I. Introduction
A. I want to make sure you know where we are. We are just about to emerge from the forest and behold the Grand Canyon of the NT: the faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11. If a person knows only one thing about the book of Hebrews, it’s probably about Hebrews 11.
1. And that’s more than just to prepare you for next week. It’s also to alert you to the fact that, embedded in our passage today, are introductory ideas which are a springboard into Hebrews 11.
II. Hebrews 10:32–34 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
A. Here are the first personal details found in this whole epistle.
1. We’re told some things about what happened at the beginning of their story.
B. The first thing we’re told was that there was an enlightenment.
1. Enlightenment refers to God turning the light on, God revealing Himself to them. Like Paul, the scales fell off their eyes.
2. Sometimes God moves in a number of people all at once. Revival breaks out.
3. So, a significant group came to Christ at the same time, and began to live out their faith together.
C. As you might expect, the conversion of a group of Jews to Christianity was met with a lot of persecution. Their former friends, their families, their synagogue communities were not happy about their departure. They were ostracized, they were ridiculed, they had their property confiscated, they were punished, they were imprisoned, they were mistreated, all at the hands of those who had been their loved ones and their chief supporters.
1. But Heb.12:4 makes it clear that up to this point they hadn’t faced death on account of their faith: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
D. To all this persecution, the Jewish Christians responded amazingly well. They kept their heads up and didn’t grow discouraged. They remembered the last of Jesus’ Beatitudes in Matthew 5:11–12: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” And that’s exactly what they did. They joyfully accepted the mistreatment, remembering their greater reward in heaven.
E. Not only did they respond with grace to the persecution as individuals, but they supported one another well in the face of trials. They acted like partners with those who were mistreated. When one of them was put in prison, they did not forget them, but held them in their hearts.
F. So, before he lists a number of inspiring examples of faith from the OT, he reminds them of their own inspiring example of faith.
III. Hebrews 10:35-36 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
A. This passage – and the whole book of Hebrews – makes it clear that just because you handle things well at first doesn’t mean that will continue. It is possible to forget about your better treasure. We see this in the seed planted among the thorns in Matthew 13.
B. Also, you can’t read Hebrews seriously, it seems to me, and conclude that you still win the prize if you fall away.
1. Four times in just this short passage, it is made clear:
a. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
(1) Your confidence has a great reward, but your confidence is something which can be thrown away.
b. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
(1) You need to endure so that you may receive what is promised. If you don’t endure you won’t receive what is promised.
c. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
(1) The righteous of God will live by faith, but the Lord has no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.
d. 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
(1) Those who shrink back are destroyed. Those who continue on in faith will preserve their souls.
2. Four times in these eight verses! And we’ve seen many others in prior weeks.
3. We really do have need of endurance. It is not just beneficial. It is essential.
4. Last week we looked at Heb.10:26-31, the section which so vividly portrays God’s wrath toward those who fall away. But the theme can be seen here as well:
a. 38 “if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
b. 39 “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed”
5. When you fall in love, you assume that your love will continue forever. But we all know that some who fall in love also fall out of love.
6. We also know that some who fall in love with Jesus later fall out of that love.
a. We also see an example of this in Rev.2:4–5 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
C. But how can someone love Jesus and then stop loving Jesus?
1. Well, first, there are people who SAY they love Jesus and look like they loved Jesus, but in their hearts they never loved Him at all.
2. But it’s also possible that they did love Him and then stopped loving Him.
a. Not that they loved Him savingly or spiritually. Not that they loved Him with a love of a regenerated heart, a love wrought by the Holy Spirit.
b. But there are many things about Jesus that you can humanly love.
c. The rich young ruler seemed to love Him in a certain way. So did the 5 virgins without oil in their lamps. And those who did miracles in His name but never knew Him. And perhaps even Judas.
d. And I think there are many today who sincerely love Jesus in some sense: they love things He stood for, they love things He said, they love things He represented, they love the love of His people, they love the love of His people, they love the comfort of His sovereignty and His grace, though they don’t love Him savingly.
e. So, in any of these ways, it would be possible to love Jesus and then stop loving Him.
f. But, of course, if the Holy Spirit moves a person to savingly love Jesus, He will also sustain that love, though it might flicker and seem to disappear, and be in need of rekindling at times.
D. You and I have need for endurance, too. We also must not throw away our confidence in Jesus.
1. After you’ve lived in a household for a long time, you sometimes ask this question, “Whatever happened to that old _______ we had?” You lose track of things which you once treasured.
2. There are many things people try to preserve: family traditions, sentimental treasures, relationships with old friends.
3. But there is one thing which must be saved, one things which must be preserved above all the others: your faith in the Lord.
4. Wherever you go in life, and whatever you do, make sure to take this with you. Don’t leave it behind. Don’t throw it out. Make sure not to lose it.
E. Why do I say this? Because that’s my job as a preacher? well, it is my job. But I say it because I want you to receive what is promised. I want you to win the glorious prize coming to those who faithfully finish the race.
IV. Hebrews 10:37-38 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
A. (A quote from Habakkuk 2:3-4.)
B. It seems that this is addressed to those who are growing impatient waiting for His return. Apparently they assumed their persecution would be short-lived, and that Jesus would return shortly and make all things right. But now that didn’t seem to be happening and they were beginning to wonder.
C. It is a common mistake to underestimate what God is going to require you to endure. This is the temptation these Hebrew Christians fell into.
D. You see, it is easy to reduce the promises of God down to our imagination of how they will be fulfilled. And then when they are not fulfilled in that way, we conclude that God has not fulfilled His promises. E.g. they heard Jesus was coming soon and imagined what soon might mean. Also, they were told that they would suffer persecution and imagined what that would be like. But now the persecution was getting worse, not better, and the great deliverance kept not coming.
1. The same thing happened to John the Baptist. He was the one sent by God to declare that Jesus was the promised One. But when he got put in prison and things weren’t working out the way he had expected, he began to have doubts: “When John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.’” (Matt.11:2-6) Here Jesus calls people blessed if they do not get offended by Him because He doesn’t do things the way they expected.
2. Hebrews 11 is full of examples of heroes of faith who waited on the Lord in faith. They trusted in the Lord even when the things they expected did not come to pass: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.” –Heb.11:13
E. Everyone’s faith gets tested. For some it’s the temptations. For some it’s the length of the journey. For some it is the lack of visible signs of God’s faithfulness. For some it’s pressure from unbelievers. For some it’s all of the above.
1. For all of us, there will be times when it looks like all the evidence is against what God has said. And every person will have to choose what to believe. It is all about waiting on the Lord. It’s all about trusting the Lord even though it looks like He’s doing nothing, or even when it looks like He’s doing the opposite of what we thought He should do.
2. This passage tells us that the righteous person will live by faith, but if a person shrinks back, God will take no pleasure in that person.
F. Is it really fair for God to say Jesus will return in “a little while”? “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”
1. If these Hebrew Christians had reason to feel like it was taking forever, how much more do we?
2. We are now 2000 years into this “little while” and all we know is that we’re 2000 closer to the promised return of Christ.
3. This very question is addressed in 2Peter 3:4-10: They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”... 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
4. Our passage says, “He will not delay.” But it doesn’t say that it won’t sometimes FEEL like He’s delaying.
5. If He said He’ll come, then He’ll come. We don’t need to fret.
6. Waiting on the Lord is an essential aspect of believing in the Lord.
7. You can be at peace while you wait – because you know He’s going to do what He promised.
V. Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
A. Like the warning in 6:4-8, the warning in 10:35-38 is followed by an assurance (Heb.10:39). The author doesn’t in any way want to discourage his readers. He wants to motivate them to press on to the prize that awaits.
B. What a beautiful declaration! What love is being exuded here!
C. It’s as if the author is saying, “I’ve said a lot of hard things, I’ve given you a lot of stern warnings, but I want you to know that I believe in you. I don’t think you’re going to turn away from Christ. I don’t think you’re going to give in to the pressure from your former friends. I don’t think you’re going to go back to your old life.”
D. Why is so confident in them? Because “love believes all things, hopes all things.” (1Cor.13:7)
E. This is not the kind of thing that many people experience, is it? They’re more likely to hear something like this: “I just know it. You’re going to fall away.” or “You’re going to mess up.” or “You’re going to fail.”
F. If you hate someone, you tend to expect the worst. If you love them, you tend to expect the best.
G. And this verse is not just expressing confidence in them. It’s expressing solidarity with them: “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
1. The author is saying, “We’re in this together. We’re going to make it together.”
VI. Mothers of young children
A. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
1. One thing that dawns on you in the child-raising years is that you can’t keep everything up: friendships, figure, languages learned in school, the news, hobbies you once had, skills you were trying to develop. Some things are going to have to fall by the wayside.
2. You’re going to realize that raising and caring for your children is bigger than some other things.
3. But it’s never bigger than trusting in the Lord, walking with the Lord, worshiping the Lord.
4. At times you will feel like what you’re trying to do is bigger than you. And it’s probably good to feel that way sometimes. But don’t ever let yourself feel like the things you’re facing are bigger than God. They’re not even close.
B. You are surrounded by people here whose lives testify to this fact.
1. For some of the people sitting around you, it’s amazing that they’re here. They’ve been through things which have caused others to give up. But they have held on to Christ through it all. Or rather, He has held onto them.
2. I’m not saying their race is over, but they’ve come a long way and are still running, still fighting.
3. Of course, everyone’s life is different in the details, but there are many who have gone through the same kinds of things you face and have made it.
4. And they can testify to you that it was all worth it, that God is faithful to those who trust in Him.
5. You have a race to run. You have a prize to win. And you have a Helper who runs beside you.