Our scripture reading, to which I invite you to turn with me at this time, is found once again in the book of Hebrews, the 10th chapter. It's found near the end of the Bible, just before the book of James, Hebrews chapter 10. In our last study of God's Word, we began this series of messages on let us, that is, various biblical exhortations which God gives his people in light of the fact that Christ has sovereignly saved us through His bloodshed on Calvary's cross. Last time together we considered the exhortation to let us draw near to God. This evening we consider the exhortation, let us hold to our hope. To that end, though we will be reading Hebrews 10 verses 1 through 25, I draw your special attention, brothers and sisters, to verse 23, as verse 23 will constitute our text for this evening. Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 1, hear then the word of the Lord. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all. They would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said, First, he said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made. Then he said, here I am, I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again, he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First, He says, this is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. Then He adds, their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, open for us through the curtain that is His body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. And as always, dear friends, I ask and urge you to keep your Bibles open and handy as you look to God's word together today. Dear congregation of Jesus Christ, history records the fact that some 400 years before the birth of Christ, The great Greek philosopher Socrates drank the poison hemlock and lay down to die. Shall we live again? His friends asked him. And to this, the dying philosopher could only reply, I hope so. I hope so. But no man can know. End of quote. Now friends, think about that. It's very sad, is it not? For when this man, Socrates, whose philosophical system had impacted the lives of millions, was about to die, All that he had to offer all of his followers, or all those who, shall we say, believed in him and his philosophical system, all that he had to offer them was by no means a true sense of hope. But all he had to offer them was mere wishful thinking. Ah, but notice, but notice. My dear brothers and sisters, by way of stark and direct contrast, We find for ourselves in the words of our text for this evening, a great hope, and a great reason for hope, and a great reason to persevere in hope. In fact, as we look very carefully together at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23 this evening, we find that here the Holy Spirit inspired author both confronts us and comforts us with the reality of the fact. that because the same God who has promised to save us solely by His grace and solely through faith in the name of His Son has also promised to prove Himself faithful in the fulfillment of all of His promises to us. It is incumbent upon each and every one of us as true children of God to respond to that reality passionately positively and personally, to say, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, by your grace and mercy and by your spirit's power, we will respond to your exhortation to hold to our hope, to hold to our hope. Now, that begs the question, does it not? What actually is hope? What is hope? Well, I like to define hope, for example, as faith looking forward. Faith looking forward. The great reformer John Calvin has said, and I quote, that faith is the mother of hope. Isn't that an interesting terminology? Faith is the mother of hope. And again, says Calvin, hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith. Hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith. For example, if you would care to turn with me, let's go to the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, the 40th chapter. After Job, Psalms, Proverbs, you'll come to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and so on. If you wanna just listen, that's okay. But otherwise, in Isaiah 40, verses 28 through 31, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, saying, Isaiah 40, 28, do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord, Yahweh, is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. In His understanding, no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Similarly, let's go to the book of Lamentations. It's to the right, right after the book of Jeremiah. In fact, it was also penned under the inspiration by the prophet Jeremiah, the so-called weeping prophet. He was called the weeping prophet because of his great grief concerning the sins of unrepentant and disobedient Israel. But in Lamentations 3, verses 19 through 23, the prophet declares, I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind, and therefore, notice, I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, the Hebrew says, because of the Lord's chesed, because of the Lord's covenantal love and faithfulness, we are not consumed. For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And then friends, finally on this score, let's go back to the New Testament, to the book of Romans, the 8th chapter. Look with me, if you would please, at Romans 8, verses 18 through 25. Beginning in Romans 8, verse 18, the Apostle Paul declares, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from the bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we eagerly await for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. who hopes for what he already has. But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Now, friends, that being the case, that being understood with that biblical content and teaching being brought to bear on the words of our text, we turn back now together then to Hebrews 10, 23. And we're going to consider this exhortation to hold to our hope, first of all, by seeking to answer the question, how are we to hold to our hope? How are we to hold to our hope? In answer to that question, we look to verse 23, look with me please. Here we read, "...let us..." that is corporately, "...together with one another, as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, let us hold unswervingly." Let us hold unswervingly. King James says, and other translations say, let us hold fast. Now friends, that particular verb in the original, has a sense of continuous ongoing action. And so the implication is that by the grace of God, by the mercy of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit of God, we are to continually, or to keep on keeping on, holding unswervingly to the hope. We are to hold unswervingly to the hope. And by the way, if you have an old King James Version, and with all due respect to King James, I believe that the translation of the old King James says, let us hold fast to our faith. That translation was based on inferior, manuscribal evidence, and the New King James Version, I noticed, interestingly enough, changes that term. And the New King James, if you have a New King James, says, let us hold fast to the hope, to the hope that we have. Now that word unswervingly means that we will keep on keeping on. It means we're going to set our focus on a goal and that we will not be distracted, we will not be discouraged, we will not be dissuaded. And that is why the King James and some of the other translations translate this particular portion of our text as, let us hold fast the profession or confession of our hope without wavering. Let us hold fast the profession or confession of our hope without wavering. But now friends, think about that. Just think about this first part of our text again. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. I think I've shared with you over the years, a true account. Several years ago, I was at the traffic light over here on the boulevard in Mountain Avenue. I was behind a lady in a Toyota. And this light is sort of long here. And all of a sudden I noticed she had a bumper sticker on her car. And the bumper sticker said, Ever since I've given up hope, I feel much better. Now think about that. That's what her bumper sticker said. Ever since I've given up hope, I feel much better. And I said to myself, I mean, I was sitting there at the light, I said, how can that possibly be? How could anyone ever say, think, feel, or profess that since I've given up hope, I feel much better? How could giving up hope make anybody feel any better? Because you see, my dear brothers and sisters, if in life there is no hope, Well then we might as all continually declare in despair with King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes 1 verse 2, meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. If life is truly without hope, we might as well say with those who are recorded in Isaiah 22 verse 13, Isaiah 22 verse 13, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. That is, if there is no hope. Ah, but notice, but notice. As our text continues in Hebrews 10, 23, before you or I or any true child of God could ever be tempted to fall into such existentialist despair, our text goes on to answer for us a second question, a final question. And that question is, why are we to hold on to our hope. Why are we to hold on to our hope? We know how we must do it. We must hold it unswervingly. But how are we, not only how are we to do that, but why are we to do that? Well, the answer is now given in the rest of our text. Look with me, please. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for or because Or the reason is, and now some of the most precious and powerful words in all of Scripture, for he who promised is faithful. He who promised is faithful. He who promised is faithful. You know, here I defer to the translation in the King James. The King James says, for faithful is he who promised. Faithful is he who promised, because in the original language, faithful is in the primary position in that particular part of the text. And it's emphasizing the fact that our blessed triune God is faithful. I'll read it again with that translation. Let us draw near to God, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for faithful is He who promised. Think about that. Great Reformed Bible commentator William Hendrickson has said, and I quote, the content of this confession is the expectation that Christ will fulfill all the promises He has made. And that all those who profess the name of Christ possess these promises." End of quote. And writes Matthew Henry, there is no fickleness with him and there should be none with us. We must depend more on his promises to us than on our promises to him. I'm going to read that again. Matthew Henry, there is no fickleness with him and there should be none with us. We must depend more on his promises to us then on our promises to him." And brothers and sisters, isn't that true? Isn't that true? For example, if you turn with me to the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, the third chapter, the sixth verse, notice what we read. Malachi 3, verse 6. Precious and powerful text of scripture. I, the LORD, notice the capitals, I, Yahweh, I, your covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, who is the great I AM, the unchanging One, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, who needs no one or nothing, I, the LORD, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. I, the LORD, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Now let's build upon that and go to the New Testament, to 2 Corinthians 1, verses 18-22. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 18-22. Paul says, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but as surely as God is faithful. Our message to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in Him has always been yes. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through Him the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes us, and it makes both you and us, stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Similarly, in 2 Timothy 2, verses 11 and 13, the Apostle Paul adds, here is a trustworthy saying, If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself. And if you're taking notes, jot down please Hebrews 6, verse 19. Hebrews 6, 19, where we read, We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Think about this, brothers and sisters, amidst all of the stormy waters of life. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. And so is it any wonder that the sacred songwriter has so well said, the soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to His foes. That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. I'll never, no never, no never. Forsake all glory be to God and that is why we are to hold on to our hope Our text says it so succinctly and yet so powerfully. Let us hold on swervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised Is faithful he who promised is faithful? You know friends I have a footnote here in my study Bible on our text in verse 23 and It says very simply Some of the readers were tempted to give up the struggle and turn back to a form of Judaism. Commenting on verse 23, some of the readers were tempted to give up the struggle and turn back to a form of Judaism. And indeed they were. Indeed, no doubt that is one of the reasons why, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the author penned the words he did. But friends, is it not also true that you and I at times can go through, can face such severe heartaches and hardships and trials and troubles and tribulations and such severe sorrows and sufferings that we too may feel like giving up, giving up, feel at times like forsaking the faith once for all and trusted to the saints. Isn't that true? You know, brothers and sisters, I believe that because that was true for these Hebrew Christians, because that is often and also true for people like you and me, I truly believe that that is why, under the inspiration of the Spirit, the author to the Hebrews goes on to say to them, And to say to us tonight, in Hebrews 10 verses 32 and following, look with me please, verse 32. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light. When you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution. At other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. Amen. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together in prayer. Therefore, brothers, Since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, open for us through the curtain that is His body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. O Lord our God, Though we by no means, as of yet anyway, have even come close to the kinds of sorrows and sufferings as are being experienced by our persecuted brothers and sisters in various parts of the world today. And Lord, though by no means, as of yet anyway, Have we even come close to the kinds of sorrows and sufferings which were being experienced by our brothers and sisters in the early church? Many of whom, in the words of Scripture, faced tears and flogging, were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sought in two. They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground. And yet, O faithful father, each and every one of us, at one time or another, to one degree or another, does indeed face deep waters and fiery trials which are much too deep and much too fierce for us. But O how we thank and praise you tonight, O God, that they are not too deep, and they are not too fierce for you. And so by your grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, dear Lord, we pray, enable and empower each and every one of us today and every day to hold to our hope. For Jesus' sake, amen.