How to Keep Going

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Could you please take up the pew Bibles and turn to Hebrews 10. I want us to look this evening at 10.35 – 11.1. Just a half dozen verses but they pack quite a punch. In fact they talk about one of the central issues that we face in our lives if we are Christians: HOW TO KEEP GOING. And that’s my title.

It reminds me of a journey I once made to Italy with Vivienne and her brother for a holiday. This was before we were married - just a short time ago. My parents kindly lent me their car – but what neither they nor we knew was that there was a serious fault developing under the bonnet. We were well on our way through France when the engine started overheating. None of us knew anything much about cars, but we filled up the radiator with water and rather anxiously continued. It happened again. We filled it again. It happened again.

In Italy a garage mechanic told us via a pocket phrase book that there was nothing much he could do. The car would probably just about survive ‘til we got back to England. Well it got to the point where each morning we were packing the car with as many containers as we could find filled with water. Roughly every twenty minutes the engine would overheat and we would stop and refill the empty, steaming radiator. As you can imagine, the journey home was calm, happy, peaceful and cheerful. Actually it was just about the most stressful journey I have ever done. It seemed to go on for ever. The sun got progressively more intense. We wondered if we would ever make it home. It was a case of what would explode first: the engine – or us.

Maybe you feel as if your Christian life is like that. Constantly on the point of collapse. You are constantly trying to top it up but the effect never seems to last. You feel as if you’re drying up. You have serious doubts about whether you will make it to the end. And you ask yourself, “How can I keep going?” Well, that is the question Hebrews addresses head on.

Earlier on in chapter 10 – in verses 19-21 – the starting point of our Christian lives is made clear: Christ died for us, and Christ is now alive and reigns. And flowing from that, as we saw, you may remember, in a recent sermon series on Hebrews [how can I doubt that you remember sermons!] - flowing from that is what we might call a row of “let us’s” in verses 22-25:

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (10.22-25)

You can hardly miss the point. Don’t stop! Keep going! Don’t just end up snoozing in a lay-by! But like an England football team up against Germany at Wembley, we need more than the shouting of the crowd from the sidelines. We need strength. We need power. What can we do if we are breaking down?

The first thing to do is to identify accurately the problem – unlike our Italian car mechanic. And verses 26-34 make clear that it all boils down to this [if you will excuse the pun]: there are really only two things that put the brakes on our Christian living, and they are sin and suffering. Verses 26-34 are rather like the X-ray that the surgeon uses before he wields the knife – if I may shift the metaphor from the mechanical to the medical. So what do these verses reveal? They may expose the cancer of sin. Look at verse 26:

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins…(10.26)

Or on the other hand these X-rays may expose the broken bones of suffering – verse 32:

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings… (10.32)

And the suffering we undergo may be either direct of in direct. Verse 33 describes the direct hit:

sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction…(10.33)

- and their property was confiscated. Indirect suffering is caused by the direct suffering of those we care about. Verse 33 again:

… sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison…(10.33-34)

If your life in Christ feels like it’s grinding to a halt, then ask the Holy Spirit to take his spiritual X-ray pictures with his X-ray machine the Word of God. What do you see? Is there persistent sin in your life that you haven’t faced up to? Or are you worn down by suffering?

Well, treatment follows diagnosis – it’s amazing, the medical expertise you pick up at this church! And that brings us to 10.35 – 11.1. There is a three part prescription here. Or rather there are three things that the collapsing Christian needs, and you can’t really separate them, so this is more like one medicine with three powerful active ingredients. They are, firstly, confidence; secondly, endurance; and thirdly, faith. Let’s look at each of those in turn and see what it is, what it does, and how to get it. So:

First, CONFIDENCE

Verse 35:

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. (10.35)

What is this confidence? It isn’t the kind of self-confidence that is faced with a challenge and says, “I can do this. No trouble.” Self-confidence like that can all too easily be based on a quite unrealistic assessment of ability on the one hand and danger on the other.

I was talking to someone recently who been with her family to Alton Towers, where they went on Oblivion. Oblivion is a rollercoaster that consists very simply of a 180 foot vertical drop into a hole in the ground. I was reminded of when we went with our young children years ago. I went on Oblivion twice – I enjoyed it so much.

But I find nowadays that my confidence has deserted me. Time was when I would relish the prospect of being suspended upside down with nothing but a harness between me and certain death. Now I’m rather glad that the Hoppings has been cancelled, so I don’t have to feel bad about avoiding the Merry-Go-Round.

I realised the time had come to give up year’s ago when I went on a modest little ride with our then young son Ben at the seaside. We were hurled up into the sky again and again. The worse it got, the more Ben loved it. And the more green and sick I felt. It’s an awful feeling, realising fifteen seconds into the ride that you just don’t want to be there; that you’re fearing for your life; that there are five more interminable minutes to go; and that your son is laughing with delight at your elbow, with all the fearless confidence of youth that sees no danger in anything.

The confidence Hebrews speaks of is quite different. It is the courageous willingness to witness to Christ even though you are well aware of the dangers of doing so. It is a readiness to speak openly and boldly about Christ, without taking account of the consequences for yourself. It is the confidence that the apostles had after Pentecost when they were brought before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Peter was filled with the Spirit and said:

“Rulers of the people and elders… , if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man …let it be known to all of you … that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead —by him this man is standing before you well. … And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4.8-12)

And Acts 4.13 records

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And [listen to this – this is wonderful] they recognized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13)

The basis of their confidence was not themselves but what God has done through Jesus, and the power of Christ in their lives. Back to Hebrews 10 – and verse 19:

… we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us …(Hebrews 10.19)

If, through Christ, we can now come boldly and confidently before our awesome God, then surely we can speak boldly for the sake of Christ before men. And the result when we do is a rich reward. We realise afresh God’s faithfulness to us. And the name of Jesus is honoured. That should be for us the greatest prize of all. So confidence in Christ and for Christ is the first active ingredient in the medicine that the collapsing Christian needs.

Secondly, ENDURANCE

The next ingredient is endurance. Verse 36:

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. (10.36)

What is endurance? It is simply long-term confidence. Continuous and unending confidence. The opposite of endurance is what verses 38 and 39 call “shrinking back”. You begin well. You step forward out of the ranks to volunteer your services for the dangerous mission that’s under way. But after a while you think better of it and step back into the shadows. You prefer hiding to heroism.

We are being called to endurance in doing the will of God. If we do, it may at times seem tough now. But in the end we will receive what he had promised – “every spiritual blessing” in Christ, as Ephesians 1.3 puts it.

So there is an active side and a passive side to this endurance. The active side is a steady persistence in doing what God asks of us. The passive side is a patient perseverance when that obedience is under difficult circumstances. Steady persistence and patient perseverance make up endurance.

“… you will be hated by all for my name's sake,” said Jesus as he sent out the twelve. “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10.22)

What does this kind of endurance come from then? Well I can tell you one thing, and that is that it does not come from inside us. If we were left to our own devices we would collapse at the first hurdle. The first time the pressure was applied to our Christian lives we would run. The kind of spiritual strength and stamina that leads to permanent endurance can only come from one source – and that is God. But that is exactly where Hebrews is pointing us! Verse 39:

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 10.39)

Faith is complete dependence on God and his Word. Faith looks to God for the gift of endurance. It is a gift he loves to give – and that he always does give – to those who depend on him.

Endurance that has been really tested is a wonderful thing to see. One of the many privileges of having belonged to this fellowship now for over 25 years is that I have a store of memories of saints from our fellowship here who have fallen asleep in Christ after a lifetime of faithful endurance.

I think of one lady whose name was Joyce Ferry. Some of you knew her well. She died many years ago now. We watched her grow old and infirm. She had a condition that meant she gradually got more and more shrunk and bent over until she was bent double. She had an extraordinarily difficult time of it. But without wavering she simply endured – always full of gentle but burning faith in her Lord Jesus; endlessly far more concerned for others than for herself. She knew, as verse 37 says:

For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay…” (10.37)

Christ would return, and all would be well. And in the mean time the gospel needed to be gossiped on Tyneside. That is the kind of endurance that only God can give. If you want it, go to him for it.

Thirdly, FAITH

So we come to the last of the active ingredients in God’s medicine for the collapsing Christian. And that is faith. Endurance is given to those who have faith. What is faith? 11.1 tells us:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (11.1)

This is very important. When Christians try to keep going on the basis of what they see happening – in themselves, in the church, or in the world – then they will collapse very quickly. It is of the essence of faith that it relates to what we have not yet seen. Jesus said to Thomas:

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20.29)

We have not seen Jesus. We did not see him live or die or rise again. We cannot see him reigning as King at the right hand of the Father. We have not (of course) seen him return. But yet we believe. Why? Because God has told us it is so, in his Word. And God’s Word is unbreakable and certain.

So our confidence and our endurance are built on the same foundation that we began our Christian lives with. Christ died for our sins. He was raised from the dead. He is sovereign. And he will return. We have not seen those things but we are certain of them because God said them. And God’s Word is more certain than our sight.

In conclusion then – Jesus said:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2.17)

If you sense this evening that your Christian life is sickly, then come to the great physician Jesus Christ. That is how to keep going. He has a powerful medicine to heal collapsing Christian syndrome. It has three active ingredients: confidence, endurance, and faith. It is the only medicine that will do the job. And he is the only supplier. Come to him. Tell him your symptom. Is it sin? Is it suffering? Ask him for the medicine. And he will give it to you.