If you have been a Christian, a lover
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for ten years
or more, raise your hand.
For twenty years or more, keep your hand
up.
Thirty.
Yeah, you can put them down.
Thirty years to follow Christ.
If you consistently made a journal, you would
have a lot to remember.
A lot to reflect back on.
And I want to speak right now on
the reality of recalling the former days or
the glory days.
The glory days.
Turn to Hebrews 10.
Someone ever looked at you and they said,
ah, you remember the glory days?
I've heard some of you talk like that
about past experiences as a Christian.
The idea is you reminisce about the most
successful time that you experienced from a past
period of your life.
A past time that in many ways was
maybe going better than you think it is
right now.
The glory days might refer to, in the
secular sense, when your business was successful and
maybe as you reflect on the glory days,
it's encouraging you to reignite a new business
plan and make things better than they ever
were before.
Athletes often reflect on the former days.
Often, you will find athletes reflecting on the
glory days.
They might even go sit in the gym
on the bleachers with the lights partly dimmed
and the gym is empty and there that
athlete is in his 60s and he goes
in the gym.
He sits down and there he reflects on
the days gone by.
He reflects on the dunks that he used
to be able to do.
But now he can no longer do that.
With most sports, you can't have a more
glorious day in the future.
Your body falls apart.
You age.
You can't jump.
You can't be as quick as you used
to be.
When we think about the glory days, often
what it is filled with is a lot
of sentimental longing for those days again.
Someone wants to go back.
Now what does that have to do with
us?
Does the Bible, does the Scriptures ever call
us to reflect on the former days?
Or on the glory days, if you want
to put it like that, where certain things
happened that we would look and say that
was pretty glorious.
Does the Bible want us as Christians to
think back on experiences that happened in our
spiritual lives?
And it even makes you ask this, what
even makes something considered glorious?
Do I even categorize the glory days correctly?
Do I even think rightly about this?
Does the Scriptures call us to sit here
today?
Is it right for me to even exhort
you to think about the former days and
reflect on those days?
Or am I actually putting a stumbling block?
Or am I doing something that is Scriptural?
If we think about the glory days, won't
that just create some discontentment?
Make you discontent with the present?
If it did, would that be all bad?
No, holy discontentment can actually be a blessing.
Doesn't Paul say in Philippians 2.13, forgetting
what lies behind?
Shouldn't we forget what lies behind and just
press forward to what lies ahead?
Yeah, Paul says that there in its context.
But elsewhere, Hebrews 10.32, this writer here
in a letter that he says at the
end is a brief exhortation to these Hebrew
believers who many of them are drifting away
from the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're entertaining things like Moses and angels and
all these things, and he's appealing to them,
Christ is better, and what he says is
a brief exhortation in which this entire letter
would be read in one setting to those
believers.
He says right there in v.
32, but recall the former days.
Recall the former days when after you were
enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.
You sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and
affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so
treated.
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.
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.
For yet a little while, and the coming
one 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 and are destroyed, but of those who
have faith and persevere their souls.
And then he goes in chapter 11 and
gives all these examples of people who by
faith conquered kingdoms.
He very well could have skipped that and
went right to Hebrews 12.1, Therefore, since
we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us also lay aside every
weight and 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 the shame, and is seated
at the right hand of the throne of
God.
You know, children, many of you memorized that
verse this last week in VBS.
And if you listen to me today, you're
going to realize all the more importance of
why that text is right here in this
letter.
You're going to realize how essential it is
that your parents, if they're Christians, keep their
eyes on Christ.
Let's pray and then we'll hop in.
Father, Lord, as Jeff already prayed for me,
I just ask for Your help.
Lord, everyone who's been in a pulpit to
preach, Lord, they can leave the pulpit knowing
the sense of the help of God or
the sense of not having that help.
Lord, no matter what sense subjectively I feel,
Lord, here I am by faith, trusting that
this is the Word for the hour, and
I pray, Lord, that You would empower it
for the sake of these blood-bought ones
whom You purchased with the precious blood of
Your only Son.
You gave up and consumed by Your wrath
on that cross for our sakes.
Lord, help, please.
Make us alert, quicken our minds.
Drive this home where it is needed in
different believers' hearts.
And somehow, Father, draw the loss to Yourself.
In Christ's precious name, Amen.
So though we cannot and should not live
on past or even present experiences, there is
a place for reflecting on those former days.
And there's a purpose for doing so.
And it's a purpose that goes beyond just
remembering it to be encouraged about what happened
in the past and what God has done.
And so we see here in the verse,
Hebrews 10.32, he says here, recall the
former days.
Recall.
How do you recall something?
Where does that take place?
It takes place up here.
Like the guy in the gym.
He's sitting there and he's kind of imagining
the replays and the highlights of all that
he could do.
Right?
He's reflecting on that in his mind.
So the author here is calling us to
use the mind.
Some of you realize that's a battle in
and of itself to actually meditate and reflect
without being distracted in this very busy world.
He says, recall the former days.
What days?
Then he goes on.
After you were enlightened.
Isn't that an interesting term?
After you were enlightened.
He used that same term chapters earlier in
chapter 6, verse 4.
Don't turn there, but he referred to people
there who've tasted the heavenly gift, shared in
the Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of the
Word of God and the powers of the
age to come.
As in these people just got exposed to
the truth, it seems like many of them
are new converts.
These are new believers at this point.
He's saying after you were enlightened.
So there was a time when these people
had just been exposed to the glory of
Christ.
They believed in Him.
They embraced Him.
They trusted in Him.
And he's saying recall after you got saved.
What happened then?
Recall that time.
Now, how long ago was this that happened
compared to when he's writing?
Was it two years?
Twenty years?
Ten years?
Is this ten months later?
It's hard to specifically narrow that down.
We also find the word enlightened in Ephesians
1.18. It says, having the eyes of
your hearts enlightened.
And what happens when the eyes of your
heart are enlightened?
What does Paul say to the Ephesians?
He says that you may know what is
the hope to which He has called you,
what are the riches of His glorious inheritance
in the saints.
You see, there's something that the Bible describes
as being enlightened, where one hears the truth
and their eyes are open.
In Hebrews 6, many of those who were
enlightened, they didn't make it.
So you can be enlightened and yet not
have the true thing.
Yet the true Christian has true enlightenment and
they maintain that hope.
He says right here in Hebrews 10, but
we are not of those who shrink back.
You can shrink back and be destroyed, but
we are of those who have faith.
We have faith.
We have trust in God.
We are looking to Christ and we persevere.
We persevere.
We keep going on with the Lord.
Okay, so recall the former days.
Remember when you were first saved.
Now, for many of us, what did your
former days look like?
You got saved.
You're going to church meetings four times a
week.
Going to Christian conferences all the time, right?
You're going to the G3.
You're going to the Fellowship Conference.
You go to all these conferences.
Is this what these new believers' early days
looked like?
Does it talk about all the Christian conferences
they were going to and all the podcasts
they were listening to?
Look at the text.
This is not how most of us had
to start.
After you were enlightened, you endured a hard
struggle with suffering.
Isn't that amazing?
You enter in to the truth, and all
of a sudden, you're faced with a hard
struggle with sufferings.
And then he expounds on the sufferings by
giving two broad examples.
He says, sometimes, and then he says, sometimes.
He says sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach
and affliction.
Meaning, your stand for Christ exposed you to
slanderous comments about your character, and it exposed
you to suffering at the hands of evil
men.
How many of us got saved and right
away the media, was it maligning us?
Right away they were sticking us in prison?
That's not a lot of our former days.
That's not what we had to go through.
What specific time is he referring to when
he says right here, verse 33, publicly exposed
to reproach?
There's a lot of that that happens in
the Bible.
I don't know what time specifically with this
audience is he thinking about.
It made me think about Acts 17.
Jason, it says that the people, they formed
a mob, they set the city in an
uproar, and they attacked the house of Jason.
Seeking to bring them out to the crowd.
Have any of you had that?
Have you had that, David?
I haven't seen a mob in front of
your house or my house.
We don't suffer like they do in their
former days.
At least most of us have not.
Yeah, not yet.
Then he mentions something else.
The second thing he says at verse 33,
sometimes being partners with those so treated.
Partners.
How were they partners?
He explains, for you had compassion on those
in prison.
So he's saying if you weren't suffering yourself,
you went and identified and joined in support
of those who were suffering.
And again, this is totally different than us
going and visiting someone in the prison.
They were going and visiting someone in the
prison for being a Christian and therefore identifying
with the person who's in prison for being
a Christian and exposing themselves that they're a
Christian and then possibly bringing persecution on themselves.
I mean, how did they know to go
to Jason's house anyways?
You're partnering with those who might cost you
your home, your life, your job.
That's what's happening here for these people when
they were first enlightened and exposed to the
truth.
They joined in support.
It makes you think about Paul when he
told Timothy, you are not ashamed of my
chains.
Many people, they are ashamed when others are
suffering severely.
In a small way, we kind of see
that in Canada right now.
There's one church that's got millions of dollars
of fines.
And it's like if you say publicly in
support of that church he's wanting to gather
together, then the government is going to see
you on their radar and now they're going
to go after you.
And then, you know what?
If all the Christians would speak up, it'd
be hard for the government to go after
all of them.
But are you going to partner with them?
Or, you know, the cost is too much.
We don't want to identify with them.
We don't want to partner with them.
The same exhortation which this entire letter is.
Remember what he says at the end?
He says in Hebrews 13.3, remember those
who are in prison.
What does it say after that?
Remember those who are in prison as if
you were in prison with them.
As though in prison with them.
And those who are mistreated, remember them.
Why?
What reason does he give?
Since you are one body.
Isn't that amazing?
These early days, the days he's wanting these
people to remember were days of hard struggles,
trials, persecution, property being taken, having to realize
am I willing to identify with this Christian?
It might cost me this, this, and that.
And he's exhorting them to go back to
that.
Remember, why would he end the letter reminding
them to be with those who are in
prison?
Because apparently, they have fallen off on some
of this ministry to those who are in
prison.
You know, having compassion on those in prison
is not easy.
Look what he says after this.
Verse 34, you had compassion.
You're showing love to those who are in
prison.
And you did what?
You joyfully accepted Joe Biden's stimulus check.
Many of us maybe did joyfully accept that.
These people, they joyfully accepted the plundering of
their property.
It's incredible.
You so identify with Christ.
You so identify with His people that it
led your property to get taken, to get
stolen, whether taken by the government, what all
the technicalities happened.
This earthly possession was lost.
And their attitude in the midst of losing
it was what?
Joyfully.
They were joyful in the midst of that.
Why did you identify with the Christians?
Why did you joyfully lose this property?
I mean, you just got the house paid
off.
You were putting extra payments in your mortgage
for 20 years.
And now it's gone!
What a foolish decision, Christian!
Why lose that?
Well, he gives the answer.
Why were you joyfully accepting the plundering of
your property?
Since you knew that you had a better
property.
A better possession, right?
You see, the eyes of faith are always
looking to what is to come.
What is to come.
And he says that is an abiding one,
right?
Nothing here is going to abide.
It's all going to rust, decay, and burn
up.
Why did 21-year-old Perpetua in 182,
she was born into a prominent and wealthy
Roman family, why did she become partners with
those publicly exposed to affliction?
History says her father came into the jail
cell trying to convince her to deny Christ.
And she records this, while we were still
with the persecutors and my father, for the
sake of his love for me, was persisting
in seeking to turn me away and to
cast me down from the faith.
Father, I said, do you see, let us
say, this vessel lying here to be a
little pitcher?
You know, a thing to hold water.
Or something else.
And the father said, I see it to
be so.
And Perpetua replied, can it be called by
any other name than what it is?
And he said, no.
And she said, neither can I myself call
myself anything else than what I am.
I am a Christian.
Then my father provoked at this saying through
himself upon me as if he would tear
my eyes away.
In the arena, it's recorded how accurate all
this is or not, but it's recorded she
was attacked by a gladiator.
His knife plunged into her neck.
And she died at 21, leaving the nursing
child she had had and her prominent family
behind for Christ.
She was looking to a better possession.
Why?
Why would you do that?
Since you knew.
I mean, just look at this phrase in
v.
34.
Why do all this?
Since you knew.
They were really convinced at some point.
Since.
You did all this back then.
Since you knew.
You knew.
You were really, really gripped, Hebrews, that you
had a better possession and an abiding one.
You were really convinced.
Remember, Hebrews, the confident faith you had?
Remember what it led you to do?
And then he gives all these examples in
Hebrews 11 that talks about faith being the
conviction of things not seen.
In Hebrews 11.26, he reminds them of
Moses who considered the reproach of Christ greater
wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he
was looking to the reward.
Where was Moses looking to?
To the reward.
Where were these Hebrews looking to when they
joyfully suffered the plundering of their property?
Since you knew, you yourselves had a better
possession.
They were looking past all that is in
this world by sight, by faith, trusting the
Lord.
And then he says here, his conclusion here
in wanting them to remember these former days.
Him wanting them to reflect on the golden
days, the glory days, the golden days, his
answer, his goal is right here in v.
35.
Therefore, in view of all of this I
have reminded you of, don't throw away your
confidence.
Isn't that an interesting way the ESV renders
that?
Throw it away.
Have you ever seen someone, they have something
that is of great value, they don't know
it.
You see them going near the treasure.
Let's say there's a piece of paper and
in it it's got $1,000 in cash
and they don't know it.
They just think it's some crumbled up envelope.
And they go to throw it in the
trash.
What are you going to do?
If you know the value of what they
possess and they don't recognize it, what are
you going to do?
You're going to tell them to stop.
This is what this writer is seeing the
Hebrews do.
He's seen them go after angels.
He's seen all these things where they're not
considering Christ to be better.
They're not living as they used to live.
They're thinking of throwing it away.
And he's going to appeal to them and
one of his arguments throughout this letter is
remember your former days.
Recall to when you were first saved and
all that you did by faith.
Recall the joy that you had as your
property was plundered.
Why do you now look at it in
the present as miserable to lose your property
for the sake of Christ?
The author's hope was that as some recalled
the former days, it would stir them up
and encourage their faith and confidence in the
Lord.
He just said this, Hebrews 10, verse 24.
He just said, let us consider how to
stir up one another to love and good
works.
And he's seeking to do that.
He's seeking to stir them up.
And so obviously that's my hope here in
this message.
I want to stir you up.
As you recall the former days, as you
remember the days, even as a new Christian,
as you remember the bygone days in the
past, is there something that you can look
at in the past of your Christian life
where it actually brings some sense of embarrassment
upon you to see where you're at running
right now and the speed in the present.
He's appealing to them with this to motivate
them in the present to run all the
harder for the Lord Jesus Christ.
How many of you remember those early days
as a believer?
Since I came out of false Christianity, I
was just so gripped with how all these
people were going to hell who thought they
were going to heaven.
That hit me.
All these people I assume were Christians because
they said they were Christians.
All of a sudden, I'm confronted with Matthew
7, verse 21 to 23.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,
will enter the kingdom of heaven.
And there was a love of Christ and
a love for these people's souls that motivated
me that 13 years later is it gripping
me, this love of Christ as it did
then?
You know, we can all be very critical
of ourselves in our former days.
We were overly zealous.
Many of us would admit the term they
use now is I was in cage stage.
Have any of you heard that?
Cage stage.
Meaning you get saved and they're so judgmental
as a new Christian, you should stick them
in a cage until they calm down, right?
Is that what Christ did to those who
wanted to call fire to come down from
heaven to consume?
Right there in Luke 9.
No, He didn't.
We don't get stuck in a cage.
We live by faith and we learn.
We learn as we go.
We learn as we're a part of this
church.
You know, there's some freshness and a love
for Christ as a new Christian when your
eyes are first opened that you don't want
to be like those in Revelation who left
their first love.
Right?
We don't want that to happen.
A.W. Pink said, it is a noticeable
fact of history that babes in Christ have
often been the bravest of all in facing
suffering and death, perhaps because the great and
glorious change involved in the passage from death
unto life is fresher in their minds than
in that of older Christians.
Recall the former days of the freshness of
the love of Christ and the cross and
how it gripped you and how words and
psalms, the first time you sang them impacted
you, and now the hundredth time, it's kind
of become more monotonous.
So here, a few observations are.
First is this, the glory days are not
exactly what one might picture.
This is very important to say because what
do you tend to think about when someone
says the glory days or the former days?
What would be one of the first things
on people's minds?
Revival?
Mass conversion?
Is that what he reminds them of here?
You know what he reminds them of here?
Look at this.
He reminds them of their suffering.
What they were willing to suffer for.
He tells them why they were willing to
suffer as they were since they knew that
they had a better possession and an abiding
one.
And then what's one of the acts here
that the believers were doing that he wants
them to remember?
Verse 34, you had compassion on those in
prison.
You know what I want to phrase to
you is something the glory days to remember.
Recall the time in your life where you
were willing to partner and love the brethren
like no other day.
Not the time you were all the more
evangelistic.
I'm talking about the time when you were
willing to show compassion and love even to
the least of these in this church.
He's reminding them of that.
Their willingness to be sacrificial and love the
brethren.
He's not reminding them of the mighty works
they did.
He's not reminding them of the time there's
tons of fire up there in the upper
room.
He's reminding them of the time that they
so manifested the love of Christ to these
other believers who were being persecuted and they
were willing to identify with Christ and these
other believers because they were looking to an
eternal possession and the life to come which
is far, far better.
Do you remember that time in your life?
When have you most been loving towards the
brethren?
You know, John says by this you know
you've passed from death to life.
And what reason does he give?
That you love the brethren.
Really, I can know if I'm a Christian
whether or not I love the brethren?
That's a test of salvation?
Yeah.
What's so glorious about partnering with those in
prison?
Something like that's never going to get brought
up, is it?
Jesus would argue differently.
Matthew 25.
Picture of Judgment Day.
Christ says, I was sick.
You visited Me.
I was in prison.
And you did what?
You came to Me.
It doesn't mean Christ Himself was in prison,
but one of His members of the body
of Christ was in prison and you came
to Him.
And according to the author of Hebrews, they
came to that person and associated with Him
in prison knowing their house might even get
taken.
Knowing their life might even get taken.
You're loving this brother so much who is
one of Christ's little ones to even lose
your own home.
What did the early church do in Acts?
They sold their property to give to those
who were in need.
It's incredible the love that was happening.
So, what makes the present days glorious is
not so much what is happening, but what
is your level of anticipation for Christ in
heaven.
When have you most been gripped with Christ
and the heaven to come and the pleasures
forevermore at His right hand?
That's what He says to them, since you
knew.
Can you recall the time that you were
most convinced about how much better it will
be to depart and be with Christ?
Where you could say like Paul in Philippians
1.21, for me to live is Christ,
to die is gain.
For to depart and be with Christ is
far better.
So today could be a glory day if
by your faith you are convinced of a
future glory being far better than anything that
this world has to offer you right now.
You see what I'm saying?
His focus isn't so much...
it is on the works.
But the bigger focus on the days to
recall was the faith and confidence in Christ
and the heaven to come that they had
that led to the works.
Some people, they want to reflect on the
time they were the most busy.
They were just being busy all the time
and doing all these things for the Lord.
You can be busy doing all these things
for the Lord and have no confidence of
heaven.
You can be doing it all to try
to earn your salvation and make yourself feel
like you're a Christian.
That's not a glory day.
That's a bondage day.
Second observation.
What is the big difference between them right
now compared to then?
He's saying recall the former days.
Something has changed.
We've already emphasized it, but let me say
it again.
Since you knew.
So what does he say?
Since you knew that you yourselves had a
better possession.
That seems to imply that in their mind,
they're now thinking maybe this is not worth
it.
Maybe it's not worth it to be a
Christian.
Should I throw away my confidence in Christ?
Should I throw it away for some of
this false doctrine that's come in?
Should I throw it away for sin?
Should I throw it away for what?
Hebrews 2, he said pay much closer attention
to what you've heard.
Don't drift from it.
He said don't neglect so great a salvation.
He said take care, brothers, lest there be
in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.
Evil, unbelieving, meaning not being as convinced of
the greatness of Christ.
And you fall away from the living God.
The Hebrews are drifting.
He wants them to turn back to Christ
and see His greatness.
He wants them to recall the former days
and let them be reminded of the trials
by which they confidently trusted the Lord in.
Can you recall that?
That severe trial you went through, believer?
And all of a sudden, you committed it
to the Lord by faith and God marvelously
helped you in the midst of that trial.
In view of that, don't throw away your
present confidence.
Can you recall the former day, believer, where
you had all manner of purity in your
life and you were always taking the ways
of escape?
You were believing the Lord.
Recall those days.
That can be now.
You can trust the Lord now.
You can believe.
I don't have to go back to that
sin.
As 1 John says, if anyone does sin,
imply that's not the usual thing for the
Christian.
The third thing, why would one throw away
their confidence?
Why?
We throw away things that are no longer
valuable to us.
Right?
The scrap piece of wood.
You easily put it in the trash can.
It has no more value to us.
What's Christ mean to you right now?
What does the better possession mean to you
right now?
Are you looking to that?
Am I looking to that?
Am I focused on the better possession?
Or do I have all these things in
the physical realm and a house and a
family and all these things where is my
mind being too consumed with this?
Or am I seeing through all of it
knowing I would be glad to joyfully have
it taken for the sake of loving a
brother and sister who are in prison?
Am I willing to lose these things?
Is heaven my home and not earth?
They knew in the past of the value
of Christ.
It was seen in their life.
They were willing to have their property plundered
at one time.
But you see, it's not what you and
I were willing to do one time.
It's what are we willing to do right
now?
Are we keeping on in this belief of
the value of Christ?
A fourth thing.
You know what this text shows us?
A reality that a lot of churches don't
talk about.
You and I have to endure to the
end.
Jesus' well-known words in Matthew 10.22
are often unknown or misunderstood.
What does Jesus say in Matthew 10.22?
Those who endure to the end will be
saved.
And right before that, He said, you will
be hated by all for My name's sake.
Those who endure to the end will be
saved.
Endure is a word constantly found in this
book of Hebrews.
It means to remain behind.
To stay when others depart.
In John 6, when the 2,000 left
and the 12 remained, they endured.
They endured a trial.
What was that trial in John 6?
It was the hard sayings of Jesus Christ.
The hard statements Christ made caused 2,000
people to abandon ship.
Twelve remained.
They endured.
They remained behind when others departed.
To endure, it means to refuse to flee.
It means to hold out.
To stand one's ground.
It's to continually be firm.
The Hebrews are drifting, right?
They don't have the same firmness that they
used to have.
He's wanting them to remember that past confidence
they had in the Lord and how they
endured a hard struggle with sufferings and they
did that as a new Christian.
He's wanting them to remember this.
Now, does enduring to the end mean one
can lose their salvation?
The short answer is no.
But you know what it clearly indicates?
You can prove, and I can prove, that
we don't have true salvation to begin with.
It's not a matter of losing one's salvation.
It's not a matter of going from being
justified and regenerated to now being condemned and
being born again is reverted.
But rather, by one's life, we prove what
was true of us, and many prove they
never had true faith to begin.
The well-known verse, 1 John 2.19,
they went out from us because they were
not of us.
If they had been of us, they would
have continued with us.
But they went out to make it obvious
they were never of us.
Why do so many people get upset at
that statement, you have to endure to the
end?
What does it make it sound to them?
That you and I have got to save
ourselves?
They say, well, it sounds like a work
salvation.
Well, interesting enough, what does Paul say in
Philippians 2?
Work out your salvation.
So yes, your salvation involves recalling your former
days.
Your salvation involves stirring one another up.
Your salvation involves clearing your conscience.
Your salvation involves cutting off right hands that
cause you to sin.
Why do they get upset?
Often, it's because their confidence presently is not
in Christ.
It's in a past experience.
And their present walk is one of allowing
for all manner of sin in their life,
so then they get challenged that they've got
to endure to the end and their confidence
is shaken because the fruit in their life
right now is very concerning.
And so they get upset because you've touched
an idol in their life.
You know what this entire book of Hebrews
testifies to?
It testifies to the reality we cannot just
start well.
We have to finish.
Look, as much as he might motivate them
by recalling the glory days, he's definitely not
wanting to live in those past days.
He's wanting the glory days and recalling the
former days to affect their conduct in the
present.
That's his goal.
It's the present conduct of these Christians.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Christians who've gone through such severe trials, and
all of a sudden, they're wavering.
It kind of reminds you of that Old
Testament verse, if you can't run with the
horsemen, then you can't do what?
You can't run with the chariots.
We haven't even got to run with the
footmen yet.
Not horsemen.
We haven't even been able to run with
the footmen, many of us.
Our trials, it says right there, you endured
a hard struggle.
What do you and I consider to be
a hard struggle?
There are some things in my life that
I think are a big trial, and I
would be ashamed to tell you what I
thought was a big trial in my life.
Because in the big picture of it, it's
teensy-teensy kind.
It really is.
But here, these people endured really hard trials,
and their faith is wavering.
Faith they used to have that was confident.
Things have come along, false doctrine, to get
their eyes off of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin has come along.
He says don't be immoral like Esau who
sold his birthright.
Why is he appealing to Esau selling his
birthright?
Because some of those Hebrews are doing that
very thing.
He's wanting them to remember those former days.
Remember what they endured through.
And how long do we have to endure?
I mean, that sounds kind of burdensome, right?
I've got to endure it to the end.
How long until we get to the end?
What does he say?
It says right there in v.
37, yet a little while.
Just a little while.
That's it.
God's time is just going to be a
little while and it's going to be over.
He says right there in v.
25, all the more as you see the
day drawing near.
Wait, he said this almost 2,000 years
ago?
The day drawing near?
When's Christ coming?
You know what?
When eternity comes, it will be very, very
small.
This time that we've got to endure.
We're not like Methuselah living 900-something years.
Most of us are not going to make
it to 90.
Imagine being 900, Papa.
I mean, you would have a lot less.
I wonder how many people who lived that
long had what they had of the Old
Testament Scriptures memorized.
Well, where was I at?
We often feel like trials go on forever.
I mean, sometimes just a health trial that
lasts one week can feel like it's gone
on forever.
Because it's your present reality.
But the text says, in a little while.
So don't shrink back.
I mean, if you knew.
If you knew the war is about to
end.
Yes, you're in danger.
Yes, bombs are going off.
Yes, there's a war.
Yes, people are committing mutiny and trying to
do a takeover and all this conflict is
happening.
And it's a hard struggle.
And if you've got news, just a little
while left and we're going to have victory.
It would encourage you to press on.
That's what He's doing here to them.
Don't shrink back.
Don't shrink back from the suffering.
Don't shrink back from striving for the holiness
without which you will not see the Lord.
As He says in Hebrews 12.14. Don't
shrink back.
Fifth thing, why didn't they endure?
Why?
Was it exhaustion?
Did the suffering go on and on and
they just quit?
Or did the suffering cease?
And ease came in and hardened them.
What were their circumstances?
Like I said, much of this letter, it
deals with false doctrine that has come in,
taking them away from Christ to different things
that are Jewish.
And sure enough, false doctrine will do that.
It'll get your eyes off of Christ.
And you get your eyes off of Christ,
guess where your confidence goes?
It's gone.
You get talking about all these things in
the physical realm and the legalistic cults that
get you focused on the here and now.
You're not thinking about your better possession here.
You're thinking about all the things that are
external.
The sixth thing, what is this better possession?
Is it a physical land?
Is it Cana?
No, it's not.
He says right here, it's an abiding one.
It's an abiding one.
It goes on eternally.
Forever.
I mean, you and I have an inheritance
that's not going to run out.
You say I've got $10 million in physical
inheritance.
It's going to run out.
It's not going to last.
We have an inheritance.
It's not going to run out.
It's unfading.
The Scriptures say we can't see it.
Right.
We live by faith.
Isn't that what all these in Hebrews 11
did?
Did all these in Hebrews 11, did they
come before or after Christ?
Oh, you mean they endured all they did
before the fulfillment of the promises and His
coming?
You mean they did all they did looking
to the shadows and trusting that these things
would happen?
Wait, and you mean we actually live after
Christ came?
Perfectly lived?
Substitutionarily died?
Was raised, appeared to hundreds, and ascended to
heaven?
You mean we've got such more evidence?
Well, the Christian isn't looking for all the
evidence.
They're going by faith.
They're believing God.
God's changed their heart.
We're trusting Him.
If these people in Hebrews 11 could by
faith endure all they did without having the
fulfillment of the Christ, and we have Christ
who has come, how much more should our
faith be stirred to believe the Lord?
In Hebrews, it talks about better things belonging
to salvation.
It talks about we have a better hope,
a better covenant, better promises, better possession.
Hebrews 11 says we've got a better country.
It says we're going to rise again to
a better life.
It's just better, better, better, better.
God provided something better for us.
Hebrews 11.
Christ's blood speaks a better word than the
blood of Abel.
Isn't that what he says here in v.
34?
Since you yourselves, you knew you had a
better possession.
You've got to remember, we've got something better
than anything here in this life.
We've got to keep trusting the Lord by
faith.
F.
Bruce, he says, the eternal inheritance laid up
for them was so real in their eyes
that they could lightheartedly, they could joyfully bid
farewell to material possessions which were short-lived
in any case.
This attitude of mind is precisely that faith
of which our author goes on to speak
of.
They could lightheartedly just lose all this physical
stuff that they labored and toiled with their
hands?
Yeah, we have something better.
Who else joyfully endured trials?
Look at Hebrews 12.
Consider Him.
It talks about considering.
Verse 2, look into Jesus, for the joy
set before Him endured the cross.
Right?
Christ could see His exaltation.
He was looking to His death and resurrection
and exaltation and entering in through those gates
as Psalm 24 talks about with clean hands
and a pure heart.
And He did.
And He went and endured the cross despising
the shame.
He's seated at the right hand of the
throne of God.
And He says to these same people who
are enduring a hard struggle, in Hebrews 10
.32, He says in v.
3 of chapter 12, consider Christ.
Don't just look at all these people in
chapter 11.
Consider Christ who endured from sinners such hostility
against Himself so that you will not grow
weary.
Oh, we're getting weary.
Getting fainthearted.
Don't let that happen in your struggle against
sin.
You have not yet resisted to the point
of shedding your blood.
Meaning, you've not yet resisted to the point
of what?
Of death.
Christ resisted sin.
He never sinned.
Not one time.
And He could have sinned and resisted the
shedding of His blood.
But instead, He did not sin and He
went to that cross and His blood did
get shed.
And He's saying to these Hebrews in chapter
10, some of you, you had these afflictions.
Some of you, you had things plundered.
Some in chapter 11, it talks about them
dying.
They were willing to shed their blood and
die for Christ.
Where are you at?
What's real?
What's more real to you?
I mean, I'm asking myself that.
The earthly or the spiritual?
That which I can't see, or that which
I can see.
Andrew Murray, he says this, they took joyfully
the spoiling of their possessions, knowing that they
themselves had a better and abiding possession.
The Christian stands between two worlds.
Each one offers him its goods as possessions.
In unceasing conflict, the two compete for mastery.
The one has the advantage of being infinitely
more worthy than the other.
And it gives infinite satisfaction and lasting forever.
That's Christ.
That's the better possession.
The other is in no way to be
compared.
It cannot satisfy.
It does not last.
But, in the conflict, it has two immense,
two terrible advantages.
The one is it is nearer.
It is visible.
It has access to us by every sense.
Its influence on us is natural and easy
and unceasing.
The other disadvantage or advantage it has is
that our heart is pre-possessed.
The spirit of the world is in it.
And so it comes that the possession of
this world would the most actually win the
day, even against the better and abiding possession.
Murray's right.
There's this battle here.
Now I would say when he says the
other, that our heart is pre-possessed, for
the Christian, that's not true.
The Christian is now obedient from the heart.
We battle against the passions of our flesh
that wage war.
But we're looking by faith to Christ.
Where are you at in that battle this
morning?
What's going on?
Where am I at?
What's my view?
Can I say I know that I have
a better possession?
Or, like the Hebrews, if something happened in
my life, I drift, right?
You slowly start losing the confidence and then
the conduct is affected.
Just like the market is causing our houses
to be appraised right now at a higher
value, which if you're selling, that's good.
If you're paying property taxes and staying, that's
bad.
But I hope your knowledge of the truth
is increasing in its appraisal.
That the value keeps going up and up.
That more and more you see the eternal
possession.
It keeps having more and more value as
all the trials you endure in this life,
and you start to realize everything here ultimately
has no value compared to the glory that
is to come.
How things were in the past should challenge
us to trust the Lord in the present.
If you were recalling the way you joyfully
had your house plundered in order to identify
with these Christians, wouldn't you step back and
say, wow, I trusted the Lord like that?
I was willing to show hospitality to those
random people who came on the street and
take them into my house.
I was willing to do this.
I was willing to go give that person
a ride five hours away for this small
meal.
I was willing to take hundreds of dollars
and pay this man's fee to get rid
of the block on his license that he
had from his past when he was lost.
I was willing to do these things by
faith.
Where am I at now?
Why does my heart close when I want
to do some of these things?
The author wants these believers to remember what
they had previously gone through.
They had already endured a hard struggle.
Look, many of you, you've already endured many
hard struggles as a Christian.
Recall the confidence you had in Christ during
that season.
And if it's not so right now, it
should humble you.
Not into a self-pity party, but it
should humble you into a godly grief that
causes you to repent of any apathy and
any lacking of a zeal for your first
love like it was back then.
You know, being disgraced at your present conduct
compared to the former, it's not always a
bad thing.
There's a godly shame that one can experience
that God can use to really motivate us
in the present.
So, a couple applications here.
Number one, recall the season in your life
that you manifested the greatest love towards the
present.
If it was genuine love, you will find
hand in hand there was a confidence of
the greater possession.
It was a confidence of Christ.
You're going to have those things together.
When your first love for Christ overflowed in
great love for the brethren, so much so,
you joyfully partnered with other believers in their
sufferings.
Do you recall times like that?
Have you had times like that?
When was the last time you had times
like that?
When was the last time I had times
like that?
Remembering that our suffering is far less significant
than what they went through.
Remember how mightily supported you were by the
Lord.
Second thing, recall the season in your life
where out of your love, you took the
Gospel the most vigorously to the lost.
Remember that.
We should reflect on the former days and
the times we were more evangelistically zealous and
loving for the lost souls.
We always don't have the same zeal as
Paul did and say I could wish myself
were accursed and cut off from Christ for
the sake of my kinsmen.
We can't say that every day of the
week.
We need fresh glimpses of the Lord.
How did he say in Hebrews 12?
He told us to be looking to Jesus.
That's where our eyes have to be.
Think about other areas in your life.
Recall the former days in your marriage.
If you're married here, some of you have
been married five years, ten years, fifteen years,
twenty years.
We all know the example of how people
were head over heels for each other in
the engagement period and then the first thirty
minutes of their marriage for thirty days.
Or maybe by God's grace, through such holiness,
you didn't cave off.
Right?
Months and years.
Maybe you've got married and that first love
is still there burning like it was back
then.
But we should even remember our former days
in our marriage.
He's talking here about being convinced of a
better possession causing you to love right now.
You know who is not going to be
there to love in heaven?
Who's not going to need my affection?
My wife won't care.
There's no marriage in heaven.
This is my opportunity to love my wife
as Christ loved the church.
Not going to have that opportunity in heaven.
This is it.
This is the one chance I get to
be so convinced of a better possession than
an abiding one to do that which is
pleasing to the Lord in the present.
Notice even here how he describes their obedience.
He begins, verse 36, "...so when you have
done..." what?
"...the will of God."
That's what this is all about.
It's about doing the will of God in
every single facet of your life.
Being willing to do the will of God
as you boast and trust in Christ.
Recall the former days of your parenting.
Maybe some would say, well, it wasn't that
good actually.
We didn't know what we were doing.
Or some say, wow, we really were on
our A-game with the first couple of
children and then life just got busy and
we've totally dropped off for the youngest.
Maybe recall your former days when life was
far more simple.
2 Corinthians 11.3 "...I'm afraid for you
as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,
so will some of your thoughts be led
astray from a simple and pure devotion to
Christ."
I mean, is your Christianity a simple devotion
to a person?
Is following a person, you're looking to Him.
You're following Him.
I mean, think about any area in your
life as far as how you used to
do the will of God compared to right
now.
And if you look at the former days,
when you had more faith and confidence in
the Lord, you should do exactly as He's
calling these Hebrews to do.
He's calling them to recall it in the
hopes that they will turn and have those
days again.
The great thing with the spiritual realm is
this, we're not like the sports athlete.
We're not in the gym right now reflecting
on all the dunks we could do and
thinking it's never going to happen again.
I blew my knee out.
I did this.
I did that.
You know what?
As the Christian, the spiritual realm, it can
get all the better, all the holier going
forward.
There's great hope to increase.
Isn't that what Peter says?
If increasing.
If these qualities are increasing in you, it
will cause you to never fail.
We should expect to be increasing.
Isn't that what progressive sanctification is?
From one degree of glory to the next,
becoming more and more holy.
Yes, it's got trials and ups and downs,
but we've got to press on.
Some of you might say, I have no
glory days.
I'm just recently saved.
Well, look at Hebrews 11 and all those
who had some pretty glorious days of trusting
the Lord and go and imitate them.
Imitate those people.
Imitate those even in this church.
This letter ends with him saying, remember your
leaders, those who spoke to you the Word
of God, consider the outcome of their way
of life, the outcome of their way of
life, pursuing a better possession, and then what
does he say to do?
Imitate what about them?
Imitate their Hebrews 13.
Imitate their faith.
Imitate their confident trust in believing that God
will supply all of their needs according to
His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
Believe their confident faith.
Look, even as you see Craig going through
this trial with his wife having cancer, it's
an example of a faith that's trusting the
Lord.
I mean, there's times you would even forget
his wife has cancer.
You'd even forget his wife could die in
a year or something because there's a rest
and a confidence in Christ.
We're to imitate that trust.
You know what, new believer?
Don't set the bar too low.
Right after I got converted, we had that
first Denton Conference and I remember, I'll never
forget Bob Jennings.
He did a sermon on God is light
and he made the comment there.
He said, isn't it amazing that the Lord
has set it up where the new convert
can have more reality than an elder in
a church?
That kind of took me aback as a
new Christian thinking, really?
That can happen.
Just like it's happened with the Hebrews.
In their early days, they're on fire.
But now, it's not what it used to
be.
So don't set the bar too low.
The new believers in the early church often
got thrust right into trials and persecutions.
You know one thing this teaches us?
God allows new believers to suffer.
Right?
If you've just been converted and you're suffering
right now, guess what?
They did too.
And probably more severe than what you are
going through.
God allows new believers to suffer.
He's giving you right now with those trials
former days to remember years down the road
and reflect on the present confidence you have
in Christ.
So trust Him in the present.
Another thing, the book of Hebrews testifies to
the fact that believers go through spiritual seasons
of ups and downs.
Right?
Isn't that what we see in the book
of Revelation too?
I mean, where are you at?
Where am I at?
Have you plateaued?
Have you gone like this and now it's
just plateauing?
And again, the way I'm identifying it increasing
is not a great show of outward zeal.
Though they were outwardly zealous by allowing their
property to be plundered, what I'm saying for
you and I to look at is this,
are you confidently trusting in the Lord?
In the better possession, looking to heaven towards
leading you to love your brethren and have
compassion on those who are being mistreated?
Because that's something He points to here.
Are you joyfully showing love towards the brethren?
Or is your love grown dim?
Where can we go wrong in recalling our
former days?
Well, we might not view them accurately.
I have found that people often exaggerate on
the past to be far better than it
actually was.
They tend to keep adding a new factor
to it.
Not maliciously lying, but we add things to
our imagination if we did not journal it
down.
You know what this is a good reminder
to do?
To have a journal.
Because right there in the darkness and in
the midst of a trial, if you've got
that journal, you can reflect and read through
it and see the faithfulness of God on
your life.
It will encourage your faith.
Where can we go wrong in recalling our
former days?
As I already mentioned, don't put so much
stock in what happened in the past.
Where are you and I at today?
And you know what He says to these
Hebrews?
He says this verse our kids memorized this
week at VBS.
He doesn't just call them to recall the
former days and not throw off their confidence.
He tells them something to throw off.
Don't throw away the confidence, but Hebrews 12,
do throw away every weight and every sin
which clings so closely and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before
us.
And the ironic thing is if you go
to Hebrews 11 and you look at things
that these people had to throw away, even
look at Hebrews 11.15, this is something
they needed to lay aside.
If they had been thinking of the land
from which they had gone out, they would
have had an opportunity to return.
But, as it is, they desire a better
country that is a heavenly one.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for He has prepared for them
a city.
You know what you need to lay aside?
You need to lay aside thoughts of thinking
that the here and now is going to
be better than what is to come that
you cannot see.
Because it says here if they had been
thinking, they would have had opportunity to return.
People who fall away, they give themselves opportunity
to fall away by what's going on in
their mind.
Those thoughts not being where they should, their
confidence in Christ not being what it should,
they give an opportunity to make shipwreck of
the faith.
Well, one other thing here, is there something
you see from someone else's former days that
you should exhort them to recall in the
present?
Whereby you can stir them up.
Didn't he just say we ought to stir
one another up to love and good works?
One way you could stir me up and
others up is by recalling the former days
and things that happened in the past.
And it can stir up your present faith
so that you do not shrink back.
And Christ is going to help us.
Did Christ have former days?
Did Jesus ever have to recall the former
days?
No, He didn't.
For He always knew to the max that
one could know that God is faithful and
He was always looking to this joyful exaltation
that is to come.
It's incredible.
Christ is our example.
We've got to be looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
That's where all this even comes to a
head right here in Hebrews 12.
It's looking to Jesus.
That's what He's talking about in Hebrews 11.
These people who by faith trusted in Jesus
Christ.
Am I trusting in Christ today?
Well, that's my exhortation to you.
Recall your former days.
Not of us corporately as a church, so
much as you individually as a believer.
Where has the joyful attitude of losing things
for Christ and loving your brethren, is that
right now present?
And it will only be present in the
present if you trust, if you're looking to
this better possession that will not be taken
away.
And this testifies to us the scary reality
of how our possessions in this life can
so easily take our eyes away from that
which is eternal.
Let's pray.
Father, Lord, I admit I don't have a
completely clear perspective on my own life on
how all of this even applies to me.
Lord, as I've studied this, I've searched my
heart.
I've asked You to search my heart.
Lord, I pray You'd help us to run
faster.
Lord, to keep progressing.
Lord, help us to not shrink back.
Lord, You say there to shrink back and
be destroyed.
Lord, instead of being destroyed, help us to
lay aside every weight and sin which would
lead to our destruction.
Lord, help us to have faith in You.
Lord, give us a reality of this eternal
possession that we have.
Lord, forgive us.
Lord, there are different ways that we love
the world.
We love the things in the world.
Maybe in ways we don't realize.
Lord, I pray You'd help us.
Show us Christ as we sing.
Show us more of the Lord Jesus who
lived full of the Spirit, full of faith.
Lord, we thank You for Him.
In Jesus' name, Amen.