if any man or woman from the people of Israel are found serving and worshiping gods other than the Lord, and if this is confirmed after a diligent search by two or three witnesses, that such a person should be put to death.[7] And when they are put to death, it is to be done without pity or mercy[8] lest, in pitying the sinner, the evil of that person infect the rest of the community.[9]
And yet, as scandalous as it was for an Israelite to entice the people of God to worship idols, the argument that is being made is that the sin described in our passage is even worse! A worse sin deserving of a worse punishment – a punishment worse than death. And we understand that punishment to include God’s turning against the individual such that they become his enemy, receiving the full brunt of his fiery wrath in hell.
And as harsh as this fate may be, the argument being made is that it is entirely deserved (v. 29) by the one who commits this sin. That is to say that it is a just punishment given the offense of this sin.
So, we see – our author is warning us today about a sin that forfeits of Christ’s sacrifice, loses the hope of salvation, makes people God’s enemies and then he closes by saying – It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
These are the warning contained in this brief passage. There are many of them in such a short space, they are shockingly severe, and they are there to get our attention.
And the big question they beg is – What sin could result in all of that? What sin is so heinous and terrible that it would so decisively turn God against the one who commits it, causing them to forfeit his grace and invite his judgment and wrath?
Let’s turn to our second point to answer that question.
2. The Sin that Separates Us from Go
The sin against which our author is warning us is found at the beginning of our passage, and, as I said earlier, it is not so much a warning against a particular sin as it is a particular way of sinning - it is the attitude and posture of the sinner as they go about their whichever sin has gripped their hearts, whether it be lust or greed or pride or envy – the list could go on and on. And it is characterized by three descriptors.
The first of these is that this sin is a “deliberate” sin. The word for deliberate, in the Greek text, is actually the first word in this paragraph. A way of emphasizing something when writing in Greek, like underlining or italicizing. The word itself refers to sin that is committed willingly, one commentator says it is something that is done with “a clear mind and a firm step.” [10] And it is here that would be helpful to recall the idea that while all sins are wrong, not all sins are the same. This particular sin is set apart from the body of sins we commit as fallen people, as is evidenced by separate set of consequences that comes along with it.
The same was true under the Old Covenant.
For example, in Numbers 15:29-31 we’re told that there is a difference between “unintentional” sins and the one who sins “with a high hand.” The unintentional sins came with consequences that would atone for the sin and reestablish the person in their relationship with God and neighbor but the one who sinned with a high hand – that is – the one who sinned in a defiant and rebellious way – a way that despises God’s commands – was to be utterly cut off from among the people.
In the next paragraph in Numbers, we’re given a picture of such sins as it says that a man was found on the Sabbath defiantly gathering sticks for a fire – an activity that was specifically forbidden on the Sabbath day of rest – and as a result God commanded he be put to death. There was no sacrifice available to such a high-handed sinner.
Similarly, in Deuteronomy 17:8-13, the people of Israel are commanded to follow the decisions made by their religious leaders, the priests, and they are told that to not do so is to act “presumptuously” and the punishment, again, was death.
I believe that the sins our author warns us against here as “deliberate” sins are sins that are committed with the same heart and the same defiant attitudes as those described under the Old Covenant as “high handed” and “presumptuous” sins.
They are sins like the one my high school history teacher once confessed to our class when he said that he made a habit, as a teenager, that after making his weekly trip to the Catholic church for confession, he would check the board of movies his perish had forbidden and check them out at the local movie store.
While they can be a wide variety of sins – they are sins that disregard God’s authority over the choices of the one committing the sin and instead, assume that they, the sinner, really knows what is best for their life.
The two other characteristics we then see about these sins, in addition to being deliberate, is that they are persistent and they are known.
That they are persistent is seen in the phrase “go on sinning” – this description indicates that what we are being warned against is not just deliberate sin – dangerous as that is – but deliberate sin that is ongoing and persistent. It is high handed sin that is being chosen again and again and again.
And it is known. What do I mean by that? Our passage tells us the sin which separates us from God is sin that comes “after receiving the knowledge of the truth.” This phrase tells us that the intended audience for this warning is none other than Christians – or at least those who call themselves Christians. For this warning is being written to those who know the truth of the gospel, the truth of God’s once for all sacrifice of his Son for sinners.
For those outside the church, their sin has an element of ignorance to it. While Romans 1 tells us they are not completely ignorant about there being a God to whom they owe all their worship when it comes to the truth of the gospel and the saving work of Christ done on the cross, they are largely ignorant.
But for those inside the church, for those who have heard the gospel and given their ascent to it and publicly affirmed their belief in it through their baptisms and perhaps even entering into church membership alongside others who believe it – their sin is in a different category – it is high handed and presumptuous, in that it knows the offense that such sin is to God and it knows all God had to do to overcome it.
So, we see that it is to the church going, cross wearing, Bible carrying masses that these warnings are being addressed. Or we might say – it is to us that these warnings are being addressed. We are the ones who are in danger of sinning in ways that separate ourselves from the grace of God. We, if we deliberately and repeatedly return to sins we know are wrong are the ones who are in danger of forfeiting Christ’s atoning sacrifice and becoming God’s enemy.
Now there are two temptations that tend to befall those who are caught up in such deliberate and ongoing sins.
The first of these, is the temptation to believe that this warning is meant for someone else. Few people have written or spoken more vividly on the nature of sin than the American Pastor and Theologian Jonathan Edwards. And he notes in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God that:
Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do; everyone lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes won’t fail . . . But the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow.” (Edwards, 94)
Those who are guilty of this sin rarely believe they are falling into it. They have their reasons for why they continue to return to this sin. And often times, they presumptuously believe that God will simply forgive them. Because of their church attendance or their baptism or their family name or their good intentions or God’s abundant grace – they continue in their sin believing God will simply forgive them. And yet, our passage warns us that this is not the case.
The second temptation is to believe that they, with their outward appearance of holiness and righteousness, can fool others into believing that they are caught up in deliberate and persistent sin: So, they go to church, and serve in their chosen ministry, and point to their Christian heritage while living a double life behind closed doors. And yet, what this passage is warning us to see is that God cannot be fooled by such charades. He sees all their sins, he sees how deliberately they’ve entered into them, he sees how often they return to them, he sees the attitude with which they pursue them, he hears the excuses they make after engaging in them and He knows, he knows, intimately, the heart with which they’ve committed them.
And while they may be able to convince everyone around them that God is their Father and Christ is their friend . . . for the one who commits deliberant, persistent sins after coming to a knowledge of the truth – the cold, hard reality is that God is not their Father nor is Christ their friend. Instead, God to be their enemy and, by the manner of their sinning they have proven that Christ, and his sacrifice, mean nothing to them.
The reason such sins separate us from God, the reason there is no sacrifice for such deliberate and ongoing sins after coming to a knowledge of the truth, is that: At its heart, this the sin of deliberately and repeatedly choosing sin over and against choosing Christ. It is not just a sin that devalues Christ or ignores Christ in the moment, it is the sin of actively and repeatedly rejecting Christ in favor of the
The substance to which the sinner is addicted
The man or the woman with which the sinner is involved
The beloved vice with which the sinner is enthralled
That is why it is, at the end of the day, the sin that separates us from God.
The danger of a sermon like this – is that it will discourage those who are faithfully fighting their sin. But that is not the purpose of this text nor of this sermon. What I want to show you in the final point, is that these words of Hebrews, harsh as they may sound, are actually there to produce home filled lives.
How do they provide hope?
3. Harsh Warnings and Hope Filled Lives
First, they help us to see how dangerous our sins actually are.
My friends, as we look back at the qualities of the sin that separates us from God – let us ask if any of us can say we are not in the danger of such a sin. Have you ever sinned deliberately? Have you sinned in a way that you knew at the time was wrong? Was against God’s will? And still gone through with it? And having sinned in this way, was this a one-time affair, or have you given in to this deliberate sin more than once?
If you’re a normal, red blooded, follower of Christ, what I just described likely sounds familiar. To some extent, much of our sinning is deliberate, persistent, and done after coming to a knowledge of the truth.
And it is because of this that we, of all people, ought to take this warning seriously.
It might be good to observe at this point that warnings, all warnings, are there for a reason. My neighbor has a pool that we’re often times invited to swim in and by the pool is the warning – “Don’t do anything that begins with ‘Hey y’all, watch this!’”. And even as you hear the warning you can imagine all sorts of scenarios that fill compilation videos on YouTube that warrant such a sign. Much more seriously, there is another warning on the side of the pool that says, “do not leave children unattended” and if you sit with my neighbor long enough you hear a story about why such a warning is there, and why she’ll never let any children swim unattended.
And so, the first way these harsh words lead to hope filled lives is that they clearly display for us the dangers of sin. And this has always been the purpose of harsh words against deliberate sins – even back in Deuteronomy 17, where it was said that the one who acts presumptuously by ignoring the priests should be put to death – the purpose was not just to warn the one who had sinned in this way but to warn all who could potentially fall into that same sin. Thus, that passage concludes by saying, “And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.”[11]
The purpose of such harsh words is to produce in us perseverance and grit in our fight with sin. As Kent Hughes said in his own sermon on this passage: It is to add the smell of sulfur to our sin such that we turn away from them and run towards God’s grace.
So, we must ask ourselves this morning – have we taken seriously the danger of our sin? Or do we distinguish between or own sins and the ones spoken of here? Do we minimize our sin or rationalize it away? Where do you need to do battle with sin?
And yet, even as we reflect on where we need to do battle with sin ~ it is important for us to understand where we do battle from. Do we, as Christians, fight our sin from a position of strength or of weakness? How much danger are we in
And so, as we come to our conclusion this morning, I want to underline that the deliberate and persistent sin being warned against in our passage is uniquely dangerous and different from the normal and expected struggle of Christians who are seeking to become more and more like Christ. It is not describing the daily struggle that comes with putting off our old ways and putting on the new as you lean on Christ for daily strength and mercy but instead is a struggle that denies Christ at every turn through its arrogant and high-handed nature.
Furthermore, we must affirm that while this warning is addressed to the church, it should not be taken as teaching that Christians, true Christians, can lose their salvation. The danger being described in Hebrews 10 is not the danger that God will lose one of his chosen children, rather, it is the danger that someone who identified with the people of God will prove through their persistent unbelief that they were sorely mistaken and that they never truly followed Christ in the first place.
And as hard as that may be for us to wrap our heads around, especially when you consider the faces and names and sermons and books and spiritual zeal and evangelistic fruit of those who once claimed to be Christians but now have fallen away – I do believe this is what Scripture teaches about such people.
As Jesus told us when he was on earth, there will be those who prophesied and cast out demons and did mighty works in His name but to whom Jesus will one day say, “I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness.”[12]
But to those who are truly among those God has chosen for salvation what does it say? It says, “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined . . . and those he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”[13] And “If God is for us, who can be against us?”[14] And “[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[15]
So, while persistent sin poses a great danger to us – the danger is only for those who sin in a way that deliberately and persistently reject Christ’s sacrifice for their sins.
For the one who is broken hearted over their sin and contrite in their confession – for those who return repeatedly to Christ, pleading the blood of the cross be applied to their sin, there is great hope. For the God will not lose any of those He has chosen.
Conclusion:
The final picture I want to put into your mind as we conclude this morning is the picture King David from the Old Testament.
As many of us know, David was chosen by God to be king for he was known even in his youth, to be a man after God’s own heart. And in Psalm 19, we have record of one of David’s prayers, a prayer that is very pertinent to our topic this morning. For there David prays:
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.[16]
In doing so, David gives us a prayer that we ourselves ought to pray. It is a humble prayer, it recognizes the danger of sin, and it heeds the danger by turning to the only one who can keep us from it.
And yet, we also know that, in one of the most notorious moments of David’s life, David strayed from this resolve and committed one of the most presumptuous sins in all of Israel’s history – seeing Uriah’s wife in a private moment he sent for her and took her and committed adultery with her – knowing full well that this was against God’s law - and then he followed it up by orchestrating Uriah’s death in order to cover up what he’d done.
He committed a high handed and deliberate sin. And yet what do we see next in the account of David’s life? What we see is a God who will not allow David to continue down this path of apostasy unchallenged. And so, he sends Nathan the prophet to call out David’s in the midst of his sin, and to reveal God’s intimate knowledge of all David had done, and once Nathan finishes his speech, one can imagine that there was a pregnant pause as all waited to hear how David would respond.
Would he deny any wrongdoing and throw this prophet out of his presence? Or would he turn from his sin in repentance and faith?
My friends, if you have been convicted this morning of deliberate and persistent sin – let David’s response lead you in your own. Though David was king of Israel and had every power in his ability to boldly continue in his sin, when confronted by God he did not turn away, instead he simply said, “I have sinned against the LORD.”[17] And then he penned Psalm 51 which he begins with the words, “Have mercy on me, O God . . . and cleanse me from my sin.”[18]
If you follow in David’s path, what you will find is that Christ’s sacrifice is for repentant sinners just like you and his blood was poured out for the direct purpose of atoning for your sin and that the Spirit loves to cover the sins of repentant sinners with the balms of God’s abundant grace.
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Works Consulted
Ellingworth, Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids, 1993.
Erdman, Charles R. The Epistle to the Hebrews. The Westminster Press: Philadelphia, 1934.
Guthrie, George. H. The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1998.
Hughes, R. Kent. “The Perils of Apostasy,” preached on May 10th, 1992. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/sermon/the-perils-of-apostasy/
McGrath, Alister & J.I. Packer (Eds.). Hebrews: John Owen. Crossway Publishers: Wheaton, 1998.
Smith, John E., Harry S. Stout, and Kenneth P. Minkema (eds.). “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards in A Jonathan Edwards Reader. Yale University Press: New Haven, 1995.
[1] Hebrews 10:4
[2] Heb. 9:26 But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
[3] Heb. 10:12-14 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
[4] Heb. 6: 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
[5] Heb. 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
[6] Guthrie translates this “by which one is sanctified” suggesting the apostate is outside this sanctification (357), especially as 10:14 says God has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
[7] Deuteronomy 17:2-7
[8] Deuteronomy 13:8
[9] Deuteronomy 17:7
[10] Guthrie, 355.
[11] Deuteronomy 17:13
[12] Matthew 7:21-23
[13] Romans 8:29-30
[14] Romans 8:31
[15] Romans 8:39
[16] Psalm 19:13
[17] 2 Samuel 12:13
[18] Psalm 51:1a, 2b
NEXT SUNDAY: Hebrews 10:32–39, Pastor Kipp Soncek