Faithful to the End (Hebrews 10:26-39) with Pastor Andrew Courtis

Well, please turn with me in your Bibles today to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews ten, and we come to the end of this chapter as we consider verses twenty-six through to verse thirty-nine.

Let us hear the word of the Lord, these precious words that our soul most desperately needs.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Of how much more worse punishment do you suppose?

Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace?

For we know him who said Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, 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 in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated.

For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence which has great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise for yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith, but if any one draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him, but we are not of those who draw back to perition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Please join me in prayer.

This is your word.

These words are true, they are precious, and I pray that we'd receive them as such.

Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear.

There are some things in life that just seem to come so easily.

You turn on a tap, water comes out.

You go to the fridge, you get the milk, and it's in the carton.

It just seems so easy.

But of course, we know that it's not as easy as that.

In order to get the water out of the tap, someone had to construct pipes.

In order to get that milk out of the fridge, someone had to go to the shop to buy it, but not only that, somebody had to milk a cow.

There's always a lot of work behind what seems to just come so easily.

I'm often struck by the skill of any athlete.

An athlete who's at the top of their game, the best at what they do.

A runner, a swimmer, a footballer, whatever they are, those who are the best just seem to make it look so easy, don't they?

In fact, it looks so easy that when you watch it on TV, you think you could do the same.

But it doesn't work out that way.

You get on the field and you're gonna look like a mess.

And they're gonna make you look so slow, and we're gonna look all unko and uncoordinated because we just don't have the great skill and level in which they're reaching.

Of course, all of these things come as a result of hard work, perseverance, and discipline.

And I want us to be reminded of that concept today as we come to Hebrews 10, 26 to 39.

The title of my message today is Faithful to the End.

And this passage of Scripture is all about persevering.

It's a reminder that the Christian life is not a walk in the park.

It doesn't come easily.

It's going to be difficult.

And for some of you, those difficulties will reach depths like you've never considered before.

But it will be hard.

There will be suffering.

There will be trials.

You will encounter afflictions.

And we need to remember that in the midst of all of these, there are enemies as well.

We will receive the enemy from the outside, that is from the world.

The world hates the ways of God's word and is constantly seeking to bombard our thinking and mould our minds in such a way that we think like it.

There, of course, is that outside enemy as well, the evil one who roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

He hates Christ, he rages against the precious truths of the gospel, and Satan is constantly firing his fiery darts at us.

We also need to be mindful that we have another enemy, and that enemy is our flesh.

And that's within.

We bring that wherever we go.

We all have this internal struggle and this internal conflict.

So not only are we living in an environment that is fallen, a world that will experience disasters, a world that is subjected to death, a world that has disease, but we also encounter enemies on the way.

That makes for a very hard life.

And some of you will be sitting here today knowing that you're on the front line of that.

You're receiving affliction after affliction, and it just seems so much, it seems to weigh you down so much.

This is why the writer to the Hebrews with such passion and clarity keeps reminding us, as he's going to do climactically in Hebrews 12 and verse 2, that we are to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and then sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The passage that we have in front of us today is going to encourage us.

But this encouragement is going to come in two forms.

It's going to, first of all, give a serious warning.

And the warning should make every one of us feel uncomfortable.

But then, right after the serious warning, the writer will then give us a gracious encouragement.

First of all, he gives us a storm.

And then right after the storm will be the beautiful radiating sun that brings warmth to your soul.

But we need both.

Because both of these are the means that God has sovereignly chosen and appointed to help us in the Christian life.

The Christian life begins by the grace of God and is sustained throughout by God's grace.

But God has also ordered and designed the Christian life in such a way that whilst we cannot in any way, shape, or form contribute to our salvation and our right standing before God, that is all on grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

But we need to remember that when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we enter into the Christian life, the life of faith, we don't just float along passively.

It's not a case of just asking Jesus in your heart and then going wherever you want with your feet.

The Christian life is lived in submission to Christ.

We must persevere.

And in order to persevere in the Christian life, we need to heed a serious warning.

And we need to remind ourselves of this warning regularly.

But we also need to receive the gracious encouragement.

So I want to share with you these two points today, and we're going to see the first one, the serious warning.

It's found in verse 26 and brings us all the way down to verse 31.

I want you to note that in verses 26 to 31, we have a description of a person who is defiant.

It's a person who disregards God's word.

The sad thing about the person being described here is they, on the outside at least, belonged to the community of God's people.

They claim to be a believer.

They have claimed to have belonged.

They had all the outward signs of someone who has gone from darkness into light.

Maybe there was some change in their life.

But the person being described here is described as somebody who is defiant.

And the seriousness of their defiance is so bad that it says they are going to be judged.

They're going to be judged with fierceness.

They're going to be judged with absolute certainty.

It will be a serious judgment.

This individual will not enter the glory of heaven.

Now I want to be very clear as to who this is not talking about.

This is not talking about a Christian who sins.

Because if that is true, then not one of us have any hope to ever go to the glory of heaven.

Because every single one of us sin.

We need to understand those beautiful words of Romans 8 and verse 1 that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

If you're in Christ Jesus, yes, you will still sin, but you will not be condemned.

You will not receive the severity of the threat of the judgment that is mentioned in these verses.

Nor is this passage talking about a Christian who is struggling with their sin.

We all know what it is to struggle with our sin.

We know what it is to feel that inner conflict where we are feeling a war going on inside of us.

It's a raging battle.

There is a craving on the one hand to be submissive to the word of God, yet there is a pull and a craving to chase after the desires of our own fleshly wants.

But this passage isn't talking about that person either.

This passage, as I said, is talking about somebody who is openly defiant to the gospel.

Look at the description of them in verse 26 and verse 29.

First of all, they're described as someone who sins willfully after they receive the knowledge of the truth.

This is not talking about someone who just sins, nor is it talking about someone who is struggling with sins.

It is talking about someone who says, I've received the knowledge of the truth, and I just willfully reject this.

I repudiate this, I don't want this, and I walk away from this.

Go down to verse 29.

They're also described as someone who tramples the Son of God underfoot.

There's someone who insults the spirit of grace.

These are very serious descriptions.

Imagine a person who was caught in a house that was burning down with fire.

The fire is consuming it.

The smoke can be seen from a long distance.

In fact, you can barely see the house because of the raging fire and because of the horrible smoke.

You see the firefighters arrive, you hear the noises, you see the commotion, and then suddenly you see one of those heroic firefighters run through and kick the door open.

Run through the house.

And as he runs through the house, he finds the individual who's caught in there.

He drags them out.

As that firefighter drags them out and throws them onto the grass.

You can see the firefighter that has got black all over him.

His hands have been burnt.

The consuming flames were even getting to him.

And he's being cared by the for the medical team.

And the person that he rescued had been horribly burnt up, but he received care immediately, was put on the stretcher, was taken in the ambulance, taken to the hospital.

And there's been months have gone by.

He's now recovered.

And as soon as he recovered, and as soon as he received all those good things, he decided to get back in his car and go back in that house and lock the doors and let the fires rage again.

And he didn't want to listen to anyone on the outside.

That's the person that's being described here.

It's a person who's received so much goodness, so much grace, yet they reject it.

They willfully walk away.

This is a description of the word of God.

They received it.

But for this individual, if they were to decisively walk away, if they were truly to say that I am willfully rejecting Christ, I am willfully trampling the Son of God under my foot, I am willfully insulting the Spirit of Grace, then verse 26 says, there is no longer remains a sacrifice for their sins.

This individual is under judgment.

And there's a few things that I want you to note about this warning.

The warning is if somebody shows such defiance to Christ, willful rejection of him, then we need to understand that this person will receive judgment.

What is that judgment like?

Well, we need to find out first of all that this judgment is a judgment that brings destruction.

It's a judgment that is absolutely certain, it's a judgment that will happen.

Look at verse 27.

But a certain, fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries.

Verse 27 is telling us in this serious warning that if somebody tramples the Son of God underfoot, if somebody hears the word of truth and then says, And I don't want it, I want to live my way, then the writer is saying, it is certain that person will be judged.

And that judgment will come with absolute certainty.

It is not a hypothetical judgment, it is a certain judgment, it is a real judgment.

It is described to be a certain fearful expectation.

And note the level of it.

It is a fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

That is deliberate language taken from both the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Zephaniah.

This is referring to the lake of fire.

This is the judgment of God.

And what the writer wants his readers to know immediately is this is how serious it is to say that I will not follow the Lord, that I will follow someone else, that I will walk away, that I will depart, that I will live my life, that I will go my way.

The writer says you need to know that on that person's head is a certain judgment.

A sure judgment.

But not only is it a sure judgment, a certain one, but we also need to understand that it's a severe judgment.

He says, anyone who rejected Moses' law, verse 28, dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

In other words, what he's saying there is in the old economy, in the old covenant, if you rejected the law, you would be judged.

And you would be judged severely, you would die without mercy if you were defiant.

But then he adds in verse 29 of how much more worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who's trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace.

If it was a severe judgment in the old economy, how much more severe would it be when we've received greater revelation in Christ?

And so what he's saying here is that the judgment that we're going to receive if somebody completely departs from Christ is going to be a severe judgment.

And finally, he wants us to know that it's going to be a divine judgment.

Verse 30 and 31, he says, For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

This judgment that he is threatening is a divine judgment.

God is judge, God is righteous.

We know that God is loving, God is gracious, and God is merciful, but he does not deny the fullness of his character.

God is the judge, and he will judge all those who are his enemies, all those who reject him.

So many people refuse to consider this.

Many people even get offended when such things are said from a pulpit.

But this is who God is He is the ultimate avenger.

He will repay those who are against him.

He will judge, and he will judge those who claim his name, associate in the community of his people, but defect and walk away.

He will judge.

So this judgment is a certain judgment, it is a severe judgment, and it is a divine judgment.

That's what's being expressed here.

The writer is giving this very serious warning to this congregation.

Because there are some in that congregation who may be actually considering to depart from Christianity and live a life according to their own desire.

Whether it be to return back to Judaism and go backwards in their Christian life.

But we could even apply this to any other area of life.

Someone can just drift away from the church and all of a sudden just live the life that they want.

They can say all they want that, oh well, I prayed a prayer, or well, I'm just not there anymore.

But this is an act of defiance.

Didn't we learn back in verse 25 that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some?

This is a deliberate forsaking.

It is a deliberate neglect.

So again, I mentioned to you in verses 26 to 31, what's not being described here is a Christian who sins, nor is it a struggling Christian, but it is an outright defiant person who claimed to be a Christian.

And in their ultimate defiance, they are going to receive judgment.

And what they end up showing us is that they never truly belong to Christ to begin with.

They may have been outwardly attached to the community.

This is a scary thing.

The fact that the writer mentions this shows that this is not only a possibility, it has been a reality for some.

Is this describing any of us today?

Is there anyone here that truly does not belong to Christ?

Is there anyone here who is beginning to show the early signs of defiance?

Will you insult the Spirit of grace?

Are you going to trample the Son of God underfoot?

Take heed.

There is a certain judgment, a severe judgment, a divine judgment that will be placed upon you, and it's inescapable.

It would be the most unloving thing in the world for me not to warn you of that.

This is a serious matter.

Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, I did this and I did that in your name, but Jesus will say, I never knew you.

Many people are self-deceived, but they're nothing more than defiant.

This is describing the sin of apostasy.

So we remember in summary, apostasy is not someone who sins, nor is apostasy someone struggling with sin.

But apostasy is somebody who repudiates and rejects the core elements of biblical Christianity and removes themselves from submission to Christ.

That is apostasy.

And that is serious.

And that needs to be met with judgment.

And the text of scripture says that judgment is sure, that judgment is severe, and that judgment is divine.

The Lord Jesus Christ will carry out that judgment.

Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Because that's the serious warning.

But the passage now gives us a gracious encouragement.

Because just as the writer has brought his congregation into the thunderstorm, exposing them to the sound of the loud clapping thunder, as they've seen the lightning in the sky in the seriousness of the warning, he waits for the storm to pass.

And for those that are truly still standing, he says to them, Let's now enjoy the warmth of the sun after the storm.

And he wants to encourage them.

Now the purpose of that warning is not to be manipulative.

The purpose of the warning is genuinely a means to help us examine ourselves.

Because when we hear that warning, we ought to say in our hearts, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to trample the Son of God under my foot.

I don't want to insult the Spirit of grace.

I don't want to go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of truth.

I don't want to receive a severe judgment.

I don't want to receive the vengeance of God.

If that's how you feel after reading this passage, then the threat of the judgment is doing its work in you.

That's what it's supposed to do in you.

For those that are truly Christ's, it ought to make you desire to run to him more, to cling to him more, and to hate the idea that I could experience such things.

But now he says in verses 32 to 39, a gracious encouragement.

I think it's good to see how it ends, because it helps us understand his point in verses 32 to 39.

He says, But we, he includes himself, but we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

So after giving this serious warning and giving some encouragement, he reminds them, but but we're not like that.

Because we love Christ, we belong to him.

We're holding on to that rope of confidence and hope that is anchored to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're not of those people.

But how does he encourage them as they go through this time of struggle?

Well, he gives them a gracious encouragement in verses 31 to 39 by telling them to do two things.

And I want to encourage you with this because when we go through the time of struggle, when we begin to compromise, when we begin to take our eyes off the heavenly prize, worldliness begins to set in.

And what we need to do in those moments is not follow rules and regulations and not get all super prescriptive with one another.

But what we need to do is two simple realities.

We need to learn to look back and we need to learn to look forward.

That's what the writer says.

He tells them to recall things from their past and then he tells them to know things that are absolutely certain in the future.

And he says, when you hold these two realities before you, that impacts the present.

Let's think about the first one.

If we are going to graciously endure in the Christian life, if we are going to persevere, we need to learn to look back.

But look back at what?

Not look back at all your failures, not look back at all your weaknesses.

You're to look back at the graces of God that were at work in your life.

You're to take time to pause to be still and know that the Lord He is God.

You're to remember those moments in which you saw the work of God taking place inside of you.

Imagine a married couple who are struggling in their marriage.

They're fighting, they're disagreeing, they don't want to spend time with each other, they're annoying each other, and everything just seems to result in tension and division and disagreement.

And then this couple then one day sit down with humble hearts.

And as they sit down together in the lounge room, they pull open their wedding album and their photo albums.

And as the two of them sit there, they look back and they see the times they made a covenant to one another.

They saw the joy on each other's faces, and the photos reminded them of conversations they had.

They remembered the moments they read the word together, the moments they reflected on sermons together, the moments they showed hospitality and ministered grace to others, and others ministered it to them.

They remembered the times that they went through trials and difficulties and they sought the Lord and the Lord answered and it propelled them on.

Isn't it amazing how just the memories of photos all of a sudden warm their hearts and rekindle an affection as they remember their first love?

But in order for that to be remembered, that love had to have been there.

And the Lord Jesus told the church in Ephesus, You are active, you are doing this ministry and that ministry, but you've become cold, you have left your first love.

He says, Remember from where you have fallen and return to that first love.

Allow the memory of the love you once had for me to rekindle you.

And just as a quick footnote, that was to the Ephesian church.

The Ephesian church was so active, so filled with ministry, but they had lost their first love.

And in order for them to remember their first love, they had to go back to those old times where they had a passion for the Lord.

And we actually have an example of that in Scripture.

It's called Acts 19.

And in Acts 19, they got converted, and when they got converted, they got all those idols that they had, all those books that they had, and they just sort of piled it all up and said, We just cast all this aside.

We burn all this up.

We no longer want any of this.

We denounce that old way of life and we follow Christ.

We live for Him.

That was the that was the energy, the passion they had for the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was their first love.

And what the writer is saying to this congregation is you're suffering now, and you're feeling the pull to depart.

But he says to them in verse 31, but recall the former days in which you were illuminated.

What happened in those former days?

Three things.

You endured a great struggle with sufferings, verse 32.

Verse 34, you had compassion on me in chains, and also verse 34, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods.

Now I want you to note that those three descriptions, endurance, compassion, and joy, all took place in the context of hostility.

Look at the words.

You endured great struggle with sufferings.

What were they?

Partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated.

For you had compassion on me and my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

He was saying, You guys were going through a time of suffering and difficulty, but in the midst of that difficulty, he goes, I remember when you endured, you pressed on in the midst of those difficulties.

Not only that, when some of us suffered and went into prison, you showed compassion.

You visited us, or you prayed for us, or you wrote to us, you sent us things.

And not only that, you had joy.

Your joy was marked by a life lived in devotion and closeness to the Lord.

How many of us today are here and we aren't showing that joy?

We aren't showing compassion, we aren't showing endurance, but instead we're showing frustration and impatience, we're showing harshness, and we're showing a sadness on our faces.

That's the opposite of what's described here.

That's the opposite of someone who is fixated upon the glory and beauty and honor of Christ.

When someone hangs around you, what do they walk away like?

Do they walk away negative, or do they walk away saying, I've been drawn nearer to the Lord in this person?

Oh, they're not perfect.

They're a sinner just like me, but there is a warmth in them.

And the more we do that, a fire begins to ignite a fire of warmth and passion that warms the hearts of the church.

A coal by itself will not be as effective as a hot coal next to other coals.

And so he reminds them remember what you are like, remember the former endurance, remember the compassion, remember the joy, and we ought to do the same.

Remember those times, and may that kindle in you a joy for the Lord.

Well, he says at the end of uh in verse thirty-four, excuse um, yes, at the end of the end of verse 34, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven, this then triggers his second point.

I not only want you to look back, but I want you to look forward.

And what do you look forward?

Consider with me verses thirty-five to thirty-eight.

Therefore do not cast away your confidence which has great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that after you've done the will of God you may receive the promise.

For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith, but if any one draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

What he's reminding us here by means of a quotation from the book of Habakkuk, chapter two, is he's reminding us that the Lord, the Lord is going to return, the Lord is going to act, the Lord is going to work.

And we need to keep our eyes on the fact that when the Lord returns, he will reward, when the Lord returns, he will make every wrong right, he will do a most glorious work, and the day will come when we will behold the face of our precious and dear Lord Jesus.

And the writer is reminding us that as we live in this present, we are not to lose sight of that which is ahead.

We are to be considering that which is to come.

And when we firmly have our eyes and minds fixated on eternity, then that will do something for our present.

And when we say have our eyes fixed on eternity, I'm not talking about all the areas of legitimate debate and discussion concerning timelines and all these events.

I am talking about the actual beholding of our Savior Jesus Christ and to be with him, to be released from sin, to be glorified, to receive a resurrected body, to be in the assembly of the saints for all eternity, to see God receive all in all.

That's what our eyes are to be fixed on.

And that's why we must agree with Jonathan Edwards, who prayed that beautiful prayer, Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.

And what he meant by that was help me to be so fixated by the glory and honor of seeing Christ one day that that will change the way I see everything now.

I fear that we think too much of this world now as it is.

We think too much of our struggles, we think too much of ourselves, and we ought to be thinking much of Christ.

He reminds us that he is coming and he will not tarry.

It is in the appointed moment of God's divine calendar that the Lord Jesus Christ will return for his people.

You and I don't know when that is, but as we anticipate the iminency of the Lord Jesus Christ coming for us, that ought to propel us now to live by faith, to continue, and to take on the words of verse 39, that we are of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

We are to live a life of faith.

And it's this mention of faith in verse 38 opens up an incredible discussion that we're going to consider in chapter 11, as he says, now let us talk about what the life of faith looks like here and now.

Let me show you examples of saints who suffered, yet they persevered because of faith.

And he's ultimately going to show us that the greatest example is actually in chapter 12.

And it's the Lord Jesus Himself, the one that we are to gaze at, the one that we are to look at, the one that we are to live for, the one that we are to deeply love.

So as we bring this to a conclusion today, I remind you that the writer, as he looked at this congregation, saw their struggle, and he encouraged them by reminding them that they ought to persevere.

But the perseverance isn't a walk in a park.

The perseverance must come by means of a serious warning, and we need to have that serious warning before us constantly.

That our hearts ought to break at any thought of any acts of defiance in our minds and in our lives.

But it ought to cause us to search our hearts to ensure that we truly belong to Christ, and we're not just Christians in name only.

But secondly, this passage taught us to look at that great and gracious encouragement, the encouragement that reminds us to look back at the work of God's grace in our lives, but to also look forward to what He's going to do for us.

And the looking back and the looking forward does something to us now.

It helps us live the life of faith.

The just shall live by faith.

And we must do so with our eyes firmly fixed on our dear Savior.

This passage, the writer says to the readers, but we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Do you believe?

Do you believe?

Then live.

Live for Christ in the present.

But you need to heed the warning.

You need to receive the encouragement.

You must experience the fearsome sound of the thunder to then enjoy the warmth of the radiant sunshine afterwards.

That is ours, and it's ours in Christ.

Let us pray.

Our gracious Lord, I thank you for the great work that you do in the lives of your people.

Left to ourselves, we would be in destruction.

We would continue to shake our fist at you.

We would do our own thing.

But you have broken into our lives, you have subdued us, you have brought us into the kingdom of your dear Son, and you are doing a mighty work in us.

Help us to persevere, help us to continue.

And I thank you that this is based not on our efforts and works, but it is based on our clinging of Christ.

We hold to him, we trust in him, we lean on him, we believe in him.

Help us to be ministered to now by him.

I do pray this in the name of our precious Savior.

Amen.