The Book of Hebrews 10:32-39 Those who have faith

Good morning. We're going to be venturing into this passage that Brad has read for us here, Hebrews 10, 32 through 39. And this will complete chapter 10. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 are ahead of us. And chapter 11, just to kind of give a foreview, is often called the faith chapter, sometimes the great hall of faith. By faith is a frequent terminology in that chapter. Chapter 12 begins with looking unto Jesus and then goes on into other issues, practical issues, as well as dealing with discipline. In the month of June, we'll be taking a kind of purposeful detour in there, looking at, because discipline is discussed, looking at parenting. So we'll be looking at what are biblical principles for parenting. And then chapter 13 completes it, having sometimes personal items, various smaller pieces of advice and counsel, even telling us that Timothy was released from prison. So anyway, we'll be stepping ahead in the months ahead through those chapters after today.

Now, these believers that the author of Hebrews is writing to certainly have a history, and he's actually asking them to remember that history. After they had believed, and the way he refers to it is after they had been enlightened, these Jewish believers endured great sufferings, not just slight irritations, great sufferings, persecution.

It was difficult enough socially and economically to be Jewish in a Gentile land. And by the way, during New Testament times, about two-thirds of the Jews lived outside of Israel. So most of the Jews, about two-thirds of them, were dealing with being Jews in the Gentile land. Of course, even those who were in Israel had a problem in that the Gentiles, the Romans, were over them. So all of the Jews had a tough time in one respect or another, but then Once having found a way to find a niche to survive as a Jew, then to become a Christian, oh, that was doubly difficult.

The Gentile Roman government had begun, by the time of this writing, its first of ten waves of persecution. There was ten waves starting with this wave with Nero, Towards the last half of the 60s, I'm not talking the 1960s, but of the 60s, persecution had begun under Nero. Nine waves followed for a total of 129 years of persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire. So this was the first of it, and it was not easy.

Some Christians were losing their lives. He doesn't make reference to it here, but he does reference him having a very tough time. But what would happen is that now the Romans were persecuting, but also the Jews would persecute those Jews who became believers in Christ. And matter of fact, they had an easier time persecuting the Jews that became believers in Christ because now they could turn them over to the Roman government. So your fellow Jews, folks who had been friends, would be the ones to turn you in. It was a very difficult time for them.

Hebrews 10.32 and 33 reads like this, But remember the former days, when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. Okay? And there's your public spectacle. Okay? All right. Now, here we go. Remember the former days.

So in earlier times when these Hebrew believers, Jewish believers, first faced all this economic and social consequences of being both ethnically Jewish and spiritually Christian, life was really, really tough for them. And this is interesting, from the city of Laodicea we have this little inscription where we show a menorah and a cross on top. So that shows this is a Hebrew or Jewish Christian. And they're picturing it there with a combination of the menorah and the cross.

At first, the Jews just persecuted the Christians, and they could make it really tough. The Apostle Paul, for example, had to flee Thessalonica. But under Nero, the Romans persecuted the Christians too. So if you are a Hebrew Christian at this time, you're getting double persecution. And each group would make the other give you a tough time.

These believers endured and remained steadfast and faithful through all for a while. And what he's challenging them about in this letter is, yes, you were faithful. Remember those days? Stay faithful, okay? You've been falling back. You've been falling back. Stay faithful.

So here's the poetic structure if we were to look at it. But remember the former days after being enlightened and then leading it up with, you endured a great conflict of sufferings. And then he goes in two partlies. Partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming shares with those who were so treated. So this is a poetic structure looking at that. So look at this word great conflict. and public spectacle. We want to point out those things. The word for great conflict here is athleisis. You may recognize that sounds like athletics or athlete. It is in a boxing or wrestling match that was carried on at a local level. And of course, the ultimate in those days was the Olympics.

And the word for public spectacle is literally theatricized. Theatricized, isn't that interesting? made to be in a theater setting. Seeing what these believers went through was quite a show. It got your attention. It was dramatic. That's what he's saying. It was really something to watch, to see what these people went through. It was not just incidental. It was spectacular. Everybody was seeing it.

One of the points we've made several times here through the book of Hebrews, and we'll make it here again, is that the five senses in the physical realm have an analog in the spiritual realm. That is, each of the five senses is referenced in the New Testament, including three of them, seeing, hearing, and tasting, right in the book of Hebrews numerous times. And so we have that same phenomenon happening in this chapter. Hebrews what we have is the word enlightened and of course that enlightened is then making reference to seeing Spiritually as in Hebrews 6 4 and now here in 10 32.

It's in reference to being given spiritual sight by God Okay, it's something that God does when we believe we are enlightened We are given light that we see spiritually see what happens is the unbeliever doesn't have that they they cannot see into the spiritual realm as 2nd Corinthians 4 4 puts it those who are unbelievers have their spiritual eyes blinded Okay, they cannot see into the spiritual realm when you talk about the spiritual realm. They go, huh? They don't get it We who are believers have our eyes enlightened the capacity to see is turned on by God when we believe the Apostle Paul and Ephesians chapter 1 is even a praying that the believers, having had their eyes turned on, that they would see what God has in fact for them. They'd use the spiritual eyes that God gave them. This is a diagram that helps see the picture.

In the physical realm, we have a body, and within that body, a part of the body is the brain. In the spiritual realm, we have a spirit, and within that is the soul. So between the body and the spirit, we have the mind, emotions, and will of a person. One of the things we've seen numerous times in Hebrews is here in the spiritual realm, Hebrews talks about sight, hearing, and taste, and this one is making reference to sight when it talks about being enlightened.

Now in 10.32 and 33 it talks about reproaches and tribulations and also sharing. Let's look at each one. The reproaches. What were these Hebrew believers receiving? Multiple disgracing and public taunting and rebuking designed to thoroughly shame the believers. Multiple and repeated disgracing, public taunting, and rebuking.

You imagine people standing outside your door. And by the way, in a different culture, it was perfectly acceptable in the New Testament culture to go up and stand right in front of somebody's door and look in the windows and make remarks. Isn't that something? And so they would have people coming up to them, you know, look at what you guys are doing!

And they publicly come up and disgrace them and shame them. Can you imagine that? Now, tribulations, in addition to all these public taunts and disgraces and insults, they had multiple pressing and distressing events and ongoing difficult conditions. Those were all brought upon the believers as these Jewish believers put their faith in Christ. So they had the reproaches, they had the tribulations. Now, these believers, this is amazing, they voluntarily shared in these sufferings with one another. voluntarily shared in these sufferings with one another, jointly partaking and fellowshipping, and that word fellowshipping is intentional, it's in the text, fellowshipping in these many sufferings. Now, in these tribulations, we'll get further description as we go through there, what these tribulations were, because he gets specific.

So here's Hebrews 10.34, for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. So actually just taking their property. Imagine these people losing houses, getting pitched out of their homes, being out on the street, property being taken out of their house, losing everything that they had. You can imagine what this is like.

Okay, if you're a Jewish person in a Gentile land, first of all, you've got some difficulties carrying on business. Even just buying things. Okay, you go to the marketplace. What's the problem with the marketplace? Okay, they've got food for sale. What kind of food do they have for sale?

Most of it you can't eat as a Jew, right? So you go up and you look at it, and here the Gentile store owner is trying to sell you this food, and you say, oh, I can't have that. I won't have that. And they're rather offended. What's the matter with my pig meat, right? You don't like bacon? What's the matter with you, right? And so there would be that problem.

Along port cities like Ephesus, they'd have seafood too, and not all the fish that the Gentiles would eat were allowable, and the shellfish and things like that were allowable for the Jews. So the Jews would turn up their noses at this stuff and the Gentiles would be offended. Oh, what's the matter with my lobster? I've got great lobster, you all eat it. So there was a problem there.

Now, so the Jews at least would learn to buy food from each other and survive economically that way, right? Now, let's suppose you are a Jew and you go up to a Gentile clothing store, right? What are they going to do? The Jews are going to say, I'm sorry, I can't buy that. You've mixed the fabrics. What? This is a perfectly good fabric. What's wrong with this? Ah, you've mixed them. I can't buy it. Sorry.

And so the Jews have this problem now, but the Jews could buy from each other, right? Now what happens when you offend your fellow Jews by saying, I believe in Christ the Messiah as my Savior? now you've offended them and you're alienated from the Gentiles this is getting really bad okay getting really bad and so they would lose their houses they would lose their businesses they would lose all their possessions they would have nothing nothing to stand on here's the poetic structure of that verse there for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and you accepted joyfully so two things they did knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one Now, as we've seen in Hebrews, the book is all about better, right? The book is all about better, and so here you have a better possession. So this verse gets explicit here about the kinds of tribulations these believers had gone through. When one of their number went to prison just for being a believer, the others were openly sympathetic, openly sympathetic, and they joyfully Wait a minute.

They joyfully accepted the seizure of their property. Not, oh no, that's my favorite bed. You know, I've had that bed for 20 years. No, none of that. They joyfully accepted it. Wow. That's really astounding, isn't it? They joyfully accepted the seizure of their property. Any volunteers for that here this morning? Oh, come on. Some of you. Okay, all right. Well, I guess we'll pass on it. Okay.

Knowing. Knowing. Knowing by faith in the revealed spiritual facts is something that we believers can do that the world doesn't understand at all. You see, through God's Word, we have insight and understanding into things that the world can't even begin to comprehend. Knowing. Knowing. Ever talk to an atheist? Ever talk to an agnostic? You can't possibly know that.

And here we have knowing with certainty. Knowing with certainty. Knowing is about our spiritual position, and our eternal relationship now, and the certain and fixed hope we have to see Christ face to face and be like Him. Not just, I hope so, or it would be nice, or someday it would be good, but I'm not so sure. But we know with certainty, we know with certainty what our position is in Christ, and that we will see Him face to face. I hope He comes today, even before the sermon is done.

What we have spiritually is better and lasting, and nobody on this planet can take it away. Confiscate my property? That's fine. I've got something that's better, and nobody can take it away, and it'll last a whole lot longer than this stuff I've got. A whole lot longer than this stuff I've got. As human beings, we can get each of these by varying priority and sequence.

Facts, faith, and feelings. Feelings of various kinds can be very intense. The world has been screaming at you and me. to trust our feelings since World War II. That's been a growing message since World War II. 77 was a banner year for trusting your feelings. Here's Debbie Boone, it can't be wrong when it feels so right, right? Because you light up my life. Trust your feelings, Luke, right? Banner year. Both of those came out that year. But the message has been going on.

Charismatic Christianity, and I've had my contact with it. My grandparents were both Assembly of God pastors. I've been there. I was elder at a church that got overtaken by the Charismatics. About 1970, about 10% of Christianity was influenced by or claimed to be Pentecostal or Charismatic. And he got that into all sorts of different groups, even Roman Catholic groups, he got the Baptocostals. And then by 1995, and by the way 1995 is getting to be 20 years ago, by 1995 about 60% of Christianity was influenced by or claimed to be Pentecostal or Charismatic. That viewpoint that feelings and experiences are the central point of Christianity is not from the Bible, it's from the world. It is not spiritual, it's worldliness. It's not spiritual, it's worldliness.

So here's the question, what does it mean to be blessed? For Israel, blessing was conditioned upon obeying the law. We talked about that in our Bible survey elective here. Israel is to be blessed in earthly ways if they obeyed. For the church, blessing is unconditional and heavenly in Christ, Ephesians 1.3.

Both of these ways of being blessed are objective based on reading the Word of God. Objective based on reading the Word of God. But for charismatic Christianity, blessed is how a person feels. If a person feels blessed, then obviously God is in it, and revelation outside of God's Word is okay. As a matter of fact, my feeling blessed and saying it must be God's doing because I feel blessed is revelation outside the Bible. So, the biblical sequence, however, is this. One, spiritual facts are spelled out in God's Word. Two, faith in those revealed spiritual facts.

And three, feelings that follow, not feelings that lead. Feelings that lead is the world's idea. It's worldly, not spiritual. So, the way we put it here is, faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks, and like the caboose, the feelings follow. Okay? So, faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks, and like the caboose, the feelings follow. That's the principle.

What happens in this world's message, trust your feelings, Luke, right? In this world's message that the church, in great part, has absorbed, is the feelings go first. And so this train's going backwards all the way down the track, right? That's the picture.

So here is Hebrews 10.35, Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

Now, the word for throw away was used for throwing cargo overboard. And one of the things we pointed out is that there are a lot of terms here in Hebrews, and this is one of them, that have either shipping terms, terms having to do with shipping and harbors and things of that sort, or athletic terms. And we've seen actually both of those in this passage. So we have a supplement that lists some of those in Hebrews out on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room here. Acts 27 18 where here's Paul on board the ship and dr. Luke is with him.

They're going through a storm that's a lengthy storm in the Mediterranean and what do they do in the midst of the storm they start casting the cargo overboard and that same term is used here so throw away is pitching it overboard right pitching it overboard Having confidence comes from knowing, and the author of Hebrews urges that they not throw confidence overboard.

Don't throw your confidence overboard. That's not going to help. Now, after having endured steadfastly, and he's been through, and we saw that in the previous verses, they have endured steadfastly in the face of not just minor irritations, but great trials. great trials these believers had retrogressed back to the point where they were about to go back to Israel's temple sacrifices that's pitching your confidence overboard now in scripture there is a pattern of biblical crowns and rewards and he speaks about a reward here actually what he describes here appears to be the trial crown because they've been through trials And he's saying, look, you've been through trials. You've got a crown coming for that. Don't throw that away.

The trial lasts for a time. But the crown that you will receive for enduring through the trial faithfully is forever. This time that we have here on planet earth is pretty short. Pretty short. even if someone lives relatively long, the time is still very short compared to eternity.

One of the things that happens over time, of course, is the older you get, the faster time passes. You notice that? One of the things I've noticed, I came to Holly Hills about twelve and a half years ago, and there used to be four days between Sundays. Now there's three.

So time just gets faster and faster, and more and more you see, okay, here's the length of life, But in reality, compared to eternity, this is nothing. So, whatever I can buy into eternity, if you will, trade into eternity, for what happens here, is a bargain. Here is the crown that he's talking about, not a diadem crown, but a Stephanos crown, which was given for an athletic event, such as the Olympics. Now, let's read Hebrews 10, 35 and 36.

If we compare the earlier start of this passage, Hebrews 10.32, we have this, but remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings. Some things to note here, we have the use of endured in the first verse and now endurance here in the second one. We'll point out how those are similar and also distinguished in this way.

Endured is an action of bearing under a trial. Endured is an action of bearing under a trial. Endurance is a quality of bearing under a trial. See the difference there? So he uses endured in verse 32, and now here in verse 36, endurance, the quality of bearing under a trial. The other thing to make note of here is a comparison of what's great. You endured a great conflict of sufferings. in verse 32, and now what's offered in verse 35? A great reward. So a comparison of those reveals some key insights and truths there. So one question we come to in verse 36, what is the will of God? What's the will of God?

The Bible tells us about the will of God in many ways and in many places. And we could go into quite a side trip here on the will of God. We won't do that. But we'll point out this passage tells us that the will of God, or at least a part of the will of God, is enduring under trials. People oftentimes are looking for, I want to find the right path, and that right path is the will of God. And I want to know whether God wants me to buy the blue Chevy or the yellow Chevy, right? And we want those forks in the road to be right. The reality is the will of God is focused on quite a different set of choices, and enduring under trials is one of the things that's clearly the will of God.

Now, are any of us going to have trials? Yes, guaranteed. Matter of fact, you're going to have various ones. In James where it says, Rejoice when you encounter various, that word various is the word where we get our word polkas and polkadots, different ones, different sizes. You are going to have a variety of trials. It's guaranteed.

It'll be the case until we go see the Lord face to face. We are going to have a variety of trials. And so what's the will of God? It's not so much picking the blue Chevy or the yellow Chevy or the fork in the road kind of decisions. It's enduring under trials. That is the will of God. That's the will of God.

Enduring under trials will not seem like a good bargain unless We see spiritually, here's the spiritual vision again, God's purpose in trials, the eternal value of them, that trials are not always God's discipline, and it is never God's punishment. Do you know God doesn't punish you? It's never God's punishment, it is not always God's discipline.

And that all of our eternity will be made better by enduring under the trial. How about impacting the quality of your eternity? That's quite a thought, isn't it? So what we see here is these trials are purposeful. God doesn't just put random trials in our lives to see what we'll do. He doesn't work that way.

When I was a teenager, we moved up on the farm. One point in time, during the summertime, we'd have these little anthills that would be only, oh, maybe 100 feet from one another. And I'd go there sometimes and grab a whole bunch of ants and drop them on the other anthill just to see what would happen, you know. And it was just a big experiment. Of course, it gave all of the ants a trial, right?

God isn't doing that to us, okay? God's not just saying, hey, I wonder what Vern will do if I do this, you know? All right. God's not just doing an experiment to see what will happen, or because it entertains Him. Every trial has a purpose, and every trial under which we endure and bear up faithfully through that trial, God says there's a reward that lasts forever. The trial is always, no matter what it is, for a time. But the reward is forever. The reward's forever and it's a bargain. It's a great trade-off.

A little over 20 years ago, I came down with Lyme disease and it has had various symptoms over time. But one of the initial symptoms was it felt like a truck had backed up over my left forearm and then driven off and then backed up again. And so it really, really, really, really hurt. And I had other various limitations and problems coming from this Lyme disease. But I can remember laying there one time, and I could barely think, but I could still think a little bit, and laying there on the couch, and tears are streaming from my eyes. I wasn't making a lot of noise, but it just really hurt. It really hurt. But I can remember laying there and saying, thank you, Lord, for this trial. At the time, I didn't even know what the problem was. Thank you, Lord, for this trial, because you're going to do things with it.

So now here, here's the big picture on God's will, just to kind of get perspective on it. God's sovereign will is fixed and irreversible, includes your position and possessions in Him. You are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Are you going to change that? In fact, I can't even blow it. It's going to happen. I'm going to go and see Him face to face. Those are things that are fixed and irreversible.

I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and not even I can blow it. Those are things that are in God's sovereign will. Next is God's moral will, and that does include things like bearing bearing up and enduring under trial. God's moral will is revealed in scripture, intended to be lived by the life of Christ in and through me. And next is God's individual will, and it consists mostly of learning to make wise decisions with godly wisdom rather than this world's wisdom. So what we're talking about here, God's will for all of us, as God gives us various trials, and we will have different ones, Different kinds, different durations, different intensities. God's will is that we bear up faithfully under those trials.

They're God's prescription. One way to put it is we need what's happening to us. We need what's happening to us. And so as we look at God's will, rather than trying to find where's the yellow brick road, trying to always look at the fork in the road, the trial that God has me in now, He wants me to continue to look to Him and trust Him through the trial.

That's God's will. That's what God wants. That's what God wants. And the trial is not God playing some experiment like I used to do with the ants. God's not just sitting there wondering, gee, I wonder what Vern's going to do. But rather, God has it purposefully in your life, intentionally in your life for His eternal purpose. For His eternal purpose.

Now here's Hebrews 10, 37 and 38. For yet, in a very little while, he who is coming will come, and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." Now, one of the things we'll say here is anticipation is a motivation. Anticipation is a motivation. Christ is coming back for us, and I hope it's today.

This passage encourages us to view the time until his coming back for us, the rapture of the church, As a very little while. As a very little while. Matter of fact, we have our word micrometer or microscope. It's that word micro that's used here. Little tiny. That's why it says a very little while.

Why does the author of Hebrews make reference to Christ coming back for us? Because Christ coming back for us is to be a motivator for enduring faithfully under trial. More than a half-dozen passages in the New Testament talk about living godly and bearing faithfully until He comes. There's that motivation. So anticipation is a motivation.

In addition to that, we have this biblical crowns and rewards. There is a crown for those who are looking for His coming. A rapture-lover's crown, I call it. There's a crown for looking for His coming. You want to have a guaranteed crown when you go to heaven? Look for His coming. Look for His coming. Have that perspective. Is He coming?

Nancy and I had a friend years ago. She had a kind of unusual name. Her name was Cricket. Really nice gal, but anyway. She was in one of these stores, and it was probably like an Emporium or Macy's or something like that, and she had her arms full of gifts and presents. It may have been like a Christmastime sort of thing. And so she's walking through the store and she hears this BONG! And she drops all her...

Okay, Lord, I'm ready! Even what we're about to do here in a matter of minutes, as we observe the Lord's table, this passage talks about the Lord, you know, this is my body and this is my blood. And look at verse 26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

This is a looking back, but it's also a looking forward. It's an anticipation. Anticipation is motivation. It's a good thing for us to look for and to be eager for the Lord's coming, even if you drop all your presents. It's a good thing. Now, my righteous one shall live by faith.

This verse is drawn from Habakkuk 2.4. It has application to salvation by faith, as well as how we live once we have been saved. There's two parts of it. One is, I believe and therefore have life, the other is I believe and therefore that impacts my life once I'm saved. So both of those concepts are in there.

Galatians 2.20 is a verse that conveys this second truth, my life is impacted By living by faith. I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh that is in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. That's the context here.

So the last verse in our passage, Hebrews 10.39, we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Now it's interesting, there's a kind of a small chiasm that we have here in this passage, and the chiasm is a mirror image in writing, just in those two verses. So what we have is, but my righteous one shall live by faith, And then in the middle of that which is a focal point a turning point, but we are not as we who believe right? but those who have faith to the preserving of the soul, so those are the Believers they're shown in black and then Indented and in blue and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him of those who shrink back to destruction Okay, so that's the pattern here we obtained salvation by God's provision, that we didn't pull it off, by faith.

That's all we did was we believed in God's provision. In that we have our eternal position in Christ. We are called, and it's an urging or a command, we are called to live in our moment-by-moment condition according to our eternal position. Our eternal position is done once for all by God. living in our eternal position in our moment-by-moment condition is also accomplished by God as we trust Him. As Christ's life does the living through us.

As far as you and I are concerned, we're done here. God doesn't delegate anything to us. We're done here. It's His job. I'm through. It's not up to me to live out everything that He's laid out. It's up to Him to live His life through me. It has to do with who we are eternally as believers in Christ. You see, what the sin nature and the world are calling us to do are all terminal.

Is sin nature going to be around forever? Nope. Is the world going to be around forever? Nope. Are you going to be around forever? Yep. The sin nature in the world are terminal. They're going to end. But who we are as believers in Christ is going to last forever. That's the only thing that makes sense, doesn't it?

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you revealed because you love us. We thank you for these pleadings and urgings and insights that you've given us. We thank you that we can have a knowing that this world doesn't understand. And we can have a knowing that this world doesn't understand, and therefore a growing that this world doesn't understand either. We thank you for these precious truths and deep insights. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.