WWUTT 1853 The Assurance of Faith in Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-39)

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We are worshippers in a new covenant, one that was not bought by the blood of bulls and goats, but a covenant that is by the precious blood of Jesus.

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And it's by His blood we have eternal life when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of Hebrews, we are in chapter 10 today.

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Finishing up the rest of the chapter, and a pretty good chunk here, I'm going to go ahead and read verses 19 through 39 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. This is the Word of the Lord. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which

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He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near, with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

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And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

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For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

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Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy by the mouth of two or three witnesses.

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How much worse punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the and has regarded and defiled the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the

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Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine,

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I will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. 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 afflictions, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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For you also showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.

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Therefore do not throw away that confidence of yours, which has a great reward.

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For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

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For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.

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But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

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But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

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Now in this last section of Hebrews chapter 10, we have this divided into two main parts really.

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We have the summary of what we've been reading for the last several chapters.

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That's what we have in 19 to 25, that we may draw near with confidence because we draw into the presence of God through Jesus Christ.

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He is our access to God. And so we worship now under the new covenant in Christ.

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But then there is this warning in verses 26 to 39 about what will happen to us if we reject the revelation and the understanding of Christ and this new covenant that we have been given.

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And when I say revelation, I'm talking about the revelation that has been given to us in scripture. This preacher, as he is saying these things to the

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Hebrews, they are receiving revelation, special revelation from God, that which had been given to his apostles and now has been spoken to them.

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So now that they have seen Christ through the preaching, they recognize even how the

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Old Testament testified to this Messiah that Jesus is the Christ, and yet they reject that.

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It is a fearful thing, a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. We will not escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which was said previously in Hebrews chapter two.

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So this is a larger chunk of text than we've gone through in our study of Hebrews. But let's consider these great things that are being said, all of this on the heels of the argument that has been presented about this new covenant that has been inaugurated in Christ Jesus.

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So in verse 19, therefore, brothers, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

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Remember that what has been presented in chapters nine and 10 is that Christ is the greater tabernacle, a tabernacle that has been pitched in the heavenly places, that is not made with human hands, but the

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Lord has established it. And Jesus goes into the holy of holies on our behalf, and it's by his blood that we have been cleansed of our sins, not through multiple sacrifices, but he died once for all.

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And there's not a need for continual sacrifices. We have been changed once when we are converted to follow the

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Lord Jesus Christ, we turn from sin to him. We are cleansed of our unrighteousness.

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We desire holiness and not to walk in the sin anymore. Being justified by his grace, we have shed even the guilt for our sins.

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He has paid for that on our behalf. So we have confidence now, and our confidence is not in ourselves.

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It's not some confidence that we conjure up just by saying, I think I can, I think I can over and over again, like the little engine that could.

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The confidence that we have is Christ. It's because he has done it.

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And he has completed the work. He is our confidence. So seeing these things, knowing these things about Christ, what has been testified to us through the scriptures, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

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And by entering the holy places, we mean more than just being able to pray to God. We mean more than even being able to enter into eternal life, for certainly we have that in Jesus Christ.

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But we can enter into the holy places in the sense that you can live in holiness now.

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Holiness has been given to you. It is a righteousness that is not yours. It is a borrowed righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ that you have been clothed in.

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He has taken your sin upon himself with his death on the cross, and he has clothed you in his righteousness that you may live in that righteousness.

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As said in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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So we have confidence to enter the holy places. Previously, only certain priests could enter the holy places.

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Only the priests could do that. But now we can do that. We have access to the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

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We can come into the presence of God himself because Christ is our access.

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Christ is God. We can come into his presence, then we can also come into the father's presence.

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Remember that the disciples said of Jesus, show us the father and that will be enough for you. And Jesus said, have you not seen me?

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If you've seen me, you've seen the father. Whoever has the son has the father also.

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Jesus, who is God, is our access to God. Verse 20, it's by him that we have access to the holy places by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh.

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So remember when Christ died on the cross, the veil was torn in two. No longer was

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God separated in the holy of holies from the rest of man. We can enter into his presence through Christ by his death on the cross.

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And since we have a great priest over the house of God, that is the church, verse 22, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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Remember in the types and shadows of the sacrifices that we read about before, those sacrifices, whether it was the sprinkling of ashes or the sprinkling of blood, it purified the flesh, but it did not change the conscience.

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But in the new covenant through Jesus Christ, we not only have the purification of our flesh, but we have the purification of our conscience as well.

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Our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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So in this way, we can obey the command in Romans 12, 1 to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

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Lord. This is our spiritual act of worship. Our bodies are acceptable unto

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God. If we're followers of Christ, he has washed us and made us new, even in our bodies.

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So we can live in our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God, which is acceptable to him again because of the righteousness that Christ has clothed us in.

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Righteousness, my friends, is not merely a state of mind. It's not merely saying God is good and I desire to do the good thing.

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It's actually doing the good thing. Now you must live it out. You must do more than just believe in righteousness.

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You must live in a righteous way. And we're able to do that.

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As I referenced from Romans 8 yesterday as well, we're able to live righteously because Christ has given us righteousness.

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The very thing God demands is the thing he gives to us. He demands righteousness and he gives us righteousness.

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So we continue on. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

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He will deliver us in the end. We can be sure that we have been washed clean and we have received an inheritance and indeed we will enter that inheritance because he has promised that we will.

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And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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Now you have surely heard that verse before used as a proof text for why we need to gather as the church regularly.

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But how much more glorious that is to read those two verses together in the context of everything else that we've read up to this point.

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If you've been with me through this study in Hebrews and we get to that now in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, encouraging us to gather together and spur one another on to love and good works, you see the context now in which that is being said.

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It's because Christ has died for us, because Christ has completed all of this work, all of this gross, nasty work, all of the work of sacrifice and bloodshed and all of that.

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We don't even have to do that anymore. Christ has fulfilled it. It is finished. And so in light of this, let us consider how we stir one another up to love and good deeds because of the love and good deeds that Christ has done for us, not forsaking our own assembling together.

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Remember that the Israelites had to assemble together once a year on this day of atonement so that, hey, our sins can be forgiven.

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And then the priest goes in, slaughters the lamb. Again, he does that three times. He has to atone for his own sins, then the rest of the priests, and then he atones for the sins of the people.

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So the people have to be there. They have to witness all of this. It all has to be done in the right and proper way.

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There's so much more that goes into that, all of the different ritual and regulation into the day of atonement.

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But because all of that has been fulfilled in Christ, and now we have been called out from the world to be his people, let us, in light of these things, we don't forsake our own assembling.

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There is still an assembly that we're supposed to do together. Some have forsaken the assembly.

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We've read before about those who have not continued in this faith, but they have left the faith.

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Or they made a profession of faith at one point, but then they continued in sin, demonstrating that they were not really clothed in Christ's righteousness.

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If you say you're a follower of Jesus, but you persist in the same sin that you were doing before you became a follower of Jesus, then you're not really following him.

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You don't really have his righteousness. You're not really under grace. You're still under the law and condemned by the law.

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But if we are in Christ Jesus, let us not forsake the assembly, as some have done.

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But we encourage one another. We have to gather together. The church has to be together on a regular basis.

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And when I say regular basis, I'm saying, hey, go to church on Sunday. We have to meet together in order to encourage one another.

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In order to stir one another up to love and good deeds. And we do this all the more as we see the day drawing near, the day of Christ, the day of our final deliverance into his eternal kingdom.

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We continue on verse 26. Now here's the next section. So that's all summarizing everything about the new covenant that's been given to us in Christ.

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And so therefore, we worship in this new covenant. And how wonderful that worship is.

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But now here's the warning. If we reject that covenant and we don't worship, we don't live in righteousness, here's the warning, verses 26 to 39.

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For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

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In other words, there's no other way you can get forgiveness for your sins. There's no other way for you to be made right before God and be able to escape death when it comes for you.

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Because Christ has done away with all of that earlier sacrificing.

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And that Old Testament sacrificing, the old covenant, wasn't even good enough to cleanse you of your sins anyway.

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As we read earlier in the chapter, the blood of bulls and goats did not have the power to wash away sins in the first place.

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So if you reject Christ, there's no other sacrifice. There's no other way to be forgiven your sins.

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Instead, what remains for you is a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

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That appears to be from Isaiah 26, 11, O Yahweh, your hand is raised up high, yet they do not behold it.

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They behold your zeal for the people and are put to shame. Indeed, fire will devour your adversaries.

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So if we reject the hand of God that is extended to us, offering salvation, if that is rejected, what a person receives instead is the fire of his judgment.

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He will consume his enemies. You're either a friend of God or you're an enemy of God.

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And only those who are in Christ are friends of God. Those who are not in Christ are his enemies and will be consumed in his wrath.

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Verse 28, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy by the mouth of two or three witnesses.

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How much worse punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the son of God?

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So just consider that if a person rejects the law of God, if they try to live by the law and abide by the law, which they cannot do, well, they're going to perish by the evidence of two or three witnesses that will testify of them that they could not keep the law.

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So if they perish, who either set aside the law or could not keep the law, then what will happen to the person who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has regarded as defiled the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

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And once again, friends, this is not just regarding someone who has heard the gospel and rejected it, although that would certainly fit into this category.

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Remember that at the start of this section in verse 26, it says, if we go on sinning willfully.

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So this is also speaking of the person who might say they believe in Jesus, but in their lives, you would not see that demonstrated.

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They continue to live in willful disobedience and sin in those things that God has promised he will judge through which a person will not inherit the kingdom of God, but they will be cast into that place that has been prepared for the devil and his angels, the eternal fire of hell.

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Verse 30, for we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

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And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. So receive his hand of mercy, his hand of grace, his hand of love, lest you perish under his hand of judgment.

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Verse 32, 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 afflictions and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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So this was like earlier in Hebrews, where the preacher had given a warning there as well, but then made mention of the evidence and the proof that those whom he is speaking to have demonstrated that they are truly

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Christians. And so he does the same thing here as well. Verses 26 to 31 was that warning.

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It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but he doesn't just leave them sitting in that terror and dwelling in, well, am

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I really saved? Am I going to fall into the hands of the living God? The preacher says, but you have proven the fact that you are truly in this faith by the fact that you have, you've endured a great many number of sufferings.

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You've been made a public spectacle through the reproaches and afflictions that you have endured for this faith that you say that you have, because you're a follower of Christ, you've shared in his sufferings and in the sufferings of those who have suffered with you, partly by becoming shares with those who were so treated.

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Verse 34, for you also showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.

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So once again, he's encouraging them in this way. Here's how I know your faith is genuine.

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Here's how you can know your faith is genuine. Because you have suffered for the faith that you have for the name of Christ that you wear.

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People have persecuted you for that, and yet you endure. People have taken things away from you.

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You've lost your possessions, and you've accepted that with joy, because the possession that you have, they can never take away from you,

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Jesus Christ. And the promise of something everlasting, they'll never even be able to enter into that place and destroy what you have.

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Hence Jesus saying in Matthew chapter 6, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.

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And so the preacher here saying of those Hebrew Christians, here's the evidence of your faith.

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Therefore, verse 35, do not throw away that confidence of yours, which has a great reward.

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I used to misuse that passage. I used to say that, hey, we just need to be confident, and we'll be richly rewarded for it.

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This is not a proverb in that sense. This is not believe in yourself. This is, again, confidence that we have in Christ, and the reward that's being talked about here is not earthly satisfaction, most definitely not.

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That's clearly not the context. It's not that we'll have earthly success, that we'll have earthly possessions.

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It's that we have a heavenly possession, and we will enter into that eternal life with Christ. That's our confidence.

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He's our confidence. What he has done for us, and being confident of that, our sins are forgiven, and everlasting life is given through Jesus Christ.

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Verse 36, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

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Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10, it's he who endures to the end who will be saved.

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So endure. The preacher is saying here, you can know that your faith is genuine by these evidences, but you have need of endurance.

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You're not there yet. We're still living here on this earth. We have not yet entered through that veil, the veil that separates the temporal from the eternal.

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But once we walk through that veil and receive eternity, well, then endurance finds its completion.

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So you have need of endurance, so that when you've done the will of God, you will receive that promise.

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For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

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That's verses 37 and 38, and it's a reference that comes from Habakkuk 2, verses 3 and 4.

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That's a book about judgment. That was God's judgment coming upon his people because they had worshipped idols instead of worshipping the true

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God. But there were yet those who did righteously. My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

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So we have both the blessing and the warning that is given here in 37 and 38. And so the preacher concludes in this chapter with this, verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction.

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We are of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

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And there's the confidence. Once again, our confidence, not in ourselves, but in Christ who saves.

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What a glorious section that we just finished up, and it feels like we've accomplished quite a lot because we've been through 10 chapters of Hebrews.

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What's next? Do you know what's next in Hebrews? Surely you do. Hebrews 11. What's that chapter known for?

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The Hall of Faith. We're going to take a stroll through the Hall of Faith beginning next week, God willing, when we come back to our study of Hebrews on Monday.

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Heavenly Father, what a beautiful thing we've just read. To be reminded of what

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Christ has done for us, that we are worshippers in a new covenant that was purchased not by anything that we did.

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It was not made by human hands. It's by the grace of God. It was accomplished through Christ.

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And he is our confidence that we may come into the holy places, that we may pray to you even now, that we may have our sins forgiven and know that we have fellowship with God now and forevermore in the very place where you dwell, in the

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Holy of Holies. We can enter in through Jesus Christ. May we live according to the righteousness that we have been given.

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We've been called to righteousness and you give us righteousness. So may we desire to do that, not to live in willful sinfulness, but we willfully desire the righteousness to do what is honoring and pleasing to God and where we stumble and fall.

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May we humble ourselves before you and ask for forgiveness, knowing that you forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

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It's in Jesus' name that we pray, Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hubes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.