Remember Your Suffering (Hebrews 10:32)

Kootenai Church

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Hebrews chapter 10. We're gonna read together verses 32 through 39.

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Hebrews chapter 10. 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 tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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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.

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Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

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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.

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And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. 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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Let's pray together. Our Lord, we ask that you would grant us understanding in your word, that you would illuminate our hearts and minds to the truth of scripture, and that your spirit would be our teacher and our guide this morning.

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Help us to see the meaning of this passage, the significance of it, the encouragement that is here for us, and we pray that it may have its intended effect in our lives, to strengthen us for the fight ahead, to strengthen us for difficult times, to strengthen us in our faith so that we may receive the reward of faith.

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May we, as a matter in course of studying these passages in the weeks ahead, may we be ready and willing to embrace the reproach of faith so that we may receive its reward.

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And may you be glorified in your people as we stand strong for the truth in the face of a hostile world.

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Encourage us to that end, we pray, and sanctify us accordingly we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Last week

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I gave you a rather thorough overview of this entire passage, verses 32 through 39, and into chapter 11 to show that the author here is really trying to encourage his people, his readers, to stand strong in the face of a hostile world.

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The intention being that they may see a list of heroes of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11 and see men and women who gladly embrace the reproach of a life of faith and face the hostility and animosity and adversity that this world will bring to those who proclaim the truth and love the truth, and that they, having finished their race and having endured that hostility in faith, they would receive the reward of faith.

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And one thing that Hebrews chapter 11 shows us is that those who endure the reproach of faith, they receive the reward of faith.

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And Hebrews 11 is a long list of those people, and the author here is just encouraging us to draw encouragement from them.

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And last week, I just ended with the outline of the passage as if we were going to get into verse 32.

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As I showed you the outline, the outline is a really simple one. In verses 32 through 34, we see them encouraged to look back to enduring the reproach of faith, and then in verses 35 through 39, they are encouraged to look forward to receiving the reward of faith.

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There is a reproach that comes with having faith in Christ, and there is a reward that comes for those who will endure that reproach and to do so faithfully.

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And then Hebrews chapter 11 is that long list of heroes of the faith who did just that, endured the reproach and received the reward.

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And endured the reproach and will receive yet even greater reward, because our reward is not here, and the totality of what we receive for enduring the reproach of faith is not to be realized in this life, in fact, not even in the slightest in this life.

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We get a little bit of it in this life, but really it is the life to come. We have a better possession and a lasting one.

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So now let's jump in at verse 32 with that rather short introduction, or rather long introduction if you're including last week.

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Verse 32, let's look at this, enduring the encouragement to endure the reproach of faith, and to look back to that.

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Look again at verse 32. Let's just read 32 through 34 again. Verse 32, but remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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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.

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He begins this encouragement with the word remember, and that word means, not just in English, but the word that the author chooses to use here does not mean simply to call to your mind, but the word has to do with calling to your mind and recalling to your mind, and calling it into your mind so that you may go over it and over it and over it again.

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It is remembering in the sense of putting together the list in your mind of these things that you endured, of pulling them out one by one, like we might sing, count your blessings, name them one by one.

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This author would suggest to us, count your tribulations and your sufferings and name them one by one.

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Recall them to your mind and mull them over in your mind. Call it into your mind one after another and meditate upon it, think upon it.

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The word has the idea of an intentional act and a deliberate act, something that you do that is considered.

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He's not just telling them to remember something, he is commanding them to remember and reminisce on something, that's the idea.

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It's not like, we can use the term remember in two different ways. We can use the term remember like this.

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Hey, do you all remember when we met over at the school and I preached next to a poster of Justin Bieber? Those were good times, weren't they?

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Right, just call to your mind something that happened way back then and you're like, oh yeah, I remember that. I remember behind the stage was

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Lewis and Clark and Batman and Robin and Sacagawea and what they had to do with each other, we don't know, but I remember that was on the wall behind the stage.

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Do you remember that? That was funny. That's just calling to your mind a memory that we all share or many of us share, not everybody here.

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If you didn't have to endure that, count yourself blessed. Count your blessings, name them one by one. That would be the first one you can name.

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Or we could use the idea of remembering like this. If you think it's difficult dealing with space issues here and needing the upstairs finished and the limitations that space in this facility might bring to our ministry, remember back when we were in the school.

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Do you remember setting up each week and grabbing onto the trailer and hauling that over the school and shoveling the snow and wheeling it all in the day before and doing that sometimes in the dark and in the worst of winter?

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And do you remember doing that then on Sunday afternoons we had no time to fellowship and we all just sort of stood up and stacked chairs and busted out of there and then a few people showed up to sweep and keep it cleaned up and then

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I was the last one there to close it up and we had to haul the trailer back to the old church building. Do you remember that? Do you remember how we couldn't do anything or enjoy anything?

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Do you remember how the kids in the nursery used to sit on the little square pieces of carpet out in the hallway and that people, whether they were friendly or dangerous, walked right through the nursery on the way to the worship service?

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Do you remember that? Right, now what does that do? That way of remembering calls to your mind a list of grievances and sufferings and trials and tribulations that sort of puts the current difficulties in perspective, doesn't it?

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Because you're not just asked to remember something, like, oh yeah, it was a cool memory, but to remember something in terms of list these off one by one and let your mind meditate upon that and suddenly when you remember in that way, the present's not all that bad, is it?

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When you think back of what you might have endured, that's what the author is saying here. What were they to remember? Well, they were to remember, in verse 32, the great conflict of sufferings, the reproaches, the tribulations, the being made a public spectacle.

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Verse 34, they showed sympathy to the prisoners and shared it with those who were so treated.

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They accepted joyfully the seizure of their property. Those were the things that they were to remember. Not just the good times, and you'll notice that the author doesn't tell them, hey, remember the good times.

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I know that you're facing affliction. I know that the world is hostile. I know that you have suffered the seizure of your property.

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I know that you have endured trials and tribulations. You've been made a public spectacle. The world hates you.

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It has cost your, faith in Christ has cost you friends. It has cost you family. It has cost you your reputation.

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For some of them, it had cost them their job, being faithful to the truth. And the author doesn't say, now listen, all those bad things, put them out of your mind.

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Don't dwell on the sufferings or the afflictions. Don't dwell on any of those bad things. Notice the author does not say that they are to call to their mind all the good times.

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Hey, remember the good times, though. Don't forget, don't remember the bad times. Don't dwell on that. Go to a happy place.

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Some place in the past where things were better than they are today. And don't remember any of the difficulties and none of the trials and the tribulations, but instead, fix your mind on that happy place, those good times, and just make your mind to dwell on that.

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And just keep in mind that eventually, eventually, all those happy times are gonna come back. The sun is just over the horizon.

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It's right there for us. This is the message of Joel Osteen. Just remember those good times, they're right ahead of ya.

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That sounded more like Bill Clinton, actually. I should work on my Joel Osteen a little bit.

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Just, I should do it with a big grin. Just remember, the good times, they're all ahead of ya. The sun is just over the horizon.

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Good times are ahead. Don't think of anything bad. Just focus on the good that's to come to you. That's Joel Osteen.

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That is unbiblical nonsense because the author doesn't say that. He says if you wanna prepare yourself for suffering ahead, you better remember and reflect and go over in your mind the suffering that you have already endured.

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Now, you might be tempted to think that this is unbiblical counsel. Unbiblical in the sense that Paul tells us that whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, if anything is excellent, if anything is worthy of praise, you're to dwell on these things.

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How am I to remember and dwell on my suffering and affliction and dwell and remember on the things which are excellent and of good repute?

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How do I do both of those? Would we suggest that our sufferings are excellent and worthy of praise and good and holy and lovely and pure?

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Do we think that about our suffering? If I'm going to remember and call to my mind and turn over in my mind all the afflictions that I have endured in the past, would

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I then be violating Paul's command to only focus on what is lovely and pure and right? The answer to that is no because the key is in our verse 32 where he says that we are to remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured.

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Listen, this is the key. This is what you are to remember, that you endured it. It's not just the suffering and the pain itself that you have gone through in the past.

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It is the enduring of it, the fact that you endured it, that you were faithful in the midst of it. That is what we are called to remember.

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Remember the early times of your zeal and your love for the Lord when your passions were inflamed and you were willing to pay any cost and bear any burden and sacrifice any price if it meant following Christ and being faithful to him.

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Those were the former times. Remember the days early in your conversion and early in your faith in Christ when your passions were alive and your love for the

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Lord was so strong that you were willing to endure all of that and to count the cost and to gladly take up your cross and follow him even if it meant going to your own death.

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You were to recall that and that even in the midst of those sufferings and afflictions, you willfully and joyfully and joyously bore that cost and bore that shame.

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You gladly embraced the reproach of the cross for your Christ because you loved him that much.

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And remember back when you suffered how the proving and the testing of your faith showed the genuineness of it.

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This is what Peter means in 1 Peter 1 when he says, in this you rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Peter says you have as a result of that the outcome which is the salvation of your souls. Peter says the purpose of your trials was to demonstrate the genuineness of your faith.

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How do you know if your faith is the genuine article or if it is a false belief, a mere profession, a mere outward assent to externalities in a confession of faith?

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How do you know if your faith is the genuine article? Well listen, if you can endure trial and affliction and hostility and the hatred of the world and bear every cost and bear every burden and go through the fiery trials that come with Christianity, you get on the other side of that and you say,

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I have not abandoned my faith in Christ in the midst of all of that, therefore my faith must be a genuine article. My faith must be the divine gift.

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My faith must be a faith that results in the salvation of my soul. Otherwise, I would have abandoned my faith a long time ago in order to make things go easier for me.

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It is the trials and the tribulations that show the genuineness of your faith. Why would you reflect upon your faith so that you can recall to your mind the fact that you endured this and you came out the other side with a faith which is imperishable, a faith that is incorruptible, a faith that is the genuine article, being more precious than gold, and you have as the result of that faith the salvation of your soul.

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You are to recall your suffering so that you could remember the price that you've already paid. See, you've already given up your family, you've already given up your friends, you've already given up your formal way of life, you've already given up the desires and the lust of your flesh, you've already paid that price, you've already borne that burden, you've already burned those bridges, you've already formed new alliances, you've come this far, remember how far you have come since the former days, and now you're here, you've endured all of that, you still have your faith, don't turn away from it now, don't back away from it now.

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If you do, then everything you have already paid is then genuine loss. Then you actually lose what it is that you have invested.

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But if you look back upon your sufferings and realize that I have provided testimony in the midst of this, I have been faithful to Christ through all of this, and if I have endured all of this and come out the other side with my faith, then

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I have the genuine article. And if I turn back now, then I'm gonna suffer the loss of all that I have sacrificed at this point.

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And we are to remember in the midst of our suffering God's faithfulness. We know that having come out the other side of afflictions and suffering and persecution and hostility, we can look back upon those things and see the faithfulness of God that sustained us through that.

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This is why we focus on enduring. We have endured that. And part of looking back on that is to recognize how faithful God has been to us as he has brought us faithfully, held onto us by his grace so that our faith would not fail and our faithfulness would not waver.

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And if God, we would reflect upon that and realize that in the midst of all of that, we have cherished his promises, we have relied upon his grace, we have drawn near to him, we have sacrificed for him and held out the hope of a future and eternal and lasting reward.

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That's why we reflect upon our sufferings. That's why we list the things that we have endured one by one so that in remembering them and calling them to mind and going through them one right after another, we may see the hand of God's faithfulness through all of that.

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And then we reflect upon all of the opportunities that we have been afforded in the midst of our suffering, opportunities to bear witness to Christ, to witness to those who caused our suffering, to experience joy in the midst of that, to look upon something that we have sacrificed or lost because of our profession of faith in Christ and to count it all joy when we face those various trials.

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When we reflect upon our tribulations, then we realize that we have had a multitude of opportunities in that to glorify and honor

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God. And why would we abandon all of that by falling away? So this is what we are to remember, our endurance.

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So remember the former days after being enlightened, you endured this, that's the key, you endured it. You have been brought this far and now you can go further.

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And the purpose of reflecting upon these things, and this is important to understand in our current context, in our current world, the purpose of reflecting upon this is not to wallow in our victimhood status.

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It's not to wallow in our victimhood status. This generation needs to be reminded of that. People today invent grievances, they invent offenses, they invent oppressions because victimhood confers on people some sort of a saintly status.

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And so people will grovel in offenses that happened hundreds of years ago to people that they have never met, afflicted on them by people they can't even name, and they will identify with those afflictions of the past so that they too can be a victim.

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And then they tweet out on a $1 ,200 phone, I'm a victim, while they sit in an air -conditioned room sipping on their $7 a cup, soy -infused, fair trade coffee, eating their avocado toast.

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And we all say, oh yeah, yeah, you're a victim. Yeah, my heart goes out to you, you're a victim. Of systemic this, and systematic that, and systemic systems, and systematic systemics, and all the other stuff that goes with it.

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Yeah, you're a victim. And so in today, when the Catholic Church, when it wants to confer sainthood upon somebody, it looks at their life and invents out a whole cloth, a couple of miracles, so that they can justify conferring sainthood upon them.

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In today's woke, progressive religion, which is the spirit of the age, they do the same thing. They invent a couple of victimizations so that they can confer victimhood upon them, and then once they're conferred a victim and deemed a victim, they can say whatever they want, do whatever they want, get away with whatever they want, because they have reached sainthood status in the modern progressive religion.

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The purpose of remembering our trials is not so we can wallow in our victimhood. That's not the author's point.

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The purpose is not so that we can bemoan our misfortune and garner people's sympathy, and play the victim, and cry foul, and reflect upon all the ways that we have been hard done by.

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The author, the readers of this epistle did not do this. They accepted joyfully the seizure of their property, joyfully, this is not wallowing in your victimhood.

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And the author is not encouraging us to wallow in our victimhood, or to play the victim, or to confer that upon other people.

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What he wants us to do is to remember the reproaches that we have endured, so that we might testify to the faithfulness of God, and his grace, and the opportunities he has given to us, and the joy that we had in the midst of the afflictions.

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That's not victimhood, that's Christianity. And when we wallow in our victimhood, and by the way, when

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I'm suggesting that we remember the endurance, and the trials that we have been afflicted with, and all the sufferings,

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I'm not suggesting that we wallow in that victimhood, because that mentality, listen, it is a self -centered, selfish, narcissistic,

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God dishonoring, self -glorifying mentality. And it is rankly sinful.

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That is not what we are called to do. In that sense, we are to put away those things that happen behind us, so that we don't wallow in that, but we are to remember those things, and our enduring of those things, so that we may give glory to God.

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That is the author's point. There are two ways of remembering your afflictions. Two ways. If you remember in your sufferings and afflictions all of the bad things, and only the bad things, so you go in your mind, you think, oh yeah,

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I remember the pain, call that pain quickly to mind, get it there, remember feeling that, okay, remember the loss,

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I'm gonna count those things, so that I can only remember the bad, only the experience of pain, the agony, the doubt, the hatred, the hostility, the difficulties.

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If that's all that you're focusing on, that's all that you're thinking of, then you'll be discouraged to the prospect that there's more to come, won't you?

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If that's all you're thinking of, you'll be discouraged to the prospect that there might be more suffering or affliction ahead. And your hands will be weakened and not strengthened, and you'll be filled with anxiety, fear, and doubt.

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That's one way of remembering your afflictions, and the former days, and enduring all of these things. There's a second way of remembering them, and this is what the author has in mind.

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The second way of remembering them is to remember all the good things that you enjoyed in the midst of your sufferings.

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You accepted joyfully the seizure of your possessions. You remember the good things, the benefits, the blessings, the nearness to God that you enjoyed back then that you don't have now, the understanding of the cost and the reward, the drawing near, the fact that other people came and bore your suffering with you and helped you suffer in those things, and shared with those sufferings with you, the fact that you had opportunity to share other people's sufferings, and to join with them, and cast your lot in with them, and to bear reproach as a servant of Christ with them.

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Those are all blessings and graces that come in the midst of that kind of suffering, and if that is the way you remember your afflictions, then you'll be encouraged at that memory, and you might actually look forward to the suffering to come.

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That's a different mindset, isn't it? You might actually think to yourself, you know what? I'm kind of looking forward to the way the world is going right now.

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Think of the opportunity that the church is going to have to testify to the grace of God. Think of the opportunity that Christians are going to have to share with one another, bear one another's burdens, and accept joyfully the seizure of our property, knowing that we have a better possession and a lasting one.

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You can remember your trials and afflictions in two different ways. It's not just what they suffered that he wants them to remember. It's how they suffered.

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It's how they suffered. How they did it, how they endured it, reflecting on God's faithfulness and their endurance, and they would realize then suddenly, you know, if I did this once back then,

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I can do this again. I've gone through this once already. I've seen God's faithfulness.

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I saw the opportunity. I received those blessings. I can go through this again if the Lord should will that and call me to do it.

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I can endure it again. That's the purpose of remembering what he says the former days. This would have been the days right after their conversion, the past experience of salvation.

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You remember back when you first got saved and you endured all of that hostility, when salvation was new to you, and people afflicted you and opposed you and laughed at you and scorned you and mocked you?

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Do you remember those days? Reflect upon that, the former days, the days early in their salvation. Now keep in mind that he is writing here to a

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Jewish audience. He's writing to Hebrews, Jews who had become believers in Christ, probably very close or in and around the city of Jerusalem, probably not writing to a largely

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Gentile congregation in some far -flung city of the Roman Empire, but probably writing to Jews in the land of Israel, somewhere close to Jerusalem.

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Well, do you remember what the history of Jews coming to faith in Christ was like in the early days of the church in the city of Jerusalem?

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Do you remember what it was like? I'm gonna read you a few verses. It's gonna sound a lot like the tribulations that we read of here in verses 32 through 34.

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Listen to Acts chapter four. As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

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And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. Acts chapter five, but the high priest rose up along with his associates, that is the sect of the

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Sadducees, and they were filled with jealousy. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in public jail. Acts chapter six, but some men from what was called the synagogue of the freedmen, including both

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Syrians and Alexandrians and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen, but they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

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Then they secretly induced men to say, we heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the council.

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They put forward false witnesses who said, this man incessantly speaks against the holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this

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Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us. Acts chapter 17, but the

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Jews becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace formed a mob and set the city in an uproar and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people.

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Acts chapter 18, while Galileo was pro -council of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat.

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Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, 24, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. All of that was suffered at the hands of Jews, the synagogue leaders, the

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Pharisees and the Sadducees. Imprisonment, affliction, reproaches, tribulations, going to prison, showing sympathy with those who were in prison.

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It sounds like the record of the book of Acts. It is a description of what has endured right here in our very own passage.

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The hostility of the Jews toward their own countrymen once they came to faith in Christ, they viewed them as traitors and they wanted to treat them like we would want to treat traitors.

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But these people, these Christians, to whom the author is writing here, they had enjoyed an early enthusiasm in their faith.

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That's why he says to them, remember the former days. Right after your enlightenment, right after being enlightened, remember those early days?

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Most of us, when we come to faith in Christ, have an initial burst of enthusiasm, don't we? We understand what this is like.

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We're gonna tell everybody about our newfound faith in Christ. And so we go on a witnessing campaign, we're fervent, we're on fire, we love the

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Lord, we're willing to suffer anything, we're willing to pay any cost, we're willing to endure anything that's set before us. We want everybody to know and that's a good thing.

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We wouldn't want to ever quench that at all. But sometimes, just over the course of time and through the events of life, that passion sort of wears off.

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It cools down a little bit and we sort of go into normal life and realize that once we've offended everyone we can offend and turned away everybody we can turn away and burned every bridge and ruined every relationship and nearly cost ourselves our job, that we've got to find some way of balancing this enthusiasm with more of a long -term approach to sharing our faith in Jesus Christ.

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Well, they had an initial enthusiasm as well in those early times and that is what the author wants them to remember.

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He also wants them to make sure that their short -term enthusiasm will develop into a long -term endurance because short -term enthusiasm is not the mark of genuine saving faith.

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Hear this well, short -term enthusiasm is not the mark of enduring, of saving faith. Long -term endurance is the mark of saving faith.

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The apostate has short -term enthusiasm. He hears a message that appeals to him on some level. He enjoys something that he has never experienced on some level and superficially, he partakes in all of the blessings that are poured out upon the people of God.

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There is an initial enthusiasm, but soon it falls away, it wears away and so the apostate walks away.

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This is what Jesus was describing in the parable that I read at the beginning in Matthew chapter 13. The one on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no firm foundation or root in himself, but only temporary.

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And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word that is the word of God, he immediately falls away.

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Sometimes it takes time for enthusiasm to blossom into endurance.

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And to find out when somebody faces trials and tribulations, is their short -term enthusiasm really going to mature into long -term endurance?

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Will they face the fire? Will they endure the hostility? Remember, he says, the former days when after being enlightened, you endured this great conflict of suffering.

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That word enlightened is a word that means illumined or having something shown to them, they had come to an understanding of something.

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It is a word that is used to describe in the book of Hebrews, I believe, two different kinds of people, both the genuine believer, that is these people right here, they had been enlightened, as well as the apostate,

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Hebrews chapter six. Remember, the apostate has been enlightened as well. Because though while every

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Christian has been enlightened, not everyone who has been enlightened is a Christian. Something more is necessary for true saving faith than merely enlightenment.

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Enlightenment means you have come to an understanding of something. You have realized something, light has shown in, and you understand truth, you see truth, but the apostate responds to the truth, even maybe after a burst of initial enthusiasm, the apostate responds to it by slowly or even quickly drifting and walking away from the faith.

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Because the apostate does not have the root of truth that goes down deep into him, into good soil, that produces all the fruit that's described in Matthew chapter 13.

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Whereas the Christian will respond to that enlightenment, it will be accompanied in the life of a

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Christian with repentance and faith and regeneration, because more is necessary for salvation than simply understanding intellectually the truth.

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What is required for salvation is a regenerating work of the spirit of God and the grace of God to grant repentance and faith and to bring that person not just to an intellectual knowledge of the truth, but a wholehearted soul, spirit level embrace of the truth and trust in the truth.

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And regeneration and repentance and faith, the gifts of God, are all necessary for that to happen. So even though they had been enlightened, the apostate, they had not endured.

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These who, after being enlightened, they endured with great conflict. See, this is what marks the difference between an apostate and a genuine believer.

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An apostate has received enlightenment, and because there is no root of faith in him, there is no soil to produce good fruit.

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After trials and tribulations, the apostate walks away. But the Christian, having once been enlightened, that enlightenment is accompanied with repentance and faith and a regenerating work of the

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Holy Spirit of God. And therefore, the Christian has a capacity, he has an endurance that the apostate can never have.

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So that suffering and hostility and afflictions actually produce endurance in the Christian as he willingly, joyfully faces affliction and suffering in the face of a hostile world and does not fall away.

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And then having gone through the fire of that affliction, he walks out the other side and holds to his faith as being more precious than gold, saying this is saving my soul.

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And this is the proof of the genuineness of my faith. The apostate falls away in the midst of trials and tribulations.

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The believer endures through the trials and tribulations, which means that the benefit of trials and tribulations is what?

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That it makes the apostates walk away. I think we're facing a time in our country, and this is not to be down on you, we're facing a time in our country when we're gonna see who the sheep are and who the goats are, who the wheat are and who the tares are, who the true believers are and who the make -believers are.

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That's coming. One of the benefits of facing a hostile world is that the apostates can't hide.

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They're not willing to bear that cost. They're not willing to endure afflictions, to be made a public spectacle. They're not willing to be reproached and to face tribulations.

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They're not willing to share with those who do face those things. They're not willing to have their property seized and to accept it with joy.

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Apostates are not willing to do that. Apostates walk away. They go on sinning willfully, having rejected the truth rather than gladly embracing the reproach of Christ.

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And this phrase, they endure, or sorry, after being enlightened, that describes also, I think, the cause of their suffering.

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It describes the cause of their suffering or explains it. What was the cause of these Hebrew Christians' suffering?

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It was the fact that they had been enlightened. That's it. They had been enlightened, and that enlightenment had resulted in true and genuine salvation.

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This is salvation enlightenment, not superficial outward faith enlightenment.

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This is true and genuine salvation enlightenment, and so something in them has changed. When did they endure the conflict?

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When did they endure the great conflict of suffering? Was it before their enlightenment or after? It was after their enlightenment.

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What changed for these Hebrew Christians? Had the world changed? Had all of their friends and family changed?

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Had their employers changed and their community changed and their religious affiliations changed? Had any of those people changed?

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No, what had changed? They had changed because they went from darkness to light. They had been enlightened, and listen, this is why the world hates you.

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It's the fact that you have been enlightened. And you will endure hostility because you have been enlightened.

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When you become a child of the light, the world which lives in and loves darkness will hate you and want you out of its world.

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That is the fact. Salvation in Scripture is characterized as a deliverance from darkness. I'm gonna read to you a few passages.

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These all have to do with the light so you can see the change that has taken place and understand why it is that you may be asked to endure a great conflict of suffering.

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Acts chapter 26, Paul describing his salvation and what Jesus said to him. He said that the Lord told him to go, that the

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Lord was gonna rescue him from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God and that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.

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In Colossians 1 .13, Paul says we have been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son.

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You have been taken out of one domain and put into another domain. So the world which dwells in and loves and lives in darkness and embraces that darkness, you've been taken out of that sphere and you have been put into an entirely different sphere so that now you are characterized by the same light that characterized

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Jesus Christ. Jesus, John said in John 1 .4, in him that is Christ was life and the life was the light of men.

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Jesus said in John 8 verse 12, I am the light of the world and he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

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John 9 verse 5, while I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. So now you having been taken out of the domain of darkness and placed into the kingdom of his dear son, you now bear witness to the same light that was in Christ which was the light of the world.

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So Christians are now called partakers of the light and children of the light. Ephesians chapter five, do not be partakers with them for you formerly were darkness.

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You were over in this kingdom. You formerly were darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. First Thessalonians five, four and five.

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You brethren are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day.

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We are not of night nor of darkness. First John 1 .7, we are to walk in the light as he himself is in the light if we have fellowship with one another and when we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

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John 3 .19, this is the judgment that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil.

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So you once were darkness, now you are light. The one who is the light of the world has transferred you out of that kingdom into his kingdom and now you walk in darkness, sorry, now you walk in light where once you walked in darkness.

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Now you love the light where you once loved darkness and the world which loves darkness now hates the light and it hates the one who represents the light and it hates those who bear witness to the light and it hates those who shine forth his light.

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And so Jesus says, let your light shine before men. Wait a second, this is the very thing that causes the world to hate us and this is what we're commanded to do.

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Isn't that ironic? Did the Lord not know that? Did he not know that in a world of darkness, if we let our light so shine before men that the world that's not gonna go over well with unbelievers or did the

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Lord know that this was gonna cause us hostility and suffering? And he says to us anyway, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your

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Father who is in heaven. The cause of our suffering is the fact that we have been enlightened.

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We have been made light in him and thus the world hates us and it's not personal.

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It's just the salvation has changed your entire relationship to the world now. If you're in Christ, you have an entirely different relationship with the world and every unbeliever that is around you and it is not only different, it is eternally different and it is as different as different can be.

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It is as different as utter and complete pitch blackness and the brightest of shining lights. That is how different your relationship with the world is and so their hatred of you is not personal.

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It's just that you're no longer one of theirs and the world loves its own and if you belong to the world, the world would love you but you don't belong to the world.

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Therefore, the world hates you. In fact, I think Jesus said that. Oh yeah, he did here,

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John 15. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you.

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Listen to what Jesus said. Because I chose you out of the world for this reason, the world hates you.

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You know why you're hated? Because you're elect. That's why you're hated. Christ chose you.

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The father gave you to his son and the world hates you for that reason. It's not a personal thing.

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It's not the color of your hair. It's not what you do on a Sunday morning from nine to noon. The world could care less about what you do with your schedule.

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The world hates you not because you have a Christian bumper sticker and you run a red light or you are slow to take off from a red light.

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The world hates you not because you have a Bible on your coffee table at home. You know why the world hates you?

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Because Christ chose you out of the world and because you belong to him and they hated him, they hate you. They hate you not because you are you but they hate you because you bear witness to him whom they also hate.

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And as long as you belong to him and that is forever, they will hate you. So get used to the animosity of the world.

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You should expect this by now. We should all expect this by now. And the direction that everything is going should not take us by surprise.

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Instead, we should look at it and say, this is what we should expect. The world is gonna hate us and we ought to embrace it.

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I know this is, here's, I don't know how many unpopular opinions I give every week but here's another one for the list of them today.

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We ought to embrace it. The hatred of the world. Yes, I understand that I am hated. I understand that.

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And we ought to be swayed not one bit to try and do anything to alleviate that hatred that would involve compromising the truth or silencing our witness or conforming ourselves to the world.

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You and I should not be interested in that at all. But instead, like Moses, grab hold of the reproach of faith and say,

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I will own this because in enduring the reproach of faith, I get to look forward to the reward of faith.

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And I will gladly endure all of that because I have a better possession and a lasting one.

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So when you go from darkness to light, the darkness hates you. When you go from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, the world hates you.

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When you go from spiritually dead to spiritually alive, the world hates you. And when you go from belonging to this world to belonging to the next, the world hates you.

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If you are a Christian, you cannot avoid the hatred of the world. And if you are a

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Christian, you should not try to avoid the hatred of the world because they will hate you not because of, listen, if you compromise your faith and abandon your faith and deny your faith, they'll still hate you.

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So you're gonna lose either way in this world. I mean, ultimately, you win. I don't mean this to be a downer.

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I don't wanna end on that note. Ultimately, you win, but you're gonna lose either way in terms of how the world treats you and how the world views you.

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So we suffer these things because we are not of this world. So take heart,

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Christian. If you suffer in these things in this world, then guess what? You know for certain that the next world belongs to you.

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And that is a lasting possession and a better one than anything this world can afford or provide.

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Let's pray. Father, your word is encouraging to us for we see in it our duty, our battle cry.

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We see in it the encouragement that we need to face difficulties and trials ahead. And we do not know what this age is going to present to us.

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We do not know how long you will tarry before returning here and judging a sinful world, a rebellious world.

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But Lord, we pray that you would give us grace to endure that hostility and to endure the hatred of the world and the scorn of those who hate you.

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May we gladly embrace the reproach of faith and gladly embrace the reproach of being in the kingdom of light.

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We thank you for your calling and election of us and for drawing us near to your son and giving us to him that we may have faith in him.

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We thank you for that work of salvation. And we know that in the hearts of all those who are yours, that you will do a work of grace and do a work of endurance so that we may come out of the other side of whatever it is that you have appointed for us with a faith that is precious to us, knowing it is genuine and rejoicing in that great gift of you, our

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God and savior. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for keeping us. And thank you for the inheritance which is ours to come.