First hour we heard about endearing substance,
the Lord's endearing substance. And these verses, we'll be reading
the same verses again, but we'll be reading all the way through
35 this time. And really, it's interesting
because he says at the beginning of verse 35, cast not away therefore
your confidence. I've titled this message, What
is your confidence? But he just told us what our confidence was
in the verse before by saying, In heaven, you have a better
and enduring substance. That's our confidence. He says,
don't cast that away. Don't cast that away. Believing God, believing his word, believing
his gospel is not a difficulty. It's an impossibility in the
flesh. It's not a difficulty. It's not something you have to
try really hard to do and then you succeed. No, it's an impossibility. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And faith is the gift of grace. Without the Lord giving faith,
we will never believe. We naturally choose self. We naturally choose self. We love ourself. I remind us
about Nebuchadnezzar, how much he loved himself. He made a statue.
It was a 60-foot statue. And whose face do you think was
on that statue? Told everybody, fall down and worship it when
you hear the music. fall down and worship the statue. Hebrew
boys said, we're not worshiping that God, that false God. Whose
face do you think was on that statue? It was Nebuchadnezzar's
face, wasn't it? And we desire for men to see
us as a 60-foot statue to be worshiped. We desire worship.
That's us by nature. We desire to be God. This happened
at the very beginning in the garden. When Eve took of the
fruit, she knew what she was doing. He said, change the words
of the Lord. The serpent changed the words
of the Lord and said, the day that you eat of that tree, you
shall not surely die. That's not what God said. God
said, you shall die surely. He put one word in it and she
said, she believed the lie. He said to her, but you'll be
like God. You eat the fruit, you'll be
just like God. And she said, yes, that's exactly what I want.
I want to be like God. That was the original sin in
heaven. Whenever Lucifer said, I'm going to ascend above heaven,
I'm going to be like the most high. And that's us by nature. We want
to be God. Unless God makes us see that
we are not God, that we are the sinners needing a savior. We'll love ourself all the way
to hell. We will, if he leads us to ourself. When troubles arise, we oftentimes
more than not become fixers rather than believers, don't we? When
trouble arises, we become fixers rather than believers. And after
we try fixing it for a little while and realize we can't fix
it, you know, religion says you should just read more, you should
pray more, you should study more, you should do more. And when
that don't work, we're like Peter, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. I'm drowning. I'm going to die.
Save me. Now, the do more mentality of
false religion, no matter the label we put on it, that's not
born of faith. That's born of our own depraved
heart. That's born of sin. It's born
of unbelief. The good news for the Lord's
people is though we struggle with unbelief, though we struggle
with unbelief, we're not gonna die unbelievers. If we're in
Christ, we're gonna die in faith. Just like all those we're gonna
see in chapter 11, it's all about the faith and he talks about
the matriarchs and the patriarchs of old and how that they, it
says by faith Abraham when he was called to go out to a place,
by faith Abel, by faith and it keeps, That's what the whole
chapter is about. We're gonna die in faith if the
Lord's given us that faith. It'll never end. It'll never
expire. It never fades. It never goes
away. Even though we struggle with
unbelief, he is faithful that has called us. He is faithful
that keeps us. He is faithful. Faith never says the law is the
remedy for our sin. Faith never says that. Faith
looks to the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work alone.
Faith does not look to what you do and what I do. It looks to
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's why it's impossible to
please God without it. Everything God require, He must
provide, because He only accepts what He provides. It has to come
from Him. His faith is what's given to
His people in order for them to please Him, for them to be
pleasable. They give the faith of Christ. That's not what we do, it's what
He has done. What is your confidence? What
is your confidence? Let's read the text here, Hebrews
chapter 10. Verse 32, but call to remembrance
the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endeared
a great fight of afflictions, partly while she were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while
she become companions of them that were so used. For ye had
compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourself that ye have in heaven, a better
and enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Cast not
away, therefore, in light of what was just said, in heaven,
having a better and enduring substance, cast not away your
confidence. What's your confidence? What
is your confidence? What are you confident in pertaining
to God? That's the question this morning.
What is your confidence in righteousness? What is your confidence in justification?
What is your confidence in standing before God, being found righteous? What confidence do you have?
Is your confidence, first of all, is your confidence in the
law? In the law, the law was given Not to save anyone, it
was given to reveal sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. So running to the law for righteousness,
doing according to the law for righteousness is called iniquity.
It's called iniquity, it's an impossibility. Doing the law
does not change our standing with God. That's the first covenant
that was made, it's the covenant of works. The whole theme in
Hebrews is that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,
that Christ fulfilled the law's demands that you and I could
never have done. The law shows that we could not
please God no matter what we do, but Christ did, but Christ
did. When the fullness of time was
come, Christ came, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. So is your confidence in the
law, or is your confidence in Christ? Are you confident that you're
able to perform to God's standard, because that's the standard you
have to perform to? Or are you confident that you can't perform
to his standard, that Christ must do that on your behalf,
or you have no righteousness before God? Running to the law is running
to your own condemnation. Grace and peace comes through
the Lord Jesus Christ only. Running to the law is running
to your own condemnation before God. Doesn't merit righteousness
but death. It doesn't justify, it condemns.
Turn with me to Romans chapter three. Look at verse 19. What is our
confidence? Are we confident in our law keeping? He says in verse 19 of chapter
three of Romans, now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. That's the purpose of the law.
That every mouth would stop, that you can't come to the Lord
approaching him saying, but I've done this and I've done this.
No, the law was given to show that we don't have righteousness
in and of ourselves. We can't keep his law. It's holy
and we're not. So that they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Cannot, it's impossibility. Verse
20 tells us, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. You notice that doesn't say by
faith in Jesus Christ, it says by faith of Jesus Christ. It's
his faith that's given to his people. by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now
here's the good news of the gospel. Knowing that we cannot keep the
law, knowing that no flesh shall be justified by doing the law,
he says this in verse 24, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There it is. being justified freely by his
grace. Not that I've kept the law, not
that I've done good works, being justified freely. Did you know
that's the only way anybody can be saved, is freely. It's the
only way anybody can be saved, freely. It's the only way anybody
can be justified, is freely, by his grace. The law was given
to show everyone is guilty before God. And no one's justified by
the works of the law. But God chose to justify some
in the covenant of grace before time ever began freely, freely
unto salvation. He chose to justify them. And
did he do that? That's why he came. Matthew chapter
one says, call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sin. He didn't try. He saved His people
from their sin, being justified freely by His grace. Is that your confidence? Is that
your confidence? Whether it's the moral law, the
civil law, or the ceremonial law, no flesh will ever be able
to say, I have satisfied God's demands. I have performed perfectly
the law which He has given. I have been justified because
of my actions. Nobody, can ever say that, but
Christ can. Christ can, and he did. He did,
and in doing so, he justified his people. No one can ever say,
I was saved because of what I did. That puts you in the place of
God. We're saved because of what he
did, because of what he did. Aren't you glad that we're saved
by grace through faith in that not of yourself means you didn't
you didn't merit it. Number one, but you didn't create
it. You didn't produce it. You're
saved by grace through faith in that not of yourself, not
of works, not of works, lest any man should boast. Our confidence is not in the
law, not our keeping of the law. We love the Lord's law, but we're
not confident in our keeping of the law. Our confidence is
that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. You know
what that word for is? Because. Christ is the end of
the law because righteousness was wrought on Calvary's cross.
This is our confidence. Not that I pleased God, but that
Christ pleased him in my stead. Not that I pleased God, but that
Christ finished the work given to him. He justified his people
freely by his grace. Now go back to Hebrews chapter
10. What is your confidence? Everybody's
got one. Pertaining to spiritual matters,
you have confidence in something. Everybody believes something.
Even the atheists believe in atheism. I mean, everybody believes
something. What is your confidence? Is it in yourself? Is it in what
you do? Or is it in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Can't be both. Is your confidence, this is the
second point, is your confidence in your flesh? First of all,
is it in the law? No, we've seen that there's no
flesh gonna be justified by the deeds of the law. But secondly,
is it in your flesh, what you're doing? What you're not doing? What you're not doing? Do you believe yourself or do
you believe what God has said? Scripture tells us that no flesh,
no flesh shall glory in his presence. And then it says they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. They that are in the flesh. Now
who here is not in the flesh? Everyone here is in the flesh.
You can't please God. You're in the flesh, you can't.
No matter what you do or no matter what you don't do, you cannot
please God. But there's one that did. In his name is the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was the purpose. That was
the purpose of him coming, that he would please the father and
redeem his chosen people. That was his purpose. We don't
look and say, well, I have confidence because I don't do this and I
don't do that. No, we're like Paul. We say we
are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. in rejoicing
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We have no confidence.
Not even a little bit. Somebody told me one time, I
don't have much confidence in you as a preacher. I said, I
don't have much confidence in myself. I mean, I don't have, we don't have confidence in this
flesh. I don't trust myself. Do you trust yourself? No. Not when it comes to spiritual
things. I don't trust myself to choose God. I know my heart.
Lord, you're gonna have to choose me. Lord, I know I wouldn't choose
you. I wouldn't love you unless you
gave me a love for you. If I have any confidence in me pertaining
to my own salvation, if I'm looking to my works as any part of my
righteousness, I have no righteousness. I have no righteousness. If I'm
looking to what I do or do not do as part of my salvation, I
do not have salvation. I am not saved. If I'm looking
at what I have done, or what I have not done, or what I'm
going to do, or what I'm doing as part of my salvation, I am
not a believer. I am not saved. But if the Lord
has given faith to look to Christ and everything that he has done
as all of your acceptance before God, look to his blood alone
as all your righteousness before God, you're a believer. You're
a believer. No, the law of do this and don't
do that never saved anyone, it just created iniquity. Iniquity
if it's done for righteousness. No, it's not what we do in our
flesh, it's what he did in his flesh. What is your confidence?
Confident in yourself? Confident in the law? Confident
in your flesh? Are you confident in the one
who satisfied justice? The one who bore the sin of all
of God's people on the cross, in his own body on the tree.
The one who was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Is that your confidence?
Yes, that's my confidence. Am I confident in my decision
making, my choices, or am I confident in God's choices? Because he
cannot lie, he cannot make mistakes. Confident in him, aren't we?
What is your confidence? Romans 8, 8 says, they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. Now, I'm not an extremely educated
man, but I understand what that means. Cannot means cannot. That means there's no way we
can. So what needs to happen then? Well, somebody's going
to have to please God on my behalf or I'm never going to be able
to please him. Nothing I can do can please him. You mean to tell me there's not
one thing that I can do to please God? Not one thing that we can
do to please God. Flesh hears that, and flesh gets
aggravated at that. Did you know that? Flesh gets
mad. Flesh don't like to hear that. Flesh wants some power.
We don't have any power. He has all power. He has all
power, both heaven and earth, to do that which he will. He
says that he can make a vessel of honor if he chooses to, or
a vessel of dishonor. He's the potter, we're the clay,
we're made of dust, dust of the earth. We think too highly of
ourself. Everything God requires, he must
provide because he only accepts what he provides. If you produce
it, if you produce it, God won't accept it. He has to produce
it and give it freely by grace. or he won't accept it. You remember
Abraham, when Abraham and Isaac were walking up to Mount, they're
walking up Mount Moriah, they were gonna, Lord told Abraham,
take thy son Isaac and sacrifice him. That's what the Lord told
him. And so the picture is the father and the son, just like
our God, the father and the son, going up that mountain, the father
had the knife, and the fire and the sun had the wood for the
altar. And we see that picture of Calvary where the Lord carrying
the cross up the Mount Calvary and the father's the one that
had the sword of justice and the fire that was due us, that
should have fallen upon us. That's the picture there. But
they get to the place and they build the altar and Isaac's laying
on the altar. Isaac asked his father before
that, he says, father, we have the wood, we have the fire, But
where's the sacrifice? Where's the sacrifice? And Abraham
through faith said, God will provide himself a sacrifice. Now, why was it necessary for
God to provide himself a sacrifice? He's only pleased with what he
provides. He's only pleased with what he
provides. And not only did he provide himself, but he provided
himself as his person. the Lord Jesus Christ. He provided
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's what he provided. You
know the rest of the story. The angel of the Lord, Abraham's
about to fulfill the deed. The angel of the Lord says, hurt
not thy son, the only son Isaac. And they turned around and they
saw a ram caught in the thorns. Can you imagine that daddy's
heart when he saw that? Substitution, that's what that
is, a substitution. They took that ram and they sacrificed
it unto God. Is it not true that the sentence
of death was upon every single one of us and we were on the
altar bound in the sword of justice? We deserve to be pierced into
our heart and we deserve to burn eternally in hell for what we
are. But yet the Lord said, I will provide myself a sacrifice. And we turn and we see the Lamb
of God as the sinner substitute, and we're set free because of
what He's done. Do you have confidence in what you
do or what He's done? Our confidence must be in Him
alone, His blood alone, His finished work alone, otherwise we have
no true confidence. What is your confidence this
morning? Before everybody leaves, Ask yourself honestly, what is
my confidence? Am I looking to myself as part of my salvation?
Because if you are, you're not saved. If you're looking to the
finished work of Christ alone, if you're resting in him alone,
it's because he did that. It's because he did that. Thirdly, what is your confidence? Is it in what man does? Is it
in what man does? What do I mean by that? Well,
we look at each other. A lot of people compare apples to apples,
don't they? They say, well, and you know you've heard this before,
and you might have even thought this before. I know I have, and
false religion especially. You look at somebody and say,
well, at least I'm not like so-and-so. At least I'm not like this person.
At least I'm not as bad as he is. I'm not as bad as she is. I would never do such a thing. You heard that before? I would
never do such a thing. Peter had that attitude, didn't he?
He said, Lord, I'm ready to go with you all the way, even unto
death. The Lord said, get behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. Satan hath desired to sift thee
as wheat, Peter, but I have prayed for you that your faith fell
not. And he said, before the cock crows three times, you're
going to deny me thrice. Before the cock crows, you're
going to deny me thrice. And that's exactly what happened
that night. Now you have a man who in boldness and confidence
in his flesh, it wasn't in the Lord at that moment, it was I'm
gonna go with you, I'm gonna do this. That was the problem,
there's too many I's, right? And then a 12-year-old little
girl caused him to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, think about that.
He's warming himself and this little girl standing there, he's
like, oh, you're from Galilee, you were with them, weren't you?
He said, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know the
man, I don't know the man. Oh, we need the Lord's faith
to keep us. If left to ourself, we'll be
looking around, seeing other people, what they're doing. And
we'll say, OK, I'm justified because I don't do this. And
I'm justified because I'm not as bad as them. So when I stand
before God, I'll be able to say, I've done all these wonderful
works in thy name. And I'm not as bad as Steve, not as bad as
Rob. You know what the Lord's going
to say? Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you.
I never knew you. My opinion, gentlemen, is I'm
twice as bad as both of you put together, but that's neither
here nor there, I suppose. All false religion has this in
common. The self-righteous, even in Christ's time, even in Christ's
time, thought that the righteousness by, they thought the righteousness
by Christ, it's too simple. It's too simple. It can't just
be that God chose to redeem a people, that God became a man and redeemed
those people. God lets us know about it in
his time by giving us faith and life to believe. And then he
keeps us all the way through to eternity. Well, that's too
simple. Well, it takes man out of the
equation. That's why it's simple. God does it all. God does it
all. When the gospel is preached,
it reveals the truth of what we are and who God is. When the gospel is preached,
if you have self-righteousness, it will rear its head up. You'll
find out really quick because the gospel gives all the glory
to Christ and no glory to you or me. Gospel comes forth and
says Christ is all and the flesh begins to kick. Flesh does not
like that. What the gospel does is it exposes
our sin, exposes what we are, exposes what we are. It says
you are the liar and he is the truth. You are the sinner and
he is the savior. You're the one that's dead, he
is life. You are darkness, he is light. That's what the gospel reveals. The gospel reveals that we're
lost, and we can't do anything to fix it. Not one thing. What's your confidence? My confidence
is that the Lord would be pleased to cause us to come to him, to
cause us to see his face. You remember the prodigal son,
he decided one day he had enough, spent enough time at home, he
wanted to leave. So he told his father he wanted his inheritance
and he was gonna go. Father gave him his inheritance
and he left. And it said that he spent it all on riotous living. I'm sure he had a lot of friends
during that time, he's spending all that money. One day he wakes
up after running out of all the money and he finds himself in
the hog pen. Now I'm gonna explain to you
why that's so bad because He was a Jew. Jews believed that
swine, hogs, were unclean animals. And yet, here he is with the
hogs. And he said he would have feigned
filled his belly with the husks. He's gonna eat what the pigs
were eating. He was that broke. And that's a picture of false
religion is what it is. The unclean, false religion that
tells everybody Jesus loves everybody, died for everybody, all you gotta
do is make your choice. That's the husks. That's hog food. No, we don't eat that. That's
poison. But the man by God's grace says
he came to himself. He came to himself. Now what
causes a man to come to themselves? God has to do that. It's called
repentance. And it's called faith. The Lord
said, live. And he said, and I remembered
my father, all the servants, they had better than this. He
said, I'm going to go to my father and say, I'm no longer worthy
to be your son. Just make me one of your hired
servants. And he leaves, he goes home. And the prodigal son found
out it wasn't about how he wanted to live life. He found out he
needed He had to return to the father. He gets there and he
goes, his father falls down before him and says, Lord, I'm not,
Father, I'm not worthy to be your son anymore. Make me a servant. Just make me a servant. When
the Lord reveals sin, what we are, shows us that all we're doing
is eating the husks. We see our father's table spread. We see
the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. We have confidence
to return, don't we? Confidence to come to his table,
confidence to come back to him. And he's the one that turns us.
He's the one that brings us over and over. What did the dad do
to the son? He gave him his robe. He said,
here, here's my ring, son. Put the ring on his finger. He
said, kill the calf, the fatted calf. He said, my son has returned.
The Lord's the one that has to do that. He's the one that has
to give repentance and faith that calls us to return. We'll
never return. We'll never return. God gives repentance and faith. No, we don't look at others and
see what they're doing to justify ourself. We look to Christ, who
is our justification. That's our confidence. Scripture says, by the sacrifice
of himself forever, he has made us partakers with him. For we
are made partakers of Christ if we hold to the beginning of
our confidence, steadfast to the end. What's your confidence? What's your confidence? Let's
read our text one more time here. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32, but call to remembrance
the formal days in which after you were illuminated, you endured
a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while
she 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 enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore,
your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. The only way, the only way that
our heart will not condemn us is if Christ is our confidence.
If you look to yourself You'll always be looking to do more
and to do more. You'll always try to make penance.
You'll always try to fix it by doing this and that. And that's
how we started this message. That's what men do by nature. We try
to fix it. Can't fix sin problem. It's a
heart condition. We don't need a quadruple bypass.
We need a brand new heart. Heart that beats after him. Heart
that loves him. The only way that our heart will
not condemn us if Christ alone is our confidence. First John
chapter three verse 21 says, beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then we have confidence toward God. We have confidence
toward God. What is your confidence? The
believer's confidence comes by the hearing of the word of God.
Now I don't mean the hearing as in we hear it read. I mean,
it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself hearing him, hearing him. being made to look at him as
all our acceptance before God. We no longer look to self. We
no longer run to the law for righteousness. We no longer look
at others to justify ourself. We are looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of faith, the one who saved his people
from their sin. He satisfied the law's demands.
He justified his people freely by his grace. He died the perfect
death. We could not die. He shed the
perfect blood that we could never have shed. We don't have perfect
blood. It's polluted. He's now seated as a successful
redeemer of his people. David said on his deathbed, although
it be not so with my house, yet the Lord hath made with me an
everlasting covenant. This is all my salvation. This
is all my confidence. That's what he was saying. That's
all my confidence. Covenant of grace with all of
our righteousness, all of our justification before his throne
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of this, Ephesians
3.12 says, in whom, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have boldness
and access with confidence by faith, by the faith of him, he
is our confidence. What's your confidence this morning?
Ask yourself that. What's your confidence? Christ
alone. Christ alone is our confidence.
Let's pray. Father, we are thankful that
you are our confidence and that you'd finish the work given to
you, cause us to believe. Bless this to our understanding
for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.