Great Reward (Hebrews 10:32-39 Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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May 9, 2021

Great Reward Hebrews 10:32-39 Jeff Kliewer

04:43: A song that lights up the stars. One breath that gives life.
04:53: One sovereign power who speaks with thunder and fire.
05:01: One monkey, there is no other that can compare to you.
05:11: You are the one alone in greatness.
05:18: The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one for all.
05:36: Jesus, the one true God. To you, greatness.
06:28: Oh, Jesus, you are.
06:46: Oh, Jesus, the one true God. True God.
06:58: We have seen the glory. Yes, we have seen the glory of greatness.
07:22: The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one.
07:41: Jesus, the one true God. True God.
07:59: Singing praises to your name because you are the great and one true God. Oh, Lord, could save themselves.
08:16: Their own soul could heal.
08:22: Our shame was deeper than the sea.
08:29: Your grace is deeper still. And you alone can rescue.
08:39: You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave.
08:48: You came down to find us, let us out of death.
08:55: To you alone belongs the highest praise.
09:03: You have made a way, the great divide.
09:15: You fall further still.
09:30: Yes, your love goes further still. And you alone can rescue.
09:39: You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave.
09:48: You came down to find us, let us out of death.
09:55: To you alone belongs the highest praise.
10:06: You lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life.
10:12: Lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes.
10:22: You're the giver of life. Lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes.
10:28: You're the giver of life. You alone can rescue. You alone can save.
10:37: You alone can lift us from the grave.
10:43: You came down to find us, let us out of death.
10:49: To you alone belongs the highest praise.
11:02: You alone can rescue.
11:20: You lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life.
11:26: Lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life.
11:33: We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life.
11:39: We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life.
11:46: You alone can rescue. You alone can save.
11:52: You alone can lift us from the grave.
11:59: You came down to find us, let us out of death.
12:05: To you alone belongs the highest praise.
12:17: Jesus said in Luke 9, If anyone wishes to follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily.
12:29: Stepping out in faith sometimes is risky. But you need to rest on the promises of God.
12:37: When he's been faithful in the past, he's guaranteeing that he will be faithful in the future.
12:47: If you feel like things are crashing down, you think that the risk is too great to go and spread the gospel, talk to your neighbor, talk to your co -workers,
12:58: God will give you the strength and the power to overcome all of those obstacles.
13:09: We can remember that God has done a great thing in us. Our Redeemer, I pray that you'll have the boldness to step out in faith and follow
13:24: Jesus. Wherever he leads you, wherever you're going, you will follow him in everything.
13:34: Let's sing this song together. Follow you anywhere. In the middle of the song, there's a bridge that's very telling on how your heart can respond.
13:48: The bridge is wherever you lead me, whatever it costs me, all
13:54: I want is you, Jesus, all I want is you. You make it easy to love you.
14:09: You are good and you are kind. You bring joy into my life.
14:20: You make it easy to trust you. You have never left my side.
14:31: You've been faithful every time. All I want is you,
14:42: Jesus, all I want is you.
14:54: You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
15:05: There's a million reasons to trust you.
15:17: Nothing to fear for, you are by my side.
15:24: I'll follow you anywhere. Oh, Jesus, you came to my rescue.
15:38: I place upon that cross.
15:44: You redeemed what I had, my whole world revolving around.
15:56: You're the center of my life. You're the treasure, you're my pride.
16:10: All I want is you, Jesus, all
16:17: I want is you. You are the refuge
16:26: I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
16:42: There's a million reasons to trust you. Nothing to fear for, you are by my side.
16:53: I'll follow you anywhere, whatever it costs me.
17:26: All I want is you, Jesus, all
17:32: I want is you. Wherever you lead me, whatever it costs me.
17:44: All I want is you, Jesus, all
17:50: I want is you. All I want is you,
17:59: Jesus, all I want is you.
18:11: You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
18:22: I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
18:33: Nothing to fear for, you are by my side.
18:39: I'll follow you anywhere.
19:04: That bridge again, wherever you lead me, whatever it costs me. All I want is you.
19:14: Whatever you lead me, all
19:25: I want is you. Jesus, all I want is you.
19:33: Wherever you lead me, whatever it costs me.
19:44: All I want is you. Jesus, all I want is you.
19:51: All I want is you.
19:58: Jesus, all I want is you.
20:15: Is you. Jesus, all
20:27: I want is you. Lead us where you want. Allow us to see the path that you have for us.
20:33: As a church, as individuals. To follow you wherever you lead.
20:45: You may be seated. Praise the
20:54: Lord. Hey, we just prayed, so let's pray again. Father, you, oh
21:02: Lord, I lift up my soul to you, oh Lord. Oh my God, in you I trust.
21:08: Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.
21:17: They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, oh
21:23: Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me.
21:29: For you are the God of my salvation. For I wait all the day long. God, if need be, we will be here all day long.
21:40: Because we need you more than life. We need to hear your words.
21:47: So God, we pray that you would speak to our hearts. That you would put distractions out of our minds.
21:53: That we would be teachable. Oh Lord, give us a teachable spirit this morning. That your word would train us in all righteousness.
22:03: Correct our wrong thinking. Take us deeper in your word.
22:10: Teach us, Lord. We need you to be our paraclete, our helper, our teacher. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
22:18: Jim was a rough and tumble kind of guy. He was from Washington State.
22:24: And he went to college in Wheaton. So he would just jump on a train as it was going by and travel.
22:31: It was the 1950s, so you could do stuff like that. And he grew up, you know, in post -World
22:37: War II America. At Wheaton, he met some other friends. And together, he and Nate Saint, Roger Udarian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCulley.
22:50: Decided to leave the comforts of the United States of America.
22:56: And move to a jungle in Ecuador. Leaving everything behind, they went to the
23:06: Alca Indians. Now, Alca is a pejorative for naked savage.
23:13: So, not exactly a flattering term for the Wadani Indians of Ecuador.
23:19: But nobody had ever brought the gospel to them. So Jim Elliott and his friends left everything.
23:27: Took their wives and their children and moved to the jungle in Ecuador. When they got there, they were faced with the problem of learning language.
23:38: And so, fortunately, there was one Wadani, Alcan, who had gone to a tribal village nearby.
23:44: To a people that had been reached. And he began to train them in their local tongue.
23:50: So they were learning the language. And the second step of their plan was to bring gifts to the
23:57: Alca Indians. They had a yellow plane that the Alcas would call the bumblebee.
24:04: Because they would see this yellow plane just circling around above their jungle. And they called it a giant bumblebee.
24:10: Well, they needed to get gifts down to the Alca people without getting killed. So they devised a plan where they flew in a circle.
24:20: And by some kind of centripetal, centrifugal force, I don't know, you physics people could tell me. They were able to keep the basket still and lower it down from a plane.
24:30: Not a helicopter, mind you. They're flying a plane and they lower the basket down to the
24:37: Alca people who received the gifts. And they do this for a number of months, maybe even more than a year.
24:43: Sending messages and trying to curry favor. Until finally the day came where they landed on the banks of the
24:53: Curare River. There in the hopes of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the
25:00: Alca Indians. The Alcas emerged from the bush and moved quickly towards the five missionaries.
25:10: And raising their spears, they slew them on the banks of the
25:16: Curare River. All five missionaries lost their lives that day. Well, the story doesn't end there.
25:25: The wives returned to the states, but shortly thereafter, Elizabeth Elliott and Nate Saint's wife,
25:32: Rachel, returned to the very people that speared their husbands to death.
25:41: And for years they learned the language and they lived among them. And they taught them the gospel.
25:48: And that entire tribe came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the witness of these women and the children that were raised there.
25:57: Steve Saint being one of them. At the end of the movie, End of the Spear. Anybody seen
26:03: End of the Spear? It's a movie about this. You gotta watch it. It's amazing. Not young children, but as they're older, to watch the
26:11: End of the Spear. At the end of it, they're rolling the credits and they show a very interesting scene.
26:16: Where Menkaie, who is now a Christian man and was raised in the jungle of Ecuador, for the first time comes the other direction and lands in America.
26:28: And they show real footage of him going to a grocery store. And he's just marveling at this grocery store in Miami.
26:37: He says, they just pile the food up in giant stores. All the food anybody could ever eat.
26:45: And there's multiple brands and he's just marveling at a grocery store. And he says, and you can take whatever you want.
26:54: And you just put it in a cart and you push it to the front. And all you have to do is give the lady a little card.
27:02: And what's most amazing is she gives it right back. And you go your way. And if you're feeling particularly lazy that day, you can just go to a different box store and you drive up and they just hand you your food right out of a window.
27:18: Menkaie's mind was just blown. He figured that America just operates on altruism.
27:24: Everybody just loves each other. What he didn't know was that the minute, the day, that you stop paying the checkout worker, she stops serving at the grocery store.
27:36: And the truckers who bring the food, they stop too. And that little card, you actually have to do something with that on the other end.
27:45: You've got to pay the bill. The whole capitalistic system made no sense to Menkaie. But it was the basis of what was happening at the grocery store.
27:56: People serving one another out of self -interest. I can serve you at the grocery store because meeting your need, meeting a demand actually benefits me.
28:12: And that's how capitalism works. We're going to talk a little bit about that in the sermon today. But the main idea is a short sentence that Jim Elliot wrote.
28:24: Ask yourself the question. If he had known that the
28:30: Indians would spear him to death at first contact, would he still have gone? Wouldn't you like to know the answer to that question?
28:40: Well, you can know the answer because he wrote a book called Shadow of the Almighty. In fact, it was Elizabeth Elliot who wrote it, one of my favorite books of all time.
28:49: She wrote, and it's essentially Jim Elliot's journal leading up to that day.
28:56: And in that, he talks about how he expected the likelihood that the
29:02: Alca would kill him for bringing them the gospel. So why was this in his self -interest to go and be speared to death?
29:13: These words have become the main idea of my sermon. So if you have your notes, it's on the app.
29:19: If you don't have them, we can get them later. Just ask Michael or somebody to help you. I made it the main idea.
29:25: Usually I write my own sentence as the main idea of the sermon, but this time I thought, this is one
29:31: I want to stick in your brains, that you will never forget this sentence because it summarizes what
29:36: I'm trying to say today. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
29:48: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
29:54: Now, the first part of that sentence, he is no fool. A fool is somebody who does things contra their own self -interest, to just turn and walk into the wall over and over again.
30:06: If I did that right now, you would say, he's a fool. He's hurting himself. He's walking face forward into a wall over and over again.
30:15: What a fool. But he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
30:25: This sentence implies self -interest. Making a choice that is in your interest, not against your interest, but something that's wise to do.
30:37: And it involves giving, sacrificing. Jesus said, unless you take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
30:50: He in fact said, unless you hate your mother and your father and your relatives, you cannot be my disciple.
30:58: Why would he say that? Well, he was implying there not a literal hate, but a love for Jesus that's so deep that it makes any other earthly love look like hate by comparison.
31:12: He's saying, you must be willing to sacrifice, to give all, to give your family, to give your house, to leave everything behind.
31:20: But why would you do that? Why is that in your self -interest?
31:25: That's what we're looking at today. So turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 to 39.
31:39: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
31:47: We're going to read it in just a moment, but first I want to remind us where we are in the passage, okay?
31:53: We have to study a book of the Bible in context. Chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 10, verse 19 are very doctrinal.
32:02: It's about who Jesus is and how he's better. We learned about him as the better person, better than angels, better than Moses, better than Joshua, better as a priest than all the
32:14: Levites, a better sacrifice than the animal sacrifices that were offered in the temple.
32:22: He offers a better covenant than the old covenant given by Moses at Mount Sinai.
32:28: All of this doctrine about who Jesus is, and then something changes at chapter 10, verse 19.
32:34: Look in the Bible. It says, therefore. That word, therefore, marks a shift in the text where it becomes very applicable.
32:45: The application of all of this doctrine. What are you supposed to do with it? What am
32:50: I to go and do based on the book of Hebrews? Three things, faith, hope, and love.
32:59: Chapter 10, verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
33:07: If Christ has made this new and living way by being crucified, his body broken and torn, his blood poured out, and that's the way to the
33:17: Father, you need to come that way. Don't make up your own way.
33:24: Confucius offers some way. Buddhists offer a different way. Muhammad offers another way.
33:30: Don't blaze your own trail. Go this way. Through Christ, he's the one that was torn for you.
33:40: He alone can get you into the holy of holies where God is.
33:46: You need to come by faith. That's the first thing. The second thing is, having placed your faith in Christ, you need to continue in hope, verse 23.
33:55: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. That means when things get tough, you're persecuted, you still claim the name of Christ.
34:04: You don't shrink back. And then verses 24 and 25, the third thing is love.
34:10: We occupy ourselves during these days as we wait for Christ to come by loving one another.
34:18: We go to church every Sunday as commanded by verse 25, not neglecting to meet together.
34:27: And we spur one another on to love and good deeds. So that's how we apply the book of Hebrews, faith, hope, and love.
34:36: Now, last week, verses 26 to 31, things took a drastic turn, didn't they?
34:43: All of a sudden, the author of Hebrews gets very serious, and he motivates us to do those three things, faith, hope, and love.
34:54: How so? He tells you if you just go on sinning, in other words, you don't take this new and living way, but you keep going your own way, you can expect, verse 27, judgment.
35:09: What kind of judgment? You should be looking at verse 27. A fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
35:20: That's intense. That's a strong warning. In fact, down in verse 30, vengeance is mine,
35:27: I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
35:37: God. This warning is very serious. And last week, we saw that there are three reasons why this warning is so strong.
35:49: Remember what it is? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because if Christ was the sacrifice for our sins on the cross, and we take that lightly and trample underfoot the
36:06: Son of God by discarding it, we are taking the precious offering of the
36:12: Father and treating it like it's meaningless. The Father gave his dearly loved
36:23: Son. There's a picture of this in Genesis, chapter 22, when
36:28: Abraham is told, take Isaac and go to a place that I will show you and sacrifice him there. And Abraham is tormented by this idea.
36:37: His one and only Son. And every father in the room, it's Mother's Day. Mothers, you also understand.
36:45: Your son. Sacrifice him. Well, that command to Abraham was only a picture of what
36:56: God himself would do. The Father would give his one and only precious, dear
37:03: Son to die. And having done that, anybody who looks at that gift as a common thing and discards it and tramples it underfoot is sinning against the
37:16: Father. He's also sinning against the Son, treating the blood of the covenant as a profane thing.
37:25: Some of the Jews who are reading this book, Book of Hebrews, were tempted to go back to Judaism, to go back to the temple and offer animal sacrifices.
37:37: The thinking being, you know, the blood of bulls and goats, that'll do. But once Jesus was offered as the true and final sacrifice, all of those animal sacrifices came to an end in terms of their purpose.
37:53: They were only meant to point to Christ. So anybody who looks at the blood of Jesus as mere animal blood misses the point that Jesus is utterly unique.
38:08: He's the only person who is fully God and fully human. His blood is divine blood.
38:18: This is the God who made the universe, then taking on flesh and blood and spilling that blood to atone for sins.
38:27: If I die and my blood is poured out, it has no value to atone for sins.
38:35: I'm a sinner. The blood of an animal can't atone for sin.
38:41: But the blood of Jesus, His very life, infinitely valuable, was given on the cross.
38:50: And those who treat that as a profane thing, the word meaning common, we're looking right now at verse 29, as a profane thing, are disrespecting and dishonoring the
39:05: Son of God. And lastly, the spirit of grace. It is the spirit that sends this witness about Jesus.
39:12: And those who hear it and spurn it are resisting the offer of mercy.
39:21: And so it is offense against the Father, Son, and the Spirit. Heavy topic last week.
39:28: Now, here's how our God works. He warns us to come by the new and living way through Christ because He loves you.
39:40: That warning is to drive you to Christ, that you would avert judgment. He wants to fearfully push you to Christ.
39:49: But more than that, this week we see He also draws you with reward.
39:55: It's the proverbial carrot and the stick. Last week was the stick, this week is the carrot.
40:00: Let's read it, 32 through 39. 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.
40:23: 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.
40:38: Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
40:46: 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, and the coming one will come and will not delay.
41:01: But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
41:08: But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
41:22: This is a beautiful promise of reward that each of us need to hear.
41:30: We need to train our minds now. Remember the opening prayer, Teach us, Lord. We need to look at these words as treasures that will open something in our hearts to God.
41:43: So it says in verse 32, Recall the former days, when after you were enlightened, enlightened there refers to salvation, having believed.
41:51: You heard about Jesus and you believed. It says you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.
41:58: These believers had already been through persecution. Sometimes being publicly exposed.
42:07: The Greek word for publicly exposed is the word from which we get theater. They made a theater of you, a public spectacle of you, to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
42:23: We can't know for certain what this refers to. The closest I think that we can get is an event that happened in 49
42:31: AD. So at least 14 years, maybe as many as 17 years, after Christ rose from the dead.
42:40: The church in Rome has grown to be a significant movement, and there is in a secular history book a story that I think may refer to this.
42:53: It was written by Suetonius. He wrote a book called Life of Claudius.
42:59: He said that in 49 AD, Jews were expelled for troubles caused by Christus.
43:07: Which is interesting. Because most of the Jews who had become
43:12: Christians in Rome were still identifying as Jews, only completed or messianic
43:21: Jews. And this Roman author said the trouble was caused by Christus.
43:27: C -H -R -E -S -T -U -S. One letter removed from the
43:32: Greek Christos. It could be that he was referring to Jesus and Christians in Rome who were expelled for quote -unquote troublemaking.
43:46: What did that look like? We know from the text that they were publicly exposed.
43:52: So they were made a theater of. But we learn that there was a confiscation of property.
44:01: Verse 34. You had compassion on those in prison, so some of them were thrown in prison. And here's the predicament.
44:08: When you're thrown in a Roman prison, it's not like going to C -F -C -F in Philadelphia.
44:14: I've preached at C -F -C -F outside of Philadelphia to the prisoners there. But I've also been to Rome.
44:20: Anybody here been to Rome? At C -F -C -F, you have air conditioning.
44:27: You have food. You have television. Nice chairs to sit in.
44:32: You can go have a church service. I've been there to preach, not in jail, which may come one day if James Coates and all this, you know, they arrested that Polish pastor in Canada too,
44:43: Pulowski. I haven't been to prison for that reason yet. But if you go to Rome and you see the prison, it's kind of like a dungeon.
44:53: And they don't treat you well. They don't barely feed you. So what happens is the relatives or friends of the prisoner will bring them food and throw it down to them.
45:06: Well, to do that, if your Christian friends have been thrown in prison, that means that the
45:12: Roman guards who were looking for you in the first place will find you. You have to publicly identify, it says, in verse 34.
45:24: You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, or sometimes being partners with those so treated.
45:31: So you were helping them. And so, the Romans are coming to get your kitchen table too.
45:39: And the little girl is standing there, watching. Daddy, they're taking our table.
45:44: They're taking my bed. My little stuffed animal. Daddy, they just took all your money.
45:52: They just took the house. And the dad is standing there, smiling.
46:00: Joyfully accepting it. She says, Daddy, why are you smiling?
46:07: And he answers, we have possessions they don't know about. Abiding ones.
46:13: They can't touch. You see, he's looking to a reward that can't be touched.
46:24: That can't be taken. He's looking to something eternal. So look again with me at verse 34.
46:31: You had compassion on those in prison. This is not the language of doing justice for the poor.
46:39: This is the language of compassion. It would have been perfectly easy for the Christian to sit back while their friends are in prison and do nothing about it.
46:50: But out of compassion, they went and identified with them. And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.
47:03: I have to comment on this for a minute. It says in my Bible, your property.
47:13: In evangelicalism today, you see a movement towards Marxism, socialism. I, in fact, read somebody saying, well,
47:23: I don't see any Christian reason why universal health care should not be the right of every
47:32: American citizen. And one of my friends commented in response to that on Facebook and said,
47:40: I'll give you one. Thou shalt not steal. Listen, the basis of capitalism is not
47:51: Adam Smith and the invisible hand, wealth of the nations. It didn't begin with the economic theory and the industrial revolution.
48:01: Capitalism is biblical. Exodus 20, 15, thou shalt not steal implies private property.
48:11: It says here in my Bible, this was your property. It was yours.
48:17: You had private ownership of it. And the whole system of capitalism is built on this concept of private property.
48:26: Picture Ananias and Sapphira. They brought charity to the church and willingly offered what was theirs.
48:34: And by the way, if you lose this idea of your property, you've also lost genuine charity.
48:41: If all possessions belong to a society, you can't have charity. It wasn't yours in the first place.
48:47: It belonged to the government. But Ananias and Sapphira, they took their field and sold it and took the money to the feet of the apostles.
48:59: And they said they got such and such a price. And because they lied about the price, they died at the feet of the apostles.
49:09: But in Acts chapter 5, verse 4, Peter says something interesting before Ananias drops dead.
49:16: What did he say? Before you sold that field, didn't it belong to you?
49:23: And even after you sold it, didn't the proceeds belong to you?
49:30: Why then have you tested the Holy Spirit? Why have you lied to God? You see, the issue was he lied to God by claiming something that wasn't true about the price he got.
49:42: But the teaching of the Bible throughout is the private ownership of property.
49:48: So verse 34, they accepted the plundering of their property. Why? That's the big question.
49:57: Christian, why will you devote your life to the church, giving tithes and offerings?
50:05: We have guys that go and give their Thursdays, every Thursday, to go work with the prisoners who are being integrated back into the society.
50:14: Others who are working with Family Promise to help homeless people. Why do that instead of watching the game?
50:22: Why devote your life to Christ? Does it make sense? What is the reason to sacrifice things now?
50:29: What do you get out of this? Look at verse 34. Sense. That word sense gives you the reasoning.
50:37: And it's not altruism. It is since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
50:54: You yourselves knew that you had a better possession. Mark chapter 8 verse 36.
51:01: Jesus said this. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
51:12: He's appealing to their own self -interest. What does it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your soul?
51:22: That would be foolish. But according to your self -interest, you should sacrifice the things of this world for a better and abiding promise.
51:35: In Acts chapter 5, the apostles were commanded to preach no more in this name.
51:44: And yet they said, salvation is found in no other name, for there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
51:50: And so what did they do? They went right back into the temple courts and preached in his name. And so the religious leaders came to them and beat them mercilessly.
52:02: Probably broke a bone in at least one of them. I remember playing basketball when I just jumped up to catch the ball and somebody hit me in the rib and cracked a rib.
52:10: That thing hurt for six months. Some of you guys that play sports, you know the pain.
52:18: Some of you that fight a lot. You ever get in a fight? You know what it feels like to get hurt. It makes you angry.
52:27: But in Acts chapter five, verse 41, it says here, they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
52:44: They suffered a beating. They were bruised and bloody and they were rejoicing.
52:52: There was something they were receiving. That made it worth it.
52:59: You see, when you suffer for the name of Jesus, you declare that He is more valuable than your comfort.
53:08: Whatever you sacrifice for Christ is made of lesser worth than Christ to you.
53:16: What you are willing to suffer for Him tells the world how you esteem Him. And this is so important.
53:24: This is true worship. Worship is not just singing. Worship is valuing or treasuring or prizing something.
53:34: And when you say, Christ is my treasure, to the point where you would be willing to be speared to death.
53:42: You tell the world, He is my treasure. I value Him more than life itself.
53:50: But notice in Acts 5, 41, they're not just happy that somebody would take a spear in Ecuador.
53:59: They're happy that they were counted worthy of suffering dishonor for the sake of the name.
54:10: They themselves. This is deep, but amazing.
54:16: They were self -interested. They didn't just want somebody to glorify
54:22: God in that sacrifice. They rejoiced that they were counted worthy.
54:29: That my little life on this earth could in some way bring glory to the
54:37: King of Kings. Me, even me. When I die, this is my great ambition.
54:48: That having lived these, if I'm lucky, 80 years in the flesh, that I would stand and see the face of the one who was pierced for me.
55:04: And return to Him the reward of His suffering through 80 years of life and hear
55:09: Him say, well done, good and faithful servant.
55:15: You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of much.
55:21: If you endure, you will reign with Him, says
55:26: Paul to Timothy. The rewards at death and primarily that He would be pleased with us.
55:35: His pleasure in our lives that somehow we would bring pleasure to Him.
55:41: There will be no feeling on this earth that will be more satisfying to you than glorifying
55:47: Christ. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
55:54: Piper's right about that. His glory and your joy are united and tied together.
56:02: And so in verse 34, the reason why they could delight even as they're taking their houses is because they knew they had a better possession and an abiding one, a reward in heaven.
56:20: Now it gets explicit in verse 35, therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
56:30: I'll use the words of C .S. Lewis to drive this home. He says, if there lurks in most modern minds the notion that our, that to desire our own good and to earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing.
56:49: I suggest that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics. So Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, and the
56:56: Stoics, they'll teach you you need to be stoic. Just die to desires. Don't worry about yourself.
57:03: There's no self -interest. Self -interest is bad. Be worried about the collective. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospel, it would seem that our
57:24: Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.
57:31: We are half -hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us.
57:42: Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
57:55: We are far too easily pleased. Imagine that, a little boy in a slum playing with a mud pie as the rancid water runs through the gutter and satisfied with his mud pie because he cannot imagine what a holiday at the sea would really be like.
58:17: What the ocean is like. Never seen it. Can't imagine it. That's how we are too easily satisfied.
58:25: It is in our self -interest to look for a reward. There's only one life.
58:32: It'll soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. That was on my grandma's wall when
58:40: I grew up. Only one life. It'll soon be past.
58:47: Only what's done for Christ will last. Imagine eternity that goes on and on and on.
58:52: A thousand years is not even a drop in the bucket. And a million years and a billion years and a trillion years of eternal reward.
59:05: And yet we cling to the things of this earth and neglect the world to come.
59:12: Think of the reward. Verses 36 through 39. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
59:23: Quick comment there. The Bible teaches that you need to persevere in the faith. You can't just pray a prayer.
59:29: But if you hold fast and firm to the confidence you had at first you will endure and you will receive the promise.
59:39: 37 refers to Habakkuk. For yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay.
59:46: Anybody read Habakkuk today? You guys woke up and read Habakkuk, right? Come on, man.
59:52: Habakkuk. What a great three little chapters. The prophet is complaining about life.
59:58: None of you complain, do you? Our society never complains about anything. Habakkuk is complaining.
01:00:04: Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? And God answers him.
01:00:14: The just shall live by faith. That sentence from Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4 is quoted three times in the
01:00:24: New Testament. And that sentence summarizes the gospel. Romans 1 .17,
01:00:30: Galatians 3 .11 and Hebrews 10 .38 The just shall live by faith.
01:00:40: What is the meaning of that sentence? In the story of Habakkuk the prospering of the wicked will run out and the just will live by faith.
01:00:52: There is a reward coming for the righteous and the wicked will be punished. But the New Testament picks up on this and applies this to the eternal reward in heaven that we're to look for.
01:01:03: That's why it's quoted here. And what rocked Martin Luther's world when he read these words is that you are made just when you come by faith.
01:01:18: This is what sparked the Protestant Reformation in 1517. This is what saved thousands upon thousands of souls.
01:01:28: The understanding that God justifies by faith. He will declare you righteous when you put your faith in Jesus Christ.
01:01:38: Have you done that yet? Or are you still hoping that you will be a good enough person to make it to heaven?
01:01:46: The Bible says the just will live by faith. When you abandon your hope and your self -righteousness and your haughty eyes and you turn and you look to Christ and you put your faith in Him He will credit that faith as righteousness.
01:02:02: He will give you His righteousness. His faith will be credited to you as righteousness.
01:02:07: That's what the just shall live by faith actually means. It is the heart of the gospel.
01:02:13: But if you shrink back from Christ His soul has no pleasure in you.
01:02:20: In other words, there's no other means of justification. You can't earn it by some other way.
01:02:26: And if you depart from Christianity and you leave it behind and you try to blaze your own trail what does it say in verse 38?
01:02:35: If he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him. Verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed.
01:02:44: This is what we talked about last week. So is it possible for a Christian to lose his salvation?
01:02:51: Last point, part B of verse 39. But we are of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
01:03:02: This was the complicated part from last week. That it was a somewhat hypothetical argument because those who genuinely believe will persevere.
01:03:12: Doesn't it say that in verse 39? We are not of those who shrink back.
01:03:20: Those who have come to faith will persevere to the end. We are those who have faith and preserve their souls.
01:03:31: So in closing there's two reasons why you should devote your life to applying this book.
01:03:41: Faith in Christ, hope until the end, and loving the church, building up the church.
01:03:48: Giving your time and all that you are to it. There are two reasons so far given. One is that if you choose a different way and you depart from Christ you will be destroyed.
01:04:01: Pretty good reason, right? Destruction? Certain doom? But the good news of verses 32 to 39 is you are promised a reward.
01:04:14: So great. Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17 says your light and momentary afflictions are achieving for you an eternal weight of glory that far surpasses them all.
01:04:31: A reward to see the face of Jesus Christ and to hear him say to you well done good and faithful servant.
01:04:41: And then to reign with him during the millennial kingdom. And to be in that company from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
01:04:51: Worshipping him for all eternity. A great reward. This is your inheritance, the promise of eternal life.
01:04:58: Let's pray. Father my prayer this morning is for any who are here today and they have not yet made that break with the world.
01:05:07: They're still looking for life in the things of this earth. They're playing with mud pies and satisfied with lesser pleasures.
01:05:19: Pray now Lord that you would open their eyes to see the great reward that you have promised.
01:05:25: Forgiveness of sin, eternal life at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
01:05:34: I pray that you would open eyes to see the truth of this passage. And that those who have not yet come would repent of sin and come through the new and living way.
01:05:46: The only way to the father. The gate for the sheep. The door. The way.
01:05:52: The truth. The life. Jesus Christ. And for us who have come
01:05:59: I pray that we would endure and be reminded of the reward. That we would live according to our own self interest.
01:06:09: That we would know that dying to the things of this earth is life. And that there is a reward awaiting us.
01:06:19: Help us God to endure persecution when it comes.
01:06:27: To smile when taken to jail. To delight even when our property is confiscated.
01:06:39: Whatever comes Lord we have a treasure in these jars of clay that shows that the all surpassing power comes from you and not from us.
01:06:52: Remind us to live. And Lord we know you're coming soon.
01:06:58: Even so come Lord Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing. What is our hope in life and death?
01:07:25: Christ alone. Christ alone. What is our only confidence that our souls to him belong?
01:07:39: Who holds our days within his hands? What comes apart from his commands?
01:07:49: And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand.
01:07:59: Oh sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal.
01:08:08: Oh sing hallelujah. Whenever we confess
01:08:16: Christ our hope in life and death. What truth can calm the troubled soul?
01:08:30: God is good. God is good. Where is his grace and goodness known?
01:08:39: In our great redeemer's blood. Who holds our faith when fears arise?
01:08:49: Who stands above the stormy trials? Who sends the waves and brings us nigh unto the shore?
01:09:00: The rock of Christ. Oh sing hallelujah.
01:09:08: Our hope springs eternal. Oh sing hallelujah.
01:09:18: Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death.
01:09:28: Unto the grave what shall we sing? Christ he lives.
01:09:36: Christ he lives. And what reward will heaven bring?
01:09:44: Everlasting life with him. There we will rise to meet the
01:09:51: Lord. Then sin and death will be destroyed.
01:09:57: And we will feast in endless joy when Christ is ours forevermore.
01:10:06: Oh sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal.
01:10:16: Oh sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess
01:10:23: Christ our hope in life and death. Well to all the mothers here you are celebrated and loved and your families are what they are because of your sacrifice.
01:10:42: We thank the Lord for you so have a blessed day. Kids make sure you make much of them today.
01:10:49: And happy Mother's Day. So let me read a benediction and we go in peace.
01:10:57: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man.
01:11:04: He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their