A Dreadful Warning

Hebrews 10:26-31 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
 
IF for some reason you have any doubt of God’s fiery judgment on the unrepentant people of this world, you should cast that doubt aside here and believe God’s word. See the violent images describing those who deliberately keep on sinning with unrepentant hearts: They trample the Son of God under foot, treating Jesus’ blood as any ordinary thing. And they insult the Spirit of grace. Rejecting Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a sure fiery death. There is no escape, only a fearful future that will unveil a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
    How do we know the future? One way we can know what God will do is to look at what God has done. God gives us evidence of this judgment in the law: Deuteronomy 17:6a On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death. Two or three witnesses were required to find a man guilty of a capital offense. There was to be no mercy on the condemned. This seems dramatically restrictive and judgmental on God’s part. But the LORD knew what sin would do to his people. He knew how sin would corrupt their relationship with him. He also knew the great cost of the price to redeem sin. His fearful judgment was designed to save people from sin, so they would live a holy life in his presence.
    But the Jews did not faithfully administer the law. Corruption in the camp grew to cause God’s great judgment on thousands who rejected his law. If this were the penalty for disobeying God’s laws in the past, how awful, then, is the penalty for rejecting Jesus? A faithless life is a vicious rebellion against God.  
    We also know the future judgment because in many scriptures God says it will happen as Hebrews quotes: Deuteronomy 32:35 “It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.” And Jesus, the Living Word, spoke it in the Sermon on the Mount, considered the greatest sermon to reveal God to the world. Matthew 5:22c “But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.’” 
    Yes, “The Lord will judge his people.” Indeed, it is a dreadful thing for the sinner to fall into the hands of the living God. Pray for the unrepentant sinners you know that they may become holy in God’s sight.