Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM - "Confidence in Christ" Pt 2 - Hebrews 10:26-39 - Pastor Ryan Nichol

Now, without further ado, open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. I'm only going to give my message in English because I don't have any Spanish words written on here. And, again, anything that I do from that point on to make up Spanish words is going to get me canceled in every room. So, just English this morning. Hebrews, chapter 10. Really good to be back.

I promise I'm back in town now, I think, for a long time. I won't be skipping out. I'm not going to offer any more weddings. All the other weddings are here in town. But it's good to be back with you all. I spent last weekend down in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Had a beautiful wedding down there. And discovered a wonderful little coffee shop. BTW, if you're ever in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, you need to go to a little coffee shop called Local Habit.

It's a great little spot. We enjoyed some good coffee there as well. So, we're picking up in part two of our series that we started with confidence in Christ. We started off talking about... Our exhortation towards confidence in Christ when he said that we should now boldly go before the throne of grace because we have this access, because we have this opportunity,

this new way that has been inaugurated for us through the veil of his flesh. But we said that not only was there an exhortation of encouragement, but that as he talked about confidence in Christ, there would also be a warning. And so, as we approach verses 26 through 39 of chapter 10, I'm going to start off with this. This is a little bit of a harsh section, and we just need to know that.

This is a serious warning that is given to the church. And so, I would encourage you, please listen to the entire message before you allow yourself to get discouraged. Because what we're going to make here is we're going to make a little bit of a warning sandwich. You know, last time we were together, it was the exhortation and encouragement that a new and living way has been inaugurated for us to come boldly to the Father, to enter into the holy place.

But now, he's going to give us a warning, but he's going to end it with some encouragement. So, starting in verse 26, it says this. For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony, of two or three witnesses.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the spirit of grace? For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But remember the former days.

When after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. 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.

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. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. The warning. See what I mean? That's kind of a harsh section of Scripture.

Can we all agree? So let's break this down and make sure we understand exactly what's being said, and soak in the warning that has given to us, while also soaking in the encouragement of continuing to walk by faith. And so there are two things that I want to point out to us out of this section. We will look at the warning, and we will look at the encouragement.

It's been interesting how the writer to the Hebrews has handled this. Remember, he's writing to a group of people who are on the brink of falling away. They are on the brink of walking away. They are on the brink of shrinking back, because they have lost, their confidence in Christ. Persecution has increased, and quite frankly, it seems easier for them to go back to a Judaic system of law

that they knew before they got saved than it does to continue on in their walk with Jesus Christ, which will mean certain persecution. It seems easier to go back to the world and what they knew than it does to continue on in their walk with Jesus Christ. And so he writes this book, he writes this letter to them to remind them of who Jesus is, that Jesus, that Jesus is better than anything that the world contains, that Jesus is better than anything that religion contains, and that they should press on in their faith. And so as he has talked to them about the greatness of Jesus, he has also given them several warnings.

The first warning came in chapter 2. The first warning was that they needed to pay attention to their salvation, lest they drift away. The second warning that he gave was in chapter 3. He said, Beware of an unbelieving heart, that will want to fall away. And the third warning that he gives is in chapter 6, where he says, Beware of falling away. Have you noticed that there's sort of an increasing intensity in each of these warnings

until he finally reaches this last one in chapter 10, which I feel like is the culmination of those first three warnings tied into one, when he says, You cannot go on willfully sinning. And so as we look at verses 26 and 27, let's first look at the first warning. Let's first of all look at just the plain reading of what it says. He says, For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

The plain reading is this. If we continue sinning willfully, in other words, if we continue missing the mark voluntarily or of our own accord, if we continue willfully doing that which we know is wrong, he says this. He says, There is no longer a sacrifice for sins to cover us. There is only judgment. Now, if you're sitting here this morning, I've given us just the plain reading first

because I think what we need to do is sometimes we need to let the knowledge of a holy God and his hatred for sin sink into our hearts. Because in the culture that we live in today, we have lost the knowledge of God's judgment. We have lost the knowledge of God's holiness. We have lost the fact that God doesn't just hate sin. God is at war with sin. And because we have lost that knowledge,

we have compromised in every way that we possibly can. We say, I can just show up to church and be however I want to because after all, God's a loving God and he'll forgive me. I'll just confess. I'll put it on my sin master card because Jesus already paid it. We say, you know, we don't really need to look at sin the way that we used to. After all, we have a broader understanding than they did back in the days when the Bible was written.

And we understand a little bit more clearly that there are certain habits that Jesus is okay with because after all, isn't Jesus just loving? We say, it doesn't matter if I have a walk with Jesus Christ during the week, as long as I put in my time in church on Sunday, the rest of my week doesn't really matter because we have lost the knowledge of God's holiness. Forgetting that God in his holiness doesn't just want a portion of you. God in his holiness wants 100% of you.

And quite frankly, if he can't have all of you, then he can't have any of you because God is not into half-hearted following. If you don't believe me, look at the book of Hosea when he said, your heart is divided. In the book of Revelation, he said, you are neither hot nor cold. Therefore, I have to vomit you out of my mouth. Now, with that as an understanding,

we need to look at two things. Number one, what he is not saying. Number two, what he is saying. This is what he is not saying. First of all, he is not talking about any old sin or failure that we struggle with as believers in Jesus Christ. We need to realize that once you become a believer in Jesus Christ, every sin is willful. Every sin is with knowledge because you have been enlightened.

The Holy Spirit has now come to, dwell inside of you and you know as well as I do that every sin that you commit is with knowledge because we are aware that it is wrong but we still stumble into it. Can we all agree with that? So that is not what he is talking about. As a matter of fact, when we get to chapter 12, he will talk about the discipline of the Father.

That when as believers we fall into sin, God lovingly disciplines us and we should embrace the discipline because that discipline means we are his children and he is correcting us. So he is not just talking about any old sin or failure. He is also, oh I feel like not talking about lifelong struggles that we deal with. We know that there are things that we stumble into but we also know that there are life gripping sins that we have that we will fight for the rest of our lives because we know that at any given moment if I give myself the opportunity, I will give in to that sin because it is a lifelong struggle that I have.

That is not what he is talking about. Make no mistake, falling into sin is dangerous but falling into sin is not. It is not hopeless. So he is talking about something much deeper than just simply stumbling into some sort of sin in our life. And I think for us to really understand what he is saying, we must jump down to verses 28 and 29. He says this, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses

dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Anyone who rejects the law of Moses through his actions or his attitudes, attitudes, could be put to death through two or three witnesses that stand up and say, yes, I saw him do it. And so if you reject the law of Moses, a lesser law, if you will, if you reject it and death is what you expect, then he says this, so how much severer do you think he will be, he will deserve, who has done three things, trample underfoot the son of God, regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has, insulted the spirit of grace. Those are very strong words that he uses.

He says, how much more severe of a punishment does someone deserve if he tramples the son of God underfoot? That word trample means to treat with rudeness or insulting neglect. To treat with rudeness or insulting neglect. In other words, you just say, I don't need that anymore in my life. That's not something I need. I not only neglect it, but I say that is powerless in my life.

He tramples, is the son of God underfoot. The second thing it says that he does is he considers the blood of Christ that sanctifies you as common, unclean, unhallowed, or profane. In other words, you look at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you see the blood sacrifice that was made for you, and you go, that's a common thing. It's unclean. It's profane. That does nothing for me.

The blood of Jesus Christ is not enough to cover my sins. The third, third thing it says is that he insults the spirit of grace. And I feel like the first two culminate in this statement because that word insult means, or that word to insult means insulting, the insulting disdain of one who considers himself superior. In other words, I'm too good to need the sacrifice of Jesus in my life.

How does one land in a position where he tramples the son of God underfoot, he counts the blood of the covenant as common or unclean, and he insults the spirit of grace. You do it by seeking to establish your own righteousness. See, this is what the world does before they ever come to know Jesus. Why do I need Jesus in my life? I'm a pretty good person. That's what everybody says.

Why do I need Jesus in my life? I think I'm good enough on my own. Well, well, that's already insulting the spirit of grace, but they were lost anyway, right? This is the statement that's made. To the believer, you cannot now begin to seek to establish your own righteousness. I'm so glad that Jesus died on the cross, but I think I've got this for myself. I think I'm good enough on my own.

I understand what you're telling me about the fact that Jesus died for me, but I think I also need to give into a series of works in order to be made right in the eyes of God. It's interesting because two of the strongest statements warning us about the loss of salvation have to do with works, not sin. Have you noticed that? In the book of Acts, in the book of Galatians, he says, Oh, Galatians, who has bewitched you that having begun in the spirit, you are now being made perfect by the flesh.

If anybody comes in and preaches to you any other gospel other than the one that we have preached, let him be accursed. Let him be anathema, the strongest word for curse that could be used in the Greek language. In other words, let him be cast into hell for all of eternity. Why? Because you have sought to establish a righteousness of your own apart from the

sacrifice of your own. So, so, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

They were doing this by wanting to go back to a Judaic law system. They said, you know what? Life was a lot better when we were living as Jews. Life was a lot better when we just had the sacrifices. Life was a lot better when we just, we could check all of the boxes and no be honest. Shout of a doubt that we were doing great because we could say, I made my sacrifice for this week.

I made my consecration offering for this week. I made my grain offering for this week. Therefore, I'm good. Everything is great. I kept the sacraments for this week. You name it, whatever it is. We do this when we establish an aspect of self-righteousness through other works-based religions. And I tell us this because some of these works-based religions are in this town.

Jehovah's Witnesses, that's a works-based religion. And if you decide that, hey, I don't think, I don't think that the blood of Jesus Christ is going to be in this town. I don't think that the blood of Jesus Christ is enough. I also need all of my works. Then you go to the Jehovah's Witness church. Jesus can't do anything for you anymore because you've decided Jesus isn't good enough.

You decide to go over to the Mormon church because after all, Jesus is great, but I think it's also my works. You decide to go over to the Catholic church and you go, Jesus is great, but I think it's also the sacraments. I think you're in a dangerous place at that point in time because what you've done is you've said, Jesus is not enough. I also need works in order to, to be saved.

That's trampling the son of God underfoot. That's calling the blood of Jesus Christ common or unclean. That is insulting the spirit of grace. And he's so strong about this. This is the deliberate rejection of Jesus's work on the cross. And we have to understand something. If the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is renounced in our life, there's no other sacrifice that can save us.

And he goes on to say this. The only thing then that we have to do is fall into judgment. And I want you to notice what he says. Verse, verse 30. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine. I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. Follow me to verse 31. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands, of a living God. One of those powerful sermons ever preached was a guy by the name of Jonathan Edwards.

The sermon that he preached was called sinners in the hands of an angry God. And many people think that when Jonathan Edwards preached that he was actually angry himself, angry with the people that he was probably some fiery preacher shouting at the top of his lungs, telling people that, that, that God was so mad at them, telling them that, that they were on their way to hell. And that's actually not how the sermon went at all. Actually, Jonathan Edwards was so confident in the power of, of the Holy spirit that he refused to use voice inflection.

He held a piece of paper and with a quiet voice, he read a sermon, a sermon that was written from a broken heart that saw people going to hell because they were so dependent on their own righteousness that they would not surrender to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he was not even finished with the sermon before people had come down to the bottom of the stage where he was preaching to turn their lives over to Jesus because they realized that it is a terrifying thing. And he was not even finished with the sermon before people had come down to the bottom of the stage where he was preaching to turn their lives over to Jesus because they realized that it is a terrifying thing. To fall into the hands of a living God,

because Jesus will be one of two things for us. He will either be our savior or he will be our judge. The decision is yours. Who is Jesus to you today? I'm here to tell you right now. I am a sinner who fell into the hands of a God who had died for me because I knew that he was already angry with me. I knew that God's wrath abided upon me. And so back in 1998,

I had to sit there in the cab of my truck and say, Lord, I have, I've been screwing up. I am failing in every possible way. Nobody would look at my life and see it as an example to follow. Instead, they would say, don't do what he's doing. And so, Lord, I don't know what else to do with my life. I've got to give it to you. And at that point in time, Jesus went from being my judge to being my savior.

And I was no longer a sinner in the hands of an angry God. I was now a sinner in the hand of a loving God. And the hands that held me were the very ones that had been pierced by nails. You see, brothers and sisters, if we insult the spirit of grace, then all there is for us is judgment. But when we fall on that cornerstone and we are broken, all there is now for us is salvation.

He gives a strong warning that we should allow to soak deeply into our hearts and affect the core of who we are and say, Lord, is there anything I'm doing to find my, my righteousness in anyone besides you? Because my only hope is in you. And after he says this, after he makes this incredibly harsh, can you imagine being the Jewish people reading this? The people that they didn't have a pastor up there explaining it to them.

They're just reading it. They're like, oh crap. Right. I'm probably not allowed to say that from the state from the stage. Oh golly. Right. Like, well, that's not good. This seems like we shouldn't keep doing what we're doing now. And he follows it with this. After he gives an incredibly harsh warning, he follows it. With an encouragement and the encouragement that he gives begins in verse 32.

He says, but remember, remember the former days when after being enlightened, we'll talk about what they did after they were enlightened for just a moment. But for every believer in here this morning, I want you to remember. I want you to remember the early days after you were enlightened. The early days after you were enlightened, the early days after you were illuminated, the early days after Jesus opened your eyes, first of all, to your sin.

Second of all, to his salvation. I want you to remember those former days because remembering those former days are what motivate us for the hard days. Remembering those former days are what motivate us on the days when we don't feel very saved. And we remember, we remind ourselves of what it was like when I first started walking with Jesus. We remember what it was like when I first started following him.

We remember, we remember what it was like when all of a sudden we realized everything's brand new. I got a message from another new believer this weekend. It was awesome. And they were telling me about, about some of the things that they're like, is it just, am I crazy or does Jesus just show up everywhere? Am I crazy or, or was Jesus in a lot of places that I did not know he was in before?

And I said, probably both. No, I said, I said, no, you're not crazy. Like that, that is Jesus. Jesus is there in all of these places. I said, another friend of mine texted me at one point in time after they got saved. And they said, it's like colors are brighter than they used to be. Because that's the way it is after you're illuminated. If you're sitting here this morning and you're going,

I don't know what you're talking about. Then it's time for you to get illuminated. It's time for you to come to Jesus as your savior. It's time for you to surrender to him because I got to tell you, he's either going to be your judge or he's going to be your savior. The choice is yours. And the longer you put off that choice of him being your savior, the greater chances there are that he's going to be your judge.

He says, remember the former days. Sometimes we need to go back and read, read through some things we wrote when we were brand new believers. I don't even know if I can find those journals anymore. Too many moves have taken place since then. But I remember what it was like. I remember what it was like to show up and take notes for the first time in church. I was like,

this is why they do this. I don't know. I didn't get it before. I get it now. I remember the first time I raised my hands to sing in church, right? Like I grew up, of course, with a worship leader as a father and they'd put their hands up and I'd be like, Oh, I get like secondhand embarrassment for him. You know, you're like, Oh man, that's so cheesy. Don't,

don't, don't be that guy. Don't do that. Don't do that. That was when I thought I, that was when I was the sheep. That was when I was, what, what was your name? Sheep three. That was when I was sheep three. He was running off and doing his own thing. Right. And then, and then I got saved. I was like, Oh man, I want to put my hands up so bad. That's going to be so cheesy.

Everyone's going to look right. We're over what that's like. No, some of y'all won't put your hands up in worship. You don't have no idea what I'm talking about. Last song. You're going to do this thing and you're going to be like, first, you'll get this surrender. Then you'll get this surrender. Then pretty soon you're just all up in there. Right? Remember the days after you were illuminated,

after you were enlightened. And again, I'm here to tell you right now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, if you've never given your heart to Jesus, then today's got to be that day. He says, remember what it was like. He says, and for them, it was like this. He said, remember the former days when you were, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings.

Partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, partly by being sharers with those who were so treated, you showed sympathy to prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. He says, remember after you enlightened, it didn't bother you that everybody hated you because you're a believer. Remember after you first got saved, it didn't bother you to, to join with those who were also believers in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, you showed sympathy to those who were in prison.

It's interesting because the new King, James translates that you showed sympathy to me in my chains. The writer to the Hebrew says, he says, that's what you were like. And the reason why you were able to do that, the reason why you could show that kind of sympathy, the reason why you could have that kind of heart that was willing to have all of your property seized with joy, that was able to show sympathy to the prisoners that endure being a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, to be, to be a sharer with those who were so treated is because of the end of verse 34 knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

Do you know why sometimes we start to drift away from Jesus is because our eyes have gotten too focused on this earth and they have forgotten the eternal perspective of what we have in him. We've gotten a little too focused on the here and the now and we have forgotten that there is a promise. We've gotten a little too focused on the here and the now and we have forgotten that there is a promise. That awaits us beyond here.

Perhaps you understand what I'm talking about this morning. Perhaps this morning in your life, believer things have gotten very difficult, whether it's family issues, whether it's health issues, whether it's financial issues, temptation issues, whatever it is, life's gotten a little bit difficult and you have found yourself starting to drift to, to, to either drift away, like it said in chapter, chapter two to perhaps have an evil, unbelieving heart. Like it said in chapter three, perhaps being pulled away with a chance of falling away. As it said in chapter six, or maybe you're thinking I can probably just do it myself and not even mess with this whole church thing.

After all, the church is full of a bunch of hypocrites anyway, wherever place you're at right now. Do you think maybe you've lost track of your eternal perspective? Do you think maybe we've lost track of the fact that this place is not our home? That we're we're just strangers and aliens in in a foreign land who are just trying to convince as many other people as possible that Jesus can save them to that perhaps we've lost that that perspective on on where we're actually going in life that all of this is going to culminate before the face of the father where he will say, well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy that has been prepared.

For you on Wednesday nights were in the book of Nehemiah and Nehemiah was just such a fantastic leader. He he just knew how to get the people going. And if you heard me preach this already, please forgive me. I'm going to share it again. They'd come back the Children of Israel to return from captivity and they started building the walls of Jerusalem and everything was great.

They were they were making a brand new songs about building walls. All the all the people were excited. They were clapping their hands all the time, high fiving. There were fist bumps all around because they were building a wall. But pretty soon there were two enemies that came against them. Their names were Sanballat and Tobiah and the two things that these guys did is first of all they they mocked them.

They told them what they're doing was worthless. Their work was going to fall apart that nobody would care that they were building a wall and and quite frankly they were going to fail and then they began levying death threats against them. Matter of fact, we're going to come and we're going to kill you while you're building your wall and it says that that the people got very scared. They they got discouraged.

They wanted to quit. And it says in the book of Nehemiah chapter four, it says Nehemiah heard their fears and then he said, don't be afraid. Now, if you just stop there, we'd all say the same thing, right? Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Right? You ever been worried about something? Somebody says, Hey, listen, just, uh, just don't worry. Like, wish that thought would have come into my mind.

Genius. But this not. That's not what he's where he stopped. He said, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to do it. He said, don't be afraid. Remember the Lord. Don't be afraid. Remember the Lord and fight for your families. That's what he tells them. And you know what they did.

They did just that. They got back to, I love the next verse. The next verse after that says, so they built the wall. Because when we remember God, when we get our eyes focused back on who God is, we can keep moving forward. There's this single, in the book of Revelation. John has been caught up into heaven and he sees this scroll and this scroll has all of these seals on it.

And he wants to open the scroll so bad. But then he realizes no one is worthy to open the scroll or to loose the seals. Matter of fact, they're singing, no one's worthy to open the scroll or to loose the seals. And it says that John just starts weeping because no one is found worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals. And he just feels hopeless. Here he is in heaven and he's got this great opportunity

to see something so cool, but he can't do it. No one else can do it. And then one of the elders looks at him and says, stop it. Behold, the Lamb of God is worthy to open the seals and to loose the scroll. Behold, the Lamb of God is worthy. Put your eyes back on Jesus. Remember the former times. Remember what God is able to do. And get your heart back on an eternal perspective.

Knowing that there is nothing that's coming into your life that God's not going to use for good. Knowing that nothing's happening in your life that God's not ultimately going to use for your best. Knowing that there's nothing in your life that God's not going to use to mature you into who you are. As a matter of fact, it's a promise that's made to us in the book of Romans chapter 8.

And we know that God, causes all things to work together for good to those who are called by, to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. It's a promise that he makes. And so he tells these Hebrew believers, he says, do not go on willfully sinning. If you do, if you decide to walk away, just know there's no other sacrifice for you. There's only judgment.

But remember the former days. Remember when Jesus got a hold of your heart and return to your eternal perspective. Get your eyes focused back on the lamb of God who is worthy. And then he goes on from there to say this. He says, therefore, since they need to go back and remember, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence.

That word confidence is a great word. Do not throw away your confidence. Do not throw away your confidence. It's a great word. It means cheerful courage, but it also means boldness and fearless confidence. In other words, get back to being fearless. It's kind of like the words from Nehemiah. Don't be afraid. Do not throw away your confidence. Ryan, I don't have any confidence right now.

Then it's time to establish some godly confidence. Where does confidence come from? Where does confidence in our life, this confidence that he's told them don't throw away, where does it come from? Does it come from them having just a really good feeling? Okay, I'm just going to believe in myself today. You're smart. You're funny. And gosh darn it, people like you.

Right? Is that the confidence he's talking about? No. That's self-confidence, which is no confidence. That's the whole thing that's gotten them in trouble in the first place. What confidence do they need to not throw away? Their confidence in God. Their confidence in God. You see, I'm not smart. I'm not funny. And gosh darn it, I don't think anybody likes me.

Except God. Because I don't need to give myself self-affirmations. That's one of the problems in our culture today. You need to say your self-affirmations today. Right? No. Self-affirmations are worthless affirmations. You need to say your God-affirmations today. I am a child of God. I am loved by God. And God is not done with me yet. This is one of the things I've had to learn.

I've shared it lots of times here recently because this seems to come up over and over again. Here's the book of Hebrews. One of the greatest things you can do is find God-confidence-affirming verses and put those everywhere that you possibly can. My favorite verse in the entire Bible is 1 John 3, verse 2. Beloved, now we are the children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be,

but we know that when we see Him, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He truly is. And he who has this hope in Him purifies himself. That's 3. There's verse 3 in there too because I like that one too. But I had to say that verse over and over again in times of my life. In times of my life when I felt like I was the biggest failure, like God couldn't love me

and I was struggling with my God-confidence, that had to be the thing that I said to myself every single morning. Beloved, right now I'm a child of God. That's who I am now. It's not who I hope to be. It's not who one day I'm going to be. It's who I am now because I put my faith in Jesus. And because Jesus says I'm a child of God, I'm one of His children. And even though it's not yet been revealed

what I shall be, in other words, even though I'm not perfect yet, I know one of these days I will be because I'll see Him as He is. And I'm going to let that hope keep purifying me. And I had to tell myself that every single day over and over again. Second to it and akin to it is Philippians chapter 1 verse 6. He, being confident of this very thing, He who began a good work in you

will complete it and will do it again. Until the day of Christ Jesus. That was the other one that I had to say every single day. I had to remind myself over and over and over again. I'm a work in progress and I can be confident of the fact that the God that started the work in me is going to finish the work in me. So He says don't throw away your confidence.

Instead you should hold on to that godly confidence. Hold on to it with everything in you. And I'm here to tell you right now, believer in Jesus Christ, if you don't have those verses in your life, if you don't have those things that are like, man, these are the things that I hold on to, I'm going to really encourage you to start searching those out and finding them. You can borrow mine for a little while if you want.

1 John chapter 3 verse 2. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6. Start with those and then find your own verses that are your confidence builders in your life. He says, therefore do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward. I love this. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive the promise. You have need of

endurance. That word can also be translated patience. Now I hear people say this all the time. They're like, listen, don't pray for patience. If you pray for patience, God's going to put you in situations where you need patience. You know what I found? If I don't pray for patience, you know what I still end up being in? Situations that require patience. You know what? Every day,

every day of my life requires patience. Right? Have you gone to a fast... If you work at a fast food restaurant in Ark City, I love you and I feel very tenderheartedly towards you so don't take this personally. Have you been to a fast food restaurant in Ark City? That is a contradiction in terms. Right? There's nothing fast about that food. I sat in the Taco Bell

line the other day and I'm like, this is taco stinking... Sorry. No pun intended, although I'll accept it. This is Taco Bell. It cannot... take that long. But it does. I didn't even pray for patience that morning and there I was just waiting in line with all the rest of humanity. Every day requires some patience. And he says you have need of endurance. That word means to remain

under. And it carries with it the idea of holding a burden up and remaining under it and not giving up. You ever been on a construction project before? You ever been the guy that has to hold the thing in place while the guy that seems to have never used a drill in his entire stinking life tries to put a screw in there and you're like, wow. Okay, so step one,

put the screw on the end of the drill. Step two, put it up against the cabinet. Step three, push in and press the button. Like that's what you get. You ever been in that state? That's remaining under. That's endurance. That's holding up underneath of it. I love this. In the Strong's Concordance it said this. Endurance is the New Testament characteristic of a man who is not

swerved from his deliberate purpose and loyalty by even the greatest trials and sufferings. I'll read it to you again because that was a lot of words. There's the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and loyalty even by the greatest trials and sufferings. You need endurance in your life. We need that in our lives. You have to

have endurance. How do you build endurance? By a daily walk with Jesus Christ. Same way you build endurance in any other part of your life. It's by daily walking with Jesus. A few years ago my daughter had knee surgery. She'd blown out her ACL. She did a fantastic job of it too. She did it about as well as you could possibly do. I remember when she could finally

start doing things. Running and things like that. What was she, 15, 16 years old? Something like that. You should have all the energy known to man at that age in your life. She'd start running and she was like, why is this so hard? Sweetie, you haven't used your leg properly for six months. It makes sense that you don't have any endurance. Every day she'd have to go a little bit farther, a little bit

longer, do a little bit more. Until finally she got back to where she was. She's far excelled at now. The kid's a beast. But it took building endurance. That's what walking with Jesus does for us. It gives us endurance. When you first start walking with Jesus, you don't have very much of it. And if you've been through a difficult spiritual thing in your life, it's kind of like an

injury and you have to rebuild that endurance. But it just takes that abiding relationship. The longer that you walk with Jesus, the more he builds that endurance and you face some of the smaller trials. Like God will give you some small stuff in the beginning. Okay, I'll survive that. God's like, okay, I'm going to allow a little bit more into your life. Then you get to a point where you're like, I don't want

endurance anymore. I'm just kidding. You get to where you can really endure some things. He says you have need of endurance in your life. Why? Because when you have done the will of God, you then receive the promise. One last point. He says for verse 37, 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. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the persevering, to the preserving of the soul. He says for yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. Can I just tell you this? Jesus is coming soon. I don't know what soon looks like just

yet, but we hold on to this hope that Jesus is coming soon. And that hope will be that either he'll come soon in his bodily presence here or he'll take us home to be with him. Either way, this life is very short. So keep enduring the time that we have. Why? Because the just shall live by faith. It's interesting. This is the third time that this is quoted in the New Testament. This is actually a quote from Habakkuk

chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. Habakkuk is a fascinating book. Habakkuk, or as some pronounce it, Habakkuk. I don't know which one's right. I like Habakkuk better. Habakkuk is one of the minor prophets, and he writes to the southern kingdom right before the Babylonian captivity. And basically Habakkuk says this. He says, God, where are you going to judge this place? We are a bunch

of worthless sinners. You need to judge Israel because of their sin. And God says, hey, listen, if I told you what I was going to do, it would freak you out. And he says, try me. He goes, okay, I'm going to send the Babylonians. And Habakkuk goes, dude, we're bad. They're really bad. Why would you use it? God says, I do what I want to do. And then God tells him,

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. You see, in a culture of people that were very evil, he said, the righteous ones, they live by faith. Interestingly enough, the same thing is quoted in Romans chapter one, verse 17, when Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For as it is written, the just shall live by faith. It's quoted again in Galatians chapter three, verse 11. Gosh, I write bad. Galatians chapter three, verse 11, where he says, the just shall live by faith. This statement is what prompted Martin Luther to nail the 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg, Germany, because he started looking at the fact that that

entire system was built upon works when the Bible says the just shall live by faith. It's interesting because in Romans, it points out that you are justified by faith because the just shall live by faith. In Galatians, it points out that you are kept righteous by faith because the just shall live by faith. And in Hebrews, it points out that we endure by faith because the just shall live by faith. Chapter 11, he's going to go into

detail about that, about all of the people who live their lives by faith. He says, the just shall live by their faith, and we're not going to shrink back because God's soul takes no pleasure in those who shrink back. Instead, we are of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. He says, we're not of those that shrink back. We're of those whose faith

perseveres. We're of those whose faith continues to move forward. So I have a couple of questions for you. Where are you at this morning in your walk? Do you need to be illuminated for the very first time? Are you in a place right now where you're like, I don't know what he's talking about in the former times, my eyes being opened or enlightened. I don't know what he's talking about. Well, then

today's the day to do that. And it's as simple as just saying, Lord, I need you to be my Savior. And in that he comes in, makes you brand new. Aren't there right words? Nope, just a right heart. That's all you need. God looks at the words and goes, I get it. Let's do this thing. Some of you are here this morning and you're drifting. You've been drifting away either by

either drifting away because of the flesh or drifting away because life is hard and you're like, I just don't know if this thing's worth it anymore. But you're kind of drifting away and you got some danger. There's red flags everywhere right now. Yellow flags if you're playing football. I don't know. The flags that are telling you don't do what you're doing anymore.

And it's time for you to get back to where God wants you to be. There's some of you here this morning that are worn out. You're worn out and your soul's wanting to shrink back, not because you want to fall into sin, but because life is hard and you need to regain that eternal perspective because the just shall live by their faith. Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come before you and I thank you. For the word of God that is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce between bone and marrow. Even down to the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And so, Lord, I pray that your word would do that in our lives this morning. Father, you know the work that needs done in every person's heart and your Holy Spirit

has already been doing it. And so, Lord, I just ask that you would continue that work. Lord, that it would be a work that is completed. And so, Lord, draw us close to you. Keep us close to you. Bring us into right relationship with you. I just thank you for who you are. I thank you for how patient you are with us. We just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Be blessed. The Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That He's to give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure Which bar the chosen one Any signs to the same I hear my mocking Father God, we just come before you. We thank you, Lord God, again for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord. And I thank you for your word this morning.

I thank you for the warning, but also for the encouragement. Lord God, I just thank you for for who you are. For how much you love us, Lord God. And as we leave here today, I just pray that if there's there's anything that we need to take care of, that we would take care of it before we leave this building. Father, we love you. We praise you and we thank you.

And in Jesus' name, amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Love you guys.