Jesus, The Superior Motivation

Good morning. We feel a solidarity every Sunday, but there's a particular one on a day like this when we toughed it out to be here. One of the things that makes sports great is the epic comeback. I'm sure many of us have our favorite versions of that. The one that was etched into my heart really before I was old enough to understand what was going on is the one that occurred in the 1980 Georgia-Florida football game. Georgia had came into the game undefeated They were favorites, but it was a very sloppy game and and they found themselves behind 21-20 in the fourth quarter with about 90 seconds left in the game Florida had pinned them deep in their own territory, and it looked hopeless it You know how those things tend to go the team has kind of lost momentum first down Didn't go well second down and so it was third and an eighth and I mean, third and ten from Georgia's own eight-yard line when Buck Ballou, the quarterback, hit Lindsey Scott on an out route and he kind of evaded the tacklers and streaked down the sideline to score the go-ahead touchdown for the game. And then Georgia would go on to beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl that year and win the national championship. It was a glorious moment for Georgia, not so much for Florida. And I say all that to say endurance matters. Endurance matters. How we finish is often more important than how we start. It's a particular challenge of prosperity, right? We see this all the time in sports. When a team gets ahead and they start to kind of lose their edge, they get lazy, and then all of a sudden the other team gains momentum and closes the gap and often comes back to win the game. That's what happened to Florida in 1980. That's the story behind the tortoise and the hare, right? The hare is so fast, he gets far ahead of the tortoise, but he doesn't finish. This is a principle that holds true for our lives as well though. Finishing well for us is a challenge. It's true for work, it's true for marriage and parenting, it's true for our faith. And that's what we'll be considering this morning. For those of you who are joining us not normally here, we're continuing a study through the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a sermon in letter form delivered to Jewish Christians in the first century. The author is calling the hearers to faithful endurance, to understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that the Old Testament, the Old Covenant has been about. Everything, every promise that God has made. Jesus is the last word in God's revelation to us. He's the king of the new humanity. He's the eternal priest who sacrificed himself as the once for all offering for sin to bring about eternal results for all of God's people. And that's what we've been considering as we've studied Hebrews together. And this morning we find ourselves in a turning point in the book, having concluded an extended argument about Jesus and his role as the high priest in fulfilling all of the sacrifices and all the things of the Old Testament. Now he urges us to respond in the only way that we can. And so this morning's text is a bit like a halftime motivational speech, right? The coach calls the team together and he He looks at them and He points out the things they need to be doing. He corrects kind of some of the mistakes maybe they've been making and He gives them confidence and motivation to continue and finish strong. And what I hope for us to see this morning is that sort of motivation that Christians are called to and must live lives of faithful endurance based on what Jesus has accomplished and what He has promised. So Christians must live lives of faithful endurance based on what God has done and promised through Jesus. So we'll see this morning instructions, we'll see a warning, and we'll see assurance. So we'll see the instructions in verses 19 through 25, this call to a life of endurance. Let me read 19 through 21. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, So we notice that, therefore, marks a transition in the book. And I want us to see that the instructions that the author is giving us are based on two things that Christians have. Confidence and a great priest. And that great priest, of course, he's talking about Jesus. Jesus is the one who is faithful in God's house as a son. He's the one who brings God's people into the true eternal rest of God's household. He is the great priest and that's what we've been thinking about for several chapters now, all the way back to chapter four. He made the perfect sacrifice in the perfect place to accomplish the perfect result for God's people. That's what we saw last week in particular, last time in particular. And now verses 19 and 20 summarize that work. We see that Jesus offered himself. He spilled his blood as the final sacrifice that removes the penalty and the power of sin for God's people. His blood covers the people of God and makes them holy so that they can actually come into God's presence. And just like the old priest used to pass through a curtain from the holy place into the most holy place that represented the presence of God. So too, we as God's people pass through Christ's torn flesh on the cross into the real, eternal, heavenly presence of God. He is the new and living way, meaning that he's the source of eternal life. It's different from anything else that's ever been offered and will never, ever become old. And the result of Jesus' work, he says, is that we have confidence. Now as we think about confidence, I want us to think that confidence can be both something that's subjective and objective, right? Confidence is something we feel when we think we're good at something, when we've become very comfortable with it, right? So the musicians that play on Sunday morning play confidently because they know what they're doing. A lot of times when we've been at, we have a lot of work experience, we feel confident in our job. We feel like we know what we're doing. But there's another kind of confidence that's a little bit more objective. And it comes by something that we have a right to, even if we don't feel like we're particularly good at it. So you can picture walking into school, a new school on the first day, or your first day on the job, or taking your first child home from the hospital. You may not feel confident at all that you have any idea what you're doing, yet you have to act. You have the responsibility to act in confidence that you belong, that this is your right, that you are entitled to this. And we trust that that subjective confidence will follow as we keep doing that. And I say that to say I think that captures some of how we feel when we get to this point in the book of Hebrews. We don't feel necessarily confident in our relationship with God. But what the author is doing is trying to motivate us to feel or to understand the objective confidence so that that subjective confidence starts to follow. And so we see that our confidence is based upon Jesus, based on his historical work on our behalf because of who he is as our merciful and faithful and sympathetic high priest. Because of that, we can act in response to God. If you're not a Christian this morning, I want you to understand that this, what I've just described, is actually a summary of the gospel. Christianity is different from all other religions because our confidence doesn't come from our own performance. It comes from Jesus' performance. And so, in order to be saved, we have to come to God through Jesus to understand that our sin requires an eternal payment, but that that payment has been made in full by Jesus' death on our behalf. And through faith and repentance in Him, God exchanges our sin for Jesus' righteousness. It allows us to be released from the penalty of sin and makes us God's beloved children, actually adopted into His family. So if you have questions about the gospel, please don't leave here without talking to me or someone else here in this room. We can give you assurance and confidence through Jesus. He gives us three specific actions. So the instructions, the main part of the book, and this is a real turning point again because this is based on everything that he said about who Jesus is. Now, three key responses that we are to have as his people. To draw near, to hold fast, and then to consider. So draw near. As we've heard throughout this study, this is one of the main differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, God's people were kept in fear, kept in distance away from God, fear and trembling at the mountain. But in the New Covenant, Jesus enables us to actually draw near to God. And he says we're to draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. That's an expression of sincerity, of trust and devotion. It reflects a life that's been transformed from the inside out, shaped by staking everything on the promises God has made in Jesus. We're to draw near with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. And our hearts can actually be sincere because we are convinced that Jesus truly has made a sacrifice that takes away our sin, that allows us to be forgiven and cleansed before God. In the Old Covenant, the sprinkling of the blood symbolized the representative death of an animal, the death that covered God's people. And here we realize that our conscience condemns us. There is really sin there, and our conscience condemns us. And on our own, we really are guilty before God, deserving His wrath. And in the Old Covenant, that led to us running away from God in fear. But through Jesus' sacrifice, we answer our conscience. Not by trying to convince ourselves that we really aren't that bad, but reminding ourselves, assuring ourselves that Jesus' blood really has been spilled, really does cover our sin, and that we really can be forgiven through Him. So when we sin, we don't run away from God in fear, we run to Him for mercy and for help. He says we are to draw near to God with our bodies washed in pure water. And that's another picture, another aspect of the cleansing work that Jesus has done for us. The Old Covenant had all kinds of washing rituals that represented the removal of outward corruptions that made someone ritually unclean and separated them from the community. But we see that God promised to sprinkle his people with clean water and give them a new heart. And that's what's provided in Christ. And that's part of what baptism represents and why we practice baptism the way we do. It shows our cleansing from sin and our pledge to live a life of holiness as God's people. It's why we are committed to baptizing only believers, those who actually profess their faith in Jesus's cleansing work on their behalf. In all of this, it's clear that drawing near is the only logical response to what Jesus has done. It's as if someone had given you the keys to a new car. And the only thing you have to do is start it up and drive it. So too, Jesus has opened the way for us to God, and all we have to do is walk through and go to Him. So one of the obvious implications of this exhortation is that we should pray. Right? Through Jesus, we have an advocate in the presence of God. We have an inside connection. So think about how far connections take you in life, right? If you need a job, you talk to somebody who knows somebody who owns a company or can hire you. If you need to move, you need to move something, you call your friend who has a truck who can help you do that. If you're in legal trouble, it's good to know somebody who is or knows a lawyer, and on and on and on. But friends, we, Christians, have an inside connection with God. The author of Hebrews tells us to approach the throne of heaven as the throne of grace, to approach it with boldness, as if we belong there so that we can receive mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need. And even more, we see that Jesus came to be identified with us as brothers so that we could be adopted into God's family as his children. And we are assured that God isn't just doing us favors reluctantly or because we bother him enough, but because he's eager. He wants to answer and give good gifts to us as his children because he's a good heavenly father. So the scope of our drawing near to God isn't just narrowly defined in our moments of prayer, but in our whole lives lived in a relationship with God. It's a consciousness that God is with us wherever we go, that we are his people, we represent him in everything we say and think and do. It means that we live lives to please him. But at the same time, we know that our relationship with him is not based on our performance, but based on Jesus's performance. Verse 23 says, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. So we see this is a call to endurance, not to lose our focus on the salvation that Jesus has won for his people. As we draw near, he's saying, we have to stay near. We don't let anything lead us astray. And we see in this text, this particular verse, that Christianity is not just a confession of faith. That is, it's not just a statement of things that Christians believe objectively. But flowing right out of that is a confession of hope. It's a life lived with a certain confidence in the future that's guaranteed by Jesus' work. As he says here, he who promised is faithful. We thought about that earlier in Hebrews, that somebody's promise is as good as that person's character. And we're reminded that God is faithful. He has a perfect track record of keeping every promise. Not one of his words can or will ever fail. And so Christian hope is a certainty that we will be delivered out of judgment against sin and brought into a new world where Jesus reigns as king. 24 and 25, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. 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. This third exhortation is that we consider how to stir up or how to encourage one another. It flows out of the other two and we see that our drawing near to God through Jesus is not something that we do just individually. It's not less than that, but it's more than that. It's something that as we draw near and hold fast to him, we also have to help others to do the same. We lock arms in this project together. And I want us to think about this because it's really easy for us to consider, kind of think of Christianity in a very individual way. It's sort of the Christian life is my personal relationship with Jesus. It's how faithfully I perform my Bible reading and prayer duties, what kind of a husband and father I am, how I do my job, and on and on and on. And the church kind of can fit in there somewhere, but it's really tangential. It's really a side project to the whole thing. But notice that's not how the author of Hebrews presents it. The author tells us to encourage one another. And so with endurance in mind, you picture a team of maybe cross-country runners or cyclists or something like that. It's not enough just to have one superstar that's the fastest one that's ever been. No, your team is only as good as the slowest member. And ideally, every person is helping to help set the pace and to see that they all cross the finish line as fast as they can together. That's the picture of the Christian life. The author makes it very clear that if you're a Christian, part of your job is to help encourage other Christians. It's not something that's optional. Now there's a lot we can say about this text, but I want us to notice how the author frames this responsibility to encourage one another in the context of our regular meetings as a church. Encouraging one another is contrasted with neglecting to meet together. So it shows us that the primary purpose of this gathering is not just the preaching of the word. It's not just you hearing and someone up here preaching what's happening, although that's important, right? As we think about the church, we shouldn't just think of ourselves as consumers and what we come to get out of Sunday mornings. The reason we gather as a church is for each of us to play a part in encouraging one another. The presence, the ministry of presence actually sets us up, it gets us in place, it positions us to do the work of encouragement. It gets you face to face with people, with all of the church and with people so that you can get to know them, you get to hear more about what's going on in their lives and encourage them. And of course that doesn't only happen on Sundays. I hope that we don't exhaust that on Sundays. But this particular gathering, unlike anything else, puts together those who may not naturally find their way into each other's lives, right? We see people here that we never see throughout the week. And I just want to encourage you as members of the church to take advantage of that. See your presence here on Sunday mornings as an opportunity to greet people you don't normally see, to find out how people are doing, to get to know those you haven't had an opportunity to interact with yet. Another way of putting what he's saying about encouraging is considering how to stir up one another. And that language of stirring up is one of stimulation, of shocking, of shaking things up, getting things moving. And if you think about that, what is it that normally you get worked up about and that maybe you try to get others worked up about as well? A lot of times it seems to be really easy to get worked up about something negative, something complaining or getting angry. Almost all of us will tell of a bad customer service experience we've had, right? That's the kind of thing we typically get worked up about. But what the author has in mind here is stirring one another up to love and good works, helping one another to be more faithful, to use your gifts more effectively, to build up the church and advance the cause of Christ. This is a call to a holy ambition and a holy energy so that the church is not stagnant, but vibrant and active. One of the things that stands out to me is that the controlling verb here is to consider. And this means that behind the scenes and in our own minds and our own quiet time in our homes, each one of us is to be spending our thought energy, considering other members of this church. How can I encourage this brother? How can she use her gift in this way in the church? He could really help this brother who's struggling in this way. She needs to learn from this sister's example. A lot of thought energy behind the scenes that goes into those kind of relationships. And a lot of that means that we actually have to know each other well enough to know where we need encouragement. Where are we excelling at love and good works and can do more? Where are we struggling in areas that need help? It requires vulnerability for us to actually reach out and ask for help. And it requires courage to speak the truth in love. One of the ways I hope we're growing as a church is in a ministry of following up. Your relationships would be, and this Sunday may be an exception, but your relationships may be that you can't miss a Sunday without someone checking in on you. And I'm not just talking about one of the elders, I'm talking about another member where you're noticed when you miss. So start doing this yourself. Put together your own sort of network of people. Take attendance. Notice who isn't here and follow up with that person. It should be scary for us if we don't have relationships in this body outside of Sunday morning. So be the kind of person that you want others to be for you. Can I text you this week and ask you to pray for me? Can we get together sometime for coffee? Pursuing one another so that we're modeling and we're demonstrating that kind of love and interdependence that we're being called to. Based on this text and what follows, we see that one of the early warning signs of drifting from the faith is just someone's absence from these regular meetings. I realize I'm speaking this morning to people who are actually here, and again, this is an unusual Sunday with the weather, but still, consider what we're saying when we miss church for no good reason. We're not just skipping an opportunity to hear and worship. We're putting off our responsibility to minister to God's people. We're trading an eternal investment for an earthly investment. This view of the church is consuming. I get that. It's setting the bar very high. But brothers and sisters, what could be more beneficial for us? What is it that'll keep us drawing near and holding fast to Jesus more than making a community project out of it? than taking deep and personal responsibility and giving prayerful attention to how to help others hold fast and draw near to Jesus. I do want to just take a second to give a shameless plug for the Sunday school class that was supposed to start this morning that Lord willing will start next week following the book of instruments in the Redeemer's hands. If you are interested in growing in this particular area of how to help, how to encourage, how to build up other Christians, that's exactly what that class is going to be about. So if that's something that's of interest to you, think you would like help there, that's maybe useful to you to come to that class starting next Sunday. I hope we've seen in thinking about this why the weekly gathering is so essential and we want to keep that in mind as we turn then to the rest of the text and particularly the warning that follows. So we see in verses 26 to 31 the warning, this danger of what happens if we give up. So let me read 26 to 31. 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. We see in this section that discarding Christ would inevitably lead to judgment. The stakes of what we're talking about, friends, are eternal. 26 and 27 remind us that each human will find him or herself in one of two eternal states. There is what we call heaven, or the new heavens and the new earth, where God dwells with his people, where sin and sorrow and death are removed, where there is joy and life forever. It's a wonderful picture. It's a wonderful thing to hope for. And on the other hand is hell. It's where the enemies of God are sealed forever apart from Him and suffer the fury of eternal fire. And as has been clear throughout the book of Hebrews, the only way to be saved from judgment, from eternal suffering, is to be rescued through Jesus, for His sacrifice to stand in our place. And that's the glorious hope of the gospel, that He can and will save all those who believe in Him. But the harsh reality is that for those who don't, They suffer eternally in hell. We see in this text that if the gospel has come to us, it changes us. There's no such thing as a mild reaction to Jesus. He can't be the final prophet and the great high priest and the eternal king and then come into your life to be your advisor or your assistant. It doesn't work that way. He is God and he demands our worship. So he's saying that if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. And friends, that is terrifying. But it's also just. Because God is saying to us that if we reject the gospel, we are rejecting God. So just consider the charges that are being read here. Trampling underfoot the Son of God. Jesus is the final word from the Father, the priest over the house of God, the king who will reign forever, whose enemies will be his footstool. He's God's son, the image of the glory of God, the exact representation of his nature. He learned obedience through what he suffered and was perfected through that suffering. He's the source of eternal salvation. And yet rejecting him is making him, this eternal king, your own footstool. Rejecting his authority. To profane the blood of the covenant by which we are sanctified. Throughout the book of Hebrews, and particularly in the last few sections, we've seen that Jesus made the only perfect sacrifice in the perfect place as the perfect priest. Only he could effect cleansing and forgiveness of sin. Jesus' blood, Jesus' cleansing, is the most valuable thing in the universe. And yet the one who would reject him treats that sacrifice as a common thing, completely devaluing his work. And then last, outraging the spirit of grace. It's the spirit's work of grace to give illumination of the gospel into our hearts. And so to abandon Christ is an act of defiance. It's an act of rebellion against that supernatural work of the spirit. It's blasphemous. And so the author makes an argument from the lesser to the greater in 28 to 29. Under the Mosaic law, those who set it aside, who commit flagrant idolatry, they were to be executed. That was a capital offense. But that was just the old covenant. That was just the Mosaic law. So imagine then the horror of standing before the judgment seat of God under these charges. trampling underfoot the Son of God, profaning the blood of the covenant, outraging the spirit of grace. Having once confessed these truths and then now rejecting them, what could the punishment be other than eternal torment? Now I want us to be clear, when he's talking about going on sinning deliberately, he's talking about the sin of apostasy. He's talking about deliberately and finally rejecting Christ. Now, I say that, I want us to be careful because in every single sin that you and I commit, there is the seed, there is an element of rejecting Christ. There is a seed of apostasy in every single sin we commit. But in this case, there is finality, there is sin without repentance. If we think about the context, this letter written to Jewish Christians who were thinking about going back to the old covenant, back to that way of worship, back to the temple, as if what Jesus had done just was kind of an aside, right? And that was culturally acceptable, it was comfortable, it was familiar. Obviously for us, that's not a possibility. There's no temple in Jerusalem that doesn't exist anymore. But that doesn't mean that this could not happen to us. There are those who have once professed Christ and then turned to other religions. That's the definition of idolatry and apostasy. It does happen. But I think there are other ways that could be maybe a little more subtle but are just as much of an abomination before God. One of those would be relying on our works. Insisting that something in addition to faith is necessary for God to save us. And that's what several different books, several different places in the New Testament, that's addressed no clearer than the book of Galatians. If we say, yes, we have to do something else in order to be saved, then we are to be accursed. Another way that we could do this is by redefining Christianity. What the Bible says about this subject or that subject makes us feel uncomfortable, and so we could explain it away or kind of cast it aside. We redefine God to make him more culturally acceptable and palatable. And in doing so, we trample underfoot the Son of God. Another way we could do this is by withholding forgiveness. We see over and over again in the New Testament that if we are forgiven, we must extend forgiveness to others. We show the mercy that we've received. But sometimes it becomes tempting to justify a particular sin as different, a hurt that's too deep, a vulnerability that's too frightening. But friends, by doing so, We profane the blood of the covenant by denying the forgiving power of Christ's sacrifice. We elevate someone else's sin against us over our sin against God. Given the context of what the author has said, it could also be forsaking the assembly of the saints. Abandoning God's people is ultimately abandoning God. Of course, when that happens, that's usually to fill that void with something else that we've just been considering. But in any of these cases, justice demands one verdict. So verses 30 and 31, 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. So what is the author saying about these people? Are they losing their salvation? Because that's what it sounds like. And I think the answer has to be no. What he's saying is that for those who do fall away from the faith, they ultimately prove that even though for a time they identified with God's people, they eventually show that they had more in common with his enemies. So when God's judgment comes down, rather than being vindicated with the faithful, they will face the judgment of God's adversaries. And this passage is written to warn us that any of us could find ourselves in that position. If we fail to keep drawing near, to keep holding fast, to keep encouraging one another in Christ, we could be there too. And so we're reminded, friends, that we are vulnerable. We need Jesus and we need each other. The author is not writing to explain what has happened to some. He's writing to warn and admonish the faithful to persevere. And we see this clearly in the third point, the assurance that he gives, verses 32 to 39, the motivation we have to endure. So let's look at 32 through 34. 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." So after this terrifying warning, he turns to encourage the readers that they don't have to fall into judgment, they can persevere to salvation. And he reminds them of their former days. After their conversion, they went through a period that seems to be very intense persecution. Some were publicly exposed to reproach and affliction. This is both verbal and physical persecution, possibly at the hands of the Romans or even fellow Jews, maybe. They were mocked and beaten and even imprisoned for their faith. Now in those days, to be in prison was to be in a dangerous place. It was a place of physical abuse and deprivation. Prisoners were dependent upon others to bring them food and water to survive. And so we see the kind of dilemma these first century Christians were in. To go to the prison was costly. It meant giving up their own resources in order to care for those in prison. It meant giving themselves away publicly and identifying with the prisoners. And it could have also meant the plundering of their property. And let's remember that these are not the days of insurance, so plundering was a total loss of all possessions, maybe even livelihood. And the text says that they were partners with those so treated, literally that they fellowshiped with those so treated. They shared an identity with them as if they were family. So let's put ourselves in their shoes for a minute. So a fellow church member gets thrown in jail for some reason. And you feel bad for the person. You know that visiting them could cost you, but you pray about it. You decide it's the right thing to do to go visit. So you don't have a lot. You scrape together what you can. Your family can get by with a little less, eat lightly for the next couple of weeks, and do without a few things. So you gather all that together. You go to visit this person in the jail. And on the way there, you know, people kind of look and they know what you're doing. They know where you're going and they're laughing and snickering at you and making comments maybe. But you finally get there and you know your friend is grateful for your generosity. You've sustained him and God has used you and you're so thankful for that. You leave feeling very good. You were able to be used by God to help someone. And you get back to your house and you realize everything has been stolen. You've got nothing left, no savings, nothing to trade, no equipment, no tools to earn a living. How do you respond in that situation? God, I did something good for you. I just served your people. I just exposed myself. And yet this is what's happened to me. Look at verse 34. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. Is that what you were thinking? Joy. in response to watching your friends suffer unjustly and you doing good to care for him and you get all of your stuff stolen and you respond with joy. Friends, how is that possible? Let's keep going in 34. Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. They knew that they had a better possession. Their stuff, it was just stuff. It wasn't their God. And they could gladly forfeit maybe all of their earthly possessions because they knew they had treasure in heaven and nothing could take that away. And so they joyfully accepted the plundering of their property. And it reminds us of the apostles in Acts who were rejoicing at being beaten and shamed for the name of Jesus. These early Christians had experienced Jesus in such a true and profound and life-altering way. They were so identified with him that they gladly sacrificed for him, willing to give up everything to advance his cause. And brothers and sisters, I want that to be true for us. I want that for us because Jesus is going to win. The day is drawing near when he will return and all of his enemies will be made his footstool. He will reward his people for their faithfulness. And I want us to be able to participate in that victory. I don't want us to have ridden the bench. I want us to be on the highlight reel. I want us to be celebrating. I want to hear Jesus say, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy. This is the kind of attitude that led Jim Elliott into the jungles of Ecuador. And before he sacrificed his life taking the gospel to the natives, he wrote in his journal, he is no fool. who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Brothers and sisters, some of us may be called to make similar sacrifices, to go around the world and maybe even to give up our lives for the sake of the gospel. Some of us may be called to give up the comfort and time it takes to go across the street and get to know a neighbor to share the gospel or to get into the messy work of a discipleship situation in the context of the church. But regardless, we all have to see that knowing Jesus and being identified with him is the greatest joy and greatest reward any of us could ever have. There is no sacrifice that's not worth giving up for him. 35, 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 in the coming one will not delay. 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." So he's reminding them of something they knew, they practiced before. It seems they're on the verge of making a terrible trade, throwing away their confidence, throwing away their eternal status before God for temporary status and comfort in this life. Friends, for the majority of us here now, the stakes don't feel this high, do they? We're not facing imprisonment or physical harm. The financial and social risk we face are relatively low compared to most of human history and throughout the world today. But I fear that the lack of urgency there can make us lazy. And it seems like that's exactly what was happening for these Christians. They were all stars during the persecution that he was talking about, but then it stopped and they just got lazy. They got out of shape. They became dull of hearing God's word and they started to drift away from it. And now that persecution is starting to seem imminent again, the cost of following Christ all of a sudden looks too great. Friends, God has given us an amazing level of freedom and blessing, but I'm concerned that we, and I say this, we, myself included, are not using our freedom to the extent that we should. When it comes to our time and our energy and finances, we give a little bit out of our abundance, but we use the vast majority of our wealth and our time and our efforts for ourselves. But we're warned here that we can't hold on, we can't hold fast to Christ while at the same time holding fast to our earthly possessions. So the author ends this section with a call to endurance. And this language could be athletic or warfare imagery. And either way, what he's telling them is that the stakes are too high. The end is near. And that's what the quote from Habakkuk that Mark read earlier in the service is all about. God's timing may be strange, His methods may be unusual, but God will vindicate His people and He will do it soon. It's important to remember God's sense of timing because it's hard to take a warning like that, a soon, seriously, when it's written 2,000 years ago. But Peter tells us scoffers will come in the last day who will use that against us. But he reminds us that with God, 1,000 years is like a day. God is not slow about fulfilling his promises, but he is patient so that all of his people may repent and not perish. And with that in mind, friends, we have to, as his people, maintain both a sense of urgency and confidence in this life. The day is drawing near. It will come in just a little while. And even if our lifetime doesn't fall within that time, we measure our time here against the backdrop of eternity, and we realize that all of our lives are just vapors. So we move forward with resolve. We know that with each step, we're that much closer to the end. Many of us have probably been in a situation where we've been on a long hike or walk or run or something and it just starts to feel like drudgery. And if you dwell on how long it's going to take and how far away it is, it only compounds that and makes you want to give up. But if you focus on each step and remind yourself that each step puts you one step closer to the end, slowly you can make progress and you can endure. And as Christians, we already know the end. We know our endurance will be worthwhile. We know that it will pay off. The author says those who shrink back, who give in, who don't persevere will be destroyed. But those who live by faith, who remain faithful in this life will preserve their souls for the next. And he has confidence that his audience will persevere. And one of the things I think we see the author doing in this section is modeling the kind of encouragement he's talked about back in verses 24 and 25. He's pointing out past evidence of grace in their lives, how they endured persecution and suffering. He's warning them about a potentially harmful mindset or practice, forsaking the eternal confidence for earthly comfort. And he's holding out Jesus for them, assuring them of the certainty of his reward and his promise. And brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I and we as the elders have the same confidence for us at Jefferson Park. We've heard many of your testimonies. We know how God's grace interrupted your lives at various times and redirected you toward Him. We see evidence of that grace even now. We see a church that places a high value on hearing the Word of God. We see a willingness on the part of many to jump into various service needs and especially want to thank those this morning who made today's gathering possible by shoveling snow and spreading salt and doing all those kind of things. We hear a desire for loved ones to be converted. We see a heart for God's name to be great among the nations by sending people out, by supporting those missionaries. We praise God for these things. But friends, like the Hebrews, we have need of endurance. Because as soon as we sit back, as soon as we rest on our accomplishments, as soon as we lose our sense of urgency, we lose everything. I mentioned at the beginning of the 1980 Gator Bowl, Buck Baloo to Lindsey Scott. And one person who missed that play, who missed everything, was Buck Baloo's mom. Because with about two minutes left, she saw how the game was going, and she went down to the locker room to comfort her son in his loss. And so from the belly of the Gator Bowl, she heard the stadium erupt and didn't know what had happened. She didn't get to witness and participate in the victory. And we're warned here in this text that that could be us. Now, I'm sure Mrs. Ballou went on to live a fine life, but I'm sure that she also often looked back and wished she had waited out those 90 seconds, that she had seen her son throw the pass that resulted in the game that led to the national championship. And if she had known what was going to happen, of course, she would have done that. And that's the major difference for us, friends. because we know what's gonna happen. We know that Jesus has conquered sin and death, and that it's only a matter of time before he returns to bring about the consummation of history. And so the question for us this morning is, when he returns, will we be eagerly waiting for him? Will we be joyfully working for him? And our answer, brothers and sisters, is yes, we will. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you once again this morning for the great gift that your son is for us. We know we will spend all eternity singing the song worthy is the lamb who was slain. We praise you because through him, we have been given the right to become your children. And God, just as that confidence is objective based on his work, we pray that it would be something that we feel subjectively, that more and more as we grow in our relationship with you, we would feel and experience the confidence and the joy of being your children. We pray that you would give us as a church a sense of urgency, not to take for granted what you have done, but to press further and further on to experience it ourselves, to advance your causes in our lives and the lives of others and around the world. We pray that we would see that as our duty as a church, to stand together, to encourage one another, to stir up one another, to love and good works. so that we all participate in His victory together. We pray this through Jesus, our great priest. Amen.