This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to chapter 10, our last day in this chapter. Day five,
we're going to look at verses 32 to 39 today. I want to begin by reading a few of
those verses.

Let me begin in verse 32 and read down through verse 34. Remember those earlier
days, after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great
contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult
and persecution.

At other times, you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You
sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your
property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting
possessions. The writer of Hebrews reminds us in these verses, reminds them and
us both, remember when you first came to Christ.

He's saying, remember the fresh and new expressions of faith that were there.
You see, we grow in our faith as we follow Jesus, but sometimes the truth is our
faith can grow stale. It is human nature to become used to and even bored with
even the most exciting of things in life.

What does it mean to come to Christ? It means you begin a relationship with him
and you do that through prayer. Forgive me for the wrong things I've done.

Show me how to live the right way you've made me to live. Some of you prayed
that prayer a long time ago. You've been believers for a long time.

Some of you just recently stepped across the line. Those of you who just
recently stepped across the line, you're in essence a brand new believer. You
may have known about Christ for a long time.

No one may have ever told you this before, but you're in essence a brand new
believer because you just stepped across that line. Or you might be just on the
verge of believing. You're just going to step across the line even today, even
tomorrow.

These verses remind us, don't forget those days, those choices you made, the
hard choices you made about friendships, about letting things go as you came to
know Christ. I know as a new believer you feel like I've got a lot to learn, but
one of the advantages new believers have is you know how much you've changed.
You see it.

After a few years go by in following Christ, it's easy to forget how much Jesus
changes our lives. It's just human nature. The newness wears off.

The first time you drive a car as a kid, it might be a little scary, but you
feel really cool. Wow, look at me. But when you're 40, you don't drive down the
road thinking, wow, does anybody see me driving?

Of course not, unless you happen to have a new car. And then you think, does
anybody see me? Because you've got something new.

When you and I come to Jesus, he does a spiritual makeover on our lives. It's
this wow moment because the difference that happens is amazing. And like those
makeover shows on TV, when you see what was and now what is, it can be pretty
dramatic.

And the reminder here is remember the difference that Jesus makes in your life,
from darkness to light, from hopelessness to eternal hope, from guilt to
forgiveness. As a brand new believer, I can remember, I can still think back and
remember the amazing sense of purpose that flooded into my life that I had not
had before that. I wanted to do something significant with my life, but I had no
sense of purpose in my life.

A lot of people live there. And when I came to know Jesus, a sense of purpose
flooded into my life. I didn't know all that that meant.

I just knew that I had a purpose I didn't have before. And the writer of Hebrews
reminds them that when they first came to know Jesus, they'd withstood
persecution for their faith. And they were joyful in the midst of it.

They could still have joy because their joy was not dependent on something that
could be taken away on their possessions. They had better and lasting
possessions. It's amazing how easily we can forget.

So remind yourself right now of the difference that Jesus made in your life.
It's one of the keys to living out God's vision for your life. One of the keys
to living the kind of way that God wants you to live.

How has he changed you? And based on that, based on that, then we come to verse
35, which says, so do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly
rewarded.

We all should have, because of what Jesus has done in our lives, confidence
without conceit. We're not prideful, but because of his promises, we are
confident. We have confidence in him.

I think about that old story of a pastor. He's praying in the church, sitting on
the front pew, praying, oh Lord, I'm nothing before you. I'm a worm.

I can't do anything right. The associate pastor of the church walks in and joins
him in saying the same prayer. Lord, I'm nothing before you.

I'm a worm. I can't do anything right. The custodian, the janitor of the church
walks in.

He sits down and prays the same prayer. I'm nothing before you. I can't do
anything right.

While he's praying at the associate pastor, he whispers to the pastor, who does
he think he is anyway? Who do you think you are? It's easy to look at ourselves
and our sins and recognize the nothingness that we have before God.

And that's true in one sense, but in Jesus, that's all been changed. Who are
you? What's our confidence?

You're a son of God. You're a daughter of God. You're a new creation.

You can have confidence in who you are because it's who he has made you to be.
And that kind of confidence, this verse says, it will be richly rewarded. Now,
how is it rewarded?

Beginning in verse 36, we read some of that. Verse 36 says, you need to
persevere so that when you've done the will of God, you will receive what he has
promised. For in just a very little while, he who is coming will come and will
not delay, but my righteous ones will live by faith.

And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those
who shrink back and are destroyed. But we are of those who believe and are
saved.

Once again, for those who struggle with this idea of security and their
salvation, he's assuring them in verse 39 that you're not of those who are going to
shrink back. You are those who have believed. And so live out the belief that
you have in your life.

Note again that after the warning he gave us that we looked at yesterday, here
comes this assurance for these people. Those who believe are saved. Those who
believe are following him.

Now let me just note, this is sort of an aside here. When we looked at the never
fall into the hands of a living God, it's a fearful thing. And then this
assurance that here, let me just note for you the struggle that many of us have
with this.

It was written by one of the people on our research team who said, I really
struggle with those who say they're believers, yet have no evidence of faith in
their life, whether they're really going to be saved and be in heaven. And there's
really two reasons why we struggle with this truth. The first reason is a good
one.

The second reason is a bad one. First reason is we don't see any fruit in their
lives, or you might even see this in your own life. You don't see any fruit of
salvation.

And the Bible says we should look for the fruit of salvation. Now I can't judge
someone's eternity. All I can do is see the fruit.

And if there is no fruit of salvation, it doesn't mean you've lost your
salvation. I believe the scripture clearly teaches it means you never had it at
all. Well, you might've gone to church, you might've said the right words, but
you never really trusted Christ.

You were always trusting in what you did. So there's no fruit of salvation.
That's one of the reasons that we see this in people's lives.

That we struggle with this, what we see. And that's a good reason. And in that,
we should encourage them.

Not judge, but encourage them to come to faith, to live a life of faith. A
second reason that we struggle with this, this is the bad one, is that we
somehow feel that once we come to Christ, one of the ways that we hold onto our
faith, hold onto real faith, is by the things that we do after we become a
Christian, after we become a follower of Jesus. We don't have a theology of
works before we're saved.

We don't think we do good works and that gets us to salvation. We have a
theology of works after we're saved. We do good works and that's what helps us
to hold onto salvation.

And if I don't do those good works, I'm not holding on. Well, it's good works
either way. Your good works cannot help you to hold onto salvation, either
before or after Jesus comes into your life.

Once Jesus comes into your life, he holds onto you. And if you're trying to hold
onto salvation, if you're trying to get evidence of salvation, not by the fruit
of good works, and that means what God's directed you to do and you're living
that out, the character changes that God's working in your life, not by the
fruit of good works, but instead by your own good works. Wow, look at what I
did.

Wow, look at what I did. You can tell it by the sense of pride that you have
about it. You can tell it's your own good works by the sense of judgmentalism
you have towards others.

If that's where you are, and that's a bad thing, that gets you into a place of
guilt and not grace. Now, with that aside in mind, let's go on and talk about
the hope that's here. We've talked about confidence without conceit that's based
on the new thing that God's done in our lives through Jesus Christ, and that
there's going to be a rich reward that's coming.

And here in these verses we've just read, he tells us when it's coming. I love
verse 37. It says, "In just a," did you see the words?

"A very little while. " I love that. You want to write on your hearts those words,
very little while.

Now, even if it's the rest of your life on planet Earth before Jesus comes
again, it's a very little while compared to all of eternity. But any moment he
could come again. It's a very little while.

Now, while we're on this planet, it doesn't seem to be a very little while. Our
physical perspective is, it's a long, long life on this world sometimes. It's a
long day that I'm facing right now.

It's a long season that I'm going through. But when you and I get to heaven,
we're going to see how short it really was. And the perspective again and again and
again in scripture is to realize how short a time it is until Jesus is coming
again.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus, in a very little while. For just a short time. Again
and again we're told the promise is coming.

It will not be long. So I can hold on to that promise. So don't throw away your
confidence in him.

It will be richly rewarded. Let's pray together. Jesus, we look forward to you
coming again.

We look forward to being with you in eternity. And we repeat these words in our
heart right now, these words of hope. It's just a very little while.

Soon and very soon we're going to be with you. So help us to live in anticipation
of that promise. Not overwhelmed by the circumstances of this world.

But instead, Lord, looking, focusing on the promise that you have for our lives
here and all the way into eternity. We ask that this would happen in our lives
today. We can only live this one day at a time.

So help us to live it today, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Well next week, do
not miss next week.

Next week is Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter. One of the most faith
building chapters in all of scripture. We'll see you next week for Hebrews
chapter 11.