HEBREWS: “A Greater Warning & Assurance (Hebrews 10:26-39) | 11/12/23
Hebrews 10:26-39 | 11/12/23 | Will DuVal
When I was 8 or 9 years old, I found some cool deer tracks down in the creek bed behind my house, and I wanted to show my dad. But while we were walking back through the woods together, all of a sudden my dad GRABBED me and yelled “STOP! Go home, NOW.”
I was startled, scared, confused… until a few minutes later, when my dad emerged from the woods, holding a stick, carrying a copperhead snake.
A few years later, we were scuba diving together and I wanted him to take a picture of me. So I gave my dad *the sign* and reached out to pose with the reef… when suddenly my dad GRABBED my arm, and pulled me back. Once again, I was alarmed, flustered… until my dad made *some ripples* with the water, and a big scorpionfish swam away, perfectly disguised in the coral.
A few years after that I was learning to DRIVE, waiting at a stoplight to make a left-hand turn. The light turned GREEN, and I started to make my turn, when my dad yelled, “STOP!” and grabbed me again, as a car went zooming by in the opposite direction. And he reminded me that unless you have a green ARROW, you’ve gotta YIELD when turning left.
In NONE of these instances was it FUN being WARNED. It was unsettling, troubling, even a bit distressing. But it was NOTHING compared to what would have transpired WITHOUT the warning. And a good father will risk UPSETTING his child with a harsh but necessary warning, if he knows it may well save the child’s LIFE.
That is what God, OUR heavenly Father, wants to do for some of us here this morning.
*For the man who stayed up late last night on websites he has no business being on. Maybe he’s been hiding it - lying to his wife on top of it - for so long now he has seared his conscience; he no longer even feels remorse at his sin.
*For the woman here enslaved by materialism; she loves - she LIVES for - STUFF, and for the STATUS and comfort that her stuff affords her.
*For the professing Christian who keeps going back, time and time again, to PRIDE, to ANGER, to ENVY, slander, spiritual laziness, apathy, to WORRY, to the fear of man - SO much so that you no longer even feel a sense of CONVICTION anymore, contrition, you’re no longer guilt-ridden, by that besetting sin…
This morning, as we play amongst the copperheads, as we swim amongst the scorpionfish, as we driveheadlong into oncoming traffic, our loving heavenly Father is yelling to us: “STOP! WATCH OUT!”
-
That is the WARNING that God offers us this morning, in Hebrews ch10, vv26-39. And we’ll spend the BULK of our time unpacking it, because that’s where the emphasis lies in the text - in the warning. But then at the end, he will also offer us an ASSURANCE. That though we may be tempted by sin, and though we may even give INTO that sin from time to time - let’s be honest: NONE of us bats 1,000 and never sins - but the true follower of Christ WILL be grieved by her sin, will TURN from that sin, and get up off the mat - sin WILL NOT deliver the knock-out punch - we will get back in the fight, back in the RACE, and God Himself will give us the STRENGTH and the STAMINA to run it all the way through the FINISH line.
That is the context of the book of Hebrews. The author, this anonymous pastor, is writing to his congregation of Jewish - aka “Hebrew” - Christians, who are being persecuted and who are therefore being tempted to just throw in the TOWEL on this whole Christianity thing, and return to their JEWISH faith instead. And you and I need to ask ourselves this morning: “Where am I tempted to return, to RUN, when things get tough?”
Speaking of Jews, one of my best volleyball friends is Jewish - ethnically anyway - and he’s from Israel, grew up in ASHKELON, about 7 miles from the border with Gaza. And he has lost friends and family in the last month. I played ball with him just yesterday and I asked: “How’ve you been doing?” And he replied, “Ehhh, I’ve been drinking… A LOT.” Numbing the pain.
Maybe that’s you - when life gets hard, it’s back to the bottle, the pills, the porn, the shopping, the scrolling, the streaming… to NUMB. Or you throw yourself into your WORK, or your KIDS, or your HOBBY, to try and ESCAPE. Or you just try and take CONTROL of it, for yourself, when life feels OUT of control. You run back to the helm of the ship to retake the WHEEL, the minute the water starts to get choppy. Maybe you’re happy to let “JESUS take the wheel”… as long as it’s smooth sailing. But rough water calls for a more experienced captain…?
No, friends. The author of Hebrews wants to WARN us against that kind of sinful insubordination, and he wants to ASSURE us that we are in FAR better hands if we entrust ourselves to the tried and true, sure and steadfast Captain and ANCHOR for our souls, Jesus.
So let’s read the passage together; I invite you to stand… Hebrews ch10, vv26-39… the word of the Lord:
“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 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. 35 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. 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.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
This is the FOURTH and perhaps the most FEARFUL of the “Warning Passages” we’ve examined in the book of Hebrews.
The first was back in ch2, where the author warned us: “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For… how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation,” in Christ? (2:1-3)
The next was in ch3: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God… ” (3:12)
Then in ch6 he warned: “it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift… and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” (6:4-6)
Very similar to our passage for this morning, where he NOW warns us that “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire” (10:26-27).
In other words, his overarching point here, in the first half of the passage is this: we MUST work to EXTIRPATE sin. (26-31)
To “1) to remove or destroy [it] totally; to do away with [sin]; to exterminate [it] 2) to pull [it] up… as if by the roots; to root [it OUT] completely” (dictionary.com).
And we DO this by heeding 5 accompanying warnings he now offers us; 4 of them framed negatively and 1 of them positively; 4 “Don’ts” and 1 “DO”.
#1 - The FIRST is “Don’t sin DELIBERATELY and CONTINUALLY.” (26)
Every Christian sins; 1 Jn 1:8 points out: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”. But every Christian does NOT - indeed, every Christian MUST not, according to v26 - NO Christian can go on sinning DELIBERATELY and CONTINUALLY. Those are the two defining characteristics of the kind of sin - DAMNING sin - that Hebrews 10 has in view here. 1 John 5 says, “All wrongdoing is sin, but there is [a KIND of] sin that does not lead to death,” (v17) and THEN “There’s [a kind of] sin that [DOES] lead to death”, and according to the BIBLE, we shouldn’t even bother PRAYING for that SECOND kind of sin, because the ONLY kind of sin that God can and does forgive is REPENTANT sin (v16).
You’ve probably heard, “All sins are EQUAL; they’re ALL equally BAD.” Friends: that is patently UNTRUE. That notion is not only UN-biblical; it is categorically ANTI-biblical. The Bible explicitly makes DISTINCTIONS between different KINDS of sin, and says that “Some sins are SO bad, you don’t even waste your time PRAYING about them.” But they’re NOT the sins you’re probably thinking of - it’s not murder, adultery, rape; No, it’s not the particular ACTION that puts a sin beyond the pale, but rather the heart’s RE-action TO that sin, that ultimately determines its forgivability.
Did you know that according to God, if the Hamas terrorist who beheaded a nursery full of babies - if he comes to recognize his SIN, his egregious sin, and if he came to recognize that the ONLY way for his sin to be forgiven is by the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s own SON, who died on the cross as the perfect SACRIFICE for sin - for ALL sins; all REPENTANT sins - if that terrorist were to TURN from his sin, and THROW himself on God’s mercy by Christ’s BLOOD, then he CAN - indeed he WILL - be SAVED, and spend eternity in PARADISE, with the Lord (and with those babies he slaughtered).
Friends: THAT is how GRACIOUS and FORGIVING our God is!
But did you know, that if the soccer mom, who cut you off on the highway on the way to church this morning because she believes that HER time is more valuable than YOURS - if she DOESN’T recognize her sin, and turn from her self-centeredness to embrace a CHRIST-centered life instead; if she believes she’s just fine spiritually, because “Hey- she’s NOT a terrorist (or a tax-collector, to use the Bible’s example of a REALLY bad person - surely a place like HELL must be reserved for those who are REALLY wicked: baby-murderers and IRS agents). But if that soccer mom just keeps speeding through life like that, ignoring her sin, making ALLOWANCE for it, never taking it SERIOUSLY, never DEALING with it, never begging JESUS to deal with it on her BEHALF, then even that one seemingly “tiny” little sin - that one unrepentant, and therefore un-FORGIVEN sin - is enough to land her in HELL for all eternity.
Friends: That is how HOLY and JUST our God is.
Because HER sin is both DELIBERATE and CONTINUAL. She KNOWS better - she’s attended enough church to at least know the Golden Rule: “Do unto others…”, so she KNOWS that she shouldn’t be cutting you off, cuz she’d be mad if you cut HER off - but she goes on doing it ANYWAY.
“if we go on sinning” - continually - “if we go on sinning deliberately” - WILL-fully; the only other time in the NT that adverb - hekou-SI-os - is used is in 1 Pet 5:2, where Peter exhorts church elders to “shepherd the flock… not under compulsion [not out of OBLIGATION, not just cuz the church NEEDS you - this verse is the reason we have such a hard time finding ELDERS around here - thanks A LOT Peter! - we’ve got plenty of guys who are QUALIFIED; but they know they’d just be serving cuz we ASKED them to, cuz we NEEDED them, not cuz they really WANT to do it…] willingly”, of their OWN accord.
Same word here: “voluntarily”, “deliberately”, “KNOWINGLY”. That’s how the author of Hebrews qualifies what he means by this word: he’s referring to folks who sin “after receiving the knowledge of the truth” - they KNOW better.
Yesterday as we were leaving for Nerf ‘n Nachos, Ellery was upset, and when I asked why, she said, “Cuz mom won’t let me bring a SHIELD to protect myself.” And Polly heard her from the other room and said, “That’s NOT what I said, Ellery; I told you I didn’t have time to MAKE you a shield; don’t LIE!” And I said, “Woah, that’s a pretty big allegation - Ellery, did you just MISHEAR Mom, or did you purposely misrepresent her words?” She said, “I guess I just misheard her.”
When we GOT to Nerf ‘n Nachos, after we’d reviewed the rules about 10x - “No close fire - keep your distance - and no aiming at people’s HEADS!” - within ten minutes, a certain child, who shall remain NAMELESS, walked up about 2 feet away from me,while I was helping ANOTHER child with her gun, and shot me right in the EYE. And after I cooled down, I asked him, “Did you UNDERSTAND the rules? Did you KNOW you weren’t supposed to be that close, and shoot at my FACE?” And to his credit, he at least admitted: “Yeah, I KNEW.”
One sin was UNKNOWING; The other was DELIBERATE, hekouSIos.
Can I make a quick, RELATED, aside here: there is a WORLD of difference between the tribal chieftain who lives out in the bush somewhere and has never heard the name of Jesus, and who therefore worships the “sun god” or the “rain god”... that’s a VERY different situation, in GOD’S eyes, than the casual church attender here in THIS country who hears the gospel every third or fourth Sunday all her life, but who nevertheless worships the god of “MAMMON” - money - or the god of “SOCIETAL APPROVAL” instead. There’s A WORLD - an ETERNITY’S worth - of difference there. Jesus himself SAID so: “Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in… Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”” (Matt 11:21-24). In other words, at least Sodom didn’t knowingly reject me; they didn’t watch me perform MIRACLES and then continue on with their sin; “No, Bethsaida - y’all have NO EXCUSE! You know EXACTLY who I am, and yet you’ve rejected me ANYWAY. So it’s gonna be WORSE for you in Hell.”
Sounds like Dante was right - like there really are different “circles” of Hell or DEGREES of separation from God. Jesus’ parable in Luke 12 suggests the same: “that servant who knew his master's will but did not… act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating.” (vv47-48)
I had a guy, here at this church, a few months ago, inform me that he was moving in with his girlfriend. That they were planning on getting engaged soon and then married, but that they both agreed they should “test drive” the car before buying it - make sure they were a good FIT, lifestyle-wise, sexually, etc. And he even admitted: “I KNOW it’s wrong. I KNOW what the Bible says. But I just don’t want to risk a divorce. So I figure I’ll just ask for God’s forgiveness.”
So I said: “Well, I at least appreciate your HONESTY. But brother, you cannot DO this.” And I pointed him to Heb 10:26 “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins”.
And Deuteronomy 29: “[the] one who… says, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ …The Lord will not be willing to forgive him” (vv19-20)
And Numbers 15: ““If a person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat… But the person who [sins] with a high hand… reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people.” (vv27-30)
And 1 John 3: “no one who keeps on sinning [literally, who make a PRACTICE of sinning] has either seen [Jesus] or knows him.” (v6)
No, brothers and sisters, we must EXTIRPATE our sin - make NO allowance for it; rather, we make every effort to root it OUT completely.
That is God’s warning here: “Don’t commit spiritual SUICIDE! NO sin, no fleeting pleasure, is worth it.
Confess, repent, and return to the Lord.
#2 - His second warning now is “Don’t forget about HELL. (27)
What HAPPENS to the soul, for whom “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins”? He answers in v27: there remains INSTEAD “a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume [God’s] adversaries.”
He’s talking about HELL. The most unpopular, and consequently the most under-preached biblical truth in the American church today.
The existence of Hell is simultaneously one of the most firmly established truths of the NT, and therefore one of the most urgently NEEDED truths in our surrounding culture, and yet it is one of the most frequently AVOIDED truths in the 21st c. church. Why?
Because it is SO UPSETTING. Who WANTS to believe in a place of everlasting torment and suffering? Who wants to believe that ANYONE, much less many of YOUR loved ones, are probably going to spend an ETERNITY there, if they “go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth”?
4 in 10 Americans CANNOT bring themselves to believe in a literal Hell; TWO in 10 professing CHRISTIANS can’t! (https://news.gallup.com/poll/508886/belief-five-spiritual-entities-edges-down-new-lows.aspx ). And even FEWER believe that anyone THEY know and love personally is “bad enough” to end up there. The majority think Hell is reserved for terrorists.
But JESUS warned: “On [Judgment] day, MANY will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’... [they’ll know EXACTLY who Jesus is!] But I will declare to them, ‘I never knew YOU; depart from me” (Matt 7:22-23); so then “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 10:28)
That’s GOD, friends - GOD is the One who allows those covered in the blood of Christ to enter into Heaven, and GOD is the One who allows those who willfully REJECTED the blood of Christ to have their wish: life APART from Him; existence devoid of every BIT of the goodness and grace and light and love of God that He so mercifully allows even TERRORISTS to enjoy here on earth, for a season, so as to WOO us to Himself.
But if we will NOT be wooed - if we REFUSE God’s kindness, which is meant to lead us to repentance (Rom 2:4) - then nothing remains but “a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire”.
We cannot forget about Hell. Charles Spurgeon said: “Think lightly of Hell, and you will think lightly of the cross” (cited in Hughes, 274)
And Church: we cannot let UNBELIEVERS ignore Hell either. Remember that awesome video that went viral a few years ago, where avowed ATHEIST Penn Jillette, of the famous magician duo, Penn & Teller, said:
“I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize… If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell… and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to NOT proselytize? …I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”” (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/how-much-do-you-have-to-hate-somebody-to-not-proselytize/ )
Church: Penn doesn’t even BELIEVE in God or Jesus or Heaven or Hell, but here he is, calling us CHRISTIANS to the carpet for CLAIMING we believe it, yet not WARNING people of the wrath to come! Of the eternal TRUCK headed for them!
May it not be so, brothers and sisters. As Spurgeon ALSO said, ““If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them… If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go [there] unwarned and unprayed for.”” (Morning & Evening, p?)
#3 - Third warning against sin: Don’t profane CHRIST. (28-29a)
The author has been contrasting for chapters now the OLD covenant under MOSES, with the NEW covenant under CHRIST. Now he argues in vv28 & 29: “If one could be PUT TO DEATH, under God’s OLD Law, for disobedience” - “How much worse punishment… will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of [HIS] covenant”.
That exact same phrase - “trampled underfoot” - is found a few other times in the NT. Jesus used it in the parable of the 4 soils (Lk 8:5) to describe what those who IGNORE the gospel - the seed of God’s word - are doing; in their case, the seed falls on HARD ground, only to be “trampled underfoot”. He uses the phrase again in Matthew 7, to caution against “casting your PEARLS before SWINE… lest they trample them underfoot”. If someone’s only response to the gospel is MOCKERY and SCORN, then they don’t deserve to even keep HEARING it (in fact, you’ll only be heaping up greater condemnation upon their head!).
Similarly, here in Hebrews 10, we are warned against treating CHRIST, the chief cornerstone, like a DOORMAT instead; against “profaning his BLOOD”. The Greek reads, “Having esteemed his blood as ORDINARY, or common”. That’s why God grew to HATE Israel’s sacrifices in the OT; remember? We talked about it LAST week: “I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams…” - God said in Isaiah 1 - “I do not delight in the blood of bulls… Bring no MORE vain offerings… I cannot endure iniquity AND solemn assembly.” In other words: “Make up your MINDS! Either be GRIEVED by your sin, and be REMINDED of its rightful punishment every time you bring a poor animal to the altar, and therefore TURN from your sin… OR you can decide to go on SINNING.” But you can’t have it both ways. If you take sin SERIOUSLY, you will VALUE the blood of that sacrifice being made for you; you will NOT esteem it as “ordinary”, as a LIGHT thing. You will NOT go on sinning. Especially not when it’s the blood - the infinitely PRECIOUS blood - of the only Son of GOD!
The most expensive drug in the world, apparently, is called Hemgenix. It’s used to treat hemophilia B, a rare, lifelong bleeding disorder. A single dose of Hemgenix costs 3.5 MILLION dollars. Now, for the sake of the analogy, imagine if hemophilia B was caused by… I don’t know… SMOKING (could be; it causes just about every OTHER disease!). But imagine for the sake of the analogy that smoking just ONE cigarette resulted in a 100% chance of contracting hemophilia B; if you smoke, you are GUARANTEED to develop the condition, and thus, to need Hemgenix, and THUS, to need 3.5 million DOLLARS handy, per cigarette that you plan to smoke. And let’s also assume for the sake of the analogy that you are NOT Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffet… that 3.5 MILLION dollars MEANS something to you, means A LOT!
In that admittedly hypothetical scenario, how many CIGARETTES do you think you’d smoke? I don’t care HOW addicted you are…
Friends, we need to realize that every single one of our sins requires a treatment FAR more costly than Hemgenix. Because you cannot put a PRICETAG on the infinitely INESTIMABLE blood of JESUS.
We cannot - we MUST not - PROFANE it, CHEAPEN it, by continuing to “go on sinning deliberately”.
Likewise, v29b, #4 - Don’t outrage THE SPIRIT. (29b)
God doesn’t just DISLIKE sin. It doesn’t just DISAPPOINT Him; the Bible says God HATES sin; he ABHORS it. So when God sends His Holy Spirit to live WITHIN the heart of a believer, how do you think the Spirit reacts every time we forsake the Lord and turn BACK once again to SIN?
The apostle Paul warns us elsewhere (Eph 4:30) not to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God”.
But THIS warning - here in Hebrews 10, against OUTRAGING the Spirit - is even more severe. Because if those who are guilty of this kind of deliberate, continuous sin are TRULY without sacrifice for their sin, if they are TRULY Hell-bound, as vv26 & 27 warn, and if they have therefore PROVEN that they were never truly saved in the FIRST place - that was Hebrews 6:4-6, the perseverance of the TRUE saints - so if his warning here is really addressed to FAKE Christians - posers - who have a “knowledge of the truth” without ever having actually SURRENDERED their lives to Christ in true, saving FAITH, then they are guilty not just of “grieving the Holy Spirit”, but of the UNFORGIVABLE sin of BLASPHEMY against the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:32). Jesus said he came to forgive ALL sins - all of them but ONE: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Having your heart OPENED to the truth of the gospel - God’s glory, your sin, Christ’s sacrifice, and your need for FAITH - but nevertheless refusing to humble yourself and surrender your life to Christ; REJECTING Christ, right to his FACE. Jesus said, “There’s no coming BACK from that one.” For such a sin, don’t even bother PRAYING.
Lastly, #5 - this passage warns us positively of what we OUGHT to do; we OUGHT to fear GOD’S JUDGMENT. (30-31)
Fear the One who proclaims, ““Vengeance is mine; I will repay””, and who has the fire and brimstone to back it UP!
Fear the One who promised in Deuteronomy 32: “The Lord will judge his people” (v36), and who DID so, time and time again, throughout OT history, to prove his justice. And not just in the OLD Testament; God promises plenty of judgment in the NEW Testament as well:
1 Cor 4:5 “the Lord comes… to pronounce judgment… [he] will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.”
Jn 12:48, Jesus warned: “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge… on the last day.”
You might know John 3:16, but how about John 3:18? “Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Revelation 20 describes how it’s gonna go down: “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it… And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened… And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And… Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them… This is the second death… And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (11-15)
And friends, some of you here this morning ought to FEAR that day, because your name is not YET written in the Book of Life, and you are PROVING it by your deliberate, continual sin, by profaning the blood of Christ (the Second person of the Trinity), and outraging the Holy Spirit (the THIRD person of the Trinity), and therefore, you ought to rightly FEAR the coming recompense of the FATHER (the FIRST person of the Trinity)!
If you walk right up and WILLFULLY shoot one of MY kids in the eye with a Nerf gun, you better FEAR the wrath of the father! And friends: I’m not as fiercely loving as God is… and Jesus didn’t just endure a NERF war for us!
But that doesn’t have to be your fate. Listen to Jesus’ GLORIOUS promise from John 5:24 - this promise can be YOURS this morning: “whoever hears my word and believes… has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
Is that true of YOU today? Do you have NO fear of judgment, because you have total assurance of your salvation, that you have passed - PAST tense! - from death to life, by virtue of your HEARING God’s word and BELIEVING on His Son, and receiving ETERNAL life?
Confess your sins. Turn, REPENT. And trust in JESUS, and you will be SAVED!
And you will receive this blessed Assurance: that you will ENDURE suffering. (32-39) That is the assurance of the genuine, born-again believer.
Remember, back in ch3 we read that “we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
In other words, we PROVE we were truly saved, all those years prior, only when we finally cross the FINISH line! We’ve got to ENDURE to the end.
But now in ch10, he offers us the assurance that we WILL endure, by offering us 5 MARKS of the persevering believer, or perhaps 5 MEANS of perseverance themself - if you want to ENSURE that you ENDURE, then do these 5 things (LESS than 5 min now, in Conclusion):
#1 - Remember your HOPE. (32)
The author invites his congregation to “recall the former days when, after you [came to Christ], you endured a hard struggle with sufferings”. Note: their hope wasn’t in their CIRCUMSTANCES, because remember: you were mistreated formerly as well! During the earlier wave of persecution in Rome under the emperor Claudius in AD49. “Public reproach… the plundering of your property”.
Commentator Richard Phillips notes (380): “The author does not ‘recall’ his readers’ attention to the ‘good old days’ where faith seemed easy. It is not the times when things go well that really define our Christian lives. The really significant times… are those of TRIAL.”
When we’re FORCED to remember where our hope truly lies: NOT in the things of this world - praise God! - but in the heavenly places, in CHRIST!
#2 - Support your FAMILY. (33-34a)
He reminds them that they “sometimes became partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison…”. It wasn’t “every man - every CHRISTIAN - for himself”; No, you stuck TOGETHER. Cuz you knew you HAD to, to SURVIVE! Remember last week, when he exhorted us “not [to] neglect to meet together, [as a CHURCH family] but [to] encourag[e] one another all the more as you see [Judgment] Day drawing near.” Why? Because Jesus warned us that things are gonna get WORSE around here as the End draws near. That we’re gonna NEED each other, more than ever. And one of Satan’s greatest victories of the last 5, 10, 20 years is to convince professing “Christians” that church is OPTIONAL, despite the spiritual WAR that is raging all around us. We are AT WAR, but don’t worry - you don’t need to enlist in the army. You can fight on your own. Or better yet - DON’T fight. WHAT war?
#3 - Trust your INHERITANCE. (34b-35)
V34 says these 1st c. Christians “joyfully accepted the [STEALING] of your property” - apparently folks would just walk right up and TAKE their stuff. “Your ‘Savior’ said WHAT? “if anyone would take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well”? (Matt 5:40) What a RIDICULOUS ethic to live by! Okay, let’s see…” and they’d just SNATCH a tunic. And sure enough, these Christian would joyfully hand over their CLOAK as well. Why?
“cuz [they] knew [they] had a better possession, an abiding one [that COULDN’T be stolen]”
Jesus invites us NOT to “lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt 6:19-20).
And Romans 8:18 reminds us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
“The world says, “Buy now, pay later,” but the Bible says, “Sacrifice now, receive later”.” (Phillips, 384)
#4 - Build your STAMINA. (36)
V36: “you have need of endurance”.
There’s a reason that the metaphor for faith that the author of Hebrews keeps coming BACK to is that of a RACE… a MARATHON!
If MOST of us in this room tried to go out and run a marathon this afternoon, we’d be in TROUBLE. It takes TRAINING!
So too does the life of FAITH. Faith isn’t a passive undertaking. So the Bible exhorts us to “train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. [It’ll make you a better, more JOYFUL person, even when your STUFF gets stolen, in the here and now; but even MORE importantly, you’ll receive a CROWN in the life to COME! So] …to this end we toil and strive, [we TRAIN and ENDURE - these are all ACTIVE verbs] because we have our hope set on the living God” (1 Tim 4:7-10).
Lastly, #5 - Don’t SHRINK BACK. (37-39)
When your employer mandates that you use “gender-preferred pronouns”, and tell a LIE, about another coworker - don’t shrink back.
When your sister uninvites you to Thanksgiving because while you have ALWAYS shown nothing but LOVE toward her daughter, you recently made it clear that you cannot endorse her homosexual lifestyle - don’t shrink back.
When you stop getting invited to the neighborhood soirees, where the other 30 and 40 somethings all get trashed and the husbands brag about the girls they USED to get with, while the wives complain about their husbands. Not because you look down your Christian nose and JUDGE them for it - we don’t expect unbelievers to act like anything but unbelievers! - but simply because you don’t GO ALONG with it. And darkness hates the light, because it EXPOSES sin. And they have no intention of extirpating THEIR sin.
Thank God we don’t suffer like our brothers and sisters USED to, just a few years AFTER Hebrews was written. When Nero impaled Christians on stakes and then set them on fire to light up his dinner parties. When they bore HOLES in Christians’ skulls and poured molten metal in while they were still CONSCIOUS. But still they didn’t shrink back.
How much LESS so, can WE afford to shrink back, when we “suffer” - and I use that term very loosely - “suffer” for OUR faith?
We cannot, and Church - we WILL not - because “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
AMEN?