Sermon Audio

Scripture: Hebrews 10:32-39

Stream or download Calling to remembrance the former times

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Looking back upon former days in our lives is a divine injunction. While it behoves us to be ever “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” 2 Peter 3:12. (Matt 25:5.) We are also called upon to look back. It is something that God constantly calls His people to do. Of course, we have need of such calls for we are so forgetful. This is especially true of the good and the blessed things we have experienced. Matt 16:5-10.

What is it God would have us remember? “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no,” Deuteronomy 8:2. All of God’s dealings with us are worthy of recall.

Here in the passage before us, it is a call to remember the days at the beginning of the pilgrimage of the Hebrew Christians.

Remembering the former days will serve to:—

I. EMPHASIS THE NEED SINNERS HAVE OF ILLUMINATION

Often we are puzzled by the opposition of sinners. If we recall what we were like we will not.

1. Remember your own darkness and ignorance.  The eyes of our soul dwelt under the blackest curtain of ignorance. “For ye were sometimes darkness,” Eph 5:8. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” Colossians 1:13.

2. Illumination was the first grace bestowed.  Verse 16 lists the blessings of the covenant. Illumination is first.

3. It was an illumination in the knowledge of Christ. The word means to light up, Rev 18:1. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, II Corinthians 4:6. In the light of Christ’s glory, like Saul, we saw our own sins clearly.
Remembering the former days will serve to:—

II.  SHOW THAT AFFLICTION IS PART OF BEING A CHRISTIAN
We had no trouble from the world before we were saved. But that changed very swiftly upon our conversion. Affliction and trouble are an integral part of the Christian’s journey. “Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,” Acts 14:22.  “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto,” 1 Thessalonians 3:3. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” 2 Timothy 3:12.

1. The character of their affliction. “A great fight of afflictions.”  The word fight comes from athleo, a Greek word meaning  participation in public games.

2. The precise nature of their affliction.  “Gazing stock,” (brought upon a stage). “Spoiling of their goods.” These are two very heavy burdens to bear.

3. The reason why they were made to suffer.  They became companions of the despised servants of God who were the companions of the despised Jesus, verse 33. It is His reproach the child of God is required to bear. Hebs 13:13. No reproach — no affliction. Something modern Christianity is most anxious to avoid!!
Remembering the former days will serve to:

III. REMIND US OF THE  SECRET OF SUCH VICTORIOUS LIVING
Those who lived in victory in the past may not be doing so now. People who achieved much for Christ in the past may not be doing so now. Looking back may mean the recovery of that victory which has been lost. Look at verse 32. They had endured a great fight. Look at verse 34. There was a “joyful acceptance” of the “spoiling of their goods.” This joyful endurance of affliction sprang from a “knowing in themselves “that they had “in heaven a better and an enduring substance,”  v 34.

1. The secret was the abiding and real sense of heaven’s glory. From day to day they lived with a greater sense of heaven than of the earth. Do you remember days like that?

2. To them heaven’s glory was enduring  while earth’s was passing away.  Heaven was “an enduring, lasting substance.”

3. To them heaven was substantial. The word means wealth, goods, property.  The only other place this word occurs is in Acts 2:45. “And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” They had no real attachment to them anyway. This is what enabled them to rejoice as they had their earthly goods taken from them. They had that which none could ever take from them.
Remembering what we once were like arouses desire for a return to that spirit.
May God be pleased to send an awakening against to us like there was in former times amongst God’s people.

Scripture: “Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!”  Job 23:3

Download or stream The Distressed Soul’s desire for deeper fellowship with Christ

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For the child of God, our religion centres upon the person of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the person referred to by Job as the object of his search. Have you come looking for Jesus this morning? “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” Song of Sol 3:3. This is the cry the child of God in a time of shadow utters. “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not,” Song of Solomon 3:1.
The world knows nothing of this desire, this passion. For this reason it believes those possessed of it are quite mad. “Thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad,” Acts 26:24.

Indeed, it is not unknown for earnest, seeking believers to be looked upon askance by other believers who do not share their anxiety of soul!

We recall the view taken of Mary’s devotions in John 12:1-8.
In times of affliction our desire for Christ intensifies. The more we require Him the more we desire Him. The hypocrite denounces God when he feels troubled. The believer seeks unto God all the more in trouble.

Consider:

I. THE BELIEVER MAY LOSE THE SENSE OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE
The Lord has promised never to leave His people. “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Hebrews 13:5. However, we may lose the consciousness of His presence. Rev 3:20 demonstrates that!

1. It is sin which deprives us of the consciousness of Christ. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear, Isaiah 59:2. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” Psalm 66:18 “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early,” Hosea 5:15.

2. His presence, if it be withdrawn, is for our good. We would not use the means of grace as we ought if we never felt a longing after Christ. We will not drink until thirst prompts us. We would not read the Bible, we would not pray, we would not attend upon the preaching of the Word. It is to excite our spiritual desires and appetites that the Lord takes from us the comforts of His presence.

3. His presence is withdrawn in order to remind us of our dependence upon Him. It is a bitter thing to Christ when He is taken for granted by His people. Yet we do slip into such a mindset! “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” Revelation 3:17.
We soon learn our own emptiness and our ignorance when we feel the absence of Christ. Nothing can make up that loss.

II. SUCH A LOSS IS A GREAT DISTRESS TO THE BELIEVER
Yet we can find comfort in this distress. Does it not denote that:—

1. He is our all. “For to me to live is Christ,” Philippians 1:21. He is our companion and our comfort. We would feel less pain were we to lose an arm or a leg. We can recover somewhat from the loss of our nearest and dearest but there is no recovery from this loss.

2. Grace is at work in our hearts. This is no natural desire. Did not Adam hide from the Lord, Gen 3:8. Man’s natural inclination is described by Isaiah. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” Isaiah 53:3.

III. THE ONLY MEANS OF RELIEF IS TO SEARCH UNTIL WE FIND HIM
We shall find Him when we shall search for Him with all our heart, Jer 29:13.
We must search where we may expect to find Him.

1. In the Word of God. “Search the scriptures; for . . .  they are they which testify of me,” John 5:39.

2. In the place of prayer. “In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me,” Psalms 86:7.

3. In the place of public worship. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” Matthew 18:20.
We shall find Him for bear this in mind, He is searching for you with a greater desire and diligence than that in your heart. Let our thoughts be filled with Him and our hearts with love for Him and we shall find Him for He has said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him,” John 14:21.