In Christ's name, amen. These final words in Chapter
10 are an encouragement, an exhortation that are being given from the
writer, but the words are not for everybody. He's clear about
the words not being for everybody when he says in verse 39, but
we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that
believe to the saving of the soul. So this is not to them
that draw back to perdition, that go back to destruction,
that go back to works or go back to the law for righteousness.
It's not for them. This is for the ones that believe
to the saving of the soul. Ryder calls them to remember.
And I had originally titled this message, Remember, or something
to do with remembering. What is it we remember? But that's
not the title this morning. But the first thing he does say,
if you look in verse 32, he says, but call to remembrance. What he's telling them is called
remembrance the afflictions when you first believe call to remember
the troubles and the trials of whenever you first heard and
during all the afflictions that they had they still yet gave
unto the writer of Hebrews he said you didn't withhold anything
from your bowels to me you gave everything because you have an
enduring substance. That's what I've titled the message,
Enduring Substance. That's what he's saying. You
have something that's not of this earth. You have something
that's out of this world. That's why you have hope. That's why you have rest. Let's
read this in chapter 10, verse 32 through
34. But call to remembrance of the former days in which after
you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions,
partly whilst you were made a gazing stock by the reproaches and afflictions,
and partly whilst you become companions of them that were
so used. for you had compassion of me
in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing
in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring
substance." And that's what I've titled this, The Enduring Substance. The theme of Hebrews The theme
of Hebrews has been Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
That's the theme of the Hebrews. Don't go to the law expecting
yourself to find righteousness. Don't go to the law and work
in order to hope that you can establish a righteousness before
God. That's the entire theme of Hebrews. Christ is all. He
finished the work. Don't go to the covenant of works
hoping to find Salvation, we can't find it there. Salvation's
by grace, grace alone, grace through faith. And everything
that the Lord requires, he must provide because he only accepts
what he provides. That's the theme of Hebrews.
It's the everlasting covenant that we cling to now. It's his
righteousness. It's his blood. That's the enduring
substance. That's the difference between
grace and works is what we do will burn with a fervent heat.
The scripture calls it wood, hay, and stubble. It's gonna
burn up. But what he did, that's an enduring
substance. That's going to last forever
and ever. The three, yeah, there's so many. I didn't want to do too many
points. I don't, sometimes I talk too
much, and so I didn't want to do that. But I want to look at
three enduring substances this morning. First one is the blood.
That's an enduring substance. The second one is his word. And
the last one is his love. Now false religion, false religion
talks about heaven, and says, they made songs, I remember in
false religion would say, I've got a mansion just over the hilltop.
You remember that song? The Lord didn't say he's gonna
go build a mansion for everybody. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. And see, that's different than
what religion makes heaven out to be. Heaven to someone in false
religion would think that it's going to be a reuniting time
with family members and, You get to live your life there as
if it was the same thing as the earth, and it's just not true.
Heaven's a place of rest for the Lord's people, but it's a
place of worship. We'll be worshiping our Savior.
That's what heaven's all about. No, we don't look for a mansion. We look for the place, the person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our hope. That's our hope.
And that is the endearing substance. That's what it is. We don't look
for prizes in glory. We're not looking for, I remember
somebody told me one time that you can earn seven crowns, seven
crowns, and they used scripture, they showed me in scripture,
where it talks about I received a crown of righteousness. They
said, well, yeah, you can earn that crown. No, you can't. That's
the crown of righteousness. It has to be given freely by
the Lord, and it's not a reward. It's something that the Lord
gives to his people freely by his grace. It's not something
we earn. No, we're not going to, we're
not going to be given a crown when we get there and a robe
and Prince all over glory saying, look at me, it's all going to
be about him. It's all going to be about him. That's because he is the prize.
Paul said in Philippians three, I pressed toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He is
the mark. He is the prize. He is the hope
of his people. He's not. just a part of it. He's the whole thing. Christ
is all. Christ is all. He's made all to his people.
Because He lives, His people have an enduring substance in
glory. We have His precious blood. Every
time that you and I commit a sin and our adversary goes and accuses
us of sin, all the Lord, He don't have to do anything, but He just
sees the blood. He just sees the blood and He
sees that we're perfectly righteous in Christ. Told the children
of Israel whenever they were gonna endure the last plague
of the death angel coming to them. He said, take a lamb and
kill it and put the blood on the lintel in the doorpost. And
he said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. It's an endearing
substance. It's an eternal substance. It's
the substance that wrought salvation for the Lord's people. When I
see the blood, I'll pass by you. The good news about Having the
Lord as the prize, seeing the Lord as your only hope of salvation,
needing the blood as your only righteousness before God, as
you have a treasure, you have a treasure right now, an enduring
treasure. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter four. Second Corinthians four verse
one, therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received
mercy, I like that past tense, don't you? We have received mercy. We faint not, but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But if our gospel be hid, It is hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. If the Lord requires blood, this
is the treasure he's talking about here, the Lord requires
blood, the blood of the lamb, upon me in order for me to be
made righteous. How do I get the blood? Well,
you don't. It's bestowed freely by his grace,
according to his choosing, according to his will, according to his
own purpose, which was given to his people from the beginning
of time, before time ever began. That's Ephesians chapter one,
verse four. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not
destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body. The life of Christ, there it
is. That's the hope of the believer, not that he sees my life, not
that he sees what I've done, not that he sees what I haven't
done, but that he sees what the Lord Jesus Christ did in my stead,
as my substitute, as my surety. Not that he sees my death, that
I died, but he sees the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
that he sees my blood, but that he sees the blood of the Lamb,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That blood has been given, and
applied to every single one of God's children. It's already
done. It's already done. It's been
applied. He applied it. He applied it. That is our endearing
substance. Our endearing substance. His
blood demands God's chosen people be set free. I love that. I love
that. Will you remember whenever Cain
slew Abel? And Cain, the Lord told Cain,
he says, your brother Abel's blood cries unto me from the
ground. Do you remember that verse? What
was it crying? It was crying vengeance. It was
crying for justice. He was murdered. He was crying
that vengeance would have been taken out upon him. But what
is the blood of Christ cry? It is finished. It is well with
my soul. The blood of Christ cries grace
and mercy and justice has been satisfied. How long is it going
to cry that for? Forever and ever and ever for
the Lord's people. The Lord's justified his people,
made them the very righteousness of God in Christ. And this is
why he said, lay not up treasures for yourself upon earth, where
moth and rust do corrupt and where thieves break in and steal,
but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. How are you going
to lay up treasures in heaven? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. The scripture says, set your
affection on things above. Somebody said, I'm working really
hard in order to store my treasures in heaven. Christ is the treasure.
Christ is the treasure. Christ is the prize. Lay not
up for yourself treasure, but lay up for yourself treasure
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where
thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. Oh, the Lord's people. have been given a new heart that
desires him alone. Desires him alone. No longer
do we desire glory or praise for ourself. No longer do we
brag about what we do or what we don't do. No longer do we
look at others' lives and justify ourself. We look unto Christ. Look unto Christ. Knowing that
if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in heaven for Eternal in the heavens, for in this we groan
earnestly, desiring to be clothed about with our house, which is
from heaven. If so being clothed, we shall
not be found naked. That's 2 Corinthians chapter
five. The Lord clothes his people in
his righteousness because he shed his own blood. We have a
place prepared for us. We have a body prepared for us. When we get to glory, The scripture
says we're gonna be made like him, for we shall see him as
he is. But when we get to glory, we're not going to, we're gonna
bear the resemblance of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the
inner man is, is it's born of his spirit, born of his spirit. Have you ever spoken to someone I've made this statement before
to you all, and I don't know who the first one was that said
it. I've heard Greg say it too, but I'm a dying man preaching
to dying men and women. You remember me saying that?
And that's true, but have you ever talked to someone about
that, really, that doesn't know who God is? They look at you
like a calf looking at a new gate or deer in the headlights.
They don't have a clue what you're talking. They don't think about
death. They don't think about death. That's why David was talking
about how he was frustrated. He was complacent. He was kind
of murmuring there. He said, I saw their, their,
their death. He said, I saw their end. That's
when he saw their life and how there were no pains in life.
They didn't have to deal with the things that he had to deal
with the sin that he had been revealed to him. And then he
said, but when I saw their death and I saw their end, he said,
that's whenever I realized It's not a curse to know you're a
sinner, it's the blessing. It's not a curse to find out
that you deserve hell and the only way that you could be saved
is by grace alone. That's not a curse, that's the
blessing. That's the blessing of the Lord. If the Lord makes us sinners,
we see through the world. We don't see the world as a as an attractive, there's things
we get to do in the world, don't get me wrong, we enjoy things,
but this is not our home, is it? No, we're pilgrims and we're
strangers, we're sojourners, we're on a journey. You never
feel at home here. You're looking for a city, you're
looking for a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the enduring
substance. We have seen past all these things. Scripture says heaven and earth's
gonna pass away, but my word shall not pass away. We've looking
to him. Actually, that's the second point
I was getting to heaven and earth shall pass away. But my word
should not pass away. The first is his blood. The blood
is the enduring substance. It never ages it accomplished
what it was opposed to supposed to accomplish. It accomplished
salvation on the cross. When the Lord bowed his head
on Calvary and said, it is finished, everyone that he died for was
redeemed at that moment. Now, the second thing, him saying
it is finished, that's his word and he cannot lie. And that's
the other endearing substance is his word. Don't you love? Our Lord said, I have finished
the work thou gave me to do, Father. I finished the work.
Don't you love the attributes of our Lord and the fact that
he cannot lie? What a rest there is in our God,
knowing that he cannot lie. Other gods, they can't tell the
truth. Our God cannot lie. There's no
such thing as other gods. You understand that? But just
to grasp the thought that everything that he says comes to pass according
to his will, according to his purpose, there's rest in that.
I say this about every time I stand, I think, but I can't mess it
up. That's the whole point. I can't mess it up. He said, I have finished the
work thou hast given me to do. What work was that? The salvation
of everyone that he loves. The salvation of everyone that
he loves. The redemption of his chosen people. Listen to what
he said in Isaiah chapter 43. I think I read this last Sunday
also. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. Doesn't say I'm going to redeem
thee. Doesn't say I'm gonna try to redeem thee if you let me.
He says, I have redeemed thee. I've redeemed you. I have called
you. By thy name thou art mine. Thou
art mine. He didn't say I'm gonna try,
he did it. And he can't lie. He can't lie. So when Christ
said it is finished, you can believe it is finished. All the
work, every aspect of salvation, all the aspect of righteousness
and justification, sanctification, glorification, it is finished. because his word changes not.
Because his word changes not, we are seated in Christ in the
heavenlies right now. Right now. Now turn back with
me to our text in Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 32, but call to remembrance
the formal days in which after you were illuminated, you endured
great a great fight of afflictions, partly while she were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while
she became companions of them that were so used. For ye had
compassion on me, in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better
and an endearing substance." We've seen the blood as the endearing
substance, and there's others. There's other things that I could've
said, but the three that we're looking at this morning, we've
seen the blood as the endearing substance, his word as the endearing
substance. Last endearing substance I wanna
talk about is his love. His love. His love is an everlasting
love. Do you know what everlasting
means? It never had a beginning and it will never have an end.
It'll never have an end. And that is God. God never had
a beginning and he'll never have an end. His love is everlasting. Everlasting love. And you know
what he said? I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. I loved you. I love you. Jacob, have I loved? Esau, have I hated? Now I can
understand, I completely can grasp why he would hate Esau.
Esau had no interest in the things of God whatsoever. He sold his
birthright and he's like you and I. If the Lord leaves us
to ourself, we won't be interested in the things of God. I understand
why God would hate him, but why oh why would he ever love Jacob? Why would he love Jacob? Jacob's
a liar, Jacob was a trickster, he was a supplanter. Why love
Jacob? For one reason, for one reason,
grace, grace. According to his good pleasure,
according to his will, he chose to love Jacob by grace. questions asked to me, does the
Lord love everyone? Does the Lord love everyone?
If I was to tell the ladies that are in this room, I love you
just like I love my wife. Number one, we're gonna have,
me and Bobby's gonna have a serious problem first. But my love wouldn't
mean anything, would it? Wouldn't mean anything. I love
your children. I don't love your children like
I love my children. That's just how it is. And you know what I'm
talking about. No, the Lord hates the workers of iniquity. The
Lord loves those whom he chose in the covenant of grace before
time ever began. God did all the saving, did all
the calling, did all the choosing. He does all the keeping. He loves
his people because they are in his son. There is not a person
on the face of the earth that God loves if they're not in Christ. And you and I can't get in or
out of Christ. He's got to do that. He's got
to do that. The only reason he loves us is
because he sees us in Christ. That's what his love accomplished.
It accomplished the full salvation of everyone chosen into eternal
life. That's what his love accomplished. There's a song that says, oh
the love that drew salvation's plan, oh the grace that brought
it down to man, oh the mighty gulf that God did span when Christ
died on Calvary. On the cross, having loved his
own, He loved them unto death. He loved them unto death. He
bore their sin in his body. It wasn't an offer to man. It
was an offer to God. He wasn't making a way to have
agreements with men. He was the way that he brought
salvation was by his death. He saved his people from their
sin. His love is displayed as him
being our surety, one who took our place, our substitute. His
love is shown in the fact that he was our savior. He loved us as our sacrifice. He loves us as our righteousness
before the throne of God. And before that throne, he loves
us as our advocate. He loves us as our mediator. He loves us as our high priest,
loves his people. as their King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. And you know the amazing part
about that is we love Him because He first loved us. The love of
Christ is shed abroad in the hearts of every single child
of God. We love Him because He first
loved us. He had to give us the ability
to love Him. Did you know that? No one is born loving God. The
flesh hates God, hates everything about God, Won't come to God. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have eternal life. That's what he told the
Pharisees. You will not come. You can't. You know why? No man
come to the father, except the father which sent me draw him.
No man come to the father, but by me. He's got to enable us
to even come to him. He's got to give us life. And
then he says, come. We love him because he first
loved us. He enabled us to. When did he do that when we were
dead in trespasses and in sins? You have he quickened. There's
a picture in Ezekiel where the. He said I saw you. Polluted in
your own blood, you were dead. You were no one swaddled you
known. It's a picture of a. a dead baby
is what it is, and said that none can help you. He said, but
I did. I spread my skirt over you. I
swaddled you. I robed you in my righteousness.
I chose to save you. And that's what he does for his
people. Comes to us, we're polluted in our blood. We're dead and
trespasses and sins. And he comes to where we are,
and he says, through his gospel, he shows us you're the sinner.
You deserve eternal hell. because of what you are, not
because of what you do. Sin is not just what we do, it's
what we are. That's why the Lord is appalled
of the flesh, and the flesh cannot please God. But he comes to where
we are and says, you're the sinner that deserves hell, and there's
nothing you can do to fix it. Nothing. You're powerless. You're
completely powerless. There's nothing you can do. And
then he tells us the good news of the gospel. I have redeemed
thee, thou art mine. The Lord hath put away thy sin. You shall not die. You shall
not die. Christ died in love towards his
bride and towards his father, redeeming us back to God once
and for all. Once and for all. This is why
his love is our endearing substance. It's everlasting. Because of
who he is and what he has done, we have the enduring substances
of his gospel. We have the blood, we have his
word, and we have his love. Now closing, I wanna share with
you, there's a substance that will not endure forever. Now
I can say this and everybody will understand when I finish,
but faith will not endure forever. Do you know why? Because our
faith is gonna end in sight. Our hope will not endure forever
because our hope will end in sight. There's no need to have
faith and glory when you're present with him. He gives us faith,
we can believe him here. And then when we're with him
throughout eternity, there'll be no need for faith or hope. We laid hold of eternal life
there. Lord, I think that's how the
words are spoken. Whenever Paul was talking about
lay hold of eternal life, we're laying hold of Christ, that's
who we're laying hold of. The only way we can do that is to
be enabled to. Faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen, and as soon as we see it, we won't hope for
it anymore, it'll be ours, it'll be ours. Once we see him face
to face, our faith will end, end in sight. We read 2 Corinthians
a moment ago, and it talks about How we groan to be clothed in
his righteousness. When we see him face to face,
we won't groan ever again. We'll be robed in it. We'll have
it. We'll see it. It'll be on us.
Good news is, is if you're his, it's already on you. You just
can't see it. Our hope. William, when we lay
hold of the enduring substance, we'll be like Mary sitting at
his feet, just listening to his words, worshiping him forever
in a world that there is nothing forever. So I'm so thankful we
have enduring substances of our Lord, the enduring substances.
Let's pray. Father, thank you that you give
us that which you require because we cannot produce it. Thank you
for this glorious salvation where you get all the glory. We pray
that you bless this to our understanding for your glory.