He Is Coming (Hebrews 10:36-37)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

And now you turn in your copy of God's word to Hebrews 10 and find verse 36. Hebrews 10, verse 36, that'll be much easier for you to find, probably because your

00:20

Bible falls open to that point when you set it down somewhere. We begin reading at verse 35, 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.

00:33

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.

00:43

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

00:51

Our Lord, we pray that you would encourage and strengthen our hearts together now in your word. We pray that you would focus our minds and our hearts upon the good things that are to come, the blessings and the reward and the joys that you have promised us in the future.

01:07

We pray that it may serve its purpose of motivating us and driving us to Christ and fixing our eyes entirely and always on him.

01:16

We ask your blessing upon this time, and may your word accomplish its purposes in all the hearts that are here, we ask in Christ's name, amen.

01:24

Jesus said in John chapter 14, verses 1 to 3, this is the night of his betrayal, just hours before he was betrayed and arrested, do not let your heart be troubled.

01:34

Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so,

01:40

I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

01:49

For two millennia, for 2 ,000 years, Christians have lived for and hoped for and anticipated and waited for the promise to be fulfilled, that return of Jesus.

01:59

The same God incarnate, Jesus Christ, who prophesied and promised his own death, burial, and resurrection, and then fulfilled that by dying, being buried, and rising again, then also prophesied his second return and his coming for his people.

02:13

In Matthew chapter 16, verse 27, Jesus said, for the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his

02:19

Father with his angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Matthew 25, verse 31, but when the

02:27

Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

02:33

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

02:39

And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Mark chapter 13, verse 21, and then, if anyone says to you, behold, here is the

02:47

Christ, or behold, he is there, do not believe him, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

02:57

But take heed, behold, I have told you everything in advance. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.

03:10

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send forth the angels, and will gather together his elect from the four winds and from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.

03:24

After Jesus' ascension in Acts chapter 1, the angels appeared and repeated his promise to the disciples,

03:29

Acts 111, they said to him, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come just in the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

03:43

And now we wait. That was 2 ,000 years ago, and now we wait.

03:51

Orthodox Christians, and by that I mean small -o Orthodox Christians, that is, Christians who have an evangelical commitment to the fundamentals of faith, not

04:00

Christians who dress in robes and wear funny head things for worship services, not that kind of Orthodox, but small -o

04:07

Orthodox Christians, will differ on some of the details of that return. And I understand because we are reformed in our soteriology as a church, that there will be people here who are different than me in your eschatology, that is not an essential issue.

04:23

Cornell has been talking about some of that in the Sunday school classes. It is a non -essential issue. We are going to differ on some of the details, maybe the timing of it, we're going to differ on whether or not certain things are going to happen before his return, or what is going to happen before his return, what is going to happen at his return, or what is going to happen after his return.

04:42

We might differ on those, and it is not my point today to present to you a correct eschatology, but simply to say that that might come at some point,

04:53

Cornell is going through that I think, and I say that jokingly, understanding post -millennial, amillennialists, you're my brothers in Christ, sisters in Christ, we understand that.

05:01

We can differ on some of that. So it's not my point today to talk about the timing of these events, or even to suggest to you that they are nigh, and that we are here, and that tomorrow, or this week, that these things are going to happen.

05:16

But there's one thing that we all agree on, and that is that he is coming again. We know that that is the case, because he has promised that that is the case, and so we wait for a

05:25

Savior from heaven, Philippians 3 verse 20, our citizenship is in heaven from which we eagerly wait for a

05:30

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself, and so once again, we wait.

05:44

Doesn't it feel like it's near, though? Is it just me, or does it feel like it's near? It feels like it's near.

05:52

I mean, whatever your, maybe your post -tribulational rapture person, it feels like you've got to be seven and a half years away from the coming of the

06:02

Lord, right? If that's your eschatology, I mean, that's near. That's nearer than 2 ,007 years away from that event.

06:09

So no matter what your eschatology is, you just get the sense and the feeling that things are different today than they have ever been.

06:16

It's certainly nearer than it has ever been in my lifetime. I mean, it's nearer today than it was yesterday. That goes without saying, right?

06:23

I'm older today than I've ever been, and the coming of the Lord is nearer than it has ever been. It's never been in the history of the church.

06:29

Now I know that some of you might say, well, hold on, Jim, every generation says that. The people in the first century thought it was in their lifetime.

06:35

That's true. And the people in the second century thought it would be in their lifetime. That's true. And the third and the fourth. Do I need to go through all 20?

06:42

So it is okay, and it is quite appropriately the point that we would live with the same type of anticipation and expectation and excitement.

06:52

And as we see the things drawing near, the things that Scripture describes, which are to accompany the end of the age, as we see the chess pieces being put into place and things happening and things trending and happening, we see how all of this would fit together with our eschatology.

07:07

It ought to create in us a certain sense of anticipation and expectation and excitement that is quite the point of believing and entrusting in the

07:15

Lord's return. And the passage of time should not make us skeptical about His coming. We shouldn't be like the skeptics in 2

07:21

Peter 2 who say, well, where's the promise of His coming? It's been 2 ,000 years. You're right.

07:27

It's been 2 ,000 years. And the passage of time should not make us apathetic about it, where we say, yeah, but everybody thought it would be in their lifetime, so it's probably not going to be in my lifetime, so what do

07:37

I care? It might be in your lifetime. You don't know if it's going to be in your lifetime. You don't know, and you might be praying that it would be before the end of this sermon that He would come.

07:48

And you say, well, I don't have to endure the rest of that sermon, and I don't have to endure the rest of the service and get through all of that.

07:55

It would be nice if it were before the end of the sermon. I just said to somebody this morning, I actually hope that the Lord would come before I'm done with the book of Hebrews.

08:02

Some of you are saying, well, that's not going to be in my lifetime, and that might be true. But the fact that it has been 20 centuries since the

08:08

Lord made that promise ought to cause us to say, not that it will never happen in my lifetime, or, well, what about the promise of His coming, or it might be another 20 centuries.

08:17

Instead, it should cause us to say, if it's been 20 centuries already, we've got to be getting a lot closer.

08:24

It's got to be getting near. And I think that there is a sense in which we are to live with that kind of expectation.

08:30

And the coming of our Lord and the anticipation of His coming is to serve as a motivation to us, an encouragement to us.

08:38

It motivates us to endure a great conflict of suffering, as the author describes in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32.

08:45

This is the motivation for us to bear His reproach and to do so gladly, to suffer joyfully the seizure of our property, to share in suffering with others who are called to bear tribulations and reproaches, or even imprisonment.

08:59

In fact, we ought to do this with joy and with glad expectation, knowing that our identification with Jesus Christ has secured for us a reward that is to come.

09:09

And when that reward is given to us, that it will be well worth all of the time that has passed, all of the reproaches that have been born, all of the tribulations that we have endured, everything that we have suffered, it will be paid off, paid back, rewarded back to us in spades, because God is no man's debtor.

09:28

So whatever it is that we have endured for His sake, we will know, and we can know for certainty that when

09:34

He returns and His reward is with Him to give it to every man, that whatever He has allotted for us, it will be amply rewarded at the end of time.

09:43

That is our reward that is to come. Last week, we looked at that exhortation in verse 35, do not throw away your confidence.

09:49

That describes your boldness, your frankness. We are confident in our proclaiming of the truth of Christ, because we are confident in our hope that He will return and that His reward is with Him.

09:59

We know that we have a great reward, verse 35, and that we will receive what was promised. And that reward is our encouragement to be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the

10:10

Lord, to endure those reproaches with joy and with gladness, knowing that all of the suffering of this age is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us and to us.

10:22

All of the sufferings will be eclipsed by that final revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have that confidence.

10:29

We didn't get to verse 36 last week, and that's okay since I said last week it actually goes better with verse 37, so that was a good thing, timing worked out well.

10:39

Verse 37 describes the coming of the Lord and the fulfillment of His promise and what it is that we are promised.

10:46

Having borne the reproach, verses 32 to 34, of faith, we will receive the reward, verses 35 to 39, of faith.

10:52

And today, we're going to mark just three things about our reward as we look at verses 36 and 37. That is, our reward comes for our perseverance.

11:01

We are rewarded for our perseverance, that's in verse 36. We are rewarded just as we are promised, also in verse 36.

11:07

And then in verse 37, our reward is actually a person. It comes with a person. We are rewarded for our perseverance, we are rewarded as we are promised, and our reward comes with a person.

11:17

Let's look first of all at the perseverance in verse 36. Read together with me again, verse 36 and 37, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

11:28

For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. That word that is translated endurance is a form of the very same word translated endured in verse 32, when he says, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings.

11:43

One is a verb, one is a noun. It's a form of the very same word, and so the idea is the same, the meaning is really the same.

11:50

It is referring to a patient enduring under something. Remember when we went through verse 32, we saw that.

11:56

This endurance is a standing up under, a bearing up under something, which indicates to us that whatever they were enduring was something that required an extra added measure of strength and patience, in bearing up under it.

12:11

It means to remain under a circumstance or a difficulty or a hardship and to bear the load with steadfastness and patience.

12:19

In fact, patience is how the King James translates that verb, or that word, when it says, you have need of patience.

12:25

It doesn't translate it as endurance, but a patience, and it has the idea of a patient enduring or an enduring patience.

12:32

It's the same idea. It is a steadfastness of heart, a complacency of heart, where you endure and you put up with something patiently and in an enduring fashion, remaining under it.

12:43

John Owen describes the word or defines the word this way, and John Owen was a Puritan who would use entire sentences to simply say what

12:51

I would only be able to say in a couple of words, but Owen says this. This is a bearing of evils with quietness and complacency of mind without raging, fretting, despondency, or inclination unto compliance with undue ways of deliverance.

13:07

Did you catch that? He said, no, I didn't catch that. I didn't either until about the fourth time I read through it. Without an inclination unto compliance with undue ways of deliverance.

13:16

In other words, what he is saying is, you bear up under it in a spirit of complacency without fretting, raging, despondency, or a desire to deliver yourself through some sin or compromise.

13:29

You can always get outside of and underneath of the world's hostility if you adopt the world's mindset.

13:36

If you adopt the world's values, the world will love you. So if you adopt the mind of the world, you will with it receive the love of the world.

13:44

You can always escape suffering if you simply concede or make a compromise or if you sin in some way to get out of that realm of hostility, out from underneath of the affliction.

13:59

You can do this in two different ways, actually, by giving in to temptation, for one, to compromise or to go along, to get along, to be quiet, to hold back your testimony, to be silent or deny the

14:10

Lord in a public profession, to back away into your old lifestyle with your old religion and your old peers and your old friends and your old family members and pretend that your profession of faith in Christ meant nothing.

14:20

That would be a sin, giving in to that temptation. Or you can sin under this or not be enduring if you are responding to the world's hostility in a sinful way, that is by bitterness or vengeance or saying to yourself, yeah,

14:34

I'm going to get you back. Or if you have in your heart, and this is really easy to do, to think toward an unbeliever,

14:41

I may not get you back, but I know somebody who will, and when he returns, he is going to take off his belt and it is going to be a day of reckoning for you.

14:52

That is very tempting. We have to avoid that kind of mindset because when we think of unbelievers that way, it is very difficult to also view them as the mission field.

15:02

It is difficult to also view them as somebody we need to share the truth with and that we need to love for Christ's sake.

15:12

Or to respond to the hostility of the world with hatred, animosity, jealousy, frustration, resentment, bitterness, these are the things that have no place in one who endures patiently or who is patiently enduring.

15:23

This need of endurance that he describes in verse 36 when he says you have need of endurance, this is a preeminent

15:31

Christian grace, this grace of endurance, patience, you want to call it that, patient endurance or enduring patience.

15:37

James chapter 1 verse 2 says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect, that is mature or fit, fitted, made complete and lacking in nothing.

15:53

So when he says to them, you have need of endurance, don't think that he is charging them with a want or a lack of endurance, and this is an important thing to remember.

16:01

He's not suggesting that they had no endurance and therefore they needed it. He's actually highlighting the fact that they had the very thing that they needed.

16:09

They already had this. You have need of this endurance. They had already demonstrated the endurance. He says in verse 32, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, right?

16:18

Partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

16:23

They had already endured, they had already demonstrated this character trait. And he is now saying in verse 36, you have need of this very thing that you are enduring.

16:31

He's not saying that you don't have endurance and therefore you need a little bit. Go get yourself some endurance, go develop some endurance.

16:37

He is saying to them, this thing that you have already demonstrated is the very thing that you need. You can talk about somebody needing something that they already have, right?

16:45

Imagine for a moment that I were to take you out on a hike this afternoon and we were to go up in the mountains and it was snowing.

16:52

That's the wrong time of the year to try and imagine that, but imagine some other time I take you up in the woods and it's snowing, it's 10 degrees and the wind is howling and we show up in our jackets, we're going to go on a five -mile hike up on the top of a mountain somewhere and we're doing all of this for fun, quick keep in mind.

17:06

And you show up and you have a coat on and mittens and a stocking cap, and a toque is a

17:12

Canadian word for stocking cap, a toque and a scarf and you're all bundled up to stay warm and I say to you, you need that jacket.

17:21

Now you wouldn't look at me and say, what are you saying, I don't have a jacket? No, you'd be understanding that you have the very, I'm saying that you are going to need the very thing that you already have.

17:29

And you would say, if we're going to go hiking, you need some sanity or some common sense or something else, in which case you would be indicating that I don't have the very thing that I now need to have.

17:37

So when he says you have need of endurance, he is highlighting, he is pointing out something that they already had and he is saying this is the very thing that you need.

17:46

You've already endured a great conflict of suffering and so this is what you need, that endurance. This is going to carry you through.

17:53

The endurance that you've already demonstrated is going to carry you through to the reward. What must you do to be faithful all the way to the end?

18:00

You need endurance. What must you have in order to receive the reward? You need endurance. Those who endure the reproach of faith get the reward of faith.

18:07

This endurance which you have already demonstrated is the very thing that will carry you through all the way to the end. You have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, now what is he describing there?

18:16

When you've done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. What was the will of God for them? For some of them it was imprisonment.

18:26

You say it's hard for me to get my head around God's will being imprisonment for someone.

18:35

You better get your head around that. If it's not his will, whose will was it and who got their way?

18:41

For some of them it was having their property seized, that was his will. For some of them it was enduring reproach.

18:48

For some of them God's will was that they would suffer with others. For some of them it was that they would face hostility and opposition.

18:54

But for all of them it was God's will that they would endure faithfully all the way to the very end. That was his will for them.

19:01

And that they would do so enduring all of the afflictions and sufferings with grace and with joy and with enduring patience, being faithful not to cast aside their boldness, not to soften their proclamation or their commitment to the truth, but rather to continue to testify and to proclaim

19:19

Christ boldly in that opposition, in the midst of that hostility. That was God's will.

19:24

Having done that, when you have done the will of God, then you will receive what is promised.

19:30

When you have done the will of God. I may be making too much out of this, but I find something very comforting in that phrase, and that is that the will of God for me at some point will be done.

19:41

At some point you will have done the will of God. You'll be past it. Whatever he has called for you to endure with faithfulness and with patience, you will be past that.

19:52

There will come a point where you have done the will of God and you have done it faithfully. You will have run your race, you will have finished your course, you will have kept the faith, you will have completed the mission, the task that he has laid before you.

20:04

You will have finished your days, and at that point you will be able to say, I have done the will of God. And if you're faithful all the way to the very end, then comes the reward.

20:13

It's also in verse 36. It is not just for our perseverance, it is also promised. Verse 36, for you will receive what was promised.

20:21

When do we receive it? After we have done the will of God. I have said to my kids over the years, we work now, we play later.

20:30

Work first, play later. Work first, play second. I would never, in fact

20:36

I would say only a fool would take their child or their grandchild out for ice cream before they do what they're supposed to do to earn the ice cream.

20:44

You don't give the rewards up front. Nobody would do that. Once you have the reward, then there's no motivation to pursue faithfulness or to do what is accomplished.

20:53

After you have done the will of God, then you will receive what was promised. By far for us, the best is yet to come.

21:01

This is not suggesting that there are no rewards in this life. There are. We do get to enjoy rewards in this life.

21:06

Every once in a while, as a fruit of our efforts of serving the Lord, we get to see some of the fruit of that.

21:13

We get to see, as a reward, we get to see some of the fruit of our labors. And I think that the Lord only shows to us in this life enough of that fruit to keep us motivated to continue to serve

21:22

Him, but most of it is hidden from us until the very end. We get to see just enough reward, just enough blessing, just enough of the fruit of doing the will of God to help us to drive on and to persevere on and to know that if I'm only seeing a portion of this, there's much, much more that is yet to come that we will get to see and that we will get to enjoy.

21:42

And all of the things that are hidden will be brought to light, and all of the deeds which we have done in righteousness that nobody knows will be proclaimed openly and we will be rewarded for those.

21:53

All of the things we have done in secret, God will reward us openly for those. We only get to see a glimpse of this.

21:59

But the best, by far the best, and the most of our reward is yet to come.

22:05

The bulk of our reward is not in this life, which is why Hebrews chapter 11, verse 39 says, of all the saints in the

22:12

Old Testament, that though they gained approval through their faith, they did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.

22:21

All those Old Testament saints that endured in faith, looked forward to receiving what was promised, but they in their lifetime never received ultimately what was promised.

22:31

Why? Because it was God's will that we likewise would receive a blessing and we would all receive that together as co -heirs in Jesus Christ.

22:40

So they were waiting for the end and they died in faith, having never seen what was promised to them.

22:46

Abraham died in faith, never seeing the generations that would come from him as the sand of the sea.

22:52

He never saw the land. David died never seeing that king that was promised to him. All the

22:58

Old Testament saints died in expectation, never seeing in their own lifetimes the fulfillment of all that they were promised.

23:04

And so shall we, unless the Lord returns while we are alive. Then we will see in our own lifetime, and of course

23:13

I believe that at the moment the Lord returns, we're all going to be, if we are alive, we're going to be transfigured with him.

23:19

So there will be a sense in which we die and are resurrected instantaneously, but you get what I mean? If the

23:24

Lord returns, then of course we are going to see that reward. But if he does not and we die in faith, then we will join the long list of Old Testament saints who endured in faith and waited for the reward that was to come.

23:37

And we will receive what was promised. You and I understand that a promise is only good as the person who makes it, right?

23:45

It doesn't matter what I promise you. It could be the world, but if I have no ability, no wisdom, no power, no authority, no means by which to secure that promise or to fulfill that promise, then it doesn't really matter what

23:56

I have promised to you. A promise is only good as the person who made it, and that person who made it, if he's going to promise us something, he has to have the ability to fulfill that promise.

24:05

Well with God, his character is perfect, it's impeccable, and his integrity is perfect, and he has a perfect track record of fulfilling all of his promises and bringing to pass his every word, and he has power, infinitely so, to accomplish his promises.

24:20

And he has perfect wisdom to know exactly what we should receive and when we should receive it, and for what we should receive it.

24:28

And we add on to the fact that our God is good and holy and true and righteous and just and merciful and gracious and omniscient, infinitely wise, infinitely providential.

24:37

Now all of the character qualities that are necessary to secure the giving of our promise and the giving of our reward, all of those dwell in God and with God.

24:46

His character is impeccable and perfect. And so all that he has promised, he will bring to pass.

24:52

And faith believes this. And the fact that we may not see it come to pass in our lifetime does not deter those with faith.

24:58

Because the faithful are those who are confident of things they have never seen. That's the point of the definition of faith.

25:06

We are confident of what we have not seen. I have not seen my eternal reward. I have not seen the dwelling places that Jesus has promised, the place that he has prepared for us.

25:15

I have not seen that. I have not seen any of the fruit of my labor, not any of it, but I haven't seen any of the eternal fruit of my labor.

25:21

I haven't seen any of that reward that is promised and the inheritance that is reserved for me. I have not laid eyes on any of it.

25:28

But I am as certain that that exists and that it is true and that it is real as I am of the existence of this pulpit that is in front of me.

25:35

I'm absolutely certain of it because the faithful see with confidence that which their eyes cannot see.

25:41

Faith sees it and faith lives in light of it, motivated by it, encouraged by it, and strengthened by it, the reality of it.

25:50

Because we see it confidently and know that we have it even though we have not yet actually physically seen it.

25:57

But we will see it because our reward is coming with a person and this brings us to verse 37.

26:03

You'll notice, if you have the NASB, you'll notice that it is all caps, verse 37 and 38. They are a quotation from the

26:09

Old Testament. Most modern translations find some way of setting that aside as a quotation from the

26:14

Old Testament or marking it out as such, either by using prose or italics or all caps in some way.

26:22

It is a quotation from Habakkuk 2, verses 3 and 4, which was part of our scripture reading at the beginning of the service.

26:28

The most familiar part of that quotation is in verse 38, but my righteous one shall live by faith.

26:33

We see that quoted here in Hebrews 11, once in the book of Romans and once in the book of Galatians. And that is probably the most familiar phrase from that quotation of the

26:41

Old Testament. It is familiar to us because it really was the battle cry of the Reformation, wasn't it? That the just shall live by faith.

26:48

It was the turning point for a German monk named Martin Luther that was the defining moment of his life that turned him from darkness to life, his realization that the just, those who are righteous and those who are justified, are justified on the basis of faith.

27:01

And it's the heart of the gospel. That you and I are made righteous not by anything that we have done, anything that we could do or anything that we will do, but we are declared righteous and made righteous entirely based upon the work and the doing and the dying of another who did and died in our stead.

27:18

And because of what he did and by virtue of our repentance from sin and our faith in that, we are made or declared righteous.

27:25

So it's a battle cry of the gospel, it's the battle cry of the Reformation, and we're going to look at it next week, not this week.

27:33

The way that it is quoted though is quite curious for us because you'll notice here in a moment that the phrasing is quite loose.

27:41

The wording is not quite the same as it is back in Habakkuk and Isaiah, and I'm only stating the obvious to say that I think in the mind of the author that it was an intentional thing that he did.

27:52

And I'm going to explain to you here in a moment why he did that. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read to you the passage from Habakkuk, and I want you to let your eyes camp here on verses 37 and 38.

28:03

Verse 37 is a quotation from Habakkuk 2, verse 3. So you read it in this translation,

28:10

I'll read to you, sorry, you read it in Hebrews here, I'll read the quotation from Habakkuk. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail.

28:22

Though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Verse 38 is a quotation from the very next verse in Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 4.

28:34

Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith.

28:43

Now you read that and you think, it looks as if the only thing the author of Hebrews got right was that one sentence, but the righteous one shall live by faith.

28:51

The rest of it seems like the most generous thing you could say is the loosest possible paraphrase of Habakkuk chapter 2, right?

29:03

The difference between it, and he, and a vision, and a person, and there's the mention of the proud, and the mention of his soul, and it seems the only thing he got right was that statement that the righteous will live by his faith.

29:17

The quotation, as the author of Hebrews uses it, doesn't seem to fit Habakkuk chapter 2, and it almost seems like he is changing it quite substantially and quite intentionally.

29:26

I think that he's not changing it, he's doing something else, and here's what he is doing. There are actually two passages that if you were to lay them over one another, you would get what we're reading here in Hebrews chapter 10.

29:40

If you were to take Isaiah 26 and some of the phrasing there, and you were to lay it over like two transparencies on an overhead,

29:48

Habakkuk chapter 2, and you were to combine the meaning, and the idea, and the gist of both of those passages together, then you would kind of get what the author of Hebrews is using here.

29:59

For instance, Isaiah chapter 26, now this is the passage I said you have to lay over Habakkuk chapter 2.

30:06

Isaiah 26 is the other passage that the author is referencing here, in fact he's borrowing the language from both

30:11

Habakkuk and Isaiah 26. Here's Isaiah 26 verse 20, come my people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you, hide for a little while, you can see that there at the beginning of verse 37, for a little while, until indignation runs its course, for behold, the

30:29

Lord is about to come from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain.

30:39

So in Isaiah chapter 26, Isaiah is speaking of a future judgment, and one that would be brought about by the coming of the

30:47

Lord, God himself would come and would execute this judgment upon the nations. And that's not what

30:52

Habakkuk chapter 2 is describing, so what do we make of this? How do we put these together? Let me suggest a couple of things.

30:58

First of all, the author of Hebrews is not intending this as a direct quotation, because you'll notice he doesn't use the language that he uses when he is citing directly an

31:05

Old Testament passage. For instance, in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 6, 8, 9, 15, and 16, he uses language like he says, or as it is written, and then he says, or as he says, or he says again.

31:19

It's his way of introducing what he considers to be a direct quotation, but he doesn't do that here in Hebrews chapter 10, because he's not directly citing, quote, unquote, an

31:28

Old Testament passage from the Septuagint. More, he is using the language and the words of those two

31:35

Old Testament passages, borrowing phrases from Isaiah 26, and ideas from Isaiah 26, and Habakkuk chapter 2, and sort of bringing them together, and as I said before, laying them over one another, and borrowing the language to say something specific that he intends here.

31:52

He's actually paraphrasing and adapting the words of those two passages to suit his purpose, and his purpose is a specific one, and his purpose is actually within the bounds of what we would say the meaning of those two

32:05

Old Testament passages are. In Isaiah chapter 26, Isaiah is predicting the return of the

32:11

Messiah. In fact, in Isaiah 26, Isaiah is predicting the return and judgment of the

32:19

Messiah, and he speaks of the bodily resurrection that will precede that. In fact,

32:24

Isaiah chapter 26, verse 19, it's the verse right before the ones that I read to you earlier, says this, your dead will live, their corpses will rise, you who lie in the dust awake and shout for joy, for your due is as the due of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

32:39

That, along with Daniel chapter 12, I think it is, and Job chapter 19, I believe it is, describe this resurrection, this bodily resurrection with Old Testament language.

32:50

So Isaiah 26 is describing the bodily resurrection of all men, which Jesus describes in John chapter 5 when he says, do not marvel at this, for now is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

33:09

So Isaiah 26 describes a bodily resurrection followed by a judgment upon all the nations.

33:15

Habakkuk chapter 2 is describing not a bodily resurrection, but a specific judgment upon one particular nation.

33:21

And so the author of Hebrews takes that idea of the Messiah's return, bodily resurrection, judgment, and the judgment passage of Habakkuk, and he brings them both together sort of into the same passage to say that the one,

33:34

Habakkuk chapter 2, is actually looking forward to the ultimate one that Isaiah describes in Isaiah chapter 26.

33:40

Because in view of both Habakkuk and Isaiah, there is a judgment that is to come, and when there is a promise of judgment that is to come, it will most certainly come to pass.

33:50

So just as the judgment that was promised in Habakkuk came to pass, so will the judgment that is coming at the end of the age.

33:56

Now what is the judgment that was promised in Habakkuk? What's the context of that? Habakkuk is writing just prior to the

34:01

Babylonian invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah. And Habakkuk was living in a time when the nation had violated their covenant, they had sinned before God, justice was not done.

34:11

You saw what it was that we described in Habakkuk chapter 2, violence and justice was not done.

34:17

Everybody is wicked and God seemed to be silent about it. And Habakkuk is lamenting that, saying, Lord, why is it that you make me look on all this injustice?

34:24

Everywhere I look, all I see is perversion and wickedness and people who do not obey you. And yet it seems as if you are silent and you do nothing.

34:31

And the Lord then said to him, oh, don't worry about that. It's not that I'm doing nothing.

34:37

In fact, catch this, Habakkuk, I'm raising up a nation, the Chaldeans, and they are going to come in amongst your people and they're going to destroy all of you.

34:50

They're going to destroy your city, they are going to wreck your nation, and they are going to punish all of those people.

34:56

They are my instrument for judgment upon those people, the Chaldeans. They're a fierce people, they are a violent people, and there are lots of them and nobody can stand up against them.

35:07

And Habakkuk replied by saying, come again? You're doing, you have what, you're planning what, the

35:14

Babylonians are coming in? Lord, they are more wicked than we are.

35:21

How is it that you're going to use them to punish us? He was beside himself, and he lamented that the

35:28

Lord would do this, you're too pure to use a wicked people like that to punish us for our iniquity, there seems to be something wrong with this.

35:36

And then Habakkuk offers up his lament, and the Lord's response is in Habakkuk 2, verse 3, the vision, what he said regarding the

35:44

Chaldeans and them coming in to destroy the nation, that vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail, though it tarries, wait for it, it will certainly come, it will not delay.

35:55

Habakkuk, it may look as if wickedness is triumphing now and that there's no end to this and there's no justice coming, but I promise you justice is coming.

36:03

It will not delay, there is an appointed day, an appointed year, an appointed person, Nebuchadnezzar, he is going to come in, he is going to destroy you, and even though right now it might look as if nothing is happening as a result of your sin, trust me, something is being stirred up in the midst of this,

36:17

I'm raising up the Chaldeans and they are going to come in and they are going to punish you and they are going to deal with it. So even though it might not look as if there's going to be an end to this, trust me, there is an end to this.

36:26

This vision, this appointment, it will not be delayed, it is coming and it is coming with certainty. Well, how then are the righteous to live when all of the people around them are being judged?

36:37

That's a very good question, isn't it? Let's imagine for a moment that you lived in a nation that was under divine judgment.

36:44

Hard to imagine, but just put yourself in that perspective. Imagine that we lived in a nation where wickedness and evil was triumphing in every corner of the globe.

36:53

And we lived in a nation where the evil triumph and the wicked prosper and the righteous have everything taken from them and everything is the exact opposite of what it should be and all of that is evidence that we live in a nation that is under the judgment of God.

37:09

Imagine that you lived in a situation like that. How is it that the righteous are going to endure that? How is it that the righteous live through that?

37:16

What are the righteous to do? The just shall live by what? By faith.

37:22

That was the Lord's answer to Habakkuk. Trust me, it's coming. It's coming.

37:30

I will deal with it. This is what the Lord said to Habakkuk. I will deal with it. My righteous ones, you live by faith.

37:37

That's how you live. Trust, believe, the righteous live by faith. That was the message of Habakkuk.

37:45

The fulfillment of the vision is coming and it may not look like it, but it is coming. Now what the author of Hebrews does is he changes the wording just a little bit, again borrowing from Isaiah chapter 26.

37:55

The Lord is coming. He's going to judge. The bloodshed will be revealed. It will be taken care of. There is an eschatological, apocalyptic judgment that is on the horizon.

38:03

That's Isaiah chapter 26. It is coming. So he borrows the language of Habakkuk, the language of Isaiah, sort of puts them together to come up with this, for yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.

38:16

And what the author is saying is that the judgment that was promised by Habakkuk, promised to Habakkuk, that judgment came to pass, didn't it?

38:25

Oh yeah. In every gory detail, it came to pass. And the author is saying, likewise, the judgment that is to come at the return of him who is coming, it's going to come to pass too.

38:36

Just as certain as that Old Testament prophecy to Habakkuk was fulfilled, so will be the future and coming judgment.

38:44

Just as the Chaldeans came in, because I predicted that they would come in, so will be the coming of the one who will bring in the day of the

38:50

Lord. These things are equally fixed and equally certain because God himself is the one who has promised these things.

38:58

And so the righteous are to live by faith in that, and the author is just using the wording of those passages that describe these coming judgments.

39:04

And saying, basically, by putting Isaiah and Habakkuk together, he's saying, if you enjoyed the 60 -second trailer, which was the

39:11

Babylonian invasion, you're going to love the movie because it's much more graphic, it's much more severe, it is much more, it's just as certain and much more comprehensive than what happened.

39:24

Back in Habakkuk, it was just Chaldeans coming into Israel. When the Lord returns, it's all the nations.

39:29

Do you understand that when you pray for the coming of the Lord, come

39:34

Lord Jesus, you are praying for the destruction of every kingdom in this world, including ours.

39:44

You're praying for the destruction of the United States of America. That's what you're asking for.

39:50

Your kingdom come, your will be done. You are begging for and asking that all the wicked be punished, and that all of his enemies be judged.

40:02

Because here's what it's going to look like when he comes. John says, I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse and he who sat on it.

40:09

It's called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages war.

40:15

His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself.

40:21

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses.

40:33

From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

40:38

And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written,

40:45

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and great and small.

41:10

It's Revelation chapter 19, verse 11 through 18. When he returns, he will judge the nations, he will destroy the wicked, he will gather his elect and bring them into his kingdom, he will vindicate his people, and the righteous will receive what they were promised.

41:24

The righteous will receive eschatological blessings, the fulfillment of every good thing, everything that was promised to Abraham, everything that was promised to David concerning a land and a kingdom, because we will receive the king.

41:35

He will come, he will not delay, his coming is just as certain and fixed as was the coming of the

41:41

Babylonian kingdom into the land of Israel. The date, the hour, the moment of his return is set, it is unalterable, it is certain, it is fixed, it is immovable, and it is just as absolutely fixed as anything is ever fixed.

41:59

It cannot be altered, it will not be delayed. It's not tarrying, it's not waiting for something, he is not waiting in the sense that he is uncertain of his time, do

42:10

I come now, do I come back now, I'm not sure, is this the right time or not? Oh no, it is on God's calendar, fixed the day, and uncertain and immovable, and he will return.

42:21

What are we to do in light of that? First, it is our duty to prepare for this, to prepare for this.

42:29

And by that I don't mean, oh, I need to stock up, I need to get water, I need to get food supplies, I need to call my

42:34

Patriot Supply and do 1 -800 -Jim and I get my 10 % discount, nothing like that.

42:41

I'm talking about that. I'm talking about stocking up on this world's goods, I mean prepare. If you're sitting here this morning and you are outside of Jesus Christ and you have never repented and placed your faith in him, all that you can expect when you see him either in his return or your death, you can only expect to see him as your judge.

42:59

It's all that you can expect. You will do not know him as Lord today, if you die today and you don't know him as Lord, you will not stand before him and know him as your

43:07

Savior and Lord in eternity. There is no second chance after this life. What I mean by prepare for this is you make sure that you are in Jesus Christ, you make your calling and election sure.

43:17

You make certain that you understand that you are a sinner deserving of judgment and justice and that if God were to give you what you deserve, he would give you eternal hell.

43:25

He would pour out his wrath on you everlastingly for all of eternity. That's what each of us deserves for our sin.

43:31

That's the bad news that prepares us to receive the good news. The good news is that God sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is coming again into this world 2 ,000 years ago so that he may live a perfect and righteous and holy life having never sinned, living the life that we were required to live, and then dying in the stead of sinners, any and all who will trust in him.

43:49

He has made a perfect sacrifice and a perfect atonement to pay perfectly the price for all sin of all who will trust and obey him.

43:57

And if you will return to him, if you will turn to him in repentance and faith, he will forgive your sins.

44:03

Not because you have done anything righteous or deserve that righteousness, but he will forgive you the righteousness of his son, the

44:09

Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ has done that for you, that his sacrifice is sufficient to pay the price for your sin.

44:16

It is your duty to prepare for that. If you're outside of Christ, that is number one concern that you need to have in light of the coming of Christ.

44:24

Our second duty, it is our duty to pray for this, to say, even so come Lord Jesus. I have to confess to you that I have probably prayed for the coming of the

44:33

Lord more in the last 12 months than I prayed for that in the previous 12 years. I say that to my own shame, but it's true.

44:41

There's a sense in which I long more and more each day for all of this clown show to be wrapped up and done away with, and for him to come back and to enjoy the righteous kingdom that he has promised.

44:54

That is what I want to see. It is our duty also to set our hearts on this reward, to remind ourself of it, to meditate upon it, to fix our attention upon it, to fix our hearts on heavenly things.

45:09

If you have never read that book, Heaven by Randy Alcorn, I commend it to you. It's on my top 10 list of books,

45:15

Heaven by Randy Alcorn. No, it's not one of those, I went to heaven, here's what I saw, here's what you need to know about it books. I write books against those books.

45:22

Instead, it is a theological treatment of what scripture says regarding heaven, our eternal home, the present heaven, the future heaven, the new heavens and the new earth, resurrection, resurrection bodies, all of that.

45:31

It will help fix your heart and your mind upon heavenly things. Meditate upon the fact and remember the fact that every act of service that you have ever rendered will receive its reward.

45:44

Every injustice that you have ever suffered will be righted. Every temptation you have ever resisted will be acknowledged, and every obedience that you have ever offered to your

45:53

Lord will be praised and rewarded on that day. And, fourthly and lastly, it is our duty to wait faithfully and with patient endurance or enduring patience for His return.

46:05

Let it motivate you, let it encourage you, let it strengthen you, set your heart upon it.

46:11

Don't be ashamed of it. Know that you have endured a great conflict of suffering and you are continuing to do so.

46:19

Your endurance is necessary, and when you have finished the course and you have kept the faith, and when you have done His will, you will receive what was promised.

46:26

He is coming, and His reward is with Him to give to every man according to what he deserves.

46:33

Let's pray. Father, all of this is such good news, not only that You have taken our sin out of the way in the person of Your Son, the

46:42

Lord Jesus Christ, but also that He is coming again. He who died and was buried and rose again for our justification is returning again with our reward.

46:53

And we thank You for that hope, and we thank You for that promise. Fix our hearts and our minds upon that.

47:00

May it motivate us and strengthen us and encourage us to be faithful in this time and to be faithful in our present circumstances, whatever they may be, as we look toward receiving that reward when our

47:12

Lord returns. Make us hopeful, and we pray that the Lord Jesus would come, come quickly, come soon.

47:19

We long for that day because we long for righteousness and we want to see Christ.