A Preserving Faith
Study Scripture Hebrews 10: 23 – 36
Background Scripture – Hebrews 10: 23 – 36
Lesson 11 August 14, 2021
Key Verse
Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23
INTRODUCTION
Many people who do not have it have difficulty understanding it and many that have it have difficulty explaining it. The basic thing that must be understood however is that Hebrews 12:2 tells us plainly that Jesus “is the author and perfecter of faith”. So keep always in your mind that it is Jesus who works as a High Priest and who inspires faith. In our Study we are invited to enter the Heavenly Sanctuary and that sanctuary is defined for us for it is where Jesus is. This is really a reference to the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holiest, the inner sanctum of the Tabernacle and the permanent Temple where God dwells with His people.
We have been brought into this Heavenly Sanctuary by the blood of Jesus for His blood that was shed brought us to this Sanctuary by a new and living way. This way is better than the way of the animal sacrifices which had to be offered by the nation of Israel as they celebrated life on the Day of Atonement. Those sacrifices had to be repeated over and over again for they could not fully cleanse the conscience from sins that had defiled them. But those sacrifices had been very important for they were a shadow of things to come and did not really reflect what God wanted. The repeated sacrifices would never achieve perfectly good things but all they did was to point to the coming sacrifice of Jesus and the new arrangement for living that would come to believers in Jesus Christ.
The reality is therefore that the blood of Jesus gives us a totally different kind of access for this access is continuing and universal being available to all. This access leads to a different kind of place which is heavenly. It was impossible that these inadequate substitutes for humans who are made in the image of God would make us perfect or justified before God and make the effect of sins totally removed. But the animal sacrifices burned an important realization into the minds of people and every sacrifice provided told the story in blood that blood had to be shed for the remission of sins. God’s message went out to everybody that would listen.
So Psalm 40 which is quoted in the book of Hebrews insisted that though God authorized animal sacrifices He did not delight in them and so Jesus lovingly and willingly and completely sacrificed Himself to remove our sins, being the perfect and complete sacrifice.
Let us remember that God promised Abraham that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed and because of these unconditional promises to Abraham and his descendents that they would enjoy these promises and the additional promises to David, (for it is the son or descendent of David that would offer the efficacious sacrifice that was guaranteed to bring perfection) so that all those who accepted the promise could be made holy.
So Jesus born in the flesh as the son of David and the son of Abraham fulfilled all the messianic promises and fulfilled all the promises of the New Covenant that we read of in Jeremiah 31:33-34. Never forget therefore that what was done by Jesus came to benefit all of us because of those promises to father Abraham.
Under this New Covenant there is a inward change of heart and attitude which is not dependent on external circumstances. Believers therefore are now different and their behaviour and motivation must be different for they are new creatures in Christ.
This new and living way which believers have been allowed to access means that believers cannot die in the presence of God as had happened under the Old Covenant for believers now have real life which is eternal life.
There now is confidence to enter into the presence of God because of the blood of Jesus that has brought justification and declared them righteous.
We can very well therefore ask why we should have this kind of confidence to enter the Most Holy Place? It is because there is now new life in the Spirit which has been provided by the New Covenant which allows regenerated people to be functioning as spiritual men and women. This functioning means as the Apostle Paul has told us that we are co-labourers with God. Believers work just as the “heroes of faith” had done and they witness just as the old heroes of faith had done because God is speaking through believers in all ages just as He spoke through them.
Believers therefore have confidence because they have a High Priest who encourages, supports and intercedes as He sits at the right hand of God the Father advocating and pleading on their behalf because this is His High Priestly work as He awaits the Father’s work in bringing everything to a conclusion and putting His enemies as His footstool.
We cannot overestimate the value of confidence in the believer’s position in Christ for they know that human self- effort is doomed to fail. A confidence spirit and a competent advocate belongs to the believer in Christ for they no longer have an evil conscience which had condemned them. One writer notes:
“But the blood of Christ overrules our consciences, so to speak, and lets us know that the way is clear for us to draw near to God. We may tend to think that some sort of improvement in thought and behaviour would be required on our part to influence our consciences to the point that our hearts would allow us to approach God, but it is only the blood of Christ that cleanses our consciences.
In fact, the blood of Christ has already cleansed our consciences. Just as we now already have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place, we already have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. Our bodies have already been washed with pure water”.
The language that our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and that our body has been washed with pure water is obviously symbolic for it refers to an outward life that has been cleansed, rearranged, and changed. The inward change has been such that the flesh does not control the believer any longer and there is no lying, sexual sins, stealing, murdering, gossiping and other things which do not reflect a changed life.
So now we have duties and responsibilities even though that idea will be unpopular with some of us. Now there are duties. To understand our position and our duties we recall the parable in Luke 17 about a servant that had worked hard in the field but when he came in from the field his Master did not get him to sit down and eat but instead told the servant to prepare something for his supper and serve him. After he had eaten and drunk, the servant could eat and drink. This led to Jesus’ powerful injunction that we do not like to hear and it says referring to the attitude of the Master:
“Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not?
So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say,’ We have done what was our duty to do.’”
We are now told to look at what we are commanded to do even though it might sound harsh. We are not doing something that we do because we will get rewards but it is something that we are commanded to do. Note that our Text therefore will show the emphasis that our Lord Jesus Christ has placed on doing the will of God.
Remember therefore that we have been told about the saving work of the Messiah, the great High Priest our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been told about the great privileges that we have. It doesn’t really help us if we simply believe them. There are things that have to be done. When we have experienced divine redemption, had drawn near to the Lord Jesus Christ, and are in communion with Him there are in fact three great duties. These are:
-Drawing near to God
-Holding fast the confession of our hope
-Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works.
THE TEXT
Verse 23. It is best to start off with emphasizing that the only way to Heaven is by a crucified Saviour. This death is the death of the Messiah. The person of Jesus Christ and His death is to us the way to life. To those who believe this He will be precious. In the Text the Apostle Paul, who some believe to be the writer of the book of Hebrews, proceeds to show the Hebrews the duties binding upon them on account of these privileges, which were conferred in such an extraordinary way.
We as believers of and in God are to hold fast the profession of our faith, to embrace all the truths and ways of the Gospel, to keep that hold against all temptation and opposition. For this is the warning; our spiritual enemies will do what they can to wrest our faith, hope, holiness and comfort out of our hands, but we must hold fast our religion as our best measure. This will keep us on the path towards God, our heavenly Father and being with Christ in His Kingdom.
How to accomplish this is straightforward, as the Bible through Paul’s instruction says there was be no wavering, no disputing, without dallying with temptation to apostasy. Having once settled these great things between God and our souls, we must be steadfast and immovable. For it is clear that those who begin to waver in matters of Christian faith and practice are in danger of falling away.
We therefore are now focused on perseverance in our faith or focus. The dictionary defines perseverance as
“Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success, “his perseverance with the technique illustrates his single-mindedness”.
Another tells us, The name “Fighter” implies that a person is suffering or have suffered hardship but will persevere. The name “Trooper” is someone who keeps going despite difficulty”.
So HOW will the community of faith or people in the world describe you?
We are to focus on our God who is trustworthy. He therefore is a God of hope. He tells the truth and so we are to confess, profess and testify how we hope in God and why Jesus is the object of our saving faith. For us God is trustworthy and so we do not place hope in the circumstances around us, the people around us, or in any expectation that somehow life will get better. If we do that we will be disappointed.
But hoping in God will never disappoint us for we know that our suffering produces endurance, for endurance produces character, and character produces hope. The Holy Spirit in us tells us this constantly and shows us that God’s love has been given to us. The Spirit is constantly pouring into our hearts this love of God.
The story is told about the experience of Chrysostom an early Christian who was brought before the Roman Emperor.
“The Emperor threatened him with banishment, if he remained a Christian. This is what Chrysostom said in this little conversation with him.
“You cannot banish me for this world is my Father’s house”. “But I will slay you,” the Emperor said. “No, you cannot”, said the noble champion of the faith, “for my life is hid with Christ, in God”. “I’ll take away your treasures”, the Emperor said. “No, but you cannot, for my treasure is in Heaven and my heart is there”. “But I will drive you away from man and you shall have no friend left”.” No, you cannot. For I have a friend in heaven from which you cannot separate me. I defy you. For there is nothing you can do to hurt me”.
We accordingly are encouraged to hold fast the confession of the hope that we profess without any wavering, for we are told, “for he who promised is faithful”.
The promises in the word of God are sure. Anything that comes from the mouth of God has the authority and power of God behind it. Do not forget chapter 4:12:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.
So we are told and it is emphasized that it is given to every believer to encourage others in understanding that He, God is faithful to that which He hath promised. God has made great and precious promises to believers, and He is a faithful God, true to His word. For those who know God, we know there is no falseness, nor fickleness with Him, and therefore as His ambassadors there should be none with us.
God is faithful to all His promises, and we should be confident in that He cannot fail nor does He deceive. He is all wise and foreknowing of everything that comes to pass. God never changes His mind, nor forgets His word, and He is able to perform, and is the God of truth. His faithfulness should excite and encourage us to be faithful, and we must depend more upon His promises to us than upon our promises to Him, and we must plead with Him the promise of grace sufficient, meaning this is a strong argument to hold fast a profession of faith.
Verse 24. Paul has pointed us in a particular direction, one in which will allow us to prevent any apostasy occurring in our lives and it also has the purpose of promoting our fidelity and perseverance.
This is done as we consider one another, that is, to provoke to love and to good works.
Christians ought to have a tender consideration and concern for one another. We should affectionately consider what their wants, weaknesses, and temptations are as to provoke as he says one another, but not to anger, but to something greater, that being love and good works. He calls upon them and one another to love God and Christ more, to love duty and holiness more, to love their brethren in Christ more, and to do all the good offices of Christian affection both to the bodies and the souls of each other.
A good example given to others is the best and most effectual provocation to love and good works. Look at Jesus and what He did.
Note that we have not been told to spend a lot of time criticizing, viewing others with suspicion, and comparing ourselves to others and comparing one to another.
So ask yourself how much time you spent during the week criticizing other saints. We can be very sure that you did that and if you did it you should be ashamed of it. Your faith must be other centered and you should be worshiping God and asking Him how you can contribute to the flow of agape love. There is an emphasis on supportive love of Christians and this must be done with spiritual vigour.
Verse 25. Now how can you store up above your good works? You certainly cannot do it by following the natural human tendency to move away from people and not toward them. Some in those days were apparently doing that and forsaking the assembling together.
Believers are privileged people in the privilege they have. They have the ability to worship God in spirit and in truth and to exercise the enablement of witnessing to others that are controlled by lives of immorality and fear, thinking all kind of strange ideas about the Lord God.
So let us consider why we have this tendency of not “assembling together” and thereby encouraging one another. Do we make our many reasons and excuses not to do that, knowing that our excuses are just a front for refusing to invest our lives in people? Are we afraid that our needs will not be met, that we would be rejected, that we will fail, or that we will just be giving up valuable time? We should be warned that our excuses and our staying away will become a habit.
It is the will of Christ that His disciples should assemble together, sometimes more privately for conference and prayer, and in public for the hearing and joining in all the ordinances of Gospel worship. Union is strength and continual assembling together beget and foster love, and give good opportunities for “provoking to good works”, by “exhorting one another”.
Being with those of a like mind will also allow for the joy of healing among ourselves as part of the same family. There are matters that we will understand among ourselves that others that are apart from us will not.
As there were in the Apostles’ times, and should be in every age, Christian assemblies for the worship of God, are for mutual edification. The communion of saints is a great help and privilege, and a good means of steadiness and perseverance, which allows their hearts and hands to be mutually strengthened. So clearly, the converse is true, that in times where those have forsaken the assemblies, we see the beginning of those who would apostatize religion.
Being together is important. It allows us to exhort one another,
-to exhort or compel ourselves and each other,
-to warn ourselves and one another of the sin and danger of backsliding,
-to put ourselves and our fellow-Christians in mind of our duty, of our failures and corruptions,
-to watch over one another, and be jealous of ourselves and with jealousy over one another with a godly jealousy.
By engaging and being guided with a true Gospel spirit, we would be able to show the best and most cordial friendship. This will allow brethren to watch out together for the approaching times of trial, as we look after each other and be thereby quickened to greater diligence.
There is an urgency in worship and the need for being watchful and aware. 1 Peter 4:7-11 tells us that the end is getting closer and we should be closer together and praying together more. Our concern must be for the good of the whole as we focus on the Lord Jesus and on God the Father to whom belong glory and honour.
One very experienced scholar warns that our danger always is that when you forsake the meeting of the saints it often signals declining faith, generally, decaying hope, and declining love.
Verse 26. The red light of warning now therefore begins to flash brighter and brighter for we are now told about a presumption which leads to deliberately sinning. The writer now includes himself as he addresses those that have had a full knowledge of the truth but have deliberately kept away from the saints and providing mutual support for them, ignoring the fact that there is a community and a body of Christ that needs support, but keep on sinning after they understand that the only way of salvation for them and avoiding the destruction of the world is to be in Jesus.
The word “for” becomes very important for it means that whatever is now going to follow explains what has gone before. The fact now posed is there is a day of salvation but there is also a day of Judgment. There is a duty. There is work to be done. Some will be charged and judged.
When we persevere in faith it means that we will not be among those that will be charged. We therefore must be involved with helping others to have them hold in their view the judgment that will come to those that have abandoned Christ.
When one looks at the Old Testament Scriptures we note that in Israel there were strict rules on how the people in the nation should behave. There were sacrifices for unintentionally sinning. But there were some sins for which there was no atoning sacrifice. Under the New Covenant there is a similar warning for the once- for- all efficacious sacrifice of Christ can’t be repeated and so wilful sinners will place themselves permanently outside of Christ’s sacrifice.
If we compare this and Hebrews 6:4 we can see that there is a warning for diligence to be progressive, for if not, a falling off will take place, and apostasy may ensue, but here also it adds that if there is lukewarm-ness in Christian communion, apostasy may ensue.
The people in the church at Ephesus were told in the book of Revelation that because they had left their first love they had better repent to avoid disastrous consequences. Similar warnings were given to the people in the church at Pergamos, and to those in the church at Sardis where there were only few that had not defiled their garments. Those in the church at Thyatira were threatened because they were lukewarm and so they would be vomited out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. So not following the commands of God have terrible consequences.
Hebrews states that if we sin wilfully, and this means clearly that there is sin after we have received the truth, but yet there is still a rejection of God, so this sin mentioned here is a total and final apostasy. It occurs when men with a full and fixed will and resolution despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour., In this kind of sin three things are involved.
-This is the spurning of the Son of God and a rejection of the right of Christ to govern their life,
-There is a profaning of the blood of Christ which involves refusing to accept that the death of Christ determined by the Father was necessary to save and to sanctify,
-There is the treating of indifference to the wooing and pleadings of the Spirit of God which is an insult to the Holy Spirit, involving blasphemy against the Spirit. This then, this sin is unpardonable.
To be clear, this passage does not speak to the sinner who commits a sin or sins but yet repents to God and is brought back into the assembly, but to those who do not see or confess the Christ as the only Saviour, and even further than that, reject the Christ as the only Saviour. These individuals despise and resist the Spirit, the only sanctifier, and despise and renounce the Gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life, and this after they have known, owned, and professed, the Christian religion, and continue to do so obstinately and maliciously. This is the great transgression, to which the Apostle refers to the law concerning presumptuous sinners (Num. 15:30, Num. 15:31); they shall be cut off.
The doom of these apostates is this, that there is no more sacrifice for such sins, no other Christ to come to save them, as they sin against the last resort and remedy. The writer of Hebrews here has in mind some Jewish Christian who contemplated a retreat from a distinctive Christianity and a return to Judaism with its sacrificial system. This was turning their back on Jesus.
We should as believers be clear about sin and repentance and what it leads to. There were some sins under the law for which no sacrifices were provided, but yet if those who committed them did truly repent, though they might not escape temporal death, they might escape eternal destruction; for Christ would come, and make atonement. But now those under the Gospel who will not accept Christ that they may be saved by Him, have no other refuge left to them. There only remains for them a certain fearful looking for of judgment.
Verse 27. Some think this refers to the dreadful destruction of the Jewish church and state, but certainly it refers also to the utter destruction that awaits all obstinate apostates at death and judgment, when the Judge will render fiery indignation against them, which will devour His adversaries. They will be remanded to the devouring fire and to everlasting burnings.
God has elected governments of the world to handle presumptuous offenders. This gives a fearful foreboding in the consciences of those who would commit sin, a dreadful looking for their rewards for such actions. This is a person in which despair will build because they would not be able to either endure or escape it.
But with respect to believers or those that once believed, a heavy doom is said to fall upon those that apostatize from Christ. They once knew God, but now rejected Him and so would not they realize how much more sore, their punishment should be? They have trodden under the foot the Son of God. To trample upon an ordinary person shows intolerable insolence, one might agree, but to treat a person of honour in that vile manner is insufferable, but even more so, to deal in such a way with the Son of God, who Himself is God, must be the highest provocation. To trample upon His person, denying Him to be the Messiah, to trample upon His authority, and undermine His kingdom, to regard His members as outcast or filth; what punishment can be too great for such men?
Verse 28 – 29. Under the Mosaic Law, Paul recounts how under two or three witnesses punishment was handed out to those who come under the category of presumptuous offenders. The Law of Moses was the minister of the Law. Note the author was God.
The song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 takes us to examine the destruction of apostates. There is a comparison of Moses and Christ and the law of Moses and the Gospel, to illustrate the case in hand. For one that transgressed that law, either in whole, or in part, by denying it entirely, or by breaking any particular precept of it presumptuously, death was issued. There was no atonement nor sacrifice for him, nor pity to be shown him.
Paul asks them his readers to decide now what punishment should befall those who turn away from a superior Lord. Paul tries to and does make it clear that these people have denied the deity of Christ and His eternal Sonship. They look to render His offices useless and undervalue His sacrifice, despise His righteousness, and strip Him of the glory of His person, office and grace. But note also their intolerable behaviour is aggravated by His being the Son of God who is thusthe One who became the Son of man for the sake of men, who is superior to men, and equal with God.
Are we today like these individuals?
Paul says they treat and compare in a very casual way the blood of bullocks with the blood of Christ. Yes, Aaron and his sons were sanctified by the sacrifices of slain beast, to minister in the priest’s office. However, Christ, the Son of God offered Himself, a voluntary offer, shed His precious blood, died, rose again in power to sit at the right hand of God the Father, and provides intercessory actions for those who believe in Him. These who turn from Christ after knowing Him have in effect done worse; they have reckoned the blood of Jesus to be unclean and abominable, this, the blood of the covenant of grace, which is ratified and confirmed by His shed blood. The blessings of the promises to Abraham and the fathers come through it, and from the sanctification that this act of Jesus brought.
Verse 30. Psalms 94:1 talks about vengeance belonging to the Lord. The terrors of the Lord are known both by revelation and reason. Vindictive justice is a glorious, though terrible attribute of God. It belongs to Him. He will use and execute it upon the heads of such sinners as despise His grace. He will avenge Himself, and His Son, and Spirit, and the breaking of the Covenant, upon apostates.
Deut. 32:36 is also not to be overlooked. The Lord will judge His people. Paul is clear that God will search and try His visible church, and will discover and detect those who say they are Jews, those who are Christians, those who are His children, believers in God and who are not. He will separate the precious from the vile, and will punish the sinners in Zion with the greatest severity. One writer comments:
“It is one thing to put yourself into the hands of the living Christ; but to fall into the hands of the living God, when you have professed one thing but have consistently, deliberately refused to obey it, that is quite another thing”.
It certainly appears therefore that God is more severe on those who have presumptuously played with sin even when they knew better. So recall the case of David in 2 Samuel 24 who numbered the people over the objections of his servants and against the Law of God when he should never have done such a thing. He had been warned not to do that but ignored the warning. He was given three painful choices or penalties because of this sin. He chose to put himself under the penalty of God.
So never forget that if a beloved believer like David would be dealt with so severely (and note it led to death for many in the nation) how much more will you be dealt with severely! And how much more with an apostate feel the full extent of divine wrath, says one writer. Remember what the saints do will affect others severely,
Verse 31. In either case it is dreadful to fall into the hands of the living God and in encountering the living God in His full Majesty and all His awesome holiness. This would be a terrifying and awesome experience and we should do everything to avoid that. So we are warned not to have a sinful and unbelieving heart. We cannot trifle with God for He can read hearts and He can be ruthless if necessary to make sinners aware of the evil that they are doing and the evil that they are embracing. Those that know the joy that results from the favour of God can thereby judge the power and dread of His unstoppable wrath.
But remember that God is above all a God of love and He is not willing that any should perish. He has created man in His own image and God does not really want to destroy His creation. He simply wants to awaken those who are moving toward apostasy before they reached that stage of irrevocably rejecting Christ. On that state and beyond that point lies the unpardonable sin.
What will be the eternal misery of impenitent sinners and apostates? The Bible already gives insight into this despite what is being taught today in churches. All shall fall into the hands of the living God. Punishment shall come from the Almighty God, and only from God’s own hand. One would think that their greatest misery will be the immediate impressions of divine wrath on the soul. When He punishes them by creatures, the instruments abates something of the force of the blow, but when He does it by His own hand, it is infinite misery.
This they shall have at God’s hand, they shall lie down in sorrow, their destruction shall come from His glorious powerful presence. When they make their woeful bed in hell, they will find that God is there, and His presence will be their greatest terror and torment.
One thing that separates God from all the gods out there is that He is clearly known to be a Living God, He lives for ever, and will punish for ever. This is the Justice of God.
So Paul presses the people for perseverance by putting them in mind of their former sufferings for Christ. He calls them to remember the former days after they were illuminated, how they endured a great fight of afflictions. Now that is said of the ancient church there, but it can be said that for some churches today they are currently going through this pain, affliction and persecution. But for others, living in the future they may need to be aware of what has happened in the past for they in future might face the same issues.
Verse 32. In church history it is told that in the early days of the gospel there was a very hot persecution occurring. It is thought that the Hebrews had their share of this. Paul reminds them that those who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. Why?
The natural state is a dark state, and those who continue in that state meet with no or very little disturbance from Satan and the world, but a state of grace is a state of light, and therefore the powers of darkness will violently oppose it.
In the former days, after they were illuminated, that is, when God had breathed life into their souls, He caused His divine light to spring in their minds, and took them into His favour and covenant, but then all earth and hell combined all their force against them.
This is the battle that every Christian faces, but does not face alone, for that is where the benefit of the assembly is greatest as we look towards God, work together, meet together, encourage and strengthen each other together, Jesus and the Spirit providing guidance through it all.
So let us get the warning for the evidence for saving faith is persevering faith. For those who do not persevere there will be terrifying judgment. Deuteronomy 32 tells us that God will judge His people gathered together in community. The nation of Israel was a mixed bag and so we should expect a mixed bag in our days. We must be motivated to persevere and be motivated to encourage others to persevere.
Verse 33. The Christian spirit is a sympathizing spirit, not a selfish spirit, but a compassionate spirit. It makes every Christian’s suffering our own, and puts us upon pitying others, visiting them, helping them, and pleading for them. Christians are one body, and are animated by one spirit, having embarked in one common cause and interest, and are the children of that God who is afflicted in all the afflictions of His people. If one member of the body suffers, all the rest suffers with it.
We all hear about the patience of Job and we learn from the life of Job that blessing for a person and for all those that live after that person often come through suffering.
The people that the book of Hebrew addressed directly were in danger. Most of them were not apostates but some of them were. Their faith was being shaken.
We should therefore be concerned that the faith of some of those with whom we worship might be in the process of being shaken. We many times do not see or might even ignore the signs of this shaking.
There is a danger not only of apostasy, but there is a danger of backsliding, and there is danger of becoming dull of hearing spiritually.
We might see the signs in our daily life when brethren abandon prayer, abandon or slip into not reading the Scriptures, less and less enjoying the fellowship of the saints.
This verse therefore reminds us to recall former days when we endured a great struggle with suffering. We might have given proof of our faith by our former life and that life was marked by love and joy, but we must remember that we can only continue in this life by faith. We need to keep on. Therefore the exhortation is that we keep on doing what we were doing when we came to Christ. When believers come to Christ they are anxious to help each other. Believers must be sensitive to the problem of getting cold toward each other. They should keep their first love. We must never despair and give up.
Upon taking on this life, we, Christians should recognize that it is not going to be easy. We as gazing-stocks, are spectacles to the world, angels, and men. Our reputations that should be important to us will be tested, but should remain unblemished, not for our sakes but for that of who we serve.
Verse 34. Paul here is very gracious to the Hebrews as he recognizes and acknowledges how they had compassion on him. They shared with him in the trials that he had and were part of it in many ways as believers. This is an important example that Christians must recognize and emulate.
In his case, they had been mightily supported under their former sufferings. They took their sufferings patiently, and not only so, but joyfully received it from God as a favour and honour conferred upon them that they should be thought worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ.
God can strengthen His suffering people with all might in the inner man, to all patience and long suffering, and that with joyfulness. The thing that allows Christians, believers in God to stand in the day of tribulation is that understanding that they knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better and a more enduring substance.
This happiness of the saints in heaven is substance, something of real weight and worth. Things on earth are but shadows of the things in heaven, and to be clear, the things that God talks about are rewards for those who have separated themselves from the world to serve Him. The substance of heaven is better than anything we could ever lose on earth. It endures into eternity where we will be. This will make amends for all that which we have lost on earth and this should be the thing that keeps a Christian firmly grounded through all that occurs on earth.
Verse 35. Paul exhorts them not to cast away their confidence, meaning their holy courage and boldness, but to hold fast that profession for which they had suffered so much before, and borne those sufferings so well.
Note that the word of God gives us three sources of assurance.
The first source is the word of God for it tells us about Jesus Christ and about the fact that we possess eternal life when we believe in Jesus.
The second source is the internal witness of the Holy Spirit which every believer possesses. A believer may be suffering and may be doubting sometimes but the Holy Spirit is constantly working in the heart to assure the believer that they belong to Jesus.
The third source of assurance for every believer is when we look at the workings of the Spirit in the hearts of the saints. We look at what they are doing and we see that they bear the two marks of real Christians for real Christians hear Jesus’ voice, for they know Him, and so they follow Him. The saints around us manifest that they hear the voice of Jesus and believe that it is His voice speaking to them and it shows in the lives they live.
Jesus therefore encourages the readers of the book of Hebrews. His encouragement to them comes from assuring them that the reward of their holy confidence would be very great. The present reward is great, but the rewards to come later is infinitely better, of which he speaks, for this is holy peace and joy, with much of God’s presence and His power resting upon them.
Verse 36. Now that the believers have demonstrated evidence of endurance in their past life, the writer of Hebrews now can admonish them about endurance in the present life.
They should not cast away their boldness or confidence for they needed boldness to enter into the glorious presence of the Lord.
All believers need patience, so that after they have done the will of God they might receive the promise.
The greatest part of the saints’ happiness is in the Promise. First the will of the Father must be done before they receive the promise, and after they have done the will of God, they have need of patience to wait for the time when the promise shall be fulfilled. They have need of patience to live till God calls them away.
It has always been a trial of the patience of Christians, to be content to live after their work is done, and to stay for the reward till God’s time to give it them is come.
We must be God’s waiting servants when we can be no longer His working servants. Those who have had and exercised so much patience already must have and exercise more till they die. But after that the resurrection and glory with God will be there.
Here we must be very careful for we must know the will of God so that we will persevere in doing the will of God. The Scriptures are full of instructions about the will of God. So we must never neglect studying the Scriptures.
In order to be able to do the will of God we must believe in Messiah. As writers tell us we must rest in Him, worship Him, come to Him boldly in the daytime, in the morning and in the evening. We have an open door and we must take advantage of it and enter the presence of the Lord God at all times.
Then we must persevere in doing His will, acquiring patience to persevere in His will through trials. Romans 5:3-4 states:
“And not only that, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produces perseverance; and perseverance character, and character hope”.
We cannot avoid pointing out however that it is important for us to persevere and serve God by doing things we really do not always want to do.
Focus therefore on receiving the promise. When you focus on that Abrahamic promise you will have endurance and you will persevere.
CONCLUSION
Never forget that He who has promised to come will not tarry. He is not slack concerning His promises. The promises to Abraham have been sure and what the eternal Councils of God has determined will be done. God is long-suffering and He wants none of the people He created to perish but He wants them to come to repentance to avoid His wrath.
God has a divine purpose and He is tarrying as His purpose unfolds.
The warnings were directed at the failure of believers. The parable of the Soils tells us about different kind of people who hear the word of God and their reaction to it. So we pray that you would be good soil.
One writer describes fundamentally what we mean by perseverance. He states:
“What do we mean by perseverance? Not that they lived a certain kind of life that is always regarded as a good life by the Scriptures or by our Lord. When we say they persevere, we mean they never are individuals who lose their faith. That is, they are always within the family of God. For God has implanted within them eternal life and having eternal life, they’ll always have that positive response to the word of God and the promise concerning eternal life.
They may deny it from time to time, but if God has enlightened us by regeneration, the regenerated man inevitably, always, will have that fundamental faith in the Lord God, even when they are sinning. And poor Peter, warned by the Lord, “Peter, you will deny me three times before the cock crows”. And so he did it. He did it! Think of that, warned by the Lord, Himself. He did it! And so he went out and what did he do? Dance? Wept bitterly! A man who has forthrightly denied our Lord Jesus Christ, still within him the faith implanted by God the Holy Spirit was there. And it’s not long before this man stands up in the city of Jerusalem and boldly proclaims the Gospel of Christ. And if tradition is true, he lost his life, ultimately, for his Christian faith.
From the human side, no elect person can really know easily until he believes and no believer can know he shall persevere except while actively persevering. Chapter 3 verse 6, chapter 3 verse 12, gives us points that bear on that”.
So let us be careful how we judge others. There might be times in our life or in the life of others when there seems not to be much goodness of God in their lives as they have suffered tremendous loss of some kind. But our faith, our belief tells us that we will receive something infinitely more valuable than whatever it is that we have just lost. So let us not throw away our confidence for that is not worth it. But instead let us persevere.
Let us concentrate on not forsaking the assembling of ourselves for our task is to encourage and build up others with the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us.
Remember that God is in the light and as well is in the darkness. He sees and knows everything so let us stay with Him in His presence.
The safe place is keeping in the presence of God, being patient, enduring as the eye of faith allows us to see Him who is invisible.