Reproaches and Tribulations (Hebrews 10:32-34)

The Son of the

Universe, receive our praise.

Who is like you, Jesus, the

Son most glorious? The fullness of the

God -flesh for us.

Save your Lord Jesus, hallowed be your risen now, in powerful sin slain.

Good morning. Good morning. Good to see each one of you today. We're going to open our

Bibles up this morning once again to Haggai in the Old Testament, the minor prophet who had a major message for his people.

And we're also going to be going back to Ezra for a little bit of background work. So you might just mark your place in Ezra as well.

And before we do, let's commit our time to our Lord and ask his blessing on our study this morning.

Our Father, we do thank you for the great privilege that we have to be able to gather together in the name of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to have this freedom and privilege to be able to open your word and fellowship together.

We ask your blessing on it now. Pray that you would accomplish every divine purpose that you have through your word, by your spirit.

And we just pray that you would be glorified in it. And we just ask it in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. Well, just a few minutes of review, if you remember. And if you weren't here last time and you didn't get any notes, there are some back there and there was a couple out front.

If you need a set of notes, I think there might still be a couple of sets back there on the countertop, but help yourself to those.

But we saw last time, as we looked at 2 Chronicles 36, the background for the captivity of Judah, the southern kingdom.

And we saw that God had a very good reason for bringing them into captivity after a long and extended period of rebellion and idolatry on the part of the people and the priesthood and the false prophets and even a series of wicked evil kings.

And you remember that repeated statement that we saw in 2 Chronicles 36 of the king.

And then it says, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And that was just repeated with each one of them. And ultimately, it ended in the captivity in Babylon.

Jeremiah 5, 30 and 31 says this, and this is early on in Jeremiah's prophecy, chapter five.

God says through Jeremiah, an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land.

The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule at their direction.

In other words, they're ruling on their own authority. They're not ruling on the authority of God. My people love to have it so.

So there's a comprehensive sin involved. And then it says, but what will you do when the end comes?

Virtually every place you look in Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament, and you find a condemnation of false prophets, false teachers, sinful kings, somewhere in that context you're going to find a statement of their end or their judgment.

And all the way through the prophets are, particularly Jeremiah as we saw, he's just for 23 years, he's just hammering away at their sin, calling them to repentance, calling them to turn from their sin and return to the

Lord. But they refused to do it and were taken into captivity for 70 years. And then we looked at Ezra's history who recorded the history of this time.

And we saw that he mentions even the decree of Cyrus. So 70 years captivity after that was over, the new ruling monarch who would have been

Cyrus, the Persian king, ordained that they should come back to their land.

That was prophesied too by Isaiah chapter 44, verse 28 through 45.

Absolutely fascinating. 170 years before Cyrus was even born, Isaiah the prophet prophesied that he would be born.

He even names him Cyrus and God in that passage even calls him my servant, though you do not know me.

A pagan king is going to be used by God to release the captives from Babylon so they can go back to Judah to rebuild the temple.

And then after they're there, after over a year it took them to begin to build the temple, which was why they came back in the first place, they stalled, they stopped.

They got the foundation laid and then they stopped. And God had to use

Haggai to confront them in their sin, to motivate them to begin to rebuild the temple again, get back to work.

And we saw that last time in the first chapter, verses 1 through 15. And they actually responded positively and went back to work.

And it says in that statement and down in verse 12, they obeyed the voice of the

Lord, their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, which is the same thing as the

Lord, their God had sent him and the people feared the Lord. And then it says they returned to work and they worked on the house of the

Lord of hosts, their God. So brief review there from what we saw last time.

Do you have any questions or comments or anything from what we saw? Do I have to?

Yeah. Yeah.

2 Timothy. Yeah. 2 Timothy 4, we get obsessed with that guy, you know, and what this one person is teaching and he's, yes, he's a false teacher and when you're shopping for your groceries, you know, he's staring at you from a bookshelf, you know, with a big grin on his face.

And yet, like you say, he's not the story. It's 30 ,000 people that go into that arena every

Sunday, willingly listening to that. And not only that, but what about online now?

We're in the information age and you can access these things from all over the world. So it could be millions of people following one guy.

And so the question always is, who attracted who? Yeah. Remember, Aaron made the golden calf, why?

They wanted him to. We don't want Yahweh anymore. We want another God. And he said, give me your gold.

And they gave him the gold, they gave him a false God. So yeah, it's pretty sad.

Okay, anybody else have any comment or question you might have? Okay, good. Well, I got some questions for you. Page six.

All right. I think we can do this. We're a pretty big group here. But number one on page six, how would you characterize the

Jewish exile's life priorities and their attitude toward rebuilding the second temple, which represented the presence of Yahweh?

This was one of the reasons it was so important. This was where Yahweh dwelt. This was the place of worship.

And it was also the central point of their lives, you know, their civil life, their religious life and so on.

How would you characterize their priorities and their attitudes? Anybody? Come on now, help a brother out here.

Yeah. I would say that they were misplaced. Yeah. Misplaced priorities.

He calls them out on that. You say it's not time, but that's why they came back.

Yeah, that's right. And misplaced priorities, but all of those are good things. We need homes.

We need work. We need to... They need it. We need to plant crops. We need to have things that sustain our lives, and yet it's an issue of priorities.

Anybody else? Okay, number two. God calls the exiles to consider your ways.

And I think I mentioned last time the actual, the word for heart is in that statement. Think deeply about how you are living.

He calls them to do that several times, and then he details the lack of blessing in their lives. Can you make application to our day and national situation,

Brian just did, or at a more individual and personal level? Right now, you're all thinking of about a dozen different examples

I know. And it's true. I mean, you can just kind of go down the list and check off some of these things, and even in our big, broad, evangelical, the big tent, yes, yeah.

And by the grace of God, he's calling them to do that. What happened to the Canaanites? These people sinned exactly like the

Canaanites did. In fact, they chased after the same false gods, but these are his chosen people.

There's something much bigger going on here, and one of them is the preservation of the seed line.

We talked about that last time a little bit. We're going to talk about it more in the future, but yeah, they were forgetful of God's blessings.

They were even forgetful that they had just come out of 70 years in captivity for violating the Mosaic covenant over and over again.

Peter. Oh, yes, I will.

Okay, number three, since he details the poor crops that they had, they had some crops, they just didn't have an abundance of blessing like they should have had back in their land.

Who or what is in charge of the climate of this planet? Vote for one. The EPA, Greta Thunberg, or God?

Well, I had my choice. I thought of that, but he's kind of passé, you know.

I think he's retired, but yeah. Yeah, God is in charge and Greta is not.

Something about being scolded by a 14 -year -old, shame on you, almost as bad as hearing

Nancy Pelosi quote Scripture. But anyway, number four, verses 12 through 15 are a clear example of the scriptural principle that obedience to the

Word of God results in blessing, but disobedience to the Word of God results in no blessing, chastening, probably several things you could put in there.

And again, it's not always obliteration by the judgment of God, it's just things are not what they should be or could be.

And then five, God's gracious promise that I am with you is manifested in the spiritual motivation of the leadership and the people to return to work on the house of Yahweh of their

God, from 14b. That whole passage is so very positive, but then there's going to be more to come.

And then again, at the bottom down there from Jeremiah 29, for this says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, some

Hebrew scholars say that that little word could be translated at, maybe some of your translations have that, at Babylon.

If it's at Babylon, it could be talking about the captivity of the people. But if it's for Babylon, maybe it's talking about a 70 -year duration of the

Neo -Babylonian Empire. We're going to talk about that a little later too. When that's completed,

I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

All by the grace of God. By the way, that last statement, make kind of a nice t -shirt if you want to spend the money on one and pull it out of its context.

Do you have any other comments or questions on what we saw last time? Now if you got the t -shirt, forgive me, okay,

I'm just kidding, just kidding. Well we're going to be looking at chapter 2 now, verses 1 through 9.

This is on page 7 in your notes, God's promise of future glory.

Chapter 2, verse 1, in the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month, the word of the

Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now?

Is it not as nothing in your eyes? It's thought by some that maybe

Zerubbabel had actually been in Judah and seen that original temple and then was taken into captivity and now released.

So they've been back at least a couple of years by the time they built the foundation of the temple. If so, he would have been an old guy, right?

Seventy plus years, probably around 80 plus. But turn to Ezra, and as we saw last time,

Ezra wrote the history of this period of time. Last time we saw the decree by Cyrus and how he even included the release of the sacred vessels of the temple that survived the 70 years.

But look at Ezra chapter 3, verse 8. We're going to have a little more background here.

Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Yeshua, the son of Jehozadak, made a beginning.

Together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites, and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity, they appointed the

Levites from 20 years old and upward to supervise the work of the house of the Lord. So they got busy, got started on rebuilding the temple after they had been there for a whole year.

And then it says down in verse 10, and when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the

Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the Lord according to the directions of David, king of Israel.

So they're even going to use some of the liturgy, the Davidic singing of the songs. And they sang responsibly, praising and giving thanks to the

Lord. Now they're going to have a dedication of the foundation of the temple. And here's from Psalms, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the

Lord was laid. Great big celebration. All the people would have been there in the town, probably thousands and thousands of people and the priesthood and all the musicians and everything.

And then we come to verse 12. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping.

For the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. Get the picture?

They have people praising God and shouting, and it's loud, and the music and the instruments and everything. But you got these old guys, you know, they're crying, they're wailing because they see the foundation.

And when they see that, they can tell how big it's going to be. And it's not as big as Solomon's temple. And so they're wailing and crying, oh, no, that's not a temple.

We had a great temple, you know. And this is what God confronts them with back in Haggai.

So there's a mix. Some people are saying, wow, this is great, and they're praising

God. But a whole bunch of them are weeping and wailing, the old guys, some of the old people.

There's a lesson here for you old people. Well, so this woodcut on the front here.

This appeared in a King James version of the Bible in around the 1860s.

They used to put some pretty elaborate illustrations in Bibles, okay? So this one here, artist's rendition of what this could have looked like, right?

And so you can't, it's kind of not a good copy here, but the text down there is from the King James, right?

Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men. Most of your translations probably say old, but this older King James says they're ancient men that had seen the first house when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted for joy.

So it was a real mix. And my question whenever I look at this, always, okay, who's this guy up here?

Which one is he? Can't really tell, can you? I mean, you can't tell what he's doing. I figure he must be one of the praising guys because he was able to crawl up there.

If he was an ancient guy, I don't know if he'd be up there, but you can't tell what he's doing. Is he wailing because it's not as good as the one we used to have, or is he praising

God for the brand new temple? Hard to tell. But if he is up there howling about how small it is, if I was one of these guys down here pushing a 20 -ton stone,

I think I might say, hey, grandpa, zip it, okay? These are 20 -ton stones, it's big enough.

And he's up there saying, nah, go to the quarry, get some more stones, build it bigger. But that's what happened.

There was a mix of praising God and people also complaining, some of the older ones.

And the reason was, it says right there, how do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

So some of them were remembering the past glory. It's easy to do, right? I confess, sometimes

I think to myself, boy, back in my day, you know, back in my day. Back in my day, life was simple, right?

Back in my day, life was simple. Men were men, women were women, that's it.

I said it was simple. Life was simple. Men were men. Some of you are leaning forward like, it's kind of like in Genesis, right?

He created them male and female, period, end of story, case closed. And as you have certainly noticed, virtually every assault and attack on what is in the

Word of God is Genesis 1 and 2, the created order, right? Definitions, basic definition of male, female, basic definition of marriage, all of that is prior to the fall, part of the created order.

Such as, it is what it is, but it's something we also have to learn to deal with and respond to as believers in Jesus Christ.

So, they remembered the past glory, but they're also now reminded of the present glory.

What do you do now, verses 4 through 5? Yet, now, right now, even though some of you are seeing that this is not quite as great and glorious as the prior

Solomon's Temple, probably the reason was, a lot of scholars say that this was not the full complement of people to come back.

This was, if even every one of them came back, this would still just be the southern kingdom of two tribes. There will come a time when the entire nation will be gathered, every tribe, in their land, led by King Jesus.

So, this is not the full picture of what's going to happen. But he says, yet now, right now, be strong,

O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the

Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit remains in your midst.

Fear not. They're called to get back to work. They're also, in a sense, they are being rebuked for their lack of work, like they were before, but they're also being comforted.

They're being comforted by the fact that God is with them, just like they were back in that first chapter.

God is with them, and therefore, they don't need to fear. My spirit remains in your midst.

Fear not. They have a command to be strong right now, because you have work to do.

The covenant is to be obeyed right now, the same covenant that was made back when he brought them out of Egypt, that promises blessing for obedience and chastening for disobedience.

And also, my comforter is with you now. I'm using a New Testament phrase, okay?

My spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. Comforter, of course, that New Testament designation.

From the Latin, comforte, with strength, it kind of got transliterated into English, and unfortunately, it kind of got sort of a more of a psychological connotation of comfort, you know?

But it means with strength. You musicians understand that little F, right? Forte means strength, and I understand there can be two of them.

I even heard from one musician when I talked to her about it, she said, yeah, there can even be three. Three fortes, is that right?

That's really strong. It means to strengthen. And actually, the Greek word, parakaleo, means to call alongside, to call alongside, to speak to them, to try to change behavior.

So it can have a variety of meanings, right? In other words, you bring somebody alongside to speak to them.

It could be to comfort them if they need comfort, but it could also be to just strengthen them, encourage them.

When you see the coach on the sideline, call the running back over who just fumbled the ball for the second time.

You can't hear what he's saying, but you can tell by his face what he's, he's not comforting that guy, right?

And so on. I always think of, who remembers Billy Martin? No? Okay.

Yeah. Billy Martin, the old New York Yankee manager. Yeah, he would, small guy, but boy, when he went into a fit, he'd go out on the field and he'd be screaming and yelling, you know, you could just tell.

And then he'd be kicking dirt on the guy. That's not comforting, but he called him alongside to say something to him because it can have a range of applications here, but God is telling them, be strong, get to work.

I'm with you. And we saw from last time, they feared God. The exact same

Hebrew word is used here in verse five, fear not. Same Hebrew word, to fear

God and fear not. Why? Because when you fear God, what is there to fear in the world?

Nothing, right? Pretty good lesson for us in the time we live. Lesson for everybody.

So they're reminded of the present glory. They're rebuked for remembering past glory and letting that contribute to stopping their present work, but they're reminded to be strong now because right now

God is with them. They don't need to fear anything when God is with you. And now

Haggai is going to reveal what many other prophets have revealed, and that is the future glory.

Verse six, for thus says the Lord of hosts, yet once more in a little while,

I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in.

And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the

Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the

Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace, declares the

Lord of hosts. None of these things have happened yet, even up to this late date. This is going to be a time in the future when

God gathers his people from all over the world, not just from Babylon, but from all over the world, back to his land that he gave to them in fulfillment of the

Abrahamic covenant, which promised land, seed, and blessing. And he is going to do that.

And when he begins to do that, he's not just going to shake things locally. There was an earthquake in Haiti, I guess, just yesterday, pretty severe one too.

There's earthquakes all over the world all the time. Seismologists even tell us, you know, because they measure even really tiny ones, there's just hundreds of them happening every day.

And I'm guessing maybe a few of you have experienced an earthquake. Who's experienced an earthquake? Yeah.

Okay. I grew up in Southern California. I've lived in the South, also lived up in the Bay Area, close to some major faults.

And I only felt two earthquakes, and it was minor. They were a distance away. But I'll tell you, it got my attention.

And when that house, the house just went boom, short, few seconds, but it gets your attention.

When God wants to reveal his presence, he shakes the earth. But the future judgment, the future shaking will be much, much bigger.

Exodus 20, verse 18 says, Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire.

The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

Remember, God gathered the children of Israel at the base of the mountain. He was on the top of the mountain. They were down below.

And the basic, very clear, simple lesson was, there's God, he's holy, he's up there.

You're down here, and you're not holy. And he set those barriers. You cannot come up here. And God himself had to create a way for them to come and have fellowship with him, which he did through that covenant.

But he shook the whole mountain. In Psalm 68, Psalm of King David, which talks about God scattering his enemies in future judgment, it even looks back at the event at Mount Sinai.

Oh, God, he says, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain before God, the one of Sinai before God, the

God of Israel. And even in his well -known vision in Isaiah chapter 6, when

God called him, Isaiah says this, and once again, we have a timestamp.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

And above him stood the seraphim, the seraphim were those angels. Seraph is the Hebrew word to burn.

And so the plural ending, em, says these are the burning ones. And it's thought that they were probably brilliant blazing because of their proximity to the glory of God.

And he sees these seraphim hovering around the throne. Each had six wings. With two, he covered his face, and with two, he covered his feet, and with two, he flew.

And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Even in a vision of God on the throne, he senses this shaking. God is there.

And these two phrases in our text, heavens and earth, and sea and dry land, that indicates this is not going to be a local earthquake, okay?

When he's ready to come back, it's going to be universal. He's not only going to shake the earth, he's going to shake the heavens and the earth.

He's going to shake the sea and the dry land, and it's going to be cataclysmic. It'll be a universal earthquake, sea quake, heaven quake.

And in verse 7, he's going to shake the nations. Why? So that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the

Lord of hosts. He's making a...yes,

we do have the smoke. I'm not sure it's meaning the same thing, but yeah, it's...

But yeah, it's...none of this has happened yet. There's no time that this is...you could actually say, well, it happened here, it's in the past, this is in the future, and it's a look into the future.

And it's also a look into the future of the future temple that will exist in Jerusalem on the

Temple Mount, Ezekiel's temple. And he even refers to this house in a way that makes you think he might be talking about this house, like we would think of it, but it's simply my temple he's talking about here.

And he's going to move the nations of the earth to return to Jerusalem and bring treasures to the house of God.

Christ will be there, ruling as king. The nations will be gathered there, back into their land, and it will be in a glorious kingdom that he's speaking of here.

The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. It's said now that I guess China is hoarding gold and have for some time, and they measure it in tonnage, the amount of gold that they have, right?

That's just temporary, okay? That's just a temporary situation. It's going to go back.

The people will be bringing the treasures to God and to the house of God. And the glory, the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the

Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace. Who will bring peace?

The Prince of Peace. We can work for peace, and we should. We should pray for peace, work for peace, best we can.

But there will not be true peace on this planet until the Prince of Peace comes back, and then he'll impose it on the earth, okay?

He will bring peace, declares the Lord of hosts.

So he reveals the future glory, the future judgment will be greater, cataclysmic judgment on this planet.

The future glory will be greater, the future peace will be greater.

The best peace, the most perfect peace that's ever been on this planet in the history of time can't even compare to the peace that will be in that day, in that time, and it's here, he says.

I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts, in this place. This shaking, which represents

God's presence, is even mentioned in Hebrews chapter 12 down at the bottom there.

A writer of Hebrews references this, and he even references back the former shaking that they all would have understood was at Sinai.

He says, at this time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, and here he quotes 2 6, yet once more,

I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, he says, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a salvation that cannot be shaken, can't, can't be shaken.

It's eternal. And the world may fall apart all around you, and we may look at the destruction and the decay of cultures, countries, whatever it might be.

And we might even be saying, back in my day, I remember, okay. And yet, if you're trusting in Christ, you have a salvation that cannot and will not be shaken.

The perfect state of things which will exist after the return of Christ from heaven and will undergo no change.

He's talking about the present order of things that right now are subject to decay and to shaking and quaking, and they are.

But there will come a time when things will undergo no change because Christ will be back and things will be perfect in his kingdom.

So, there we have God's promise of future glory. Have any questions or comments about that?

Yeah, we live in a decaying universe. What did Paul say in Romans? The whole earth groans, you know, it's groaning and grinding and decaying.

It's unstable. It's winding down. After the fall, it began to decay, wind down, volcanoes, earthquakes, and all those things.

And you'd think, hopefully, if anybody knew

Scripture, they would look and maybe connect the dots and say, well, this is what's going on now. Maybe I should consider my ways, as Haggai said, right?

But all we can do is warn people like Jeremiah did, share our faith, live our faith, but God has it all in control.

He's the sovereign God of this universe. He's got even the weather under control, not little

Greta. Okay, any other thoughts or questions you might have? Yeah, Julie, on which page?

Oh, yes. The same audience is exhorted now to be strong three times.

And they are reminded of the Mosaic Covenant, which obligated them to obedience, but it also promised

God's protection and presence. And then, since Yahweh's Spirit is with them, they do not need to fear.

Fear not. And then, in C, the future judgment will be greater, the future glory will be greater, and the future peace will be greater.

Anybody else? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. She wanted just me to read in the outline

B and C to fill in the blanks. Anybody else?

Okay. Let's pray. Father, thank you that we have been able to spend time in your word together.

Thank you for your grace in each one of our lives. Thank you also for the lessons that we learn and how close to home they really are.

It's with grief that we watch even the decay of our own culture around us.

Even the same kinds of people, we see it in leadership, we see it in the religious people who are supposed to be spiritual guides and shepherds.

We see it in false prophets. But we also know, Father, that you have your remnant, you have your people, and we just thank you for that.

We also, Father, have your presence, and we have your strength, and we have your promise that if we fear you, we don't need to fear anything or anyone because you are the sovereign

Lord of this universe. So we just thank you for that. Help us to apply these things to our lives, to move ahead, to be busy about your work and doing your work your way.

And now, Father, as we gather to worship you, we just pray you would be pleased that you would give strength to all who minister to us and great joy in the ministry.

Pray especially you would just minister to Jim and help him with his voice.

Thank you that he's back in the pulpit today, and we pray you would accomplish every divine purpose in Jesus' name.

Amen. Oh, Christ died for me.

How sweet the sound of saving grace. Sound of saving grace.

Christ. How sweet the sound of saving.

The sound of saving grace. Christ died for me.

How sweet the sound of saving. The sound of saving grace.

Christ died for me. How sweet the sound of saving.

How sweet the sound of saving grace. Christ died for me.

How sweet the sound of saving grace. The sound of saving grace. How sweet the sound of saving grace.

Christ died for me. How sweet the sound of saving grace.

Our hearts ran wild. Our tongues could not be tamed.

The darkness had concealed.

Your law has now revealed. Our guilt was great.

Our bitter fate was seen. Our only hope, our hope is you.

No wits and fools.

You draw us to the truth. Newly hope is you.

Bridges we have burned, you have restored. You gave us hope when there was none before.

You paid the debt that we could not weigh up.

So in our days of grief.

Our hope will rest in you. For we can trust your promises are true.

It's you, our hope is you.

It's you, our hope is you.

Our hope. Greatest treasure in soul.

Like you there is no. True delight is found in you.

Too deep to fathom.

Your love exceeds the heavens reach.

Your truth, a fount of perfect wisdom.

My highest good ending me.

Oh Lord, defend my soul.

To fight against his hateful.

My soul be surrounded.

When trials or faithful refugees.

Gracious Savior, my guilt.

And cross laid on your shoulders. In my place, you suffered.

You rose the great. Oh, great

God of highest heaven. Occupy my lowly heart.

Own it all and reign supreme. Conquer every rebel power.

Let no vice or sin remain. That resist your holy war.

You have loved and purchased me. Make me yours forevermore.

I was blinded by my sin. Had no ears to hear your voice.

Did not know your love within. Had no taste for heaven's joys.

Then your spirit gave me life. Opened up your words to me.

Through the gospel of your son. Gave me endless hope.

And help me now to live a life.

That's dependent on your grace. Keep my heart and guard my soul.

From the evils that I face. You are worthy to be praised.

With my every thought. And great

God of highest heaven. Glorify your name through me.

You are worthy to be praised. With my every thought.

Glorify your name through me.

Though I fear my fate. May Christ, the tender word.

Be your hope. I could never keep my fearful path.

For my, he must go.

He, he will hold.

Those he saves are his delight. Christ will hold precious in his holy sight.

He will my soul when sage dies.

Brought by him at such a cost.

He will hold. He will hold.

He will hold. Those he saves are his delight.

He will hold.

All my life he bled. Christ will hold me fast.

This has been satisfied. We will wage with him to end his life.

He will. Till our faith is turned to silence.

When he. He will hold.

He will hold. He will hold.

You will be strong.

He will hold. He will hold.

Stricken, slitten, and afflicted.

See him lying. Tis the

Christ I marry. As my soul dizzy, dizzy.

Tis the long expected profit. David's son.

My son. God has spoken. Tis the true and faithful word.

Till he. Rest with fear.

Was insulting his distress. Many who did.

Was to say. The deepest. Is to.

Was a stroke. That justice. He. Will think of sin but light.

Its nature rightly. Here it's built plain. The sacrifice avoided.

See who. Tis the word.

The vote anointed. Son of. Here we had.

A firm foundation. Here the record. Christ the rock.

Of our salvation. Is the name of.

The only name we boasted. Canceled guilt.

None shall ever. Who on him.

None shall ever. Be. Confounded. John.

My weary soul. On thee. When sorrow.

On thee. My fainting.

Hope. Relapsed. To thee.

The spring. Yet.

Still. As now.

The peace. He. I praise. You. You.

You. You. You.

You. You. You.

You. Love the air

I knew, drew me with his course of love,

Tightly bound me to him. Around my heart still closely twined,

The ties that none can sever. I am his and he is mine,

Never ever Jesus' friend of sinners.

Proud and forlorn to war for me, Brutal I am to him,

He is quiet and eager with me to serve.

Born out of the innocent, He took my place and my soul to save.

I am his and he is mine, Never ever

Jesus' friend of sinners. Redeeming love has been my death,

For I am his and he is mine,

Never ever Jesus' friend of sinners.

Never separating me, Brother, the sign is forever.

Sing it again. The sign is forever. The sign is forever.

Before the throne of God, I have a strong and perfect plea,

A great high priest whose name is love, Whoever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands, My name is written on his heart,

I know that while in heaven he stands, No tongue can bid me thence depart.

No tongue can bid me thence depart. When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within, See him then to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free,

For that is fine to look on him,

To look on our dead. He is in heaven,

My perfect spotless righteousness, The great unchangeable

I am, The King of glory and of grace.

One with my soul is purged by his blood,

With Christ on high, with Christ my Savior. There is no song we could sing

To honor the weight of your glory. There are no words we could speak

To capture the depth of your beauty. Jesus, there's no one like you.

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. There's no one like you.

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. There is no sinner beyond the infinite stretch of your mercy.

How can we thank you enough? Jesus, there's no one like you.

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. There's no one like you.

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. There's no one like you.

Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. Jesus, we love you, ever adore you.

Jesus, we love you. Jesus, we love you.

Jesus, we love you.

There's no one like you. Good morning, good morning.

Welcome to Kootenai Church this morning. Would you please stand as we sing, Praise the one who breaks the darkness.

Praise the one who breaks the darkness With a liberating light.

Praise the one who frees the prisoners Turning blindness into sight.

Praise the one who preached the gospel Healing every dread disease.

Calming storms and feeding thousands With the very bread of peace.

Praise the one who blessed the children With a strong yet gentle word.

Praise the one who drove out demons With a piercing, two -edged sword.

All right, let's hold it up here for a second. It's okay, it happens, technical difficulties.

Everybody's sitting out there like, it's like, here's your sign. Right click, close out, reopen, refresh.

You want to do announcements now? Take this time and greet each other.

Just kidding, don't do that. Or go ahead, whatever.

He handled it pretty well. Josh was just talking about it.

It was a great time. Well, these were $16 when

I bought them. I'm sure

Jim's just like, deep red. It's not bad, yeah. Shouldn't have been shopping, but I sure was.

Josh. Okay, I think we're ready now. Should we listen to the organ one more time, and we can come,

I'll walk him back up and start over. All right, let's go for it. Praise the one who breaks the darkness

With a liberating light Praise the one who frees the prisoners

Turning blindness into sight Praise the one who preached the gospel

Healing every dread disease Calming storms and feeding thousands

With the very bread of peace Praise the one who blessed the children

With a strong yet gentle word Praise the one who drove out demons

With a piercing two -edged sword Praise the one who brings cool water

To the desert's burning sand From this well comes living water

Quenching thirst in every land Praise the one true love incarnate

Christ who suffered in our place Jesus died and rose for many

That we may know God by grace Let us sing for joy and gladness

Seeing what our God has done Praise the one redeeming glory

Praise the one who makes us one Blessed be your name

In the land that is plentiful Where streams of abundance flow

Blessed be your name Blessed be your name

When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out

I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in,

Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the

Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the

Lord Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name

When the sun's shining out on me When the world's all as it should be

Blessed be your name Blessed be your name

On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out

I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in,

Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the

Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the

Lord Blessed be your glorious name You give and take away

You give and take away My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be your name You give and take away

You give and take away My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name In the land that is plentiful

Where streams of abundance flow Blessed be your name

Eternal God, unchanging Mysterious and unknown

Your boundless love unfailing

Grace and mercy shown Bright seraphim in ceaseless flight

Around your glorious throne They raise their voices day and night

In praise to you alone Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Lord, we are weak and frail

Helpless in the storm Surround us with your angels

Hold us in your arms

Our cold and ruthless enemy

His pleasure is our heart

Rise up, O Lord And he will flee

Before our sovereign God Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Let every creature in the sea

And every flying bird

Let every field and the earth

Start in all the universe

Sing praises to the living God Who rules them by his word

Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Alleluia Glory be to our great

God Y 'all may be seated. Well, good morning.

Jim's here. Wondering if Josh was critical of my message at all.

So welcome, welcome to Kootenai Church. Today is Adventure Club Sunday, so you see a lot of people wearing shirts like this or colorful shirts with the

Adventure Club logo on them. So I want to let you all know as a church what this ministry of our church is all about.

So Adventure Club at Kootenai Church exists to glorify God through the teaching of systematic theology to children because the more that's known about God, the more is he glorified.

He is perfect, and so the more that we know about him that's correct, the more perfect we understand him to be.

The curriculum was developed by Generations of Grace. That's the children's ministry arm of Grace Community Church, so we know that we can trust that material.

It's divided into three clubs. We have the trackers. That's ages three to kindergarten, and I got to look back there to make sure

I'm doing this for a party. Three to five. I was doing it wrong. Okay, and the next three years, that is our scouts and then trailblazers for fourth to sixth grade kids.

Those are three clubs, and each club night includes a large group lesson time, a small group teaching time, some music, and some game time.

We take out all these chairs here and put down a games mat, and we have games in here for the older clubs.

So this is our second year. Last year, the lessons were the church, the Bible, and the end times.

This year, man, sin, and salvation. I want to give you just a sampling of some of the lesson topics.

I won't go through all of them. God created man in his image. God's designed for men and women. Sin is rebellion against God.

Man's sin deserves punishment. God chose some to be saved. Salvation is by grace alone.

Jesus' death satisfies God's wrath. Christians must live disciplined lives. So you see from a sampling of that, this is not your normal children's ministry.

This is very theologically driven. It's a true systematic theology. I said man, sin, and salvation.

I could say anthropology, hematology, and soteriology. That's what we're going to be teaching our children this year.

Each year is 30 lessons and six reviews. There are memory verses or verses attached to each lesson.

We're going to start this year with five nights of adventure. That's going to be August 23rd through the 27th.

Every night during that week of August, we'll be meeting. It's grueling and a lot of fun.

We'll have games outside. Weather permitting, we'll have games outside. We'll go up to a pretty high

AQI before we'll bring the kids in here. We have to figure out exactly what that number would be, but pretty high because we love having the games outside.

We can't do it during the regular year because it's dark too early. Regular Friday club nights, they start on September 10th, and that will be our first theme night, which is superhero night.

You got almost a month to get ready for superhero night. Then we meet from 6 .30 to 8 every

Friday. Could I have all of the LITs and the leaders and the

Adventure Club kids please stand up for a second? Don't worry. You don't have to give a speech or anything.

Now, some of the kids are standing. You can't really tell. I didn't say sit down, but that's okay.

It's a humble bunch. I just wanted everyone in the church to see this is a major ministry of our church. We really appreciate your prayer.

I feel like this is the first year we're really going to be able to do this all out. The first year was a lot of COVID and stuff.

I know it's still there, but it's less of an issue for us this year. We advertised out to the community this year, which we didn't do last year, so we're anticipating that we'll have more kids.

What a great year to be teaching man, sin, and salvation. Parents, if you want to sign up your kids,

Diane will be at the table in the back after church for that. One last thing.

As I mentioned, we have to take all these chairs up. We leave the two side sections, and we'll take all the rest up.

That takes a lot of work. So if anybody's willing to just do that part of it, to come and help with a setup and teardown crew, let me know or let

Jim know, and we'll try to organize that. Some other announcements.

Sign up for the membership classes in the back there. If you want to go through the new member classes, they'll be held in October.

We'd like to see how many people we need for that, so how many sessions that we'll have. The midweek

Bible study, that starts on September 1st, and there's a sign -up sheet for that in the back as well. Jeff Miller will start that off with Jude, from my understanding, and then

Brian's going to go after that, Brian Wood, and he's not sure what he's going to do, so you could pray for him for that as well, figure out what he's going to do.

I had a suggestion for him that he didn't go for this morning. You could also sign up for the fellowship dinners in the back.

Don't forget those. The last announcement, you're probably not going to do this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

If you could scoot in when you arrive, if you could scoot in more towards the middle, it will allow us to seat more people.

You see, we've basically run out of places to put chairs, but there are a few empty seats, so if we could just try to make room.

All right, now let's turn to the scripture. Psalm 69 will be our scripture reading today.

Psalm 69, we'll read verses 1 through 12. Psalm 69, for the choir director, according to Shoshanim of David.

Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies. What I did not steal, I then have to restore.

O God, it is you who knows my folly, and all my guilt is not hidden from you. May those who hope for you not be ashamed through me,

O Lord Yahweh of hosts. May those who seek you not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel.

Because for your sake I have borne reproach. Dishonor has covered my face. I've become estranged from my brothers and a foreigner to my mother's sons.

For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

When I wept in my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

Those who dwell at the gate moan about me, and I am the drunkard's songs. Let's pray together.

Father, we're grateful for the opportunity just to come and worship you, to be able to put other things aside for the moment, and just be entirely focused on you and who you are and what you would have us to do.

And so, Lord, I pray that as we sing, we sing to you from our hearts. We sing in real, true praise to you.

We think about the words. We think about you, and we think about what they say about you. And as we listen, that we would be good listeners, that we would hang on your word, and we'd do what it says,

Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Please stand.

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.

It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair bowed down with care.

God gave His Son to win. His erring child

He reconciled and pardoned from His sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song.

When years of time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who hear refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains fall,

God's love so sure shall still endure all measureless and strong.

Redeeming grace to Adam's race the saints' and angels' song.

O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song.

Could we with Thee the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade?

To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll that's in the whole go stretch from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song.

Chapter 2, verses 4 through 7, it reads, But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which

He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come

He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

O great God of highest heav 'n, occupy my lowly heart.

Own it all and reign supreme, conquer every rebel power.

Let no vice or sin remain that resists

Your holy war. You have loved and purchased me, make me

Yours forevermore. I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear

Your voice, did not know Your love within, had no taste for heaven's joys.

Then Your Spirit gave me life, opened up Your words to me.

Through the counsel of Your Son, gave me endless hope and peace.

Help me now to live a life that's dependent on Your grace.

Keep my heart and guard my soul from the evils that I face.

You are worthy to be praised with my every thought and need.

O great God of highest heav 'n, glorify

Your name through me. You are worthy to be praised with my every thought and need.

O great God of highest heav 'n, glorify

Your name through me. You may be seated.

Please turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 10. My voice is back, but not entirely back, as you can probably tell, so I'm going to attempt to preach without straining my voice and probably be a little bit less excitable than I normally am, more subdued, talk quieter and talk slower.

So if my preaching normally puts you to sleep, you might want to just get comfortable, because you're going to get a jump on your mid -morning nap.

And I'm grateful for Cornell preaching for me last week. That was much appreciated. Hebrews chapter 10, we're going to read together, beginning at verse 32, and we'll read through verse 34.

But remember the former days when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

Let's pray together. Father, it is with great joy that we can always open your

Word and study it and learn, and we are thankful for your work through your Word, that you use your

Word to enlighten our hearts, that you use your Word to instruct us and to teach us about yourself, that we know you and that we may be rightly related to you through Jesus Christ.

We thank you that you have made your Word clear to us and we pray that you would help us to understand it today and that you would do the illuminating work by the power of your

Spirit in our hearts and in our minds so that we are able to understand your Word and also to understand what obedience to your

Word looks like and what obedience to your Word is going to entail in the world in which we live. We ask this in Christ's name and your blessing upon this time, for his sake.

Amen. We are back in Hebrews chapter 10 talking about reproaches and sufferings and affliction, trials and tribulations, which was,

I guess, the substance of Cornell's message last week. So, if anything that I'm about to say sounds familiar, it's because Cornell took my message last week.

And as elders, we really need to get our stuff together and start figuring out how to put some variety in our preaching, because either we are really bad at that, or the

Holy Spirit is really good about making sure that what we're preaching on is the same thing week after week. It seems providentially that whether Dave is preaching on his series in 1

Peter, or Cornell is preaching through his series in 1 Thessalonians, or I'm preaching this series in 1

Hebrews, that the Spirit of God is using all of those books to give us the same theme and the same subject week after week.

So, we are here in Hebrews chapter 10, and last time we were together, we just noted that Scripture is describing here for us in this passage what suffering and affliction in the cause of Christ is going to look like.

It is describing the actual suffering and affliction that Christians in the first century faced for their profession of faith in Christ and for their commitment to the truth.

And Scripture does not hide from us what suffering is going to look like. Scripture does not downplay at all the reality of affliction and persecution and suffering in this life for the cause of Christ.

We are told that having been enlightened, we should expect to endure a great conflict of sufferings.

And this is a truth that is often sort of overshadowed. It is a truth that is often neglected in today's modern pulpit, as most

Christian preaching today promises people the satisfaction for their every desire and supply for their every want, and their best life, and good times, and unicorn rides, and almost anything else that is fanciful in today's world.

And the truth about sin and the wrath of God and hell is neglected, but so is the truth about suffering and how it is that we are to endure suffering and what we should expect.

And the hard demands of the gospel are often overlooked. In coming to Christ, you're not just picking and choosing what you want spiritually speaking from Him like you're walking through some sort of a spiritual buffet or smorgasbord where you get to pick what you like and leave what you don't like.

As Dave mentioned in his message a couple weeks ago, we're not offered a Christ where we can choose Him as Savior and neglect or deny

Him as Lord. That is not how Christ is presented to us in Scripture. See, I remember Dave's message, and it was a great message, by the way, and one that you should listen to over and over again.

I think it was an instant classic, something along the lines of like a sinner's in the hands of an angry God. It will be remembered for months, years, and generations to come.

There, I said it. And when you come to Christ, you are pledging to die to yourself.

You are saying, I am done with all of my attempts at my feeble self -righteousness, and I have nothing to offer.

I am worth nothing. I am a slave. I am a servant. I am done with me and my agenda, and you are signing on to become a slave of Jesus Christ.

And being a slave means that we are called, we are commanded to be obedient to Him because obedience is the measure of our love for Christ.

Our emotions are not. Emotions can be manipulated. They can change like the wind. They can be created out of thin air.

Emotions are fickle and constantly in flux. So our emotions and our words and our feelings are not the measure of our love for Christ.

Our obedience is. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. It is obedience. And so when we sign on as slaves of Christ, we are signing up for reproaches and trials and tribulations and the hostility of an unbelieving world because this world is not our home, and it's not intended to be our home.

We are intended to live like we are strangers and pilgrims who are just passing through. We are not supposed to love this world or the things in this world because this world is not our home and the people in this world, well, they are the enemies of God, and they have sworn to be at war against Him, and they are our mission field, and we are ambassadors for Christ who are called into this world to plead with God's enemies to be reconciled to Him and to lay down their arms and to turn in repentance and faith to the

God with whom they are at war. That is our job. That message is not going to be well received, and we shouldn't expect that it's going to be well received.

In fact, we should expect that, as Paul said in Acts chapter 14, it is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God, and if we are going to live godly lives in this world in Christ Jesus, we will suffer persecution.

We should expect that what Jesus said in John 16, 33 is actually going to happen. In this world, you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer.

He has overcome the world. So our command from our king is to say to the enemies of God, lay down your arms and turn in repentance and faith and be reconciled against this

God, or you will face His wrath. That is not going to be a welcome message, and so we are going to expect in this world the very hostility and affliction that would come to somebody who goes to people with that kind of a message, and enduring these afflictions for the sake of Christ is not easy.

It's not easy. It's going to be difficult, and we should expect it to be difficult, and Scripture is honest about the difficulty of enduring afflictions for the sake of Christ.

The cause for which the world hates us are clearly laid out in Scripture. In fact, in our world right now, the truth regarding the issues for which the world hates us is not difficult.

The truths regarding that are not difficult to understand or to comprehend from Scripture. The world hates us because we understand and know the truth about gender and sexuality and homosexuality and the role of women in the church and in the culture and the exclusivity of the claims of Jesus Christ.

Those things in Scripture are not difficult to discern. Scripture is not opaque about those issues.

It's clear, and so faithfulness to Christ is very simple in our day. It's very simple. We obey what

Scripture says, and we're going to suffer for it. That doesn't mean it's easy.

It's not easy. It's going to be difficult, but even in its difficulty, it's refreshing to see how crystal clear and simple it really is.

Scripture is not confusing. There's no nuance regarding these issues. Scripture is clear about what it teaches concerning all of the things for which the world hates us, and so we can know what the truth is, and it is hard to suffer these afflictions, and it is hard to take a stand in our world, not because we don't know what is true, but because the world hates what is true, and as long as the world hates what is true, those who stand for the truth, believe the truth, and love the truth are going to face the hostility and opposition of the world, and we should expect it.

The author, in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32, encourages them to remember the former days when, after being enlightened, they endured a great conflict of sufferings.

This describes the struggle, the war, the contest, the difficulty of the sufferings.

He's just there describing sufferings in its general sense, just generally speaking, the various kinds of suffering from various sources with various causes, and we suffer in varying degrees, and sometimes the difficulty with suffering is not just what it is that is suffered, but the weight of a multitude of sufferings.

Have you noticed that sometimes when people suffer, in fact, most of the time, when we suffer affliction in this world, it's not any one thing that we suffer.

If it were just one thing, we could bear a great burden, a great weight of that one thing, but often suffering in this world is not just one thing.

It's a number of things. Like the author describes here, they had been made a public spectacle. They had been reproached.

They had faced tribulations. They had shared with those who were so treated. They had been imprisoned. Some of them had loved ones who had been imprisoned, and they had suffered the seizure of their property.

There was a multitude of different ways in which they were suffering, and if it had only been one of them, if they had just had to endure the seizure of their property, they might well have been able to bear that.

We could understand that. That would be difficult, yes, but seizure of your property. If I have everything else, but I can lose my property, then

I could be happy with that, or if they had just had to endure the reproaches, as difficult as reproaches are, or if they had just had to deal with some of the people that they loved in their own congregation being put into prison and having to share the burden of that and what that would have entailed, just that, but when it's all of those things piled on at the same time, isn't it interesting that it's like the straw that breaks the camel's back?

It's not any one thing. It's the weight of all of these things. Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 7 when he says,

We came into Macedonia. Our flesh had no rest. We were afflicted on every side, conflicts without and fears within.

Conflicts without and fears within. We had to deal with the enemies on the outside, and we have to deal with the enemy that is on the inside, and sometimes the opposition and hostility of the world, it's not just one enemy.

It's not just one battle. Sometimes it feels like we have to face a thousand battles with a thousand enemies and a thousand weapons turned against us, and we're fighting on every front all of the time, and that's just the external battles, and then we have to deal with the enemy within, our flesh, so we face hostility outside, and then we face temptation within, and Paul says,

We have no rest. When do you get to rest if all of the time you're facing a thousand enemies outside, and then just when you think that that is subsiding, you have to deal with the enemy within?

See how taxing that can be? See how honest Scripture is about the struggle that we face? This is why the author of Hebrews calls it a great conflict of sufferings.

Now he goes on in verses 33 and 34 to describe some of the specifics of this suffering.

He notes two different kinds of suffering. Partly, that is, on the one hand, being made a public spectacle, verse 33, through reproaches and tribulations, and partly, that is, on the other hand, by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

They had the individual and personal suffering and affliction that they had faced. They had been made a reproach.

They had become a public spectacle, and they were facing tribulation, and on the other hand, they had to share in the sufferings of others who had likewise been treated in that way.

It is an interesting word, the word that is used, made a public spectacle. That word is used one time in its verb form here in Scripture, and it is the word theatridizumai.

You can hear the word theater there in the beginning of it because it has the idea of something being put on public display, something put out in front of the watching eyes of the world, something open to view or sight, something made public.

The other forms of that verb are used to describe seeing something, observing it, beholding it, or looking at something, and the idea here is that they were being openly and publicly displayed before onlookers, and not in a good way.

Like look at this guy, how faithful he is to Christ. Let's give him a round of applause. Not that type of public display, but rather being put on public display and open to scorn and disgrace and reproach and rebuke and being so publicly displayed in a shameful way.

This describes them being put out publicly and openly mocked in some way that everybody was privy to it and everybody could see it, and this was what their profession of faith in Christ had cost them.

They were being publicly scolded in some way, and it may not, it doesn't necessarily have to do with this word or this description.

It doesn't necessarily have to do with being harmed publicly. This description may call to your mind one time when

Paul and some of his companions in the book of Acts chapter 19 in the city of Ephesus, when they were drug out into the amphitheater there in Ephesus.

Do you remember that? And they were publicly, they wanted to bring Paul out there, and they wanted, or Paul wanted to go out there and rescue his traveling companion, and they wouldn't allow him to do that because they thought the crowd would tear him to pieces.

That was kind of a theatrical display of Christians being publicly shamed and reproved and rebuked there.

That's not necessarily what was happening to these first century Christians, though it did happen later. After this book was written,

Christians were publicly executed and martyred in theaters and in coliseums. That happened centuries after this book was written, so that's not probably what's being described here.

This is likely describing a general exposure to disgrace. Just the idea that publicly, in the court of public opinion, in front of people, when they were talked about, when they were seen publicly, they were shamed and reproved.

That seems to be the way that Paul uses the noun form of this in 1 Corinthians 4 and 9, for I think

God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death because we have become a spectacle to the world.

The idea is that the apostles had, in some way, become just this thing that the world looked at and kind of scorned and reproached and reproofed and disdained.

That's the idea here. They had become a cause of public reproach, public shaming, a public disgrace or ridicule in some way before the eyes of the watching world.

Of course, it's different today, right? Totally different today in our culture.

Christians are never publicly reproved or rebuked, never publicly shamed. You never see your theology or your morals or your ethics or your worldview publicly mocked, do you?

On television, in the news media? Actually, that's exactly what happens.

We're only the worst examples of Christianity portrayed and paraded in front of the world. When was the last time you saw on CNN an example of a

Christian soup kitchen somewhere that was serving Christ and giving out soup to people for free and helping people and sharing the gospel?

When was the last time you saw an example of that? And people publicly applauded for such behavior and sacrifice and service to Christ.

When was the last time on any public news network you ever saw a Christian portrayed in a positive light or in a sitcom or in a movie?

Oftentimes, they're the villains. They're the ones with the white collar and molesting children, and that's supposed to portray

Christians in general. This is how Christians are viewed in our day and in our world. Our beliefs are scorned in academia, in every corner of academia, on nearly every college campus in this country except for a few public and private universities that I could probably count on one hand with fingers left over that rhyme with Billsdale.

And only a few public academic institutions are our beliefs not openly mocked and ridiculed and hated.

Now, you cannot in the public arena say anything even mildly critical of Islam, not even mildly critical, but you can openly rebuke and hate and mock and jeer against Christians.

In the public sphere, you are public enemy number one. An event like this is a super -spreader event against public health or something.

Now, if we were here worshiping and celebrating a former president of the United States' 60th birthday party, of course, this is entirely fine, but if we are gathering together like this to worship

Christ and help and serve one another, this is a super -spreader event, and it should be shut down in our country.

That's how this is viewed. You're not allowed to stand outside of abortion clinics or share the gospel publicly.

You can't mention Jesus, the Bible, or scriptures teaching in the public school system in almost any city in this country.

This is not the America I grew up in, not that I'm pining for or longing for the America I grew up in.

I mean, I would vote for Reagan today if he were running for president. But things have changed, haven't they?

In the public sphere, you are mocked and jeered, and Christians are the only, whether you call it cultural or religious or demographic in any way, that it is okay, and not just okay, but actually encouraged to do that to.

We are not tolerated. We are called intolerant, hateful bigots by the people who call themselves the tolerance police, the ones who promote tolerance in our area, supposedly, in our world.

They are the ones who will call you intolerant and hate you. Truth is a hate crime. Speaking truth is now violence.

Standing up for the truth makes you an enemy of the state. And the more that you resolve not to live by the lies of the enemy and of the world, you will be hated, and Christian, that is unavoidable.

You being hated is unavoidable. You are haters, bigots, intolerant, narrow -minded, uneducated, and unenlightened rubes.

That's everybody in this room. If you pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ, that's everybody in this room. I'm fine with that.

I hope you're fine with that, because you are gonna be treated in a way that nobody else would be allowed to be treated.

No one will dare criticize Islam. I've been online, mildly critical of Islam in public forums, and I have been called unloving, intolerant, divisive, and needlessly offensive by Christians, people who call themselves

Christians. People who call themselves Christians who are trying to be apparently nicer than Jesus and not say anything bad against anybody.

This is nothing less than being made a public spectacle where Christians are shamed and disgraced and hated and spurned, rejected, mocked, and ridiculed, and that is okay, that is encouraged in our culture and in our society, and it's not gonna get any better.

In every corner of society, you are mocked. In every government institution, you are considered an enemy of the state.

In every cultural institution, your worldview, your affections, your commitments, and the one that you love is open to reproof and rebuke, and you are hated for it, and every social media platform wishes to deplatform you, to censor you, and to silence you so that they do not have to hear anything truthful that might come out of your mouth.

This is a tale as old as time, because it's the same thing that our brothers and sisters in Christ in the first century endured.

They just didn't have Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all of those platforms to do it, but they did have the local block party when everybody got together, and when the

Christian wasn't there, they could slander him and speak behind his back and talk about that crazy commitment to that lunatic named

Jesus, and they would disparage Christ, and they would disparage the church, and they would disparage Christians. They did have the office party where you had to sit in silence while everybody talked about things that were not a priority to you.

They did have the office party where the Christian had to sit there and listen to their entire worldview be mocked by all of their coworkers.

They did have that. They did have family gatherings where everybody got together and talked about the Christian when the

Christian wasn't there, and when they showed up, they pretended to like you. They did have that. So, the more things change, the more they what?

The more they stay the same, right? And this is the world in which we live. This is what it meant to be made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations.

What is a reproach? This is how we are publicly displayed or disgraced. We are made a laughing stock.

The word reproach here is a verb that means to insult or to cast a reproach or to throw an insult at somebody.

It's used five times in the New Testament, three times in the book of Hebrews, and it's interesting how the book of Hebrews uses it, but before I get to that,

Romans, it's used two other times in the New Testament outside of Hebrews. I'll give you both of those references. Romans 15, verse three, where Paul says, for even

Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. That describes, that is a quotation from Psalm 69, which

Dave read at the beginning of the service. The psalmist there is lamenting the fact that he had been ostracized by his family and his loved ones.

He says, those who hate me are more than the hairs on my head. They hate me without cause, and they reproach me because of my love for Christ and my love for Yahweh, or sorry, not my love for Christ, my love for Yahweh, and my commitment to God and his truth.

Those who are my friends and those who are my family, even my relatives and my brothers and sisters, they hate me and reproach me because they hate and reproach

Yahweh, the God of Israel. And Paul says in Romans 15, he uses that and describes the reproach there, the casting of insults upon Christians, particularly because they are

Christians and because they love Christ. And so because they reproach Christ, they will reproach us.

The second time it's used is in 1 Timothy chapter three, where Paul, giving instruction about selection of elders, says an elder must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

And there it has to do with the idea of being publicly shamed or insulted because of something that the elder does.

And it's kind of used there in a bit of a different way where the person who would do this, who would make himself to be an elder, the person who is reproached in that case actually deserves the reproach.

He has done something outside in the community to people where they look at him and they would cast an insult upon the name of Christ because this person would end up doing something that would bring shame upon the church or upon the

Lord of the church. And then it's used three times in the book of Hebrews and this is interesting how it is used here.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 33, where we have right here where it says, partly by being made a public spectacle to reproaches, then it is used in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 26, to describe

Moses where he says, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward.

And there Moses is held out to us as an example of faith because Moses anticipated the eternal reward and so Moses was willing to turn his back upon his reputation.

He could have been called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He didn't want that appellation. He didn't want that name, that title.

So he turned his back upon that and he gladly embraced the reproaches of Christ and joined himself with the people of God that is

Israel rather than enjoying all the treasures and the blessings that Egypt would have offered to him as a prince.

He could have been a prince in Egypt and been called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and Moses turned his back on all of those treasures and upon that reputation so that he could be counted amongst the people of God because he knew that the reward of being amongst the people of God was better than anything

Egypt could offer him and anything that a good reputation could give him. And so he gladly embraced the reproach of Christ.

Hebrews 11, verse 26. And then it is used in Hebrews 13 in the concluding chapter of this book where the author says so let us go out to him that is to Christ outside the camp bearing his reproach.

So after all these chapters that talk about what faith looks like and the hostility of the world and facing the hostility of the world the author is saying this currently you are being reproached but listen

Moses was also reproached and he gladly embraced the reproach instead of treasuring the treasures of Egypt and the reputation of being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Moses turned his back on that and so you like Moses are to embrace the reproaches of Christ and go outside the camp as it were where the unclean things were taken and put go outside the camp to Christ who is also rejected by everybody else in the world and there gladly embrace and bear the reproach of Christ.

You can see as we read through the New Testament what some of the early Christians faced in terms of how they were reproached the insults that were cast upon them.

We get some idea of that from some of the writings in the New Testament and I'll give you a sampling of it. First Peter chapter 3 verse 15 and 16

Peter says sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asked you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

The world reviles your good behavior in Christ because you see what you think is good behavior the world thinks is absurd and hateful and intolerant and bigoted and narrow minded and not worthy of being included in polite society not worthy of having your voice heard but that's your good behavior that phrase reviled for your good behavior the world reviling you for your good behavior that's worth a whole sermon just in and of itself and when

Dave gets there he'll do a whole sermon just on that phrase of how the world scorns and mocks your moral purity your moral clarity your gospel preaching your worship your commitment your model behavior those things which are good the world hates that 1

Peter chapter 4 verse 3 for the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles having pursued a course of sensuality lust, drunkenness carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries in all this they're surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation and they malign you the world maligns you because you don't run into its sin with the world so the minute you hit the pump the brakes and say

I'm not going to do that I've spent enough of my life in dissipation and drunkenness and immorality and reveling and all of that nonsense

I have wasted enough of my time you pump the brakes and say I'll have no more of that and the world will malign you for it but Peter says they will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead listen if the world approves of your morals and it approves of your ethics and your lifestyle and your commitments your affections if the world approves of you you have got something tragically wrong with you fundamentally wrong in Acts chapter 24

Paul was accused of sedition and sectarianism and sacrilege that's delightful there Paul was accused of sectarianism and sacrilege and sedition because he didn't support supposedly the government and they accused him of this saying he stirs up strife in every city he goes and he preaches and it goes against the custom of Moses and he is part of this sect that is not an official recognized religion of the state and the state disapproves of that and they accused early

Christians of being involved in cannibalism imagine such a thing why would they do that because we get together and we say this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me and we eat it and we say this is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it and the unbelieving pagans outside of the church heard that Christians were in there saying this is my body this is my blood they were eating and drinking flesh and blood so they accused him of being cannibals early

Christians were accused of being involved in incest because we refer to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and yet I am married to my sister in Christ so they took that designation and said that the

Christians were engaged in incest and the Christians were accused of being atheists why? Because they wouldn't worship the emperor and if the emperor was the only one and true

God and Christians didn't worship him well they must be atheists you see today the slanders have changed but the tactic has not

John Owen said the stores of reproaches and false accusations in the treasury of Satan and the hearts of wicked men will never be exhausted there will never come a point where the world says you know what we've slandered

Christians enough we've hated on them enough there will never come a point where that happens oh no hold on there will come a point where that happens when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our

God and of his Christ then that will happen but until that happens there will be no end to the calumnies to the slanders to the insults to the reproaches that are heaped upon God's people just for being faithful and this can be extremely difficult to bear and the reason is because we love the truth as God's people and reproaches and slanders

I think are especially hard I think that reproaches and slanders are more difficult for me to bear than the seizure of my property it's a more difficult thing and here is why

Proverbs 22 1 says a good name is to be desired more than great wealth and favor is better than silver and gold we know the value of integrity and honesty and uprightness and virtue we know the value of truth and so when you are accused of the opposite of those things that has a particular sting to it when you know that the slander that is leveled against you is inaccurate that it is false that it is a damnable lie that is a difficult barb to bear that is a difficult that is painful beyond anything else simply because we know the truth and we know that it is not true those things that are said about us and we want to make them right we want to do something to correct the record but that is not always possible sometimes there is nothing that can be done to correct the record of a slander that is leveled against the child of God and it is difficult because we carry the name of Christ wherever we go and we know that when we are reproached that they are in reproaching us reproaching him and that should concern us and it does concern us because we want

Christ to be spoken well of we want to carry his name well and so as Christians when we are reproached and hated and slandered and falsely accused of things and made a public display in that way that is really painful because we see it not just as an attack upon us but also as an attack upon our

Lord and we are sensitive to that and we want to reflect him well and we want to carry his name well and we want to give honor and glory to him well and so when we are slandered of course that is just even more painful so what do we do with reproaches how do we handle them first I think we have to well

I know we have to identify the cause of the reproach and rejoice if necessary Peter says in 1 Peter 4 to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exultation if you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of grace rests on you make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a troublesome meddler but if anyone suffers as a

Christian he is not to be ashamed but is to glorify God in that name if you are you have to identify the source or the cause of the reproach if you are being slandered and spoken ill of because you are a thief or because you are a busybody or because you are a meddler or because you are a troublemaker or because you are just needlessly offensive then you bear that reproach and you get no reward for it but if you are reproached and slandered for the name of Christ because you do what is good and you reviled for His name then you are blessed and the spirit of grace and glory rests upon you and so rejoice in it that's it identify the cause of the reproach and the slander and rejoice if necessary second you should value your faithfulness to Christ over being adored by the world and this is something

I think as Christians you're gonna have to get used to this concept that your reputation is dispensable the world's affirmation means nothing and your reputation for faithfulness in the cause of Christ is a glorious sacrifice if people speak ill of you because you are a faithful believer and you love the

Lord and proclaim His good name then welcome that enjoy that embrace that glory in that and be happy to sacrifice your reputation for that faithfulness

John Owen said to have a good report amongst an evil multitude is no advantage Jesus said woe to you when all men speak well of you they said the same thing about the false prophets and the false teachers if people if everyone speaks well of you something is wrong again fundamentally and so if they love false teachers and the world loves you what does that make you if the world loves its own and the world loves you what does that make you makes you a worldling number three focus on faithfulness and not the results

I think you and I are you and I are used to doing this in terms of evangelism we say we preach the gospel and we leave the results with God ours is to be faithful his is to bring results from our work and from our faithfulness so we can simply do what is right and proclaim the truth and then leave the results with God and trust them to Him we have to be willing to do the same thing with our reputation and our faithfulness it is ours to be faithful to the truth it belongs to God to secure our reputation or our name and we have to leave it with Him and care nothing for our name and for our reputation now there isn't a sense in which we can be concerned for our reputation but we are concerned for our reputation and for our name only so long as it is connected to being faithful to the truth so if we lose our reputation and our name for being faithful that is not up to us and we have to be willing to gladly and gracefully let that go but we ought to guard our name and seek to have a good name so that we because we do what is good and right and righteous that's the extent to which we are concerned about our own reputation and avoiding slandering but having done what is right and what is righteous and having been faithful we can leave the results to God and if it costs us everything then that is

His to do with as He should please and fourth Christian you're gonna have to harden your resolve in these things you're gonna be made a public spectacle get used to it anticipate it expect it don't be surprised as some as a some strange thing were happening to you reproaches are going to bring in the words of verse 33 tribulations we are made a public spectacle for reproaches and tribulations and tribulations just another general word for suffering for trouble for difficulties for afflictions these things are not gonna get better the midterm elections are not gonna solve this and if you are waiting for the

Republican Party to restore your name in our culture your hope is sorely misplaced if you haven't realized that already allow me to joyfully be the bearer of bad news to you this morning they are not going to restore this the

Republican Party is not going to change this the Republican Party as well as the

Democratic Party they have been promoting this and doing going this direction for as long as I have been alive this has been the trend they are not going to stop it our hope is not in elections our hope is not in political parties our hope is not in a militia our hope is not in any kind of a political maneuvering or manipulation that's not where our hope lies that's not we are not going to reverse this this is not going to get better in this world for us we are not going to Christianize the entire world and suddenly get the approbation and the love and the applause and the affection of worldlings that is not going to happen so get used to this and expect it the only answer is revival and reformation and that starts with the church in the preaching of the word and the faithfulness of Christians in doing what is scriptural in obeying the

Lord in laying down their own self interest in serving and loving one another in doing what scripture commands us to do and being faithful to him as the word is preached and we evangelize and share the gospel that is the only hope for a lost and dying world and of course when we share the gospel all we're doing is we're asking people to sign up for the reproaches and the trials and the tribulations aren't we but we are promising them that the reproaches of Christ are better than the treasures of Egypt we're promising them that the reproaches of Christ are better than being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter we can look forward to the reward because that is what is promised to us

I'll remind you with two final I'll leave you with two final quotes one from Peter 1 Peter 4 12 do not be surprised the fire ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you it's not strange before you know what's going to happen how do you prepare for it one final quote from John Owen he said this and this indeed is for the most part the greatest difficulty in sufferings that many of them come upon us at once so that we shall have no rest from their assaults for it is the design of Satan and the world on these occasions to destroy both soul and body and unto that end he will assault us inwardly by temptations and fears outwardly in our names and reputations and all that we are or all that we have but he that knows how to account all such things but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ is prepared for them all what is

Owen saying the fiery trial and temptations that you face the afflictions the sufferings that the world might heap upon you the scorn and reproaches that you are expected to bear this is by the devil's design but if you are able to treasure the reproach of Christ as greater than all the treasures of Egypt and the reputation of being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter if you can if you can account all of these earthly things as dung compared to the excellency of knowing

Christ then you are prepared for whatever the world may bring you count it all loss for the sake of knowing

Christ that's what Paul did turned his back on all of it so that he might know Christ and so I ask you do you consider the reproaches of Christ as more valuable than anything this world has to offer let's bow our heads father we are grateful for your grace and for the encouragement of your word these things though difficult to reflect upon they do encourage us to look forward to the reward and to look forward to standing strong and facing the hostility of the world for we know that your grace is sufficient and your goodness is infinite your wisdom is perfect and so we can entrust ourselves our reputation all that we have and all that we are into your good hand knowing that you have every right to dispose of your creatures and all that is in this world as you should will and that you will always do so in a way that is infinitely wise and good and glorious for your name and for the good of your people and so we praise you and we ask you to give us grace to trust you in the midst of all that is ahead whatever it may be and strengthen us to be faithful in this world whatever that may cost us we ask in Christ's name would you please stand great is thy faithfulness

O God my Father there is no shadow of turning with thee thou changest not my compassion

O God my Father they fail not as thou hast been thou forever will be great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness morning by morning through my sins

I see all I have need thy hand hath provided great is thy faithfulness

Lord unto me summer and winter and springtime and harvest sun, moon, and stars in their courses above great is thy faithfulness thou changest not as thou hast been

Lord unto me in their courses above great is thy faithfulness in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness mercy and love great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness morning by morning through my sins

I see sees I see all I have needed thy hand hath provided greatest thy faithfulness

Lord unto me pardon for sin and the peace that endureth thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow blessings all mine with ten thousand beside greatest thy faithfulness greatest thy faithfulness morning by morning new mercies

I see all I have needed thy hand hath provided greatest thy faithfulness

Lord unto me May the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ be with you, brothers. Amen. You are dismissed. Hail the day that Christ arose

Through the skies to worlds unknown

Glorious there He ever is Object of all

Heaven's praise See Him lift

His hands above See the scars of His great love

He has conquered death and sin Saving all who hope in Him is on His throne

Hallelujah His grace will lead us safely home

Beyond the stars

His redeemed are on His heart

Even now He intercedes

Jesus cares for all our needs

Hallelujah The King of love is on His throne

Hallelujah His grace will lead us safely home

Hallelujah The King of love is on His throne

His grace will lead us safely home

Redeemed And we're on Your heart You're leading us home

Oh we long for the dawn To see

Your face To the