Title: Cast not away your confidence
Scripture Reading: Hebrew 10:35-39
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
In many ways, Hebrews 10:35-39 sounds like the message to the seven churches of Revelation 2-3.
The issue facing the church is not only the struggling believers, but the multitude of modern Western Churches members who have no evidence of faith in their lives. Easy believism, coupled with an overemphasis on security, has filled our churches with baby Christians at best and lost people in Christian clothing at worst.
We have become a self-centered, materialistic, capitalistic, decadent people with no evidence of faith inour lives. Salvation has been turned into a product (a ticket to heaven at the end of a self-centered life or a fire insurance policy against ongoing sin), instead of a daily, growing personal relationship with God.
Jeremiah 51:37 prophesy, ‘Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.’
The goal of Christianity is not only heaven, but Christlikeness now.
We are saved to serve! Security is a by-product of a life of service and discipleship. Security is not a goal to pursue in life but a dependence upon God for it.
- Two groups of Christians addressed
A. A discouraged group.
One group is a discouraged group. I call them the struggling believers.
We are like Ephraim in Psalms 78:9, ‘being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.’
Michael Clark, the bible commentator says in reference to Hebrew 10:35, ‘This is your shield, your faith in Christ, which gives you the knowledge of salvation; keep it, and it will keep you.’
God is addressing this specific group of believers. They had received the Gospel from some believers, they had seen signs and wonders, they had known the basic Christian principles. They were fruitful and had ministered to people. Their earlier days were one of persecutions. Many of us are in this category.
The purpose of Hebrews is to remind and convince us of the sufficiency and superiority of Christ. To warn us of the danger of falling away from Christ and to exhort us to faithfulness.
B. A Drifting group
They have it the easy way.
It is a truth of life that in many ways it is easier to stand adversity than to stand prosperity.
Ease has ruined far more men than trouble ever did.
When you are the best, you are winning and it is a sign that God is with you. Wrong!
In this age of technology, we are inundated with information about cultures, cults, philosophies, charismatic leaders, and alternate lifestyle, all these are the result of ease which lead to sins.
- Holding the Profession of our faith
Hebrew 10:35a: ‘Cast not away therefore your confidence.’
‘Cast not away therefore your confidence.’ documents the need of the believing group:
A. Not to throw away their confidence
B. To endure
‘Casting not away therefore your confidence’ means ‘let us hold us to the profession of our faith without wavering.’ The meaning is that by endurance in doing the will of God we would receive.
The full and final enjoyment of what is promised is still future and conditioned by perseverance. This verse is addressing us as Christian. It says to us, ‘therefore do not cast away your confidence.’
Firstly, this verse is addressing discouraged Christians around. Secondly, this is also a reference to cowardly soldiers, who throw away their shields, and run away from the battle.
- Great recompense of reward
Hebrew 10:35: ‘Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.’
This refers to the promises of the New Covenant Christ. The New Covenant is a grace-based covenant, based on God’s character, Jesus’ death and resurrection and the Spirit’s wooing.
Of course, it adds, ‘You have need of endurance.’ Another translation put it as ‘you have need of patience.’ We need endurance and patience to receive the promise of God after we have done the will of God
Hebrew 10:35, ‘Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. ’For ye have need of patience, that , after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.’
Faithfulness during the time when the promise seems unfulfilled is the measure of your obedience and spiritual maturity:
- The endurance is built through trials, the testing of our faith.
- The endurance is also built through this phrase: ‘The Just shall live by faith.’ Habakkuk 3:17 says, ‘Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be found on the vines, and the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls.’
- Every word of Habakkuk 2:4 is important, and the Lord quotes it three times in the New Testament just to bring out the fullness of the meaning. In Romans 1:17, Paul quotes this same passage from Habakkuk 2:4 with the emphasis on faith. In Galatians 3:11 Paul quotes this same passage again but this time with the emphasis on just. Here in Hebrew 10:38 Paul quotes the same passage with the emphasis on live.
- He is coming
Hebrew 10:37 says, ‘For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.’ Here we are given:
A. The certainty, notwithstanding delay of the fulfillment of the Divine Promise.
B. The necessity meanwhile of continuance in faith and perseverance.
And He is coming with His heavenly rewards, He is coming to make our eternity secure in Christ, He is coming to save us from our own sins.
- The danger of Apostasy
Hebrew 10:38-39
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
What do you mean by drawing back:
A. Drawing back in the Christian life is sometimes due to disappointment, at other times to depression, and still others to discouragement, but always to distrust.
B. Drawing back to the saving of the soul.
Summing up, Paul challenged us to hold fast our faith. we are truly a struggling group of Christians and the temptation to give up attacks our brain constantly. For others, when we have a little prosperity, we think it is because of our self effort and we begin to live a life of ease. We drift so easily. We are exhorted to hold fast to our profession, but then more often than not, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We lose patience enduring and wonder even whether we will receive our reward. We even doubt if Christ will actually return. It is so difficult to hold fast to the profession of our faith. On the contrary, we lose our axe head, our compass of life when trying to hold on.
Understanding our struggle, God sent a greater man, to show the way. If you say, you struggled, it was said he struggled until His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.’ Have you ever struggled until great drops of blood fall to the ground? No, you did not. He endured like us but yet he was still crucified at the cross in spite of all the endurance. You are still alive today. Have you ever been crucified? It is said the crucifixion is the cruelest of all punishment. We were punished many a times for our sins but Christ was punished for no sins. We said we are tempted and sinned but Jesus was also tempted in all points like us, yet without sin. Jesus did not draw back like us, but press on only to see his soul cast into hell. But death has not hold over him and He was resurrected.
In conclusion, the author of Hebrews says, ‘We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls.’ Yet there is one –Jesus who really was shrunken back at the cross and destroyed SO THAT THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE SHRUNKEN FROM YOUR ENDURANCE, CAN KEEP GOING IN THE ENDURANCE OF CHRIST. Jesus had faith in God and yet he died despite his faith, so that today when you are struggling in the midst of hardship, the confidence of Christ is imputed into your spirit so that you can keep trusting Him regardless. Therefore we can move on by faith. We don’t have to shrink back because of Christ. Another good news is our suffering is not eternal because Christ is coming back soon for us.
