Let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to begin with 2 Corinthians 5. One of the things I want you to think about this morning, I want you to ask first of all, is the question, what is your ambition? What is your goal? What is your aim in life? What is it that you desire to be the ultimate outcome of your life? What do you want? What is your desire? What is your aim? What is your goal? Every single morning that you get up, What do you desire? What is your aim? What is your goal? In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9, the Apostle Paul says this, Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him. What was Paul's ambition? What was Paul's goal? What was Paul's desire? He said, no matter what I'm doing, whether I'm present in the body or whether I'm absent from the body, whether I live or whether I die, I have this one desire in my life. And that is that I might be found pleasing in the sight of God. We read last week and we looked at verse 10 there for Paul says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may give, may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. But the motivating factor that he has is in the verse before that, in verse 9. He says, I want to be found pleasing in the sight of the Lord. But go back to verse 5, and let's read this section, and then we'll come back and look at this maybe later. But look at what he says there. Now, He who prepared for us this very thing, speaking about this eternal body, He who had prepared for us this very thing is God, who has also given the Spirit as a guarantee. In other words, he's talking about having an eternal life and an eternal promise of heaven that is an absolute, certain guarantee. He's talking about the assurance of our faith. Then he goes on to say this in verse 6. So, because of this assurance, so we are always confident, knowing that while we are home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. For we are confident, yes, well-pleasing, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to the Lord. In other words, Paul says, look, we have the assurance, we have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit and we're confident about our eternal destination. And because of that, we live every single day in light of that, knowing that we, if we are in the body, we want to be pleasing to the Lord. We want to be pleasing to the Lord. If we're out of the body, we want to be pleasing the Lord in every single situation we find ourselves. And so he says what we're going to find in Hebrews, he says in verse seven. So we walk by faith and not by sight. At the end of Hebrews chapter 10, he says this, he says, the just shall live by faith. Not just be saved by faith, but the just person lives by faith. And where we're going, if you'll turn over to Hebrews chapter 10, after Hebrews chapter 10, we move into Hebrews chapter 11. And Hebrews chapter 11 is all about living by faith. It's about those who continue to persevere in spite of difficulties, and they live their lives on the basis of one thing, by faith. They trusted God for every situation, and they kept on following Him. because they trusted him by faith. We'll take a look at that in the coming weeks. I want you to look at Hebrews chapter 10 verses 32 through 38. And I want you to see something we've been talking about here in the book of Hebrews, that there are two motivations that God gives us in order to keep on persevering when the times get tough, when the persecutions are hard, when we are tempted to throw in the towel and give up. There are two things that the writer of Hebrews is trying to remind us about. First of all, that if we give up, if we don't continue to press on and pursue God with all of our hearts, we will lose rewards in eternity. And secondly, we will be judged by God now. And those two things could be summed up by this, that we will lose rewards later and we will be judged now that we have the reward of the Lord and the judgment of God are both for believers. And God will judge his people and God will reward his people. But that's not the primary reason why we should live for the Lord. The primary reason why we should live for the Lord is that we may be found pleasing in his sight. Paul said, that's my ambition. That's my goal. That's my desire. That's the greatest motivation of all. is that whatever I'm doing, that the Lord would be pleased by what I'm doing. Now, take a look in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 through 39. Listen to what it says. But recall the former days. In which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly because you were made spectacle by reproaches and tribulations, and partly because you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion upon me and my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and more enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. And therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise for yet a little while. And he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now, the just will live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not those who draw back into perdition, but those who believe to the saving of the soul. Now, in this passage, I want you to see three things here about what we are supposed to remember. If you notice in verse 32, he starts off by saying, recall the former days. Some of your translations might say, remember the former days after you were enlightened. Look back on those times and look back, look at three things he wants us to remember to keep us persevering so that we don't give up in terms of difficulties. First of all, in verses 32 through 34, he says, remember your struggle. Remember what you went through and remember why you went through that and how you went through it. We're going to take a look at that. And then the second thing he tells us in verses 35 and 36, he says, remember your reward. Don't forget that there is a great reward. And if you don't persevere and keep on with the Lord, you're casting away this great reward when you cast away the confidence that you've already gained. And then in verses 37 to 39, he says, remember your savior. You've got a great savior and he's coming back soon. And you need to keep that in mind when you're tempted to give up. So remember these three things whenever you're tempted to throw in the towel, whenever you're tempted to throw up your hands and say, I don't think I can go on with the Lord anymore. I don't think I can stand firm in my faith anymore. Remember this. Remember the struggle that you once had. Remember the reward that you will have. And remember the Savior who is coming very soon. Let's take a look at each of these. First of all, remember your struggle in verses 32 through 34. Listen very carefully again to the description that he has here. He says, but you recall the former days in which after you were illumined, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly because you were made spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly because you became the companion of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me and my chains, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and more enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. I want you to notice a couple of things here. Notice, first of all, the struggle that they're going through. The struggle that he describes here is very clear. And I want you to see that they endured great struggles and they did it as they became companions of other people who struggled, as well as going through struggles on their own. They went through quite some suffering and they lost quite a bit. They lost not only were they placed in prison at times, but at times they were even ridiculed and reproached, and at times they even had their property confiscated because they were believers. I want you to see the seriousness of the struggle. It says, you endured a great suffering during that time. It wasn't an easy time. In fact, in the first century, you might say this, to become a Christian was to experience persecution. It was almost a guarantee. In fact, today in some countries, in India in particular, In some places in India, they are actually taught that after you become a Christian, one of the first things that they teach, they teach you what it means to be a Christian, what it means to become saved and what Christ has done for you. And the second thing is how to stand for Christ while you're in prison, because it's against the law in India to convert from any other religion to Christianity. And so Christians are regularly placed in prison because of their faith and oftentimes have their property confiscated. They go through great suffering. And the early Christians understood this. If you become a Christian, you will go through persecution. It's just a given. It's an automatic. In fact, for these early Jewish Christians, it was definitely an automatic. For a Jewish believer to profess faith in Christ was to deny Judaism. And for that to take place, the Jewish people would then put them out of the synagogue, they would put them out of their families, and a father and a mother would consider a son or a daughter to be dead, as far as they were concerned, if they converted to Christianity. He says, remember the great struggle that you endured, the great suffering you went through when you came to faith in Christ and everyone who suffers in Christ suffers persecution. We know that not only from church history, which is full of all sorts of stories, not only in the early church, but throughout the history of Christianity, of people whose lives have been put on the line because of their faith in Jesus Christ. But we know it also from the New Testament. We find early in Acts, the fourth chapter, what's the first thing that happens to Peter and John when they're preaching in the synagogue? And they heal a man and they say, you've been healed in the name of Jesus Christ. What happens to them? They're brought before the Sanhedrin. They're told to no longer preach in this name and they're beaten. And then they're sent back. And when they're sent back to the church, before they're sent back to the church, they say to the Sanhedrin, they say, what should we do? Should we obey God or should we obey man? We're going to go on obeying what God has said. We're going to go on preaching in the name of Christ. And when they came, they were beaten again and then they were released. And when they come back to the church, what's the thing they tell the church? It says that they praise God because he had counted them worthy to suffer for his namesake. You see, they joyfully accepted the sufferings that they went through. It was a natural part of understanding what it meant to be a Christian. Not only in Acts the 4th chapter, but you can just skip a little farther ahead to Acts the 8th chapter and the 9th chapter. And there we see Christians being persecuted by Saul, who is even going to foreign cities and bringing people back to Jerusalem to be persecuted. And we see it in Acts the 12th chapter, when King Herod decides that he's going to persecute Christians. He puts James in the prison and has him put to death, and he puts Peter into prison. And then later, Peter escapes because an angel brings him deliverance. And then in Acts the 18th chapter, we hear about ongoing persecutions for Christians. In fact, we find in Acts the 18th chapter that Aquila and Priscilla have left Rome because all the Jews have been kicked out of Rome. And the reason they were kicked out was because of some controversy over someone named Christus, C-H-R-E-S-T-U-S. Probably Christ, just the bad spelling of Christ. But in other words, they were kicked out in this controversy over the Jews were persecuting the Christians, even in Rome. And so the life of an early New Testament believer was one of persecution. If you followed Christ, you were going to endure suffering. And he's saying, remember, when you first came to Christ, all the suffering that you went through, and remember that you endured it with great joy. Now, notice what he says here. He says not only that they endured this great struggle, but he says in verse 33, they were made a spectacle. The word spectacle in the Greek is literally the word theater. In other words, they're put on public display. And we know from the testimony of the early church and the history of the early church that it was a very common experience for Christians to be publicly humiliated, publicly ridiculed and even publicly put to death. It was very common for the Romans to make fun of the Christians and to mock their beliefs and to speak about the fact that they believed in incest because they believed in loving brothers and loving sisters in the church. And it was very common for the church to be accused of cannibalism because they gathered together before the sun rose to eat the body and blood of someone. They shared the Lord's Supper together and on and on we go with all sorts of rumors that were spread about this early church. They were publicly ridiculed throughout the Roman Empire and they were even accused of atheism. They were frequently considered to be atheists, not because they believed in one God, but because they failed to believe in all the gods of Rome. And when Rome begins to fall, the Christians are the ones who are persecuted even more for one reason, because the Roman gods were not honored by the Christians and therefore the Roman gods were angry. And that's why the Germanic tribes were able to overrun Rome. And so the Christians were persecuted even more. You see, he's saying here in the early church, persecution was a norm and they were put to a public spectacle. And most of the martyrdoms that took place were public martyrdoms. They were martyred, especially in the Colosseum in Rome, where they were put before the wild beasts and they were torn apart there. They were burned at the stake or during the persecution of Nero, which may be during the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews. During the persecution of Nero, Nero would even take Christians and tie them to stakes and cover their bodies with tar and light them on fire to light his gardens. They were made a public display and a public spectacle. And yet, it says, they endured it all with what? With joy. Why? Why would anybody put up with that kind of stuff? Why would anybody put up with the confiscation of their property and the taking of their lives and public ridicule? Because they understood that they had something even better. Look at what it says here in first Corinthians, chapter 10. Look at what it says in verse 34 says, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. In other words, they recognize that they could go through this struggle with joy for one reason, because they had something better. They might be giving up a lot right now, but it was nothing to be compared with what they would gain. by going through their persecutions. Now, I want you to stop and think for a minute and understand what these Hebrew Christians are going through. Many of them are beginning to say, is it worth it? We've seen our brothers and sisters thrown in prison. We've had our own property taken away. We're going through struggle and struggle after suffering after suffering. Why can't we just go back to the sacrificial system? Why can't we just go back to being like Jews? We can still believe in Jesus. We know we've been saved. That's all that really matters, right? And you see what the writer of Hebrews is saying, no, you're going to lose a lot if you don't keep on pursuing God with all your heart. If you don't press on to maturity, if you don't persevere in your faithfulness, then you're going to lose a lot. Not your salvation, but you're going to lose your reward and you're going to experience a judgment in the discipline of God. And most of all, God is not going to be pleased with you if you draw back instead of pressing forward. Now, I want you to take a look at what he says in verse 34. There's a reason why they are motivated to do this. In verse 34, let me read it to you again. The end of verse 34, he says, you joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Now, a number of commentators said this. One of them, this is a quote from one of the commentators, said this on this verse, never was there a braver group of men and women. Well, I'm not sure that bravery is the question here, because it says here that they had confidence to stand firm for one reason, because they believe that what they gave up in this world was nothing compared with what they gained in the world to come. It wasn't bravery that made them stand before the lions. It was confidence. Confidence about what? Confidence that their life was hidden in Christ, and no matter what anybody did to them in this world, they had an eternal possession that could never, ever be taken away from them. And not just heaven. Take a look at what it says there. Notice, you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. That's what most of the translations say. There are some of the manuscripts which don't have the phrase in heaven, but the idea is still there. It's a possession that you have. It's not simply heaven that he's speaking about here. He's speaking about what? He's speaking about something you have in addition to heaven that you gain. What was their great motivation? What was their great confidence? Their motivation was that they would gain not only eternal life. They already had that. Don't throw away that confidence, he says. But realize that if you stand firm for the Lord, you have something great to gain in heaven. Not heaven. You already have that if you're a believer. But you have something great to gain in heaven. You see, the testimony of the scriptures, and we'll look at some of the verses, there are a number of them, but the testimony of the scriptures of those that are faithful in Christ, those that endure suffering, those that suffer with him, receive a greater reward than those who don't suffer with him. Those who stand firm in the face of temptation and don't give in, receive a greater reward than those who do give in to temptation. Those who go through trials and difficulties and they maintain faithfulness to God, God will honor that. And those who draw back during times of difficulty, instead of pressing forward for the Lord and standing firm, they do not receive a reward. And that's why he says, you know, you need to look not only at your struggle that you've been through and how you responded to that struggle initially. And remember the joy you had when you suffered for Christ initially. But he says, also look forward and remember that there is a reward that you have that you could lose. Look at verse 35 and 36. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance or some translations, perseverance or patience. You have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive the promise or more literally, you receive what he has promised. Now, what is he saying to us here? He says, not only did you have joy in your struggle, but remember, the reason why these people joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods was because they saw there was something better that they had in heaven. The reward was something that they focused on. In other words, there was a motivating factor. Take a look real quickly, Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to look at this in more detail later, but look at Moses in chapter 11, verse 23. Verse 23 says, By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of the Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Why? For he looked for a reward. Why is it that Moses is willing to give up being the leader of the most powerful nation in the world at that time? And all the riches and wealth that went along with Egypt, which was the richest nation in the world at that time. Why did he give all that up? To go wander in the desert as a shepherd for 40 years. Why did he do that? Because he believed that he had a greater reward that God was going to give him for following him and being faithful to him. And you see, that's a testimony of all those that we find in Hebrews, the 11th chapter. Why did they keep on? Because they were looking for a heavenly city. They were looking for something that God would give them that this world could never take away from them. They were looking for that reward. Now, I want you to notice a couple of things that's very important for us to distinguish here. We must distinguish between salvation and we must distinguish between the rewards that God gives in addition to salvation. In the scriptures, it's consistent that salvation comes for only one reason, the grace of God. It's never something we deserve. It's never something we earn. It's never anything we do to get that salvation. It's what Jesus Christ has done for us. And those who have put their faith and trust in Christ alone for salvation have eternal life. They don't do anything to get eternal life except trust Christ, to believe on Him. There's nothing that they do before. There's nothing they do after. It is completely by the grace of God. That's why Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And that's why Titus chapter three, verse five says that you have been saved not by works of righteousness, which you we have done. We have been saved not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but by his mercy, wherein he loved us. And you see, the whole focus of salvation is on what he has done for us, never on what we have done for him. But the focus of rewards is what we do for him. And there are tremendous number of passages in scripture which speak about him judging us and rewarding us based upon what we have done, not on what he has done, but on what we have done. And it's important that we separate these two in scripture and see them as separate because we are never saved by anything we do. We're only saved by what he has done for us. But we are rewarded on the basis of what we do. Now, look at verse 36 there. You have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. After you have done something, then you'll receive something. Do you see that connection? It's not after you've done something, then you'll be saved. But after you've done something, then you'll receive something. And you'll receive a reward. Keep your finger there in Hebrews chapter 11. Just turn back just to look at a few of these verses. We looked at them before, but we just read earlier, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, chapter 5, verse 10. Paul says this, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Now, is he talking about the judgment seat of Christ being our salvation? He's talking about us being judged on what basis? What we have done. Not for salvation, but for something else. Now, it's not absolutely clear in that passage, but he's telling us we do something, we receive something. First Corinthians chapter three, just flip back there real quickly. First Corinthians chapter three. We've read this passage a number of times, too. But here he talks about the different works that people do and starting in verse nine and going on down through verse 15. But I just want you to take a look at what he says in verse 12. He says, Now, if anyone builds on this house with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hair, straw, each man's work will become evident. For the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each man's work of what sort it is. And if anyone's work which he has built upon it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, for he himself will be saved, though as through fire." Now, what is it that's being tried by the fire? Are we being tested for salvation? If so, then it's on the basis of our works, and that goes contrary to everything the Scripture says about salvation. But you see, what we are being tested for is one thing, what we have done in the body. And there's going to be great reward for some. And some, it says in verse 15, all that they think they have done is going to be burned up by the fire and they will not receive a reward, but they will be saved. You see, even though everything has been burned up, he's not talking about salvation. When the scripture speaks about being judged for what we have done, he's speaking about the rewards that we receive. One more passage. Look in the end of your Bible. Look in Revelation, chapter 22. And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ says in Revelation, chapter 22, verse 12. And this relates to what we're talking about in Hebrews, chapter 10, because in Hebrews, chapter 10, He says, Remember, he who is coming is coming, and he will not delay. Look at what it says in verse 22 at the end of the book of Revelation when Jesus reminds them that He's coming. He says this, And behold, I am coming quickly. And my reward is with me to give to everyone according to what? His work or he has done. You see, there's a distinction between works and salvation. What we do in this life after we have been saved is rewarded by the Lord. Does the Lord have to reward us? Now, listen, heaven is more than we deserve already, isn't it? But by His grace, He gives us more and more and He gives us the motivation. He says, not only will I save you, but by my grace, if you will live for me, I will reward you abundantly. There will be great reward. Jesus said, when you were persecuted in Matthew, the fifth chapter, verses 11 and 12, He said, rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted. For so they persecuted the prophets which were before you. And He said, great will be your reward in heaven. Why should we rejoice when we go through suffering and trial? Because we're just going to heaven or because our reward is great. Or should we sit back and say, well, I don't know if I want to go through that suffering. I don't know if I want to go through this struggle. You know, I'm a Christian. That's what really matters. Well, what really matters is, are you pleasing to the Lord in every single thing you do or do you draw back from the Lord? Do you shrink back from him instead of following him with all of your heart? You see, those that follow him with all their heart will receive a great reward. Notice what he says, not only is the reward based upon what we have done. See, salvation is never based on what you've done. It's based upon what Jesus Christ has done for you. But your reward is always based upon what you have done, the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. The second thing I want you to see is it's based primarily upon faithfulness. Notice what he says. You've got need of endurance or you've got need of perseverance or you've got need of patience, depending on your translation, so that after you've done the will of God, you may receive the promise. What do we need? We need to keep on going. We need to be faithful to follow Him in every area of our life. It's interesting, if we had time, we could do a study of looking at the various rewards. I'm not so sure how helpful it would be because I think the rewards are more symbolic than they are actual. I don't know exactly what they all mean. But there are three categories of rewards that Jesus speaks about in Scripture. He talks about the fact that we are going to receive crowns. I don't know what all that means, but we're going to receive crowns. Most that interpret that say that that means that we're going to receive praise from God. In fact, it's unbelievable to me, but it's in the Scripture. I don't know what else to do with it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul says that after we have been examined, including our motivations and every single work that we did, again, the work we do, he says that each one will receive his praise from God. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine standing before all the people of all time who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior, who have been faithful believers, and you stand before them and God says, I want to tell everybody what this person has done for me in their life. And each man will receive his praise from God. Does God need to do that? No. Does the Scripture say He will do that? It certainly does. Now, to me, that's mind-boggling. I can't imagine the Lord saying, come on up here. I want to tell everybody what you did for my name's sake." Isn't that a motivating factor in your life? Not only that God would be pleased with you here in this life, but on that great day that God will say, come up here, I want to tell everybody what you did for me. Wouldn't that be something? That's what the scripture is talking about when he says, we're going to receive praise from the Lord. And that may be what he means by the crowns. I don't know. But it speaks also about the fact that we receive crowns. Another thing that he says, not only crowns, but he says you receive treasure. Matthew, chapter six, he talks about don't lay up treasure on earth, but lay up treasure in heaven. And he speaks to us and Paul speaks to us in First Timothy, chapter six. He says to admonish those who are rich in this world that they might use their treasure to lay up riches in heaven. You see, what God has given us, the question is, are we faithful with what he's given us? Were we faithful with the money that he's given us? Are we faithful with the responsibilities that he's given us? Are you faithful to follow him with all of your heart in every area of your life? The third type of reward that's spoken about is reigning over cities. Now, I don't understand that either. I don't know what all that means. Except that Jesus says that those who have been faithful in the things that have been given to them in little things, they will be faithful in much and God will put them over many cities. Now, what does that mean? I don't know. But I know this, that what he's saying is if you are faithful and that's the continuing thing you'll see in connection with the rewards is it's primarily our faithfulness. Keep your finger in Hebrews 11. Turn real quickly. I'm trying to hurry through this, but look at chapter four, first Corinthians. This is that passage where it says each man's praise will come from God. But before he says that, look at what he says in verse two of chapter four. Moreover, it is required of stewards that the one be found what? Faithful. He's not looking for the superstar. He's not looking for the one who led the most people to Christ. He's looking for the one who's faithful. Even the person who maybe perseveres in a country, in an Islamic country, and they work for 30 years in an Islamic country and see one person come to faith in Christ during that time, they were faithful. You might see somebody else who leads hundreds of people to Christ or thousands of people to Christ. The question is not how many did you lead to Christ? The question is, were you faithful? Other people might have great riches and they give lots of money away for the sake of the kingdom of God. The question somebody else might have, like the widow that gave her two mikes, might have just a small pension income, and they give what they can of that sacrificially to the Lord. You see, it's faithfulness that God honors, not the amount. And that's the whole idea of all the issues related to rewards is, have you been faithful? Because it's required of a steward that he be found faithful. Not that he be found successful, but that he be found faithful. And it's required of us when we go through suffering and trials and temptations. What does God want us to do more than anything else? He says, I want you to be faithful to live for me and to serve me during those difficult times, not to throw up your hands and to throw into town and say, well, it won't really matter whether I live for Christ right now. I know that I've trusted Christ. I know I'm a believer. But he says, listen, if you throw away your confidence, you'll lose great reward. And some people say, well, You don't lose rewards. Take a look with me if you look over back to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, look at what he says in verse 35. He says, therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has a great reward. The confidence and the reward go together. If you don't continue to have this confidence in the Lord and stand firm and persevere, you lose your reward. The word castaway is an interesting word, which simply means this. It means to throw out something of great value because you didn't treat it as great value. In other words, there were things that we could be gaining of great value by living and being faithful to the Lord that we don't treat as great value now. But one day we'll look back and say that was great value, much greater than what I could have given up in this world to have something even greater in the world to come. Don't cast it away. Don't throw it out like it's not worthwhile. It's valuable. It's more valuable than anything you could ever get here on earth. It's interesting that that's not exactly the same word, but it's the same idea that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 27. In verse 27 of chapter 9, 1 Corinthians, Paul says this. He says, I buffet my body, lest after I have preached to others, I myself might become a castaway. Paul talking about losing his salvation? No. If you'll go back and read, he says, I run the race. I keep my body under control because I want to win the crown. I want the prize. What does Paul want? Does he think by doing this, he'll get into heaven? Absolutely not. He thinks that by sacrificing his life and living his life all out for the Lord, he's going to have great reward. And he doesn't want to have spent his whole life preaching for Christ and then lose reward because at the end of his life, he becomes a castaway. by treating that which is greatly valuable as something which wasn't worth giving up everything for. Is the reward that we receive in heaven worth giving up everything in this life for? I think heaven alone would be worth it, wouldn't it? But you see, God has promises not just eternal life, but he's promised great reward. Some people will say, well, you know, I've done a lot for the Lord already. And I've already piled up a lot of rewards. You know, I can sit back. I know my heart. I know I'm safe. Why should I keep on serving the Lord after I've served him for so many years? Well, if you don't keep on serving the Lord, you lose great reward. Take a look over and keep your finger there in Hebrews chapter 10. Quickly look at 2 John verse 8. Listen to what John says. 2 John verse 8 comes after the book of Hebrews, after James and Hebrews and Peter. Verse 8 says, look to yourselves that we do not lose those things that we have worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Do you see how you work for rewards? You don't work for salvation. That's a gift of God. But God's going to judge you on the basis of what you have done with the life, the treasure, the time, the talents that He's given to you. And he wants to know, are you going to be faithful? But if you're not, it's not like, well, OK, I've already got a pile of rewards already over here. They're safe and secure. I don't have to worry about that anymore. No, he says, keep on doing this or you will lose what you have worked for. Is it possible to actually lose rewards that you work for? That's what John says. And I think it's what the writer of Hebrews is saying there, too. If you cast away your confidence, you're casting away your opportunity for great reward. And it's a motivating factor that the Lord has given to us. He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to reward a single one of us. If all we get is heaven, it's far more than what any one of us ever deserve. But after you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, he says this. He says, if you live faithfully for me, you not only have heaven because it's a gift, but I will evaluate what you have done for me in the body. And I will reward those who have been faithful to me. And I will remove the rewards from those who are not faithful to me. Don't cast away your confidence, which has great reward. So we not only need to remember the struggle, but we also need to remember the reward, which is in the future. But most of all, he ends this chapter before he moves into chapter 11 by simply saying this. You need to remember your Savior. Look at verse 37 through 39. For yet a little while and he who is coming will come. and will not tarry. Now, the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not those who draw back to perdition, but those who believe to the saving of the soul more than anything else. Our desire and our motivation should be simply this, that every single thing we do, we would be found pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Should we serve the Lord for rewards and should we serve the Lord and not given the temptation because we fear the discipline of God? Yes, we should. But that shouldn't be our primary motivation. Our primary motivation should be whether we're in the body or whether we're absent from the body, that we would be found pleasing in the Lord. Paul said, this is what my ambition is in life. This is my goal. This is my aim. I want to be found pleasing in the Lord. The writer of Hebrews says this. You need to remember the Lord's coming. And we need to live in light of the fact that He is coming. He could come at any time. And the real question for a believer, in terms of the coming of the Lord, is one question. When He returns, will He be happy and pleased with what you're doing? Or will He be ashamed of you because of what you're either doing or not doing? Keep your finger again in Hebrews and turn over to 1 John, chapter 2. 1 John, chapter 2, verse 28. I'm going to read through chapter 3, verse 3. But listen especially to verse 28. And now little children abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. This is an issue of whether or not you're truly a believer and you need to examine your own heart. Are you truly a child of God or not? Then you ought to practice righteousness. But look at what he does as a motivation. Look in chapter three. Behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. What is it that motivates us to live holy for the Lord? One of the things is that we live in light of His coming. And the Lord may return at any time. And the question is, will He be pleased with you? Or will you shrink back, ashamed? And will He be ashamed of you? Because you've not lived a life that is pleasing in His sight. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way. He says, in yet a little while, He who is coming will come. And He will not tarry. Jesus is coming. And the question is, are you ready? Are you living a life in light of His coming? The only way we could do that is that we must live by faith. Notice what he says in verse 38. Now, the just shall live by faith. We'll talk some more about this when we get to Hebrews 11. But it's interesting, Hebrews 11 is not about saving faith. It's about living faith. And you see, that's often a forgotten part of evangelical teaching. We are saved by faith alone. But the way we live the Christian life is by faith also. We do it by putting our trust in Him for everything. And that's what Hebrews 11 says. By faith, Abel did this. By faith, Enoch did this. By faith, Noah did this. By faith, Abraham did this. By faith, Rahab did this. By faith, and they go on and on and on. Moses and every single one of the Old Testament people, they lived their life and they persevered through hard times. Why? Because they lived by faith. They trusted God in that situation and they looked forward. beyond the things of this world to the things that they would gain here. They lived in light of his coming, but they live also in light of his pleasure. The one desire of a believer ought to be found pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And the writer of Hebrews says, he's quoting from a backer, but he says, if anyone draws back, my soul won't have any pleasure in him. What a horrible thought. Not only that the Lord would be ashamed of you, which is the language found in first John chapter two. But if we draw back from the Lord rather than pressing on, he will not be pleased with us. I love the stuff that John Piper has written about the pleasure of God. And I think it's restored to us the focus of the New Testament. And that is that the focus of the Christian life ought to be that we want to please God more than we want anything else in our lives. And that ought to give us the greatest joy in our lives. Why did they joyfully accept the plundering of their goods? Because they wanted to please God more than they wanted anything else. They wanted the reward. There's no question they look forward to that. They wanted to avoid the discipline of God. There's no question about that. But more than anything else, they wanted to be found pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And the writer of Hebrews says, if anyone draws back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. You see, the greatest motivation is not rewards. The greatest motivation is not the discipline of God. The greatest motivation is that God would be pleased with us. If you're living your life simply saying, OK, now my goal as a Christian is to sit down and see how many rewards I can rack up before I get to heaven. That's not pleasing to the Lord. But if your desire is to say that I want to honor my Lord by using everything in my life so that He would be pleased for me, there is great reward for you. And God will reward everything the saints have done, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10 says. You see, we don't live for the reward. We live for the pleasure of God because we want Him to be pleased. And we don't turn ourselves around and live so much in the fear of God that we are fearing every sin just because we're afraid of the discipline of God. We ought to be afraid of that. That's what the writer of Hebrews says. It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And God will judge His people. But the greatest motivation to keep us from sin is what? That we would desire to please God by every single thing we do in our lives. If you make that your motivation, that would keep you from sin and would keep you in the service of the Lord, serving him with all of your heart. I think it's interesting that what Jesus says to the disciples when he's talking about some of the rewards in one of the parables, he says that the father will say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your father or of your Lord, for you have been faithful in a little. Therefore, you will rule over many cities. What is it that the Lord requires of us? It's that we would be faithful and pleasing in His sight. And that's what Jesus did more than anything else. Take a look. Writer of Hebrews is going to get us to chapter 12 here. Look at chapter 12, verse 2. Verse one, he's talking about avoiding sin and every weight which holds us back. But in verse two, he says this and looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why did he endure all of the cross? For the joy that was set before him. What was that joy? Now, most of the commentators are going to say it's us. I don't think so. The joy was that his father might be pleased by accomplishing what He came to do. You see, Jesus said this when He was on earth. He said, I always do the things which are pleasing in My Father's sight. And when He came in His high paritial prayer, He said, Father, I've glorified You and I've done all the things You've asked Me to do. You see, that's what pleased Jesus most or gave Him the greatest joy was that the Father was pleased with what He did. And you see, He endured. What did He endure? Struggle, suffering, hardship, death on the cross. Why? Because of the joy that was set before him, he knew the father would be pleased by every single thing that he did. Why should these Hebrew Christians endure persecution? Why should they put up with hardship? Why should they allow the confiscation of their property? Why should they be allowed to be made a public spectacle? Why should they go through all this? You see, he says, look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. What is it that we should look for? We should look for the joy of the Father and desire to please Him in every single thing we do. The greatest motivation that a believer has is not the reward of the Lord, which is a great motivation. It's not the discipline and the judgment of God, which is a great motivation, but it's that we would be found pleasing to Him in every single thing we do in our lives. Come back to Hebrews chapter 10. The last verse there says, but we are not those who draw back into perdition, but those who believe to the saving of the soul. In other words, there's two groups of people, two types of drawing back that he's speaking about here. I pointed it out to you last time that in chapter 10, verse 29, it says how much worse punishment. And the word punishment there is a unique word, it's temoria. And it's only found three times in the New Testament, once here and twice in the book of Acts. And then it's found numerous times in the Old Testament, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And in every case, it never means eternal punishment, but it always means a temporary punishment or a discipline. It's most frequently used to speak about the discipline of God upon the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. But when you come to verse 39, but we are not those who draw back into perdition. That word is used almost always, not always, but almost always for ultimate, eternal destruction. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, we're not in that category of eternal destruction when we draw back. But rather, we are those who believe to the saving of the soul. You see, there's two groups of people. There are those that have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the issue here. Notice what he says. We are those who believe to the saving of the soul, not those who draw back into perdition, into destruction. You see, if you've never come to the place where you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone, when you die, you will receive eternal destruction, not a temporary punishment, but one that will last throughout all of eternity. But I want you to notice what he says there. We are those who believe to the saving of the soul, not those who work, not those who clean up their lives, though that should be an outcome and an evidence of salvation. But how do you get to be saved? How does your soul get to be saved? One way. We're those who believe to the saving of the soul. If you're in the place this morning where you're without Christ, what do you have to do? Nothing. Jesus did everything for you already. He paid the price in full on the cross. What you must do is believe to the saving of your soul. See, what group are you in? Are you in the group of those who are going to draw back to perdition, to eternal destruction? Then you need to be aware that there is a Savior who has died. And if you're in the group of those who believe to the saving of your soul, then you need to say, I want him to have pleasure in every single thing I do. Is that your ambition? Is that your goal? Is that your desire? That was Paul's and that should be ours, because there's great reward for those who do that. But the greatest reward is to know that the father is pleased with his children. Let's pray.