Don’t throw away your confidence in Christ.

Sermon Transcript

Have you ever thrown away something that was actually incredibly valuable? About ten years ago, multiple news outlets reported the story of a Pennsylvania man who threw away $1.25 million in winning lottery tickets. The man purchased 25 lottery tickets everyday using the same number. Amazingly, one day his numbers matched. Each of his twenty-five winning tickets was worth $50,000, totaling $1.25M. However, when he checked his numbers, he apparently read them incorrectly and threw the tickets away, not knowing he was throwing away a fortune. Can you imagine? He forfeited a fortune.

Our passage from Hebrews this morning was written to guard and protect you and me from throwing away and forfeiting a fortune that is vastly more valuable than a million dollar lottery ticket. Our passage was written to warn, guard, and encourage us so that we will not throw away our confidence in Christ and the eternal fortune that awaits all who trust in Him. Hebrews 10:35 is the heart of our passage this morning: Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. And that brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Don’t throw away your confidence in Christ. Don’t throw away your confidence in Christ because holding tightly to it by faith has great, eternal reward.

Now, we’ve seen protective warnings during our journey through Hebrews before because one of the ways that our loving Heavenly Father sovereignly and most assuredly keeps Christians holding onto our confidence in Christ is by warning us not to let it go. Like a good earthly parent, our Father warns us to protect us. To run the race of faith with endurance to the end we need both promises and warnings. We need both God’s promise that He will keep true Christians holding onto their confidence in Christ to the end and warnings not to throw away our confidence in Christ and forfeit our eternal reward. And the heart of our passage is a warning: Don’t throw away your confidence in Christ. Ok – how do we not do that? This morning we are going to explore three ways to not throw away our confidence in Christ. Three ways to hold it tightly to the end: 1. Fear God’s judgment (26-31) 2. Recall your endurance (32-24) 3. Look to the reward (35-39)

FEAR GOD’S JUDGMENT

To not throw away our confidence in Christ requires a healthy fear of what happens to those who do. I warn my children about the dangers of the ocean so that they’ll have a healthy enough fear to remain safe when they play in the waves. I love them so I warn them. Let’s listen to our loving Father’s warning. Hebrews 10:26-27 – For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [27] but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. These verses do not mean that every time we deliberately disobey one of God’s commands that we have the fearful expectation of eternal judgment. We know that because at the beginning of Romans 8, Paul unflinchingly tells Christians that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ by faith, and at the end of Romans 8 Paul assures Christians that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 John 1 says that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, but if we confess our sins God will forgive us. If the author isn’t saying that every time we deliberately sin, we have the fearful expectation of eternal judgment, what is he saying? God is warning us that if we keep on deliberately disobeying God without turning to Christ for forgiveness and strength to walk in a new direction, then we are on our way to apostasy. Apostasy is throwing away your confidence in Christ. Apostasy is abandoning our profession of faith in Christ and denying Him as our Lord and Savior. We can throw away our confidence in two ways. We can do it by going back on our profession of faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and only Savior and say we don’t believe Him any longer or we can keep on committing ongoing, deliberate, and unrepentant sin. These two ways of throwing away our confidence in Christ are inseparable because the person who has genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord does not walk in perfection, but their life has a new direction. But if you go on sinning deliberately and without confessing to Christ and asking for his strength to walk a new direction, you’re throwing away your confidence in Christ no matter what you profess with your mouth. Let me say it plainly: God is warning us that if we keep on deliberately sinning after coming to a knowledge of the gospel without repentance, then we are taking the gateway drug to full on apostasy, which is throwing away your confidence in Christ.

If you throw away your confidence in Christ through abandoning your profession of faith or denying it through deliberate, repeated, and unrepentant sin, then there can be no forgiveness for you because you’re denying the only One in whom is forgiveness of sins, Jesus Christ. If you throw away your confidence in Christ there is no forgiveness, there is only the fearful expectation of judgment. Hebrews 10:26-31 puts it starkly: For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [27] but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. [28] Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. [29] How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? [30] For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” [31] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If we go on sinning deliberately without turning to Christ in repentance, then we are trampling underfoot our only Savior and all that’s left is the fearful expectation of judgment. And the first way to not throw away your confidence in Christ is to fear the judgment of God that comes to those who do. This kind of fear is incredibly helpful for the Christian. I am afraid of snakes. My fear of being bitten by a venomous snake is very beneficial. It keeps me from handling or deliberately going near them. By fearing the terrible judgment that comes to those who throw away their confidence in Christ through deliberate, repeated, and unrepentant sin, we are protected from it.

So, what do we practically do with the fear of judgment that comes to those who throw away their confidence in Christ through deliberate, repeated, and unrepentant sin? Don’t ignore it and don’t figure you’ve already done it. Do Repent. Family, today God has given us a warning and that means today is a great day to repent. If you fear that this passage is describing you, then repent. Tom Schreiner writes, “Those who repent of their evil demonstrate that they aren’t guilty of the apostasy warned against here.” The true Christian doesn’t walk in perfection, but they walk in a new direction. That’s repentance. The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance this way: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and understanding of the mercy of God to those who are in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from sin to God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.” Citylight Church – before we move to the second way to not throw away your confidence, I want to plead with you to repent. If you are right now sinning deliberately and without turning to Jesus and seeking to walk in a new direction, if you are harboring deliberate secret sin that not even one person knows about, you are in grave danger of trampling under your feet the only One who can forgive sin. If you won’t repent and turn to Jesus, all you have is the fearful expectation of judgment. So, repent. Practically, do not leave this building today without telling God and one other person. Bring it into the light instead of throwing away your confidence in Christ. You’re not too far gone. Let’s turn now to two more comforting ways to not throw away our confidence in Christ. Tone shift: from finger in the chest to arm around the shoulder.

RECALL YOUR ENDURANCE

I used to be a runner. I was never super serious or anything, but I’d run with the Manayunk Running Club once a week and run in a couple races a year. Most runners will tell you that there comes a point in nearly every race you run, often around the mid-way point, when you think to yourself, “why did I pay money to do this?” You’re pushing so hard, the finish-line is still so far away, and you’re not sure you’re going to be able to make it. When you’re hurting at the mid-way point of a race and you’re considering dropping out, it can really help you mentally to recall your training. It can really help to recall long runs and track workouts that prepared you to run this race to the end. By recalling your former endurance, it can help you not throw away your race in dark moments.

In a similar way, to not throw away your confidence in Christ, you have to regularly recall all the times you didn’t throw away your confidence in Christ. Recalling your former days of enduring faith will help you not throw away your confidence in Christ when you’re tempted in the present. Hebrews 10:32 – But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings… Listen to what their past endurance was like. Note to self: explain as I read. Hebrews 10:32-34 – But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, [33] sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. [34] 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. The author is saying, “you’ve endured so many trials for your faith in Jesus Christ, don’t throw away your confidence in Christ now.”

Citylight Church – to not throw away your confidence in Christ, don’t only fear God’s judgment that comes to those who do, also recall your past endurance. Recall the significant trials you followed Jesus through. Recall the doubts you overcame with faith. Recall the sins that you courageously and with great cost repented of. Recall the times you were ridiculed or subtly excluded for your faith and didn’t compromise or deny Jesus. Recall your past in confidence in Christ so that you won’t throw it away in the present. Like a tired runner at the mid-way point, recall all the endurance that got you to this point. The God who kept you trusting Jesus from the past until now is the God who will keep you in the faith in the present. Don’t throw away your confidence in Christ.

One of my favorite narratives in the Bible is the battle between David and Goliath. It’s truly astonishing that a young shepherd fought and killed the greatest warrior of his day. How did David have the courage to keep the faith and fight? Well, before David entered the fight, Israel’s king at the time told David there was no way David could win the fight. Do you know how David responded? He recalled the past, when a lion and a bear tried to kill his flock of sheep and David killed both the lion and the bear. Then David said, “the God who delivered me from the hand of the bear and lion will deliver me from the hand of this warrior.” His faith in the present was fueled by recalling his past endurance by the grace of God. Do the same and you won’t throw away your confidence in Christ. But don’t only consider God’s judgment or recall your endurance…

LOOK TO THE REWARD

When you’re running in a race, there is a big difference between feeling fatigued in the middle of a race and fatigued near the end. When you’re fatigued in the middle of the race, you need to recall your past endurance to persevere through the present dark moment. However, there also comes a point in a race, closer to the end, when fatigue sets in and you know the fatigue probably isn’t going away until you cross the finish line and can rest. However, something interesting happens when you pass mile ten or eleven in a 13.1 mile half marathon; the finish line starts to reel you in. You’re so close to the finish line that all thoughts of dropping out and throwing away the race begin to fade and the reward of finishing pulls you toward the finish line. This life is short. It won’t be long and our race of faith will be run. Look to the finish. Look to the eternal reward that awaits those who hold onto their confidence in Christ by faith. Look to your future reward and you will not throw away your confidence in Christ now. Hebrews 10:35-38

[35] Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. [36] For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. [37] For,

“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
[38] but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

Look to the reward. Look at it, consider it, think about it, and set your hope on it, and you won’t throw your confidence in Christ away. Don’t throw away your faith because that’s not you. Hebrews 10:39 – But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Keep the faith.