Faith That Endures (Hebrews 10:26-39)

Introduction

If you learned to drive between the 1960’s and the 1980’s you were likely exposed to films with titles like—Wheels of Tragedy, Red Asphalt, and Mechanized death—these sound like horror film titles—and in a way they kind of were.

You wouldn’t see these films at the movie theatre—you’d see them in Drivers Ed as you were learning to drive. The best way to equip young drivers, they thought, was to scare them so bad they’d drive well.

They wanted to show the serious danger and lasting consequences of bad driving.

There was a similar thought with live birth videos in Health class.

School before political correctness was a wild place.

I don’t know how effective those graphic films were. I’d be interested in the statistics on that. They stopped showing them so that’s probably some kind of indicator—that fear alone is not a good teacher.

But the idea behind the films I think was good: serious danger deserves a serious warning.

That’s one of the main truths of our passage today: serious danger deserves a serious warning. The preacher of Hebrews wants to seriously warn Christians about a serious danger in verses 26-31. And offers us help for endurance in verses 32-39

If I had to sum up the message of our passage this morning it would be, People of God, endure in your faith by heeding God’s warning and taking God’s help.

Let’s read the text together—This is God’s Word—living, active, without error, never failing and God means to build up your faith and help you endure by the reading and preaching of it.

Hebrews 10:26–39 ESV

For 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 that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 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? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 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. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one 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.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Pray

I. The Serious Warning (26-31)

Here’s the serious warning. We see it verses 26 and 27. Christian, if you go on sinning deliberately you cannot be saved. That’s the plain reading of the text. Deliberate sinning makes you an adversary of God who can only expect judgment and fury from a holy God. (Those verse up on the screen)

That’s the real warning that the preacher of Hebrews is giving to you and I this morning. We are being warned, not to fall away from God due to ongoing, deliberate sin.

Ok, but what are we talking about here?

We’re not talking about any sin done purposefully.

God doesn’t have a secret tally that he’s keeping and if you go one deliberate sin over that mark then your done. Christ is removed from you and you’re not saved anymore.

If that were the case none of us could have any hope of salvation.

Every true Christian struggles with sin. We haven’t reached glory yet. There is coming a glorious day when true Christians will no longer sin at all. We won’t even be tempted. But that day isn’t until the return of Christ.

For now, we all resemble Paul in Romans 7 when he says, “the good I want to do I don’t do and the evil I don’t want to do, that I do. O, wretched man that I am—who will deliver me from this body of death!”

And that struggle against sin is sometimes sins of ignorance, and sometimes we are tempted and sin in weakness, but also, even true Christians sin deliberately, on purpose.

And that’s not okay—when we sin we have to repent. But child of God being a sinner will not lose you your salvation. Christ sacrifice for His people pays for all their sins and they will be saved. Scripture is very clear on that.

Romans 8:28-30 says that those who are predestined will be glorified. Full stop.

John 6:39 “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

When God saves someone He saves them to the uttermost—the work of Christ doesn’t make salvation possible for God’s people it accomplishes it. So what’s the warning then?

The warning isn’t against any deliberate sin but against a certain sin done deliberately and continuously.

The context of verse 26 is directly related to verse 25 from last week’s passage.

Hebrews 10:25 “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Some of the professing believers in the church that the letter of Hebrews was written to had “neglected to meet with the church”. And we shouldn’t see this as spotty church attendance. The greek word translated as neglect is (en-kata-lei-pontes) and it means to abandon, forsake, or desert. Picture a mother abandoning her child.

The sin we are being warned against is the sin of apostasy. Apostasy is a rejection of Christ by those who know He’s the savior—it is knowing that Jesus is the savior and then rejecting Him as your savior until you die.

Apostasy happens when enduring faith in Christ is replaced with enduring rejection of Christ.

The perfect picture of apostasy in the NT is Judas Iscariot who lived in the light of Christ for 3 years aligned himself with savior, was warmed by the gospel, experienced the blessings of the Holy Spirit in His ministry, and then rejected Jesus.

Belief in Christ would have made him an apostle, but rejection of Jesus made him an apostate.

And our text let’s us know how serious this sin is and why those who commit it cannot be saved.

(Verse 28 on the screen) Hebrews 28 reminds us that God is serious about the sin of rejecting Him. In the Mosaic Covenant, turning away from the One True God carried with it a death sentence. But Christ’ covenant is a better covenant than Moses’. The law of Moses existed, like the rest of the OT covenants and signs, to point to the New Covenant with Christ as it’s redeemer.

Hebrews 8:6 has already told us that the ministry of Christ, His covenant, and it’s promises are more excellent than the Old Covenants. They were all covenants of God’s Grace but they existed to point to this final New Covenant where all the promises would be fulfilled. Verse 28 of our text is saying it is worse to reject Jesus than it was to reject the law of Moses.

Joel gave me a Christmas card last year that included a bonus — which was nice. But if the card had simply said, “Merry Christmas! Joel,” I wouldn’t have kept it.

What made me hold on to it was that Joel took the time to write a genuine letter of appreciation for me, encouraging me in how God was using me at New Creation. That really meant something. I still have that card today.

Now, imagine if I had read that card and then crumpled it up and thrown it away. That would feel so wrong, wouldn’t it? But, if I tossed a generic card with no personal message, that’s no big deal. The card with the personal message is of greater value than a generic one.

In the same way, Jesus is far more precious than the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians had treasured the law as the most precious thing they possessed. But the preacher of Hebrews reminds them — and us — that Jesus is even more precious, and rejecting him is far worse than rejecting what came before.

(Verse 29 on the screen) These people who once professed faith in Christ have rejected Him and the way verse 29 describes their sin let’s us know just how serious it is.

God’s Word says:

1. Willful, deliberate rejection of Christ tramples God the Son under our feet.

Like a piece of gum or a worthless penny the one who rejects Jesus treats him as if He has no value.

2. Willful, deliberate rejection of Christ profanes Jesus’ blood.

In the OT blood made you unclean but the perfect blood of Christ cleanses us from sin—the one who rejects Christ treats his blood as common and unclean.

3. Willful, deliberate rejection of Christ is an outrage to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit delights in magnifying Christ and for one to see Jesus clearly and then to reject Him is an outrageous sin.

It’s no wonder that this section concludes by saying, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Christian don’t fall into the hands of the living God as one who has rejected Jesus. Let you and I hear this warning, let it wake us up. That’s what it’s meant to do!

Are you drifting away from God in your life? Is your love for Christ growing cold? Wake up—heed the warning. Hear the call of God to endure in your faith! God is warning you so that you’ll persevere!

Our good Father wants us to persevere in our faith, so He warns us, and as our text continues we see that His work of empowering us to endure in faith extends beyond just the warning.

II. Help for Endurance (32-39)

When we were in seminary I had an overnight job. It was actually pretty perfect because it allowed me to go into school during the day and I worked Thurs-Saturday 8pm-8am. And the heaviest part of my work load was the first 2 hours and then the last hour. That gave me nine hours of free time where I could do pretty much what I wanted to do—I could work on seminary assignments, read what I want, watch Netflix—the only thing I couldn’t do was the one thing I really wanted to do at 2am—sleep.

And it was hard not to sleep. We had small kids at home and I still had things I needed to get done during the day. Vickery was a champion at letting me sleep during the day after my shift but eventually I still got up before I should and that meant struggling to stay awake. I could never get the hang of fully flipping my days and nights.

What I needed was to be shown a path to endure in alertness. Something besides drinking my bodyweight in Redbull. So, I went looking online and found with the right mix of caffeine, exercise breaks, and access to a standing desk I had what I needed to stay awake.

To help us endure in our faith, in the rest of our text, God gives us 4 ways we can keep on trusting Christ in faith. Number 1…

1. Remember God’s Faithfulness to us

Hebrews 10:32–33 “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.”

The preacher calls the believers of this church to remember the days after they came to be saved and he doesn’t say, “Remember when it was all good and things were perfect—just hold onto that feeling.”

No he says, “Remember how good my love was when things were bad. Remember how it caused joy in your heart even though you were being persecuted.”

The preacher says you had hard struggles—you were publicly reproached and experienced affliction—and if you weren’t experiencing these things you cared for those who were—And verse 34 says they did it with joy—Why? Why did you do that?

Because you were enlightened—you had received the knowledge of the truth—of all that you have in Jesus—of all my promises to you—and you were living in them and leaning into them—you trusted me in the midst of hardship. Remember that I am faithful to my children in the midst of hardship. My love is not fair-weather love, God says.

Friends, when we are feeling like the hardships of following Christ might not be worth it—we would do well to remember former, hard times when God got us through—when despite the circumstances there was joy in our lives—or when God used us to encourage someone else going through a tough time.

I visited someone recently who had lost his wife and I was so encouraged to hear him talk about the goodness of God in the midst of his and his wife’s struggles. He kept saying, “God is so good. His has been so kind to us.” I needed that. That bolstered my own faith and gratitude toward God. It put my own struggles in perspective and caused me to praise God.

When you are struggling in your faith because of some persecution, work, culture, family, run to God and remember that He is faithful. Remembering God’s faithfulness feeds our endurance. Number 2…

2. Remember Your Eternal Future

Hebrews 10:34–36 “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. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”

What would make Christians being persecuted—being put in prison—having their property stolen—face such things with joyful acceptance?

God’s Word tells us this morning that it’s because they had an eternal perspective. Their treasure wasn’t on earth—their treasure was better than what they lost and their treasure abides for ever where thief can’t steal, rust can’t eat, and moth can’t destory.

Friends, you could have the riches of the world—money, fame, houses, all the toys that you’ve always wanted—you could have the freedom to go anywhere you want and do anything you want as soon as you want to do it but if you don’t have Christ you don’t have anything!

All of those things can satisfy our flesh for a little while but they can’t feed our souls and they don’t last!

You don’t ever see a U-Haul behind a hearse—you can’t take it with you.

Friends the greatest treasure a Christian has is God Himself—God is priceless—all the wealth of the world couldn’t come close to His worth—and He owns it all anyway.

Oftentimes I think Christians think the best gift of salvation is that we escape Hell. Pardon for our sins is a great gift.

But God did not save us primarily so that we would be free from the punishment of sin—He saved us so that our record of sin would no longer separate us from Him! Being reconciled in relationship to our great God is the greatest treasure of salvation.

Sin separates us from God—What did Adam and Eve do in the garden as soon as they had sinned—they tried to hide from God—they separated from God.

In Christ the guilt of sin and the record of debt that makes us want to hide from God is paid for it, it’s done away with and forgiven.

Christian there stands nothing between you and the great God who loves you so dearly! The curtain has been torn down! The way is open! The Father’s arms are open wide!

And that goes for you today—if you’ve never put your faith in Christ as your savior—hear the goodness that is being offered to you in Christ. Come today and be free from the guilt of your sin—come today and know what true joy is—come and know what real security in Christ is like. Aren’t you tired of the counterfeit joy that the world is offering you?

Joy in Christ is unending—His promises are sure—and when you put your faith in Him all of your sin is forgiven and you are made a child of God. Come into the good pleasure of your Father! I hope you will.

When we set our minds on eternity—on the true and certain promises of God—it feeds our endurance. It helps us keep on in Christ because we believe, despite everything that we are losing here we have a better and abiding possession in Christ. Number 3…

3.Remembers this World is Temporary

Hebrews 10:37 “For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;”

30 seconds can feel a lot different depending on what you are doing. For instance, a 30 second shoulder rub seems to go by pretty quick compared to 30 seconds of burpees which feels like a literal eternity. 30 seconds of burpees feels like you’re already an apostate and are in hell.

That’s my new evangelism strategy—do 30 seconds of burpees—did you like that? Come to Jesus, he’ll never make you do burpees.

When we remember that our suffering and our hardships are only temporary it helps us to endure. Compared to breadth of eternity that you and I face this life is a blip.

Though there’s sorrow in the evening the Scripture says Joy comes in the morning. And finally…

4. Remember to Live by Faith

Hebrews 10:38 “but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.””

When you are taking a trip abroad to a place with a much different time zone than yours it’s a good idea to change your sleeping schedule to match the new time zone so that when you arrive you’ll be acclimated to night and day in that country.

Our Christian life is like that too. Faith that endures unto the end is a faith that is practiced to the end.

When Christians live their lives like they don’t have faith—it’s no wonder that the Christian life seems so difficult. And friends we all do it. We all have areas of our lives that we live in like we don’t belong to God and aren’t His people.

We try to live by the wisdom of our flesh and the world and it makes life hard because the Spirit of God within us says, “No—we aren’t going to be comfortable with that.” Thankfully!

God says the righteous one, the enduring one lives by faith. What does that mean?

Question 88 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism says that Christ communicates the benefits of our redemption to us by the ordinary means of grace.

Living a life of faith is extraordinarily helped by partaking of the ordinary means of grace that God has given His people.

Let your life be full of feasting on the reading and preaching of the word. Fill your life with prayer—your own and others. Fill your life with meaningful relationships with God’s people. Come to the Lord’s table not as something that we do at the end of the service—but as what God gave it for—real grace for your life—real grace that helps you endure in your faith.

Don’t just make faith a part of your life—live by your faith. Press in and see that God’s way for living your life is better.

Conclusion

When we take God’s warning not to fall away from faith seriously it helps us endure in faith.

When we remember the faithfulness of God and the goodness of His promises we endure in faith.

When we dwell on eternity and we remember that this life and its hardships are temporary we endure in faith.

And when we live our lives leaning into God and living with our faith at the center we endure in our faith.

God is using all these things to preserve the faith of His children so that verse 39 is true of them.

Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

Let’s pray.