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Such A Superior Confidence       Hebrew 10:19-39

Rev. Tim Muse
July 7, 2002

Introduction

We said last week that the only sacrifice that is pleasing and acceptable to God for man’s redemption is that which fully complies with God’s own will.  We went further to say that the only sacrifice that meets that standard is the one time bodily sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, through which you and I as believers have been made holy, once for all.  This morning we want to keep those truths in mind as we look not only at the difference these truths ought to make in our lives, but the difference that adherence or failure to live by this truth will make for all eternity.  This morning we want to look at the last half of Hebrews Chapter 10.  I am going to read for you only verses 19-25.  This is God’s word. 

¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of

Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹and since

we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full

assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having

our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who

promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good

deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us

encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  

Here ends the reading of God’s Holy word, may he add his abundant blessing that God’s people may be prepared for that day, that even now is advancing.

Prayer

Our heavenly Father who has proclaimed the day of Christ’s return, a day not only of perfect judgment, but of promise and rich rewards to those who have proven to be faithful in righteousness.  We pray to you today that your mercies and grace might be extended to us now and that our wills might be transformed according to your word, that our ways might be consistent with the spirit whom we confess, and that the provisions of your Son might be spread upon the story of our lives.  These things we pray in his great and Holy name, Amen.

Sermon

How many times have you heard a person after losing a bet say these words… “I knew the right answer all along but I just didn’t go with what I knew to be true.”  The sad thing is there is going to be some on the Day of Judgment who are disappointed and found guilty because of the same reason..  You see the truth is it is not enough simply to know the truth, but one must act upon that truth if they are to receive the reward.  Putting it in a spiritual context, one must live consistently with the knowledge they have received if they are to receive the reward of the righteous.  We see that very clearly laid out for us in verses 35 and 36 of this passage.  There we read: “ ³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”   Then in verse 36: “³⁶You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”  You see here the simple truth of this text and it’s found simply in this.  You and I as believers must live lives consistent with the hope that we hold to!  We must live lives consistent with the confession we have made, with the truths of the gospel message itself, if indeed we hope and anticipate receiving the promised reward contained here in the gospel. 

In order to explain this and to look at it in a little deeper detail, I would like you to look with me at three different questions.  First of all:   What happens if we don’t?  What happens if we don’t live lives consistent with the confession that we have made?  Secondly, what does it look like if we do?  What does that look like in our lives, to live lives consistent with our confession?  Thirdly, what encouragement does God give us so that we do live lives consistent with the confession we have made? 

First, What happens if we don’t?  We find that in verses 26 through 31.  In verse 26 we read these words.  “²⁶If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”  Note the phrase: “after we have received the knowledge of the truth.”  I want you to note that it is possible, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, if that is all that we do, it is possible to have no other hope, than experiencing both judgment and the fires of Hell.  I know it is not popular to preach on Hell these days in the United States, but the emphasis of this verse deals exactly with that subject.  For the emphasis here is on the frightening aspects of those realities.  Look again at verse 26.  It says:  “²⁶If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,” Verse 27: “²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume.” Not referring to annihilationism, that some would tell you today that if you don’t live righteous lives and you don’t meet God’s standard of righteousness, God’s all powerful and consuming nature will simply do away with you such that you will no longer have an existence.  The Scripture teaches us, we have eternal souls.  So the consuming aspect of this fire that is here is not that of annihilationism, but that of total and continuous filling.  The question is who is this referring to?  The answer is to those who deliberately keep on sinning after they have received the knowledge of the truth.  The question is, who is that referring to?  Is that referring on one hand to those who are of the faith, but intentionally participate in sin on occasion or does it refer to those who are apostate?  Those who have either immediately rejected God’s truth upon receiving it or those who have received God’s truth and over time have proved themselves to be apostate, to have no need for God’s word.  To have no need for Christ and his sacrifice, but they will simply choose another way of life.  They will choose another god to serve, another way of presenting themselves before God, another standard of righteousness and obedience and of living before God.  Which does it refer to?  The debate has been going for centuries.  What we find is that it refers to the latter.  To those who have renounced the faith.  We see that at the end of the verse.  It very clearly says: “²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”  You see it is not referring to believers like you and me who participate in sin even after we heard the word, but it is ultimately referring to those who have cast aside the faith, who have cast aside the gospel message as of no need for themselves.  I think the “Baker Commentary” puts it well when it says: “Deliberately keep on sinning here refers not to the immense sinfulness that remains in every believer’s life, over which one mourns of which one repents and for which one turns to Christ, but it refers to the renunciation of the faith.”  But before we cast this warning aside and say, well this doesn’t refer to us, we are not the apostate.  Let me remind you that this letter was written to believers, to warn them.  You see there is a warning here that says it is possible for you and me to receive and know the truth concerning Christ and concerning his sacrifice and yet not act upon that truth! The result is frightening!  That can be applied even to those unbelievers who come to church and hear God’s word spoken, hear God’s word proclaimed and preached and yet simply go away with the understanding of what the gospel message says and do not repent and put faith in the God who says he will save.  It also can be applied to those who come consistently to church and hear God’s word preached, who read it in their daily quiet times, who can even teach others what the truth of God’s word has to say, yet through out the week do nothing with God’s word.  Throughout the week cast it away just as with those fully apostate, say it has no bearing upon my daily lives.  You see the warning here is that it is possible for us to receive God’s word and not act on it. 

Before we apply this truth I want you to look with me at the comparison that the writer of Hebrews gives as well as the assurance that we find in God’s word.  First of all the comparison.  In verse 28 we read: “²⁸Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”  Verse 29: “ ²⁹How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?”  What is the writer saying here?  Well if you look back in Deuteronomy Chapter 17 what you find is that according to Old Testament law the death penalty was not to be administered to those who violated the Ten Commandments.   But it was administered only to those who in breaking the Ten Commandments proved themselves to be apostate.  To those who in breaking the commandments were literally throwing off the yoke of God and choosing to look to other gods within their lives.  Verses 2 through 5 of that passage we read: “²If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, ³and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky, ⁴and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. ⁶On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death…”  Note: There was no option.  For one who cast aside the truths of the faith there was no option for them in Old Testament Israel, but to be cast to death, to be stoned to death, there was no mercy, there was no option, they must be, they shall be stoned to death.  Here is the writer of Hebrews point.  If no mercy was to be given to those who rejected the law of Moses and looked to and depended on other gods and lived for themselves and so forth.  If no mercy was to be extended to them such that it resulted in physical death, then how much more severely, how much worse treatment do you and I as believers think and know should come to those who reject not just the law of Moses but reject the Son of God?  How much worse treatment, how much less mercy should be given to those who don’t  only reject Moses but reject Christ and that sacrifice that has been given for the sins of the world?  How much worse treatment do you think a person deserves who has trampled the Son of God under foot?  Meaning those who have rejected Christ and in their daily living have treated him as if he was of little or no value.  How much worse treatment should those receive who have treated as an unholy thing or a common thing the blood of the covenant?  Meaning they treat the blood that was shed on Calvary as if it were no different than the blood of any other individual, any other human being or any other criminal.  How much worse treatment, how much more severe treatment should be given to those who have insulted the spirit of grace?  Who even though we didn’t deserve to have this propitiation given on our behalf, we didn’t deserve for it to be proclaimed to us, how much more does a person deserve punishment when they have insulted the spirit of grace?  Saying thanks for the information Holy Spirit, but I will choose to live my own way, I don’t need what you have to offer.  If you are one that might be thinking well perhaps, just perhaps, God might not hold them accountable...  You know the God that people proclaim today, he is a God of love and he is a God of compassion and there is no way that God will ultimately hold people accountable even if they do that.  You see they forget his justice as well.  If you think that God may not do that look to what his word says, verse 30: ³⁰For we know him who said,” referring to Deuteronomy 32, verse 35 “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  You see the Lord will judge all those who are evil, all those who cast him aside, whether we have received his grace, whether we have received His word or not.  The question is what will you and I do with His word?  The summary here is found in verse 31: “³¹It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  The point being, you and I are not simply to be content with just receiving the word of truth, you and I must act upon that word of truth.  We must live lives consistent with the gospel that has come to us, we must live lives consistent with the truth that we have confessed to be true.  Or otherwise, this truth will do us no more good than those who reject it either outright or who through later in their lives through apostasy.  Let me ask you this morning what are you doing with the truth? 

What are you doing with the truth concerning Christ and concerning his sacrifice?   More importantly, what difference can you say it is making in your lives on a daily basis?  If God were to look to you today and say what difference on a daily basis does the truth concerning my sending a Savior, his accomplishing your salvation and his sacrifice being offered on your behalf , what difference does that make in your lives?   How long would the list be?  Does it make a difference in your life or have you given thought to that?  Here is a warning!  But is not to take us away, it is not to keep us down, verse 39 goes on to say: “³⁹But we are NOT of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”  You see the writer of Hebrews says there is greater confidence for you and me, as true believers.  We are not like those who are taken aside and are apostate and have cast aside Christ and his sacrifice and that it has no use in our lives.  We are those WHO BELIEVE, & are saved.  That is the warning.  Not just given to those who are apostate, it is given to the believers such that we might consider that which takes place with those who treat it as of no account, so we might not take it lightly, …rather live consistently within our lives. 

The second question is:  What does it look like to live consistently with the confession of the Gospel?  Thre are three differences that consistent living will make in our lives.  Leon Morris puts it this way, he says: “The contemplation of what Christ has done should stir his people into action.”  What are those three differences? 

First - Consistency results in personal desire and closeness with God.  It results in a personal desire, a greater personal desire and longing for God as well as closeness with God.  Look at verses 19 and 20. “¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God,” Verse 22: “ ²²let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”  It says having had an internal change, the Spirit working purity within our hearts and having an external attestation to that attestation to that and being baptized.  It says having had this work in us and having made the confession, it says let us now draw near to the God that we have confessed.  Let me ask you do you spend more time now discussing religion and the matters of the church than you do drawing nearer to God?  You see that is what our faith is about, drawing nearer to God himself.  So you are missing the whole point of Christ’s provision and his priesthood.  It is not simply so that we can debate religion with other people, we need to do that.  We need to defend the faith itself, but we don’t do it to the extent of failing to draw nearer to the God who has loved us and sent Christ and has accepted his sacrifice.  You see consistency results in a personal desire and closeness with God.  You know the Old Testament believers could not draw near to God themselves and the High Priest could only draw nearer on behalf of the people once a year.  What we find is Christ has provided that you and I might intimately dwell with him on a daily, on a continual basis.  Let me ask you what does your prayer life look like?  We confess God is God and that God is good to us and God wants to hear our prayers and that we are to spend time and that God will receive our prayers and draw us into his heavenly presence.  We confess that with the mouth, but what does our prayer life look like?  What does your devotional life look like?  Can you say today that you are nearer to God, that you walk with God or that you are at least drawing nearer to God?  That is the blessing of the new covenant.  We shouldn’t give that up, that is the blessing of the new covenant that we might personally draw nearer to God, himself.  The question is are we and is that a priority in our life?  Are we living consistent with the truth that the greatest thing in all our life is knowing God and are dwelling and abiding with him.  Is your life consistent with that confession, if not it should be as a believer. 

Second - Consistency results in personal conviction and unwavering commitment to the gospel.  Personal conviction and unwavering commitment to the gospel.  Look at verse 23 with me if you would.  There we read: “²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,” I have a hard time describing how strong that word unswervingly is.  I think of driving a car down the road and just griping it such that you hold it in the road and nothing is going to take you away from it, nothing can pry you off of it.  That is what it says. “Let us hold unswervingly” to the confession that we have made.  The truth is it is not just enough to know the truth, we have to be convicted by the truth, convinced by the truth, content that it is truth, committed to live according to the scripture as truth.  Let me give you an example.  This is no small thing.  It is not simply saying I believe what the preacher has to say and I am going to go on and live my life and do a little devotion.  That is not what holding unswervingly to the gospel is all about.  Look at the example we find her in verses 32 to 34.  There we read: “³²Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. ³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property,”  Let me ask you today are there areas that you need to stand your ground that you know about, but you don’t because you are afraid of being personally attacked.  Are there places you need to stand on behalf of the gospel and live the gospel truth, but you are failing to either because you think you might be insulted or called names or made fun of or are spoken against or perhaps you might lose or put at risk some of the earthly things and pleasures that you enjoy.  Perhaps it is a raise that you hope to get down the road.  Perhaps it is an office that you want to hold.  Perhaps it’s a name or reputation you come to enjoy and don’t want to give up.  Maybe it is even your own retirement if you make a stand for Christ.  What is it that made a difference in the lives of the Hebrews.  Look at verse 34 with me.  There we read: “³⁴You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.”  You see it was the conviction, it was the holding unswervingly to the hope that they professed that enabled them to live faithfully and consistently on a daily basis.  Going to prison in those days wasn’t like today, those prisoners weren’t sitting and watching TV and working out with weights and so forth.  They depended upon their family and friends to bring their food and their clothing and the things that they needed.  For you see if your friend was in prison because of his faith, what was it going to look to you if you helped them out.  Yet they stood even in those trials and those contests, even to the point of public ostracism, because they knew that this world was not all that it was about, but that they had greater and lasting possessions to come. 

Consistency also results in personal commitment to and participation in the community of God or the church.  Let me ask you these questions.  Is poor or unwavering attendance witnessed in churches throughout the summer today, consistent with the gospel?  We say God is most important in our lives, we need to be nourished, we need to come together with the family of God, is the unwavering and poor attendance we see in churches consistent with the faith you hold?  I know there are a few families from our church worshiping in other places today and we are talking with them and hoping that they will come back and we trust that they will either come back or they will find a good church where they will be served and can serve the living God.  But apart from those few, those very few families, look at our membership, you look at a church with about three hundred members and look at the participation we have had this summer.  Let me ask you, is that consistent with the confession we have that God is most important in our lives?  Let me ask you are the clicks that are found in churches consistent with your confession of the gospel?  Is the all to common practice of cutting elders in speech consistent with God’s word?  Verse 24 says: “²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  The day of Christ’s return.  Warren Wiersbe puts it well when he says: “It is interesting to note that the emphasis here is not on what a believer gets from the assembly, but rather on what he can contribute to the assembly.”  Matthew Henry puts it this way.  He says: “Christians ought to have a tender consideration and concern for one another.  They should affectionately consider what there several wants are, weaknesses are and temptations are and they should do this not to reproach one another to provoke one another to anger, but to love and good works, calling upon themselves and one another to love God and Christ more.  To love duty and holiness more, to love their brethren in Christ more, to do all the good offices of Christian affection, both to their bodies and souls of one another.”  You see when we stay away from worship were saying, the ultimate confession we have made is not true, we don’t need God, we don’t need to serve him and to worship him the way he says we  knew.  In fact, we begin to look inward and say that there is not a need for me to serve and to encourage and motivate others even through my attendance.  What this world is about is about me and what I am doing right now. 

What do all these differences depend on?  It depends on faith.  Not just faith but exercising faith.  Look with me at verse 38 that quotes from Habakkuk Chapter 2, verse 4: “³⁸But my righteous one will live by faith.”  It is just not knowledge of the faith but it says they will live by faith.  They will exercise that faith.  Let me ask you, do you trust God?  Do you trust his gospel to be the everlasting truth and can we trust God to be good to his word in every circumstance for all eternity, even in the face of our enemies?  Verse 23 says: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.”  Finally what we see in this passage is we find the encouragement.  This isn’t to suppress or to put God’s people down so that we walk away burdened.  For the writer of Hebrews gave this entire passage to encourage believers to love and to good works, to encourage them to live lives consistent with the faith that they hold so dear to. 

What encouragement does God give to you and me to live lives consistent with our faith?  The answer is his great and his precious promises (and these promises are both provided for us and met in us thru Christ).   In verses 35 and 36, we find  ³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”  Not my words, these are God’s words.   “³⁶You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God,”  when you have lived consistently with the faith, you will receive what God has promised.  The question is what has he promised?   In verse 39 we see a parallel that gives us the answer.  It says: “³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”  You see the truth of the matter is there are two choices in this life.  Either eternal destruction or eternal salvation.  What we find is God promises the working out of our eternal salvation, both our present as well as our eternal salvation, as we seek to live consistently with his gospel.  The question is how can we be sure of that?  Verse 37 says: “³⁷For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.”  I love the way Calvin puts this, “He said the Lord comes I maintain, whenever he puts out his hand to help us the apostle following the prophet says ‘that this will be soon because God does not postpone his help longer than is necessary.”  You know I have tried to get my children to do stuff before and I have held out a reward and said, little son if you will walk a little further and take three more steps I will give it to you and then I will pull it back so he will walk two more and pull it back.  God doesn’t do that.  He is already coming and meeting you and me in our time of need.  He is helping us even as we need help.  In fact what this passage actually says, he that cometh, he who is already coming will come, he will come soon.  So it is not that we have to wait to see whether Christ is going to come, Christ is already present here in our lives.  The passage says: “He who is coming will come” I am referring to his second coming, he will not delay.  Though he delay you wait for him. 

I conclude with this.  There are times in the life of a church when God’s people move forward and they show great faith.  Yet there are also times when God’s people seem to shrink back and they need a shot in the arm, they need a spiritual shot in the heart or the conscience if you will that will do a world of good to them.  I will give you just a few examples.  There are times in typical churches when we refer to the honeymoon of the pastor being over.  When the pastor has been in a certain location for a certain period of time and when it gets to the point where there are new things taking place and nobody wants to be the sore thumb, when new things are happening and moving and new things are beginning to be put in place.  But after that honeymoon time is over there is a time when congregations, it is easy then to begin to bring up those things that have been taking place over that time and begin to point out things that we dislike or don’t like to detract from the ultimate ministry of the church.  There are times when committees have been formed and the newness begins to wear off and there is a need not just for participation, but also for the motivation of love and good works within those committees.  Let me ask you, is it consistent with our faith to tear down the missions committee, tear down the outreach committee, tear down the worship committee, or to encourage them and motivate them toward greater works?  Debbie this week came to me and she said, Tim, she does a wonderful job putting this bulletin together, she said Tim, is this all of the announcements for this week?  Compare this with what the announcement page looked like in this church about six months ago.  And yet it is not Debbie’s responsibility to be generating the programs and the love and support and all the things that fill this page.  Are we shrinking back?  Do we need to move forward?  There are times in the life of a church when the mercury in the thermometer begins to surpass that ninety-degree mark and we begin to shrink back.  Times when life seems to be so busy we don’t have time for those things that are most important.  Times when Satan would have us think we have done enough, we are doing too much and we don’t seem to have what it takes to press on, especially when others are faltering around us.  Look at verse 36, the answer to all those.  There we read: “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”  Regardless of what others do, regardless if the whole world falters and shrinks back.  God says you and I as believers, we need to live lives consistent with our faith.  So that when we have lived consistently with our faith, we will receive the promise of our salvation.  May Brandon Presbyterian Church continue in the gospel we have set out to serve, for as the writer of Hebrews says we, you and I are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but we are of those who believe and are saved.  Do not shrink back; live consistently with the confession you have made.  Let us bow in prayer. 

Prayer

Our heavenly Father, as one commentator has written, let us learn from this not only “to accept the truth that is given us with reverence and a ready meekness of mind, but to persevere continually in the knowledge of it so that we do not pay such dreadful penalties for contempt of it.”  Father, I pray this morning that as a congregation and as individuals we might take you at your word, that we might stand upon your word and that we might live our lives in congruity with your word.  These thinks we pray, …so help us, God.  Amen.

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