to the 10th chapter of the book
of Hebrews. I want us to begin with verse
32. I'd like to read verse 32 down through verse 36. Verse 32 through verse 36. But call to remembrance the former
days in which after you were illuminated ye endured a great
fight of afflictions. partly whilst you were made a
gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
you became 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 yourself that you have in heaven a better
and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience,
that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the
promise. Let us pray. I want to speak
this morning, God willing here, on verse 35. Cast not away, therefore,
your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Now we've discovered by the reading
of the context here this morning that the early Christians, those
that were in the church here that Paul was writing to, that
they were suffering for their faith. They were suffering because
they had been born again and because they were attempting
to follow the Lamb of God, whithersoever He would lead them. and they
had been ridiculed and the enmity of the world around them had
been turned upon them and their lot was a very perilous lot,
a very afflictive lot. Now they were by word the laughing
stock and the derision of all mankind. They were greatly afflicted. They were counted as the offscouring
of all things, and this was for the gospel's sake. It was for
Christ's sake. Nor did it end in simple ridicule. They were deprived of their goods,
we're told. Paul said down here in verse
34, For you had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully
the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourself that you have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance. Now, beloved, it takes
a good deal of confidence for a person to stand by and watch
his goods to be spoiled and taken away, and it takes a good deal
of confidence in God to be able to do that. You're not able just
to simply say, well, maybe we'll get some more. That's not sufficient. You must have a great deal of
confidence in the living God. They were fined and they were
driven from city to city and they were not thought worthy
to dwell among the common lot of men. They were made spectacles
to men both in their lives and in their death. I'm talking about
the early Christians, those that believed God and those that walked
with God in an earlier day. They were daubed with pitch and
they were set on fire. They were cast into arenas with
beasts and they were torn to pieces. Everything that could
be invented that was degrading and cruel, their persecutors
devised for these believers. Malice exhausted itself and exhausted
its ingenuity, we might say, upon believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ in the first century. Edict upon edict was passed,
each one more ferocious than the last, in order to exterminate
the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, their lot was
a difficult lot. But the more they were persecuted,
I'm happy to say, in the providence of God, they multiplied the more. Instead of them being completely
destroyed and extinguished, the faith of the gospel went forth
in great power. Many were turned, and instead
of them hiding themselves, a way you'd think they'd be running
and finding a place to hide where they wouldn't be persecuted and
where they wouldn't have all of these various afflictions
and tests pressed upon them. We find them coming out boldly
and confessing Christ and defying death. They believed God. They believed the truth of the
gospel and they were faithful to God. Never was the victory
of patience more complete than it was in the early church. It
could be said that the anvil broke the hammer, by bearing
all the blows that the hammer could be placed upon it. The
church of our Lord Jesus Christ, in suffering, it bore all that
was placed upon it and was victorious. The church was not stuffed out. The Bible says that the gates
of hell will not prevail against the Lord's church. God's truth
will prevail in the hearts of His people and the elect of God
will continue to be the mouthpiece for God in every generation. But this first generation suffered
indeed. Now the reason for their triumph
in all of their adverse circumstances was their confidence in God Almighty,
their faith in the living God. In all these things, the Bible
says we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. Now, brother and sister, we are
not subject to the like persecutions of the early church in our day. Yet there are still many conflicts
that try our faith in this present world. Many difficulties, many
steep hills to climb, many difficult valleys to pass through as we
pilgrimage on our way to the eternal city. And we have many
difficulties in this world. If you are a member of the living
family of God, you have trials, maybe this morning, of different
and various sorts. Personal trials, family trials,
And sometimes we might even have church trials, thank God we have
few of them. work and in our effort in this
world to sustain ourself, we have many times many many trials. The book of Acts says that through
much tribulation we'll enter the kingdom of God. For until
the hearts of men are changed, slander and persecution in some
form or another will continue in this world. You just mark
it down. These that are born after the
flesh, they will continue to persecute them that are born
after the Spirit, as we read concerning Ishmael and Isaac
in the Word of God. It will just continue to be all
kinds of various afflictions and persecutions upon the family
of God in this world, and the only defense that the people
of God have in this world against all of their afflictions and
trials is their holy confidence in the God of the Bible. Their
confidence, which is the same confidence which sustained the
martyrs at the stake. They believed God. They trusted
God. They believed His word. They
boldly stood forth and challenged all their persecutors, they would
not recant, they would not turn back, they believed God and stood
steadfast in a troublous time. Now to us and to them Paul speaks
in verse 35, and he said, cast not away therefore your confidence. Don't throw away your faith in
the living God. You have believed God. You started
on the road. You have trusted God. You said
in heaven you have a better and more enduring substance. You
said you were seeking a city that had foundations whose builder
and maker was God. You said that you believed. that
Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead, and that He was
coming back, and that He was going to raise all of the living
family out of the grave, and that every one of them would
be like Him in eternity to come. You said you believed all of
this, so Paul said, don't cast away your confidence. Don't cast it away, don't throw
it away, because it hath great recompense of reward. Now then, this morning I want
to talk briefly about three things. One, the elements of this confidence
that Paul said, cast not away. Second thing I want to talk about
is how may we cast it away, and I'm sure that there have been
some that have. Why should it be held fast? The
third thing, why should we hold it fast? And the reason is given
in the text because it hath great recompense of reward. Faith in
God shall be greatly rewarded both in this life and in the
life to come. First of all then, what are the
elements of this confidence of which the Apostle speaks here?
Now it's not easy to explain this word confidence. in one
word. It's not easy because it seems
to be translated, used in various ways in the New Testament. Now the nearest to this word
confidence, it seems to be the word boldness. Boldness. Cast not away your boldness.
It is frequently translated by that word in the Bible. In Acts,
when we read, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, that's
the very same word in the Greek, which is here translated confidence. But there's another word we read
of Christ in the Gospel of Mark. He spoke openly, the Bible says. He spoke openly, and that is
precisely the very same word. Now, the Apostle says we use
great plainness of speech. Paul said that in Corinthians. And the word is the very same,
plainness of speech, boldness, openness, confidence. So it means
that freedom, that peace, That at-homeness which makes a man
feel bold and free and confident. That's what this word confidence
here is that Paul says, cast it not away. Now your childlike
plainness, your freedom, your quietness, your peace of heart,
your rest, your sense of security and courage, cast this not away,
says Paul. in the midst of the afflictions,
and in the midst of the trials, and the slander, and the persecution,
and your ups and downs, and all of the various different atmospheres
that you have to deal with in your life. Listen to me, Paul
said, don't throw away that boldness, confidence, that freedom, and
that security of heart, and that sense of rest that you have in
the Lord. Don't throw it away. Don't let
anything rob you of it. And the elements of this seems
to be confidence in the doctrine which you have believed. Now,
surely, there are some, you know, doctrines is very important. It's kind of like the skeleton
of the body. It's kind of like the bone structure
of the body. It's very important. It's kind
of like the framework of a building. If you're building a building,
it's like the studs and the roof rafters and the floor joists.
Doctrine is very important. And you and I surely believe
some teaching. We believe some doctrine. The
Lord has taught us and instructed us in some truths of his word. Acts, in the book of Acts, Luke
mentioned that he was going to talk about some of the things
that were most surely believed among us. Well, that's our doctrinal
framework. There are some things that are
most surely believed among us. Now some think that a state of
doubt is good. Well, I don't think so when it
comes to doctrine. I believe you ought to know,
I think you ought to have a doctrinal foundation I think you ought
to study the Word of God, I think you ought to read, and I think
you ought to write and divide the Word of Truth until you've
got a foundation under you, and then you ought to believe what
the Word of God teaches in regards to the great doctrines of the
Bible. They say nothing can be regarded as assuredly true in
our day. That's what people say. They
say, well, you know, there isn't anything really. I mean, who
can say what the truth is? Well, the Word of God is indeed
the truth and the scriptures as you study them and as you
assimilate them into your system, you're going to come to some
foundational facts and truths which we most surely must get
a grip on and never let loose of as long as we live. Now they
say that no doctrine of the Bible is worth dying for. Well, you
tell that to the martyrs. You tell that to the martyrs.
Somebody said it's not worth losing a dollar over that doctrine
of election. It's not worth losing anything
over. Well, you tell that to people that stood up for that
truth throughout the years. Somebody says, well, baptism
by immersion. Why, it's not anything to lose
your life over. Many a soul lost their lives
because they believed in believer's baptism. Do you know that? Many
of them. Some of the early churches suffered
greatly because they were Anabaptists, because they believed in rebaptizing
people that come out of what is commonly called the Roman
Catholic Church. Many have suffered greatly for
their holding of views that were in harmony with the teaching
of the apostles and the prophets of God. These truths that I'm
talking about, that we're not to cast away our confidence in,
these truths, they are not new. They're not new. There's nothing
new. I'm not asking you to hold on
to something that's new. No, as one old brother over in
Virginia said, He said if it's new, it can't be true, and if
it's true, it's just not new. And I believe in exactly that
sentiment, exactly. I certainly believe that. And
so I'm not asking you to believe in something new, because most
of these new lighters And as I've discussed things with them,
it's become evident to me that there's no light in them. Now,
men cannot understand somebody who has this confidence, this
boldness when it comes to doctrine. Now, if there's anything worse
than a wishy-washy preacher, a preacher that just believes
nothing, preaches, you know, nothing when he preaches, I don't
know what it would be. I would want to listen, and if
I was going to be listening to preachers, and I do, once in
a while, listen to preachers, I want them to know something,
I want them to believe something, and I want them to tell me what
they believe. when they preach. I want them
to be plain in their speech. Like Paul said, we speak with
plainness of speech. That's confidence, that's boldness.
I want a preacher to tell me what he believes. Now certain
things which God has taught me, and I believe these things, and
I'm sure about them, I am even dogmatic about these truths,
And there remains no doubt to me that God has spoken and laid
out these truths in the Bible. I'm talking about the doctrines
of grace. I'm talking about the doctrines
of the gospel. I'm talking about what the Bible
teaches about the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, about
the inspiration of the scriptures, and the fact that Jesus Christ
has been sent of God into this world to die for His people and
that He bought them back from awful hell, and that He paid
the price of our redemption, and paid it in the full, left
nothing incomplete, and completed all, and finished the work that
the Father gave Him to do. I believe in these great truths,
and you can't preach them all in 15 minutes, but I certainly
have those things that I believe, and I'm not planning on casting
away my confidence in these great doctrines. The doubt then is
laid to rest. If God has spoken, you believe
what God said and hang on to the truth. How confident are
you this morning that you believe what the Bible teaches? Now,
it's like old preacher Barnard used to say, he'd say, well,
I think you want to believe what the Bible teaches. He said, I
don't believe you do, but I think you'll want to. Well, I think
it's necessary for us to become serious students of the Word
of God. Many, many people today more
interested in other things than they are, they profess to be
believers, than they are in the study of the Word of God. We
must come back to where we get interested in digging out the
precious jewels and studying the Word of God. Now, in the
doctrine of the Gospel, let others question, let others quibble,
but I must believe it I'm shut up to it. I'm lost without it. Where would you be without the
gospel of free sovereign grace? Where would you be? Well, now
you see, if you consider yourself to be a sinner, and if you know
yourself to be a sinner, a hell-deserving, an ill-deserving sinner, one
who would, if God was to leave him alone until judgment, would
ripen until he was fit for nothing but eternal burnings. My friend,
if you ever come to the place where you see the truth about
yourself, then you're not going to quibble over the gospel of
free grace. You're going to believe it. You're
going to believe it. You're going to believe that
the gospel is your only hope, and you're not going to cast
that confidence away. You're not going to throw it
down. And you know, somebody whom God has taught spiritually,
brought them to see the true state of affairs, is not an individual
you have to argue along with about the fact that salvation
is of the Lord entirely from the beginning to the end. Salvation's
got to be of God because we cannot perform a work that I want to
tell them the truth, and I'm here this morning to tell you
that unless you as a poor sinner comes to see yourself bankrupt
before God and lost, lost, entirely lost, unless you come to see
that you're alienated from God and that you have no, you have
no possible way of ever escaping eternal damnation apart from
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you're not saved and you're
not going to be until you come to that place, until you cast
yourself entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Things which you
know to be plainly taught in the scriptures The things that
have been brought home by the power of the Spirit of God to
your heart, we're told to hold fast to these things. To hold fast to them and not
let them go. To hold the truth, which I'm
ashamed to utter, is to be false both to God and to man. And I've
heard so many men who, when you talk to them about the sovereignty
of God, oh yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God. You tell
me what foundation a preacher's got to open his mouth one time
if he don't believe in a sovereign God. What's he got to say? Who's
he representing? Why is he going to represent
a God who's not sovereign? I don't know who would be so
foolish as to represent one who passed himself off as being God,
but yet he could not do what he willed to do. He had a will,
but he couldn't perform it. Sounds to me like my next door
neighbor. Sounds to me like somebody down
the street from me. Don't sound like the God of the
Bible to me. The God of the Bible can do what
He will do, and do what He desires to do, and fulfill His own purpose. And for me to say, well, I believe
it, but I won't preach it. To me, that makes you a false
individual, a false prophet. and to hold something that you
won't preach or boldly confess, then my friend, as far as I'm
concerned, makes you a false prophet. To have convictions
which I stifle and principles which I dare not avow is to be
unworthy of the Lord that bought me and unworthy of the Spirit
which I have said instructed me in these truths. Don't you
agree? I'll tell you that's exactly
the way I see it. And I don't have any sympathy
for these preachers that go around telling me they believe in the
doctrine of election, but they just cannot afford to preach
it. I don't have any use for them. I don't have any use for
them. And I thank God. And you know,
once in a while you hear a little something come from somebody
that kind of helps you a little bit, kind of puts a little more
starch in your shirt, and kind of just gives you a little bit
more strength to go on. But every once in a while you
hear it. I heard last night from about an individual that has
been acquainted with this church and with my family and with myself
and he passed the word along that he had more respect And
he'd come out of an Arminian background, Southern Baptist
background, but he had more respect, he said, for me and for this
church than any church he knew about. And he'd been to lots
of Southern Baptist churches, but he said in this little church
here, people believe what they believe and they stand for it,
and it doesn't seem like it makes any difference. What they have
or what they don't have, it don't make any difference. They just
keep right on believing it, and keep right on preaching it, and
hold right on to it, and won't give it up. Now, it's good for
me to hear that. I like to hear that. Somebody
said, well, I just got more respect for that preacher than any other
preacher I know about. He knows a lot of preachers.
Well, I mean, that does me a lot of good to hear that. Because,
beloved, you know, you pay a price. You pay a price in this world
if you hold fast and don't cast away your confidence. Now, time
is really slipping away, but I want to pass on here quickly
to the next part of our message. How may we cast it away, this
confidence in God? There's so many things I could
have said about this, but it's 20 minutes till 12. How could
that possibly be? Surely it's not so. Well, it
is, I guess. Have to face facts. It is. Well, how can we cast away our
confidence in the Lord? Well, by changing it for self-confidence. In other words, now we believe
God. We believe that God has provided our salvation in Christ.
We believe that Christ bore our sin in His own body on the tree
that He might bring us to God. We believe that He suffered in
our room and stood in place. We believe that the judgment
of God was poured out upon Him. We believe He answered to God
for us. We believe He is seated at the
right hand of God and He's making intercession for us at the right
hand of God. We have confidence in Christ.
And Paul said in Philippians 3, 3, he said, for we are the
circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. That's what he
said. We are those, he said, that are
the true circumcision. Look at all them descendants
of Abraham. They're not the true circumcision.
They went through the rite actually, outwardly, but they're not the
true circumcision. The true circumcision is the
man who was circumcised in his heart by an operation of the
Spirit of God and has come to rejoice in Jesus Christ as his
full hope of salvation, and he has no confidence in the flesh. He rejoices in Christ. Now, the
way you cast it away is starting to say, well, I think I can be
a little something that God will be proud of. Well, I've never
been anything God is proud of, and no man in flesh, God, is
not proud of flesh. God's given up on flesh. He give
up on it. The Lord Jesus was crucified
in what? In the body of his flesh. God
has condemned sin in the flesh. God give up on the flesh. He's
give up on it. And I want you to know that you
can't have confidence in it. The arm of flesh will fail you. You dare not trust your own,
the song says. It'll fail you. And so whenever
you say, well, you know, I think I'm somebody. You know, the Bible
says, let him that standeth take heed lest he what? Fall. Lest he fall. And so you've got
to keep looking to Christ. Keep trusting Christ. Keep holding
on to Christ. Don't let it go. Trust Christ. Believe on Him. Accept Him. Believe what God said about Him.
And don't ever turn away from Him and have confidence in yourself
and confidence in your own works, confidence in your money and
what you give and your talents. Don't ever have any confidence
in the flesh. And then the second way I think
that we might cast it away is by living a life contrary to
the profession that we made by giving way to sin in our lives. Simply succumbing to a life of
rebellion against God. Living just contrary to the word
of God and the will of God and the way of God. And then the
next thing would be by getting into worldly company. by just
leaving God and becoming a friend of the world. You know, the Bible
says if any man is a friend of the world, he's an enemy of God.
Casting away your confidence, turning and walking away from
God and His people and His truth, and going back into the world.
Now, and also, this is very important, by changing your aim in life. Now, the Christian's aim in life
is to live for the glory of God. Isn't that right? That's the
aim, brother. That's the aim, sister, is to
live for the glory of God. And there are times whenever
the old flesh and the mind of the flesh would lead us astray
from that aim. And if we were to follow every,
the instincts of the flesh, we certainly would find ourselves
living in such a way that wouldn't be glorifying to the God that
we worship. Glorifying to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And may God help us and undertake
for us, and we need to ask ourselves, day by day, this question. Is
my aim to live for the glory of God? Is that my aim? Well,
that's the direction we need to go. But listen, if you once
shift your motive, then you've cast away your confidence in
the Lord. You've cast it away. You've thrown it away if you
once shift your motive. Now then, we have the reasons,
thirdly, for holding fast our confidence. And number one reason
would be because we've already endured so much. And you know
Paul, he told these people back here in verse 32, he said you
call to remembrance the former days. You call to remembrance
while all these things happened to you. And now he said don't
cast away your confidence. Now there's been a whole lot
happened brother, sister, since I started in this thing. I mean,
there's been a whole lot happening. And I've already went through
a long way. And old song said, we're on the
downward side of life now. Said, we all praise God, we're
on the down side. And we've been through a whole
lot. Man, I mean to tell you that it's been a tough goal.
Hard sweat. And because we've already been
through so much, and these people have been through an awful lot,
Paul said, don't throw it away. Don't throw it away. You just
keep on trusting God. You believe God. Just keep on going. It's
hard to do. And you think, well, maybe there
ain't no use. And maybe, maybe, just maybe there just ain't no
use to do it anymore. You've already suffered so much.
And you've already dealt with so many problems. Already had
so much on you. Just give it up. That's what
the devil would say. He'd say, you just give it up.
But God said, through the mouth of Paul, he said, cast not away
your confidence, which hath great recompense or reward. Now then,
I think this confidence in the Lord make a man happy and make
him strong and victorious right now. There's a verse in Isaiah
chapter 30 that I want you to turn back to and look at if you
can find it. Isaiah chapter 30. And let's
read the 15th verse, Isaiah 30 and 15. For this saith the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest, Shall you be saved
in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. And then,
I don't know whether you should look at those awful words at
the end of that verse or not, but the prophet said, and you
would not, you would not. But see, if you hold on to your
confidence, there's quietness, there's rest, and a strength. And don't let it be said of any
of us, and you would not. You would not. You wouldn't hold
on to it. You wouldn't keep believing God. You said, I'm just going
to throw up my hands. I'm going to throw in the towel.
I'm going to give it up. I'm just going to slide from
here on. Wherever it takes me, I'm just
going to slide. I ain't going to try to stay up. I'm just going
to coast from here on out. I'm not going to attempt to try
to buck the tide anymore. I'm just not going to do it.
No, no, no, no. This has great recompense of
reward, but best of all, there's a recompense of reward to come.
The day will come when the king will review his troops as the
squadrons come back from the battle. Enough pay it will be
if he shall say, well done. These two words would make us
utterly happy, but then hear the rest. He said, Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. That's what the Lord will say
to his people in that day. Kings and mighty men who have
rolled in riches, I wrote this down, one writer said this, who
roll in riches and yet were enemies to Christ, when they hear Christ
say, well done to his poor people, will think themselves accursed
that they were not martyrs themselves. That they did not lie in a prison
somewhere, in the dampness of a prison or suffer reproach for
Christ. They laugh today, But they'll
laugh out of the other side of their mouth and that day, when
the Lord owns these people, when the Lord comes, their promotion
shall be the promotion of fools. Shame, shame upon those who rejected
Christ and would not believe His truth. And so Spurgeon said,
by the palm and by the white robe, he said, by the crown unfading,
By the harps of angels and the streets of gold, cast not away
your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward. Now
you that have no confidence this morning in Jesus Christ, The
Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. We read it this morning. He shall
come. He will not tarry. He will come.
He that shall come will come and will not tarry. The Lord
Jesus is coming back and He's going to call you into judgment. He will know and He knows today
those that trust Him. He knows your hearts. He knows
every one of your hearts. He knows those that trust Him.
And He's coming back. He's coming back. Where do you
stand? How is it with you? If He were
to call you into judgment today, where do you stand? How is it
with your poor soul? Do you trust Christ? Are you
relying upon Him? Are you depending entirely upon
Him? To the point, and you know I
can't make enough of this, I was reading here just a while
back, and some fellow was trying to explain what it meant to trust
Christ. And I thought about it a whole lot, and I think he's
right on the money. He said to trust Christ is to
so trust Him that if He fails, there ain't nothing else. Now that's what it means. You
trust him now. You trust him and you don't even
mention baptism with it. You don't mention what you give
all your life. Maybe you say, well I give all
my life preaching to the cause of Christ. You don't mention
what you give. Nothing else enters into it. You just trust Christ.
And if he fails, we're all goners. And you're going to hell if he
fails. Now can you trust him that way? Say, you let everything
else go now. Let everything else go. Throw
the oars over. Let them sink to the bottom. You're in Christ's
ship. If He goes down, you go down. But He ain't going down. He's
not going down. Can you trust Him? Well, if you ever escape the judgment
of God, You must come to confidence in Christ. Come to trust Him. Come to rely on Him. Come to
believe on Him. Come to hug up to Him. Make Him the central figure of
your life. Make Him your husband. Make Him everything. You hug
up to Christ and trust Him with all of your soul's weight. Trust Him. Father, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, do thou help us not to cast away
our confidence in the Lord Jesus. Help us to be faithful unto death.
Forgive our shortcomings and our weaknesses in times of great
frailty. Forgive us, and do thou strengthen
us mightily. I pray it in Jesus' name. Lord,
remember these that are lost, and may they be able today to
trust, to rely upon, to cast themselves upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, his finished work. In Jesus' name, Amen.