Sermon Cloud

Not of Those Who Shrink Back

Hebrews 10:36-39

Grace Fellowship Church

May 11, 2008

Series 3 Sermon 44

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. ³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; ³⁸but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”  ³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Introduction

There are, as many of you are aware, five Latin phrases that emphasize the return to Biblical fidelity as a result of the Protestant Reformation.  The Reformers summarized their beliefs with these phrases and they have been helpful to several generations of Christians as we have set out to live out our faith in a world in opposition to it.  The first of these phrases is Sola Scriptura or Scripture alone.  What the Reformers meant by Sola Scriptura was that the church’s final authority was the Word of God contained in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.  It was in opposition to the predominant view of the Roman Catholic Church which held to Scripture and tradition.  And many times tradition and papal authority trumped the clear teaching of Scripture.  What Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli were sure of was the fallibility of man and the infallibility of God and His Word.  Let me read the statement on Sola Scriptura from our church confession of faith.

We affirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.

We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.

Springing from that doctrine of Sola Scriptura was the other four heads of doctrine.  These heads of doctrine had to do with salvation.  After all this was the ultimate question that man needed an answer for and the Reformers went to the Scripture to seek it out.  They asked, “How are sinful people to be saved?”  So the second head of doctrine was Soli Deo Gloria.  We can loosely translate that as “for God’s glory alone.”  The Bible speaks over and over of the glory of God and if sinners are to be saved by a holy and glorious God then that salvation would be found by studying His Word and it would be to God’s glory.  Again from our church confession:

We affirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.

We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.

Third is the doctrine of Sola Christus.  The Bible has revealed to us that salvation is found in Christ and in Him alone.  Salvation is found in no other name under heaven and it is by and through Christ Jesus that anyone anywhere and at anytime will be saved.  The church cannot save, methods cannot save, good works cannot save, only Christ is able to save to the uttermost.

Our confession states:

We affirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.

We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.

Fourth is the doctrine of Sola Gratia.  If anyone is ever saved by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God, according to the Scripture it will be by grace alone.  Grace alone excludes any meritorious work on our part.  Sola Gratia teaches that we have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation.  It is all by God’s grace and for His glory. 

Ephesians 1:3-6 says:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him . In love ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

From our confession:

We affirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.

So if we understand these other four Solas, that ultimately salvation is taught in Scripture alone, to God’s glory alone, found in Christ alone, and is granted by God’s grace alone, then the fifth Sola teaches us what the vehicle is for salvation.  What is it that God requires of those whom He chooses to save?   The answer to that question is in verse 38. 

³⁸but my righteous one shall live by faith…

Let me again read to you from our confession.

We affirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.

We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

Martin Luther, the great Reformer, said that the church stands or falls regarding the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  The Protestant Reformation was largely a renewal of this doctrine.  The reformers wanted to know how a person who is sinful could be saved or brought into right relationship with a holy God.  What they learned in their former Catholicism was that faith must be exercised but not a faith that is apart from works.  So the Roman Catholic Church created works that would contribute grace to faith and hopefully secure the person’s right standing before God. 

Here is where we have to be very careful.  Grace Fellowship Church holds tightly to Sola Fide.  All who will be saved will be saved by God’s grace, through faith, in Christ alone and for no other reason.  God did not look through the corridor of time to see who would have faith in Him and therefore elect them to salvation. In His sovereign election God, from the foundation of the world, chose whom He would save and in time is bringing about that salvation by giving the grace of faith to all whom He has chosen to give to Christ.  This is our only hope of salvation not because it is the best way but because it is the only way. 

The Biblical truth is that if you are going to Heaven, then you must have been perfect your whole life or you can not get in.  Perfection, holiness, and righteousness is all that will enter Heaven to be eternally in the presence of a holy, perfect, and righteous God. 

Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “⁴⁸ "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This perfection, by the way, is not that I was a sinner and then at some point became perfect.  This requirement for perfection is that I was perfect my whole life.  We have a problem.  I have not been perfect this day not to mention all the other days.  The biblical truth is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  So I could heap up work after work and sacrifice after sacrifice and still would fall dreadfully short of earning my way into Heaven.

I had quite the passionate discussion about this with someone shortly after Mother Theresa died.  You will remember that Mother Theresa worked with the lepers and destitute in Calcutta, India.  This person told me that even though Mother Theresa was Roman Catholic she was certainly going to be in Heaven because no one could do all that she had done and not make it to Heaven.  I of course said, “On contrar mon frier.”  The Bible is clear and it does not matter how I view what Mother Theresa’s eternal destiny should be there is only One Judge and His Word says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, not of works lest any man should boast.”  And let me say this to you, if Mother Theresa was not saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone then all of her works were just glorious sins done in the name of self justification. 

The same is true for you and the same is true for me. Unless we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone all the good works in the world are just sins committed that find no merit with God. Because all our righteousness is like filthy rags.    

Upon the doctrine of Sola Fide the church stands or falls and if this doctrine is lost the church ceases to be the church and is either a fellowship club or a synagogue of Satan.

Let me tell you how the Protestant church has lost this doctrine for the most part in our day.  As heralds of the Gospel we are to call people to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  When the Apostle Paul was leaving Ephesus he said to the elders there in Acts 20:18-21:

"You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia , how I was with you the whole time, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, ²¹ solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the proclamation of a Biblical Gospel.  This was what the Reformers were saying in the recovery of Sola Fide.  Sadly few preach this Gospel today.  The Catholics proclaim, “Have faith but do this also.”  But so do many, many Protestants.  What many have done is just add more tradition to the Gospel. You see this fleshed out in those that believe in Baptismal regeneration.  They may not come right out and say it but in practice they believe it.  Certain denominations hold that if you are not rightly baptized by a minister in their group then you can not be saved.  This is adding to the Gospel of God’s grace and is blatant heresy.  You may say, “Joe, this is just a small minority.”  That is true but it is a gospel perversion none the less.  There are other groups who teach that faith is not rooted in its object which is Christ but rather is a force to utilize to get what you want like wealth or healing.  All of these folks claim to believe the Bible and believe that they are proclaiming what the Bible says.  But they are deceived. 

All of us would shun the idea of Baptismal regeneration and the idea that faith is a force by which we manipulate God into getting what we want.  But there is a more insidious Gospel perversion that parades itself around boldly and proudly and has done so for about the last 150 years.  This heresy has taken over the church near and far and caused great harm to the cause of the Gospel.  And most of the people who hold to this view also proclaim to be conservative, evangelical, Bible believing Christians.  What is this view?  It is called decisional regeneration.  This is the belief that one must make a decision to be a Christian.  This is the belief that a person can in essence by a sheer act of their will convert themselves.  This is the belief that a person can make a decision and be born again.  Some of you are probably sitting there this morning and saying, “Wait a minute.  I have been taught that my whole life.”  You have probably heard sermons on John 3 where the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus,"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

And the sermon ended this way.  “Now if you want to be born again come forward and talk with me or pray this prayer right where you sit.”  You may say, “Well what’s wrong with that?  Many preachers that I have known do that and they are good men.  I would not consider them heretics.”   Here is what’s wrong with that.  If you read John 3 you will find that the One speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ, did not ask Nicodemus to do anything.  He did not lead him in a prayer to be born again.  And the Lord did not do this for a good reason.  The analogy that the Lord used about being born again Nicodemus understood perfectly well.  He asked the question, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"

And the obvious answer that the decisionalists don’t get or refuse to deal with is the impossibility of the Lord’s statement.  The analogy is crystal clear.  You have as much to do with your new birth as you had to do with your first.  You did not choose your parents, your skin color, the shape of your face, your gender, the time in which you were born, or even the hospital that you would prefer.  All of that was determined by forces other than you.  The same thing is true of the New Birth.  You don’t decide that you are going to be born again. 

The fact is that we can not change one thing about us that has been predetermined.  I can’t make myself taller.  No matter how hard I try I will never have movie star good looks.  I can pop a set of fake colored contact lenses in but that only changes the appearance of the color of my eyes not the actual color.  I can dye my hair but that is only temporary.  If it falls out is gone for good.  All those things are predetermined. 

And Christ Jesus does the same thing with eternal salvation.  Folks, anytime anything is added to the Gospel call of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ then it ceases to be the Gospel.  This is how hardlined on the doctrine of Sola Fide that I want Grace Fellowship Church to be.  It may just be us four and no more but if we get everything else wrong I am determined that we get the Gospel right.  I happen to believe that if you get the Gospel right other things tend to fall in the proper place. And God blesses His Gospel proclaimed.

So when you hear someone say, “Now pray this prayer.”  Or they say that you must make a decision or exercise your will or walk to the front of a church building or anything other than repentance and faith then rest assured they are preaching a false Gospel.  Again someone will say, “Joe, you are bordering on nit picking and gnat strangling.”  I take my stand with the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul.  Paul said in Galatians 1:8-9,

⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you(and Galatians is all about Sola Fide and in opposition to those who were adding to the Gospel), he is to be accursed ! ⁹ As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed !

The word for accursed is the word anathema.  It means literally to go to Hell.  So what Paul is saying is this, “Even if an angel from Heaven shows up and preaches in your midst, if he is preaching a different Gospel than what I have preached to you, you grab him by the nape of his angelic neck and the seat of his angelic britches and toss him right out of there.”

Some today will readily admit that merely preaching the Gospel is not enough.  You must give people an opportunity to respond.  After all we have been told over and over again that people need a psychological security about the decision that they just made.  So we must provide them what they need in order to cement that decision in their hearts and minds so that they never doubt the decision they have made for Christ.  They need to be told that they are now Christians and that they should never ever think for one minute that they indeed may not be born again. 

Folks, let me tell you what this is.  It is an utter blasphemy against God because it is adding steps to the Gospel message of repent and believe. You and I do not need psychological security to remember the decision that we made.  We need desperately to be brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit and given the gifts of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ neither of which we can do in our own strength.  People who are dead need a resurrection not an alter call. 

And what about this idea of immediate eternal security?  Is that biblical?  I believe that eternal security is definitely taught in Scripture but immediate security is not taught.  What is taught is Romans 8:16 which says, “¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…”

So what should we do?  How do we proclaim the true Gospel in a world that is filled with the false Gospel?  And just a side note this morning, many of you came to faith in Christ under the very system that I mentioned. So don’t think I am telling you this morning that because you walked an isle or said a prayer that you are not a believer.  If you have repented and believe the Gospel which means you have faith in Christ alone and nothing else regarding your salvation and the Spirit of God bears witness with your Spirit then rest assured that God saved you not because of that system but in spite of it.  God knows who are His and will lose none of them.  

So how should we proclaim the true Gospel?     

When Paul went to Corinth he said that he had determined to know nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified.  Paul was a very educated man. He was a brilliant scholar but he was so concerned with the purity of the Gospel of God’s grace that he refused to utilize the methodology of the day and revert to brilliant oratory that would attract the fleshly Corinthians to him.  He wanted the Lord to build His church and so he maintained his mission and made sure his message was that of Christ crucified and he did what most of the emerging church crowd today thinks is utterly ridiculous and wrong and he did not acclimate his message to the cultural surroundings of Corinth.  Paul was confident in the message of Sola Fide.  Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,
"I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE." ²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. ²² For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

If some of these church growth gurus would just read the Bible they would find that their admonitions to pastors to become as much like the world as they can to attract people to Christ is the wisdom of this age that is mere human foolishness. 

The Apostle Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ crucified, dead and buried, resurrected on the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and returning in judgment and as the only way of salvation and the Bible says that many there were cut to the heart.  Was it Peter’s eloquence?  He was a fisherman.  Have you ever met any eloquent fisherman?  Was it his ability to relate to the culture around him?  Was it because they had the right music selections and the right style of music for the setting and the lighting was just right and the piano played softly while he gave an invitation?  Of course not.  It was the message.  The crowd responded, “Brothers, what do we do?”  Peter did not say to walk down and kneel at an alter or take his hand or repeat this prayer.  He said “Repent.”

When Paul was in Philippi at the jail and the jailor said, “What must I do to be saved?”  What did Paul say?  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”

It is imperative that we get the Gospel right. To get it wrong is to be anthema, accursed.  The true Gospel is our only hope.  Christ’s substitionary atonement on the cross on behalf of His people is the one sure foundation that we can hold onto no matter what comes our way.  If you are being persecuted do you want to hold on to a decision or to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?  The danger in getting the Gospel wrong is that when trouble comes you are not ready for it.  Its like the illustration that the Lord Jesus used for the man who built his house on sand.  The winds and waves came and washed that house away.  So we want our houses built on the firm foundation of Christ and His Gospel. 

We are moving into the section of the Epistle to the Hebrews that deals with specifically what Biblical saving faith looks like.  Faith is a term that is often thrown around that few truly understand.  The Bible teaches us that we are justified or made righteous by faith.  We are made perfect through Christ and by Him through faith alone.  In the Heavenly transaction of salvation we wicked sinners are enabled to believe and given the gifts of repentance and faith and by that faith we are forgiven of our sins past, present, and future by the sacrifice of Christ’s substitutionary atoning death and we also are given a righteousness that is not our own.  It is Christ’s righteousness.  I told you earlier that in order to go to heaven that we have to be perfect from the time we were conceived until the second we die.  But all have sinned.  So the only One who has ever met that criteria is the Lord Jesus Christ who knew no sin yet He was tempted in all things as we are.  Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness.  Martin Luther used the term “alien righteousness” to describe this transaction.  The righteousness we need for salvation is Christ’s and not our own filthy rags. 

The writer of Hebrews has already unpacked this for us.  Now he is going to show us in the rest of chapter 10 through the end of the epistle how this saving faith is fleshed out.  He is going to do so by telling us first the importance of faith then what faith is and then what true biblical faith looks like in examples from the Word of God.  

Now that we have the introduction out of the way I want you to see from our text this morning, Hebrews 10:36-39, one characteristic of true Biblical faith.  This characteristic is going to guide the understanding and application of the rest of the epistle.  If faith is anything it must have this characteristic about it. 

That characteristic of biblical saving faith is simply this:

1.  Biblical, saving faith is an enduring faith.

If you will recall, last week I told you that my purpose for preaching this section was the same purpose the writer had and that was found in verse 36.  Look at it with me.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Last week I showed you from verses 32 through 36 that in order to have endurance in the New Covenant we must remember the early days of our faith and we must not lose our confidence which is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So the writer’s purpose for us is for us to understand that God calls us to faithful endurance and true biblical faith is an enduring faith.  So let’s ask and answer a few questions about endurance.

1.   How long must we endure?  Look at verse 37.

³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;

The English translation for “a little while” really does not do it justice.  Literally it is “a very little while” or a little, little while.  It comes from a phrase in Isaiah 26:20 that has to do with the trouble and trial of this life.  Isaiah proclaims in Isaiah 26:17-21. 

¹⁷Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth,  so were we because of you, O Lord; ¹⁸ we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind.  We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.  ¹⁹Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.  ²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.  ²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

In the midst of trouble the people in Isaiah’s day, the people in the First Century, and we, the Christians in the 21^st Century need to endure until the coming of the Lord.  We endure until the end.  We hold fast our confession even when facing death. 

The reason the false gospels are so dangerous is because if salvation is something I do then I can commit apostasy and then do something to get saved again.  I can lose it and then pick it up anytime I want.  But this goes against all the imperatives of the New and Old Testament to endure until the end.  If salvation is up to us then we can take it up and put it down and then pick it up again. 

So the second question we need to ask this morning is this.

2.  How do we have this kind of endurance?  Look at the beginning of verse 38.

³⁸but my righteous one shall live by faith,

We are saved by faith and we persevere by faith in Christ.  We hold fast to Him and trust in Him in every situation. 

By the way folks, this passage is also quoted in Romans 1 and was the verse by which Martin Luther was converted. The just shall live by faith.  Luther was an Augustinian monk.  He went to confession.  He did everything the Roman Catholic hierarchy told him he should do.  He understood the righteous demands of God’s law and through all of the works that he did he could not find peace with God.  It got to the point with his confessor that he sent Luther to Rome on a pilgrimage.  Surely the pilgrimage to the holy city would give Luther peace with God.  It only made matters worse as Luther saw for himself the vast corruption of the church.  Surely salvation could not be found in such a corrupt organization.  So his confessor, after this failure, sent Luther to Wittenburg to be a professor of theology.  There he became the preacher in the college church and began to teach through the Epistle to the Romans.  Being an Augustinian Monk he read Augustine on Romans and he discovered the phrase from our passage, verse 38, “but my righteous one shall live by faith.”  Then he discovered that salvation was by faith in Christ and endurance in salvation was by faith in Christ.  What a concept. 

One of the greatest prayers you can pray in the midst of a trial is this, “Oh Lord, keep me kept.”   We are saved by faith and we endure by that same faith in Christ.  We trust in Him as our deliverer, as not only the redeemer of our souls but of our bodies as well.  When trials and persecution come our way we do not faint and lose hope because Christ is our sure foundation.  

We hold on to the promises some of which is this, “In this life you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  “All who desire to live godly in the world will suffer persecution.”  “Not only has it been granted to you to believe in Christ but also to suffer for His sake.”  “Blessed are you when they persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you for My Name’s sake.  Rejoice, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.”  “Some of you they will kill, others will be thrown into prison.” 

True saving faith endures in the face of difficult times.  As a matter of fact it thrives and grows and enduring faith is forged in the fires of adversity.  This is why we need endurance. 

So what if we have no endurance?  What if our faith is not legitimate and at the first sign of trouble we are ready to fold the tent and stop being a Christian?  Look at verse 38 again with me. 

³⁸but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

The verse is clear.  The one who runs away and denies the faith in difficult times the Lord has no pleasure in him. 

Psalm 149:4 says,

⁴ For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.

So what did the writer say about the people he was writing to?  How did he prop them up and give them encouragement?  Look at verse 39.

 ³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.      

True biblical faith is an enduring faith.  But here is where we need to tread carefully.  Real faith is proven in adversity.  Christianity is a costly faith.  It will cost you your life.  You must lay down many things, many desires, many dreams in order to take up your cross and follow Christ.  You must deny yourself daily and live not for your will but for God’s will. 

What we are going to see is just that over the next few weeks as we move into chapter 11.  We are going to see the sacrifice required by God from His children that proves saving faith. 

In closing this morning, I ask you, do you have enduring faith?  Is your faith in Christ or in some decision that you made at some point in your life?  Are you trusting in Christ for your salvation or something else whether it be your baptism, your devotional life, or something other than the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary?

If you are trusting in anything or anyone else but Christ and in Him alone then you will be of those who shrink back. 

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.