The OBPC Podcast: I’ll Never, No Never, No Never Forsake

Introduction

Pastors have tendencies in their preaching. Some tend to concentrate their preaching on encouragement and hope and blessings while others preach a steady diet of hellfire and brimstone. There are still others who focus solely on what God has done and can do for us whereas their counterparts emphasize what we can do for God. My natural tendency is to focus on duty apart from grace and encouragement. That is one of the reasons that I try to preach expositionally through a book of the Bible (though lately we haven't quite moved through Nehemiah). That way the Bible itself dictates what is going to be preached and by God's grace some natural tendencies may be overcome.

The pastor who was the human author of the letter to the Hebrews seems to have found a great balance in his preaching. This letter is much more of a sermon than a standard letter. He preaches the truth concerning Christ. He then exhorts this congregation to live according to the truth he just taught. He warns them about the danger of not embrace the truth. When they are on the brink of despair, he encourages them in their faith and exhorts them again to obey the truth.

We find this approach here in chapter 10. Following the most severe warning in the New Testament concerning the danger of forsaking Christ (26-31), the pastor reminds them that they are Christ's and that they have been saved by him and encourages them to persevere to the end. He tells them that they have the faith that perseveres through suffering.

I. Your Faith Will Endure to the End, 39.

A. The word butat the beginning of verse 32 shows that he is contrasting these people with those who willfully deny Christ in verse 26.

B. You are not the type that will draw back from Christ and be found on the day of judgment without an advocate (refer back to 10:31), 39a.

C. You will believe to the end, 39b.

II. Faith amidst Suffering in the Past, 32-34.

A. Remember how your faith carried you through suffering even when you were first saved, 32-33.

1. The pastor wants them to see that they have evidence in their own lives that they don't have to turn away from Christ when things get tough.

2. It seems that soon after they were saved (enlightened), they suffered because of that new faith, 32.

3. There are two words that are worth taking a look at more closely in this verse:

a. The Holy Spirit expresses the idea of their coming to faith in Jesus Christ by saying that they had been illuminated or enlightened.

1) This is a beautiful and powerful way to express our great salvation.

2 Cor. 4:6– For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to givethe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2) God sovereignly declared that you were going to see Jesus Christ and opened your eyes and light came flooding in.

"…God says, 'Let there be light,' in our hearts and 'the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ' fills us with confidence of his reality and worth." John Piper

3) Notice the creation language used by Paul – the light didn't contribute to its own creation; it was God.

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see." John Newton

"Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." Charles Wesley

4) This was their experience and that is YOUR experience in Jesus Christ.

5) It was that enlightening, namely, coming to faith in Jesus Christ, that sustained them in suffering.

b. The Holy Spirit says they were able to endure a great struggle with suffering.

1) The word translated great sufferingis the word from which we get the English word athletics.

2) Often the Scriptures describe the Christian life as race.

3) But here the purpose of this sports word is to show that these early sufferings, which were much greater than what they were going through now, served as training for future sufferings.

4) They are better able to go through these current sufferings because they received training earlier.

5) So, we see God's faithfulness to his promises even in suffering.

Rom. 8:28-29– And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to Hispurpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to beconformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

4. These sufferings are described in two ways in verse 33.

a. You were publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.

1) The word translated spectacleis the word from which we get the English word theater.

2) These people were publicly persecuted for their faith.

a) Family, friends, and society turned on them.

b) They were marked as it were as reproachable people.

3) What exactly went on? It is hard to say for sure, but we can come with a very likely guess.

a) The people originally receiving the letter were likely in Rome.

b) This letter was likely written in the mid to late 60's.

c) These people very early on had to go through an imperial persecution in A.D. 49 under emperor Claudius.

i. That's when Aquila and Priscilla were kicked out of Rome.

ii. According to the early Roman historian Suetonius, Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome because "they were constantly indulging in riots at the instigation of Chrestus."

iii. More likely the Christian Jews were being persecuted by the larger group of regular Jews.

iv. When they had to leave Rome, they left everything behind to be taken by whomever wanted it.

d) When they were allowed back to Rome and were starting to settle down again, they had to go through another, even more ruthless persecution under emperor Nero around A.D. 64.

"Their death was made a matter of sport: they were covered in wild beasts' skins and torn to pieces by dogs; or were fastened to crosses and set on fire in order to serve as torches by night when daylight failed." Tacitus

e) All of this done as a public show because they trusted in Jesus Christ.

b. Not only did they suffer personally, but they also suffered by proxy with others who were suffering.

1) These people understood what weeping with those who weep meant.

2) They understood that the Body of Christ is one and when one is suffering all suffer together with him.

5. They succeeded in these sufferings because they had been enlightened to see Jesus as their Savior, Lord, Joy, Reward, and Satisfaction.

B. Remember how you were able to go through suffering joyfully because you trusted that what God said was true, 34.

1. This verse is better translated as follows:

Heb. 10:34(ESV) – 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.

2. Verse 34 gives us an example of their standing with those who were suffering: For you had compassion on those in prison.

a. Don't you hear echoes of Jesus's words? I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.

b. This was a dangerous thing to do because the implication here is that those in prison were there because of their faith.

c. To be associated with them was to risk being thrown in prison with them.

d. You might wonder what the big deal is about visiting those in prison.

1) Prisons back then weren't quite like the ones we have today.

2) The prisoner was responsible for providing for his own care while in prison.

"Prisoners who had no means of their own were liable to starve unless their friends brought them food and whatever other form of help they required; throughout the whole age of imperial persecution of the Church the visiting of their friends who were in prison was a regular, though dangerous, duty of Christian charity." F.F. Bruce

3. Then, the pastor goes back to reminding them how they were able to endure their own sufferings so well: and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.

a. One might say, "Really? Accepting the taking away of their stuff with joy? Is this reality? I mean, I can understand enduring the taking of their stuff away. But joy?"

b. It is real because it is right here in the Bible and the Bible is real and true.

c. And these people weren't super special people.

1) They were people just like us who struggle with stuff just like we do.

2) They weren't super spiritual beyond us, as a matter of fact they had just come to a new low to the point they were flirting the idea that they would be better off without Jesus.

4. What caused them to be joyful in suffering? Their faith: since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

a. Faith in what Jesus had done for them, but also faith in what God has promised them.

b. Isn't this an important aspect of saving faith? Not only looking back but also looking forward to what God has promised? Heb. 11:1

c. These people at the time they were going through their sufferings were completely convinced that what God had for them was better than anything their persecutors could take from them.

d. So, what are this better and abiding possession?

1) Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2) They really believed that what God had said he is going to do for them, he is going to do them.

3) Christ and heaven and the resurrection to come and eternal life were very real to them.

4) And that faith in the promises of God freed them from attachment to their stuff to the point that they could joyfully watch their stuff being taken away.

Lk. 6:22-23– Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you,and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward isgreat in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

"The eternal inheritance laid up for them was so real in their eyes that they could lightheartedly bid farewell to material possessions which were short-lived in any case." F.F. Bruce

5. A fair question to ask is this: Can this be the experience of every Christian?

a. I think this is the point that the Holy Spirit is making here.

b. It is the experience of every Christian who keeps his faith in Jesus Christ.

c. It can also be something that a Christian can grow into and shrink out of.

d. But the whole point of chapter 11 is that this faith that endures joyfully amidst suffering is for the ordinary Joe and Jane Christian.

6. So why is it not experienced more widely?

a. I don't know what your experience is, so I'll share with my experience and perhaps we have something in common.

b. For me starts with plain old lack of faith.

1) I think my Christianity has become at times domesticated, comfort-seeking, entertainment-addicted Christianity.

2) I have developed in my own thinking a mindset of at-homeness in this world and in this age.

3) I have developed a deeply ingrained assumption that things should go well for me, and that this is my world and my age.

4) Thatbeing a good Christian and being well thought of must go together.

5) Thatpoverty and sickness and suffering and death are the worst thing that can happen to me.

7. So, what do I need to do (and if you are in the same boat…)?

a. Repent first and foremost.

b. Be in constant petition before God to keep my eyes enlightened.

"Oh Lord, You're beautiful Your face is all I see For when Your eyes are on this child Your grace abounds to me. Oh Lord, please light the fire That once burned bright and clean Replace the lamp of my first love That burns with holy fear." Keith Green

c. Keep in my mind and heart what God says is true about him, me, and the future.

d. Be convinced that the possession of Jesus Christ is better and abiding.

III. Faith amidst Suffering to the End, 35-38.

A. Don't throw away that confidence that has carried you till now, 35.

1. You have seen it work in your own life in tougher times than this one.

2. You know how others have endured through faith.

3. So, don't throw away you confidence in the promises of God like you would throw away garbage.

B. Your trust in God through Christ IS what is going to give you endurance to persevere to the end, 36-38.

1. Notice how reward and promise are used interchangeably, which means that this reward is not a meritorious reward, but a gracious reward.

2. He quotes Habakkuk 2:3-4 to show that God is faithful to his promises even if things around us seem to scream otherwise.

a. The particular context of Habakkuk is that it appeared to the prophet that God had allowed wickedness to go on for so long and that he was going to continue not doing anything.

b. So, God tells the prophet that he is going to act and then it is going to look like forever before he acts again, but he will act again.

c. And he reminds the prophet that the righteous livesby faith not by sight.

d. It is the same type of argument that Peter encountered.

2 Pt. 3:9– The Lord is not slack concerning Hispromise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

3. In the context of Hebrews, God is reminding them he has always done what he said he was going to do, even when it seemed unlikely.

4. Focus on this thought, he says, so that you can have the patience that comes from faith in order to endure to the end.

Conclusion

If we are going to be courageous and fearless before our opponents, if we are going to live so that the worth of the Gospel is obvious, if we are going to take the risks the early Christians took for Christ and his kingdom, if we are going to be as bold as a lion, then we are going to have to set our minds on things that are above not on things that are on the earth. We are going to have to focus as much attention on the worth of heaven and the life to come as the world tries to make us focus on the worth of this very brief life.

Whatever measure of material and physical loss God may call you to in this world, one thing is certain: being a Christian means being willing and ready to let it all go for the sake of Christ and his Word.

http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2018/10/ill-never-no-never-no-never-forsake.html