SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Would you please take your Bible with me this morning and open it to the book of Hebrews?
SPEAKER_01: The book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at an extended portion of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So even if you are not used to following along in a Bible, I encourage you to do so.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not have your own copy, you can take the black copy that's in the seat back in front of you and open it to page 1007.
SPEAKER_01: Page 1007.
SPEAKER_01: As I said, we're going to be looking at an extended portion, so it's helpful to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do not have your own copy of God's Word, please take that copy in the seat back in front of you home with you.
SPEAKER_01: Take it home with you and use it as your own.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible endorses a version of Memorial Day that is intended for God's people.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian Memorial Day, if we can call it that, derives its impact from the hardships of life in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: More specifically, the version of Memorial Day given to God's church is a divinely inspired means of living a faith-filled life in a world that hates Christ and his people.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me at Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: I know we've already read one chapter of God's Word this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: We're going to read almost two chapters now.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that this will be a treasure and a richness to your soul.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd follow along as I read again, Hebrews 10, verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: But recall the former days, when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
SPEAKER_01: For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
SPEAKER_01: 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 is promised.
SPEAKER_01: For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.
SPEAKER_01: But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
SPEAKER_01: But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
SPEAKER_01: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
SPEAKER_01: For by it, that is by faith, the people of old received their commendation.
SPEAKER_01: So by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.
SPEAKER_01: And without faith it is impossible to please him.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
SPEAKER_01: By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
SPEAKER_01: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
SPEAKER_01: By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
SPEAKER_01: For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
SPEAKER_01: And by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was well past the age, since she considered him faithful, who had promised.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore.
SPEAKER_01: And these all died, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: For people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
SPEAKER_01: If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
SPEAKER_01: But as it is, they desired a better country.
SPEAKER_01: That is, a heavenly one.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
SPEAKER_01: For ye considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the Exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
SPEAKER_01: By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
SPEAKER_01: For he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking toward or forward to the reward.
SPEAKER_01: By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
SPEAKER_01: By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
SPEAKER_01: By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
SPEAKER_01: By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
SPEAKER_01: By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
SPEAKER_01: And what more shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put armies to flight.
SPEAKER_01: Women received back their dead by resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
SPEAKER_01: Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_01: They were stoned.
SPEAKER_01: They were sawn in two.
SPEAKER_01: They were killed with the sword.
SPEAKER_01: They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world is not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth, and all these, though commended through their faith, they did not receive that which was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
SPEAKER_01: And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
SPEAKER_01: Saying, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
SPEAKER_01: So it is for discipline that you have to endure.
SPEAKER_01: God is treating you as sons.
SPEAKER_01: For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
SPEAKER_01: If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
SPEAKER_01: Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.
SPEAKER_01: Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?
SPEAKER_01: For they that is earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them.
SPEAKER_01: But God disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The flow of thought in this passage is really logical.
SPEAKER_01: But because it's more of an extended passage, it's a long passage, we can miss the reason for the middle section that describes those who have gone before us in the life of faith.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to do something different.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to think about these three segments of the beginning and the middle and the end, but I want to do so outside of the composed order.
SPEAKER_01: I want to do it jumbled up a little bit to help us feel the impact that is intended to be created in us as God's people.
SPEAKER_01: So first, consider with me at the beginning the necessity of a Christian memorial day.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 through 39.
SPEAKER_01: A memorial day is a day of remembering.
SPEAKER_01: And notice that this section in chapter 10, verse 32 begins with that exact expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Recall.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, bring to mind.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says, remember the past.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the former days, the days that are behind you.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, remember the first days of being a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: You see, following Jesus was a challenge for the first readers of this particular New Testament book.
SPEAKER_01: After trusting in Christ, that's what it means to be enlightened here, after trusting in Christ, they endured a hard struggle with suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine a long and exhausting wrestling match.
SPEAKER_01: And the opponent that refuses to give up, the opponent that refuses to concede, the opponent that continually threatens to take you down is suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And it's multiple variations and forms.
SPEAKER_01: The sufferings endured by these folks were not the kinds that come as byproducts of a sin-cursed world like pain and grief and disease.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, these sufferings come from following Jesus, specifically being publicly exposed to humiliation.
SPEAKER_01: Being publicly afflicted and exposed to reproach, suffering with others in the same way, having their homes looted and ransacked merely for identifying with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And in case you feel like that's a far-off thing, there are brothers and sisters of ours in India right now who have experienced that very thing.
SPEAKER_01: Gangs are destroying Christian communities and driving out brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So they're on the run, destitute.
SPEAKER_01: Now we've been spared most of that kind of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It's not generally painful for us to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So our eyes and our culture turn to the agonies of broken bodies, of sinful choices, the sorrowful results of living in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the things that we suffer with.
SPEAKER_01: Notice though that these suffering Christians still had confidence in Christ even after being brought low, much lower than most of us.
SPEAKER_01: Their hope in Jesus remained.
SPEAKER_01: And that leads us to the primary reason that we need a Christian Memorial Day.
SPEAKER_01: You have need of endurance.
SPEAKER_01: So that when you've done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
SPEAKER_01: God's people need endurance because of the pressures of suffering in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: John 17, 14 records the prayer of the Lord Jesus on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.
SPEAKER_01: The world hates Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Now some might mock that statement.
SPEAKER_01: No, the world hates Christians.
SPEAKER_01: John used the word term world for the broken and sinful system of this world that is fueled and run by Satan, the accuser of God's children.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said that that system, that world, hates God's people.
SPEAKER_01: It might be an active hatred exhibited in the pillaging of your home or mocking you in public or the loss of your job simply for coming to church.
SPEAKER_01: It might be observed in the passive avoidance of your family.
SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
SPEAKER_01: Satan might even ask God for permission to afflict you like he did with Job.
SPEAKER_01: You have need of endurance.
SPEAKER_01: Endurance is required to do the will of God in the midst of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: In this context, the will of God for you is to wrestle enduringly with suffering.
SPEAKER_01: To actively endure the hatred of Satan and the world under his dominion, to actively endure under the suffering that comes in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, you have need of endurance, for the battle is long, the battle is hard, and the enemy of God wants you eliminated from the fight.
SPEAKER_01: Discouragement and dismay are primary motivators that the enemy employs to move us to tag out, to ditch the struggle, to give up.
SPEAKER_01: But it is the will of God for us to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: It is the will of God for us to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: For it is through suffering that we are made into the image of Jesus who suffered for us.
SPEAKER_01: This is the will of God for you, and therefore you need endurance.
SPEAKER_01: Fulfilling the will of God by enduring to the end will bring the fulfillment of his promises to you.
SPEAKER_01: We need a Christian memorial day because we need endurance.
SPEAKER_01: We need endurance because the path is long, the way is treacherous, and the enemy is strong.
SPEAKER_01: The world hates you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus has not yet returned.
SPEAKER_01: But yet a little while.
SPEAKER_01: And the coming one, he will come.
SPEAKER_01: He will not delay.
SPEAKER_01: But until then, the righteous one lives by faith.
SPEAKER_01: When the wrestling match with suffering continues on and on, the Lord's delay feels longer and longer, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever found yourself in that position of just sort of uttering in the depths of your soul, Lord, would you just come back?
SPEAKER_01: It just feels longer and longer.
SPEAKER_01: But endure a little longer, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Endure a little longer, for the coming one is coming.
SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, faith is required.
SPEAKER_01: It is vital for endurance.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of endurance do we need?
SPEAKER_01: Physical endurance?
SPEAKER_01: Mental endurance?
SPEAKER_01: How does One pick up and go on after a home has been pillaged?
SPEAKER_01: How does one pick up and go on after being disowned by a family for believing in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: How do we endure death and disease and disaster and disappointment time and time again when those enemies invade our lives?
SPEAKER_01: The persistence required is qualified here in this quotation in verse 37 and verse 38 that comes from Habakkuk II.
SPEAKER_01: The need we have is for enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's important to catch, friends, because the world suggests many kinds of support.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, why wouldn't an enemy suggest all kinds of things for support?
SPEAKER_01: The world might recommend a long walk or some other kind of activity.
SPEAKER_01: Others might offer medication or therapy to help you cope and feel better about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Others might encourage bucking up, pushing through by ignoring the burden.
SPEAKER_01: But not one of those worldly suggestions is God's means of persevering in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: On the contrary, God says right here that what is needed is a faith that looks through the suffering, that looks through the clouds and the fog of life to the promised hope of eternity, to see what God has designed for his people in the end.
SPEAKER_01: That is what he calls for to endure suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It is a faith that looks to Jesus through the pain.
SPEAKER_01: It is the faith that Stephen had that, though he was being pelted by stones that would take his life, would look up to heaven and seek the forgiveness of those who were throwing the stones at him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some might scoff at that, saying, Yeah, my faith is too weak for that, preacher.
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
SPEAKER_01: For most of us, our faith is too weak.
SPEAKER_01: And so, beloved, God provides help.
SPEAKER_01: He does not leave us alone without hope.
SPEAKER_01: He does not leave us without the support and the strength and the encouragement that is needed.
SPEAKER_01: His support, however, does not come in worldly ways.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, his way is to build up our faith and to strengthen our faith by wrestling matches with suffering.
SPEAKER_01: God has no pleasure in the soul that shrinks back.
SPEAKER_01: But don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: Those who have been declared righteous by faith in Jesus are not those who shrink back.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what he's doing there?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying there's a very clear distinction.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody endures suffering and tags out and falls away, that's a demonstration that they are not righteous.
SPEAKER_01: They do not belong to God.
SPEAKER_01: They thought they were, but they didn't.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very clear distinction that he's making there.
SPEAKER_01: On the contrary, those with genuine faith endure not because they're somehow strong, not because their faith is somehow great.
SPEAKER_01: No, they endure because God uses suffering to build and strengthen our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so exercising that faith is the key to enduring suffering in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at the end.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on with me.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you that want me to go in order are resisting this.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get there.
SPEAKER_01: Just hold on with me.
SPEAKER_01: Look over at chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Here, beginning in verse 4, we see the author tell us to apply the command to endure.
SPEAKER_01: So he's told us, endure suffering, endure with faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now at the end of this, he tells us, again, do it.
SPEAKER_01: Apply that.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first of several hard-hitting application points.
SPEAKER_01: The author here acknowledges that God's people do indeed suffer and that they do indeed need enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, his first application point is one of perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Your suffering has not yet taken your life.
SPEAKER_01: Cheer up, it could get worse.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been around here long enough, you've seen that on Dana's door.
SPEAKER_01: Cheer up, things could be worse.
SPEAKER_01: Now we might think that that encourages a version of fatalism.
SPEAKER_01: Be happy, it can always get worse.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what is at the heart of this perspective shift.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is at the heart of this perspective shift.
SPEAKER_01: Don't see yourself bucking up and keeping going because you can do this.
SPEAKER_01: No, you must see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You must see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, following Jesus comes with suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It comes with hardship, sometimes extreme and filled with the darkest and the loneliest of days.
SPEAKER_01: But if you are reading or you are hearing this, you have not yet suffered as Jesus suffered.
SPEAKER_01: So when following Jesus seems bleak and dark and lonely, take heart.
SPEAKER_01: Your Savior went there first.
SPEAKER_01: He went there ahead of you.
SPEAKER_01: Your Lord suffered to the utmost to secure your eternal hope.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can prohibit God's determined purpose of making you into the image of his son.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see then that the truth at the end of chapter 12 comes to fruit, or at the end of chapter 10, is coming to fruition in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Peering through the pain and the suffering of our lives to the suffering of, to see the suffering of Jesus enables us to see the guarantee of our eternal hope.
SPEAKER_01: And when we can see the guarantee of our eternal hope, it gives present hope by strengthening our faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I have to move quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Divine discipline points to your belonging.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs discusses the benefits of discipline for children.
SPEAKER_01: And that theme is repeated here.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a time where convictions, just in general, tend toward gentleness in our attempts to correct our children.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the world wants us to buy into.
SPEAKER_01: And there are some appropriate lessons and applications there.
SPEAKER_01: Grace and mercy should impact parenting.
SPEAKER_01: God is gracious and merciful to you.
SPEAKER_01: But in a world where painful discipline is avoided at all costs, that world is at odds not only with God's directions about parenting, but it is at odds with God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Now these statements appear simple at first glance.
SPEAKER_01: Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
SPEAKER_01: Don't lightly regard the discipline of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be weary when reproved by him.
SPEAKER_01: You know that the Lord disciplines the one he loves, he chastises every son he receives.
SPEAKER_01: So it's for discipline you have to endure because God is treating you as sons.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be illegitimate children, you want to be legitimate children.
SPEAKER_01: Children of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: That seems simple at first glance.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father disciplines his children because he loves them.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, human parents discipline their children because they love them.
SPEAKER_01: But that simplicity gets challenged a little bit by the word chastises.
SPEAKER_01: In our culture, that term primarily carries a verbal note.
SPEAKER_01: That is, we chastise, we get after somebody or our children by verbally correcting them.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the tone that this word has in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Can I astonish you if I haven't yet?
SPEAKER_01: This word is found three times in the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Each time it refers to flogging.
SPEAKER_01: It refers to flogging once in Mark and another time for a skin disease that causes lesions and oozing from the skin.
SPEAKER_01: It's used twice in Mark for an illness that causes the release of blood from the body.
SPEAKER_01: Luke and John also use the term to refer to flogging.
SPEAKER_01: John's only use of the term refers to the flogging that Jesus received before the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: It's used twice in Acts for flogging.
SPEAKER_01: Once in Hebrews 11, 36 for flogging.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, once in Revelation to describe people gnawing on their tongues until they are raw and bleeding.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before anyone has a chance to twist my words, let me clarify that I am not saying, and this text is not saying, that we should discipline our children by flogging or until lesions occur or until skin erupts and blood flows.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm saying, it's not what the text says.
SPEAKER_01: So what does it say?
SPEAKER_01: It does suggest that corrective discipline may hurt.
SPEAKER_01: But the text doesn't go beyond that for human parenting.
SPEAKER_01: But pay careful attention to verse six.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
SPEAKER_01: Who is the one performing the discipline in verse six?
SPEAKER_01: God is.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So that we might have eternal hope.
SPEAKER_01: So that we might see through the suffering and the discipline to the eternal belonging.
SPEAKER_01: For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
SPEAKER_01: Can I give you an aside to wrestle with?
SPEAKER_01: Here's something to discuss over the lunch table.
SPEAKER_01: I fear, I fear that when parents show mercy and grace to their children through gentle correction to the exclusion of painful discipline.
SPEAKER_01: So when there's gentleness and mercy and grace to the exclusion of pain, I fear that they may be setting their children up to despise God the Father, who disciplines with grace, love, and painful suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we must retrain our thinking to see his discipline as a loving act towards his children that increases our faith.
SPEAKER_01: We must trust that he is making us into the image of his only begotten beloved Son of God who walked the same path.
SPEAKER_01: A third application point is in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a path of sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Our Father wants us to share His holiness.
SPEAKER_01: He does not want you and I to be as holy as we can be.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to share, to participate in His holiness.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Be holy, how holy, as I am holy.
SPEAKER_01: He desires His children to be like Him, to walk in His ways, putting off the desires and the deeds of the flesh, though, is always hard and painful.
SPEAKER_01: Discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
SPEAKER_01: Dad, why do you have to do this to me?
SPEAKER_01: But those who can see through the suffering and the pain of discipline and can trust in the Father's love for his children will over time grow to trust that discipline as he begins to work out the fruit of righteousness in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we have a glimpse of eternity here.
SPEAKER_01: Our divine father uses suffering as a means of discipline to make us like his only begotten Son, so preparing us to receive the fullness of his promises.
SPEAKER_01: Final application point is in verse 12, returning to the imperative of endurance in chapter 10, and that it is a command to keep going.
SPEAKER_01: Two commands are expressed here: lift up your drooping hands, lift up your weak knees, make straight paths for your feet.
SPEAKER_01: At this point in the passage, the implication is that the pain, sorrow, and discouragement of suffering and discipline have slowed God's people down.
SPEAKER_01: They are weak.
SPEAKER_01: They're discouraged, they're despondent, and they're nearly hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: How can you go on?
SPEAKER_01: But God's children gain perspective as they're reminded about his eternal purpose to make them like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And that perspective makes us evaluate our current circumstances differently.
SPEAKER_01: And as we evaluate our current circumstances from the eyes of Jesus, somehow hope begins to stir a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: You know how when you are boiling something on the stove and you're sitting there and you're watching it and it doesn't boil?
SPEAKER_01: But you know sometimes you see those tiny little bubbles come up around the edges, and it's sort of a hint of something that's to come.
SPEAKER_01: When you look at life that weighs you down from Jesus' viewpoint, it's like those little bubbles.
SPEAKER_01: It's not here yet, it's not a full boil, but something is there.
SPEAKER_01: We feel energy trickling into our being through the Spirit's work, and however dimly we see the light of day through the night of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And that, my friends, is exactly why chapter 11 exists.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11 takes the requirement for endurance and the need to press on and grounds them in genuine enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: We need enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: So we've seen the application of that need displayed in the proper perspective, the reminder of belonging and the command to keep going.
SPEAKER_01: And in between those elements is this unmatched essay on how God strengthens our faith for endurance through the memory of those who have gone before us.
SPEAKER_01: God sustains our faith today with a Christian Memorial Day.
SPEAKER_01: But first, let's remember that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
SPEAKER_01: We receive the promises of God by enduring our sufferings in this world with faith in what we cannot see.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives us an example of creation.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can't we can't see how God created everything from nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But we believe that.
SPEAKER_01: That's faith.
SPEAKER_01: That means, that means get this.
SPEAKER_01: If we tell are to live with enduring faith, that God's children are to interpret what we can see in life by what we cannot see.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's so hard.
SPEAKER_01: That's so hard because what we can see is what weighs us down, and that's just what's so hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: Don't interpret what you can see by what you can see.
SPEAKER_01: That's pointless.
SPEAKER_01: Interpret what you can see by what you cannot see, because that is God's way of faithful endurance.
SPEAKER_01: So, in the flow of this passage, Hebrews 11 is God's means of encouraging struggling spirits.
SPEAKER_01: It is the divine means of strengthening faltering faith.
SPEAKER_01: It is God's means of energizing hampered hope.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, You've never seen Abel.
SPEAKER_01: You never saw the garden.
SPEAKER_01: You never met Cain.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but brothers and sisters, look to Abel.
SPEAKER_01: For he is your example of following the will of God, even if no one else does.
SPEAKER_01: Look to Enoch, for he is our example of pleasing God through enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: You've never met Noah, but he is our example of faithful obedience in the face of opposition.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham is our example of endurance in In hope of God's promises, even when all hope seems lost.
SPEAKER_01: Sarah is our example of holding on to God's promises when faith seems futile.
SPEAKER_01: And all of those people, though they died, they possessed enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: They did not have it because they found a way to explain their circumstances scientifically, or by explaining them away, or by talking about the pain, or by grounding their hope in what they could see.
SPEAKER_01: No, they knew they didn't belong in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14 tells us these people speak, making it clear that they are seeking a different homeland.
SPEAKER_01: The early North American pilgrims endured months of living on a boat because they sought a homeland.
SPEAKER_01: Generations of faithful children of God have suffered from sin-cursed world with an enduring faith in a faithful God who has promised them an eternal homeland.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham is our example of obeying God despite impossible and inexplainable experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Isaac and Jacob are examples of believing in God's promises when the fulfillment seems so far off.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph is our example of enduring faith when home seems so far away.
SPEAKER_01: Moses is our example of obeying God's command, of choosing suffering over comfort in this world as we follow Jesus and of believing in the power and the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: How else do you stand in front of a sea of water and tell it to divide?
SPEAKER_01: Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need you.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't meet need me to work.
SPEAKER_01: Rahab reminds us that even outsiders can find a home in God's children.
SPEAKER_01: Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, how'd those guys get in there?
SPEAKER_01: David, Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: They remind us that God remains faithful even when we drift away, and that God uses those who are fearful, God uses those who are sinful, God uses those who have no wisdom, who are adulterers and murderers, and those whose children are far from God.
SPEAKER_01: Powerful kingdoms and people, fearful lions, dreadful swords, unquenchable fire, the agony of tortures, mockings, floggings, imprisonment.
SPEAKER_01: Even death itself cannot tear a child of God away from his faithful love and care because he has guaranteed their place with him, having proven it by killing his own son and raising him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so he can cause you to have enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: You need a Christian memorial day because you need endurance.
SPEAKER_01: Daily, maybe hourly, minute by minute, you face a sin-cursed world and an enemy that prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
SPEAKER_01: So as you encounter the sins of this world and the curses on this world, you must learn to look to those of whom this world has never been and never will be worthy.
SPEAKER_01: All those who, with enduring faith, suffered and died, yet were welcomed into the presence of God because of faith and what they could not see.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, you need enduring faith.
SPEAKER_01: You need to see what cannot be seen with your eyeballs.
SPEAKER_01: You must hold firm to what cannot be grasped with your fingers.
SPEAKER_01: You must lift drooping knees and hands that have no strength in them.
SPEAKER_01: You need a hall of saints in your memory bank, a collection of mental reminders surrounding you and shouting encouragement to see through the agony to the end.
SPEAKER_01: You need the memory of the saints who call to you from ages past that enduring is worth it.
SPEAKER_01: So lay aside everything that hinders you and run with endurance, hearing the memory of saints of old echoing around you, but looking only to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is the founder and perfecter of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he calls you to follow in his footsteps, the footsteps of the one who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and is even now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we do not want to grow weary or faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: Fulfill your promise here by strengthening your people, each and every one individually.
SPEAKER_01: May we be encouraged by the reminders of saints of old.
SPEAKER_01: May our eyes be set firmly only on you and on the eternal hope that you have promised and guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01: The purpose for which you are molding us into your image to receive all the promises that you've given us.
SPEAKER_01: Encourage us, strengthen us, for however long the path might be that you have laid before us, so that when all is said and done, we may not look back and say, Look what I did.
SPEAKER_01: But we might say, Look who my Savior is.
SPEAKER_01: May that be the cry of your people.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.