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[0:00] good morning everyone um this morning we are turning to uh hebrews chapter 10 and verse 32 and we're only going to read one verse this morning hebrews chapter 10 and verse 32 but called to remembrance the former days in which after he were in illuminated he endured a great fight of affliction and this morning i have uh put a title on this message and the title is the light for the fight now many of you had a fight coming in here with the weather i'd say but it's good that you got here but the reason for the title really is this that um we need illumination for the fight of faith and every christian everyone who comes and believes in the lord jesus receives that illumination from god through the holy spirit through the word of god and at the end of his life the apostle paul said i have fought the good fight you know we have that battle we have that fight to fight for our belief in the lord jesus and it's a battle that every christian faces and the hebrew christians well they had received this illumination in their former days when they first believed the holy spirit the holy spirit flooded their life with light and then they faced the fight and they were armed with the light and it was such effect on them the light that they had received that they were able to endure the trouble and the fight that they were facing but now the letter is being written to them because now of the ongoing trouble and the struggles that they're having has made things very difficult for them and they're actually tempted some of them at least to turn back to judaism and you know he writes this letter and he just really shows them throughout the letter that that would be a terrible thing to do because judaism really is only pointing through the various types and the various uh shadows it's pointing to christ and he says you know you are not those who turn back but to go on to carry on and um so the writer to the hebrews really he's encouraging these christians to hold fast and don't give up and he shows them that they when they exercise faith they will prevail and they will be carried on to the end and for us today we don't have anything like the trials or the persecution that they faced in their day you know when we're looking through the book of acts we can see the terrible trials there that the christians faced faced but we have things so much

[4:00] easier and you know even in our land there are laws you can't stone someone like us back then um and you know so i suppose if i look back over the years and i have a few years behind me i i can think back that when i came to first christian meetings there was a bit of a backlash and it was definitely a backlash that doesn't exist now and you know when when we were young there i had one brother two sisters i still have but we lived up the road just up the road here and there was a man used called to our house about six times a year and he helped my dad because my dad started getting interested in the bible and they did a bit of a bible study but one of the things that stood out about this man his name was fred fred's life of faith really shone forth to us as children and um sometimes he would share a verse with with me my brother my sisters my mother but my mother was troubled by the persecution that he him being in our house would create and so she'd be saying to my father make sure the next time he comes that he parks at the back gate and stuff like that so she also devised another plan which might sound madness but i think it had a method of uh cuteness in it as well she said when you ever mention his name amongst us only as a family we're not to call when he's not here we're not to call him fred because that'll arouse suspicion but she said you're to call him santi now we just call santi santa santi so she said you'll call him santi so her her method was this that if we were out on the road and we were getting excited because when he arrived we used to have lovely biscuits and cakes so we were we were enjoying when he'd come from that point of view so we'd be out in the we'd be out on the road playing and i'd say to my brother oh it's tonight santi's coming and the neighbor's kids would be there they say don't be silly he only comes at christmas time so they take no notice they wouldn't go home and said oh they said there's someone coming tonight because they think they're just you're off your head because so so she had that method of coping with uh the persecution but you know when i look today that level of persecution is not there it doesn't seem to be there to us today um and uh i'm not complaining about that that's a good thing you know um but the principle still applies definitely that when you're walking with god it will cost you it will cost you in popularity and you know these are days of greater tolerance and the strong persecution mightn't be evident but um the thing is i think as i was thinking about this um that have we because things are so easygoing have we adopted a sort of an easygoing attitude when it comes to walking by faith do we fit in well so well with everything around us that our life really shows little difference our light isn't really shining brightly i feel that's a danger for us um but recently my brother he's not a believer but he he's quite unwell he's been quite

[8:00] unwell and he's been in hospital and one evening myself and surely we're going to see him and the sun was beautiful a big sun shining in the sky as we drove to the hospital and i went in to see him i went into his room and uh his room was in total darkness and the first thing i did was i said oh john it's a lovely evening outside i started to pull the curtains and he said no no no i i want to be in darkness and i said uh i said uh but why i said the sun and i started to pull the curtains again he said no no pull drawn back close the curtains and i said why and he said to me men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil that's what he said to me and you see he had previously told me that he has never forgotten the fact that that fred came to our house and shared some verses and he said to me i can still quote the verses and that's what he was doing showing me that he has not forgot the verses and it reminds me that our life of faith and walking light walking in the light it shines before people when we are doing that because the life of faith is a is life is living faith and it's christ living in you and i think there's a danger in us in those easy days in these easy days that uh we can that there can be sort of a lukewarmness come into us um that the lord spoke when he spoke to the church at ephesus in the book of revelations chapter 2 and verse 4 he said you know your doctrine is sound this is good this is good but he said nevertheless i have something against you you have left your first love and you know that's the challenge um for us i think today that this verse brings before us there's a challenge in verse 32 for the hebrew christians who have really tough times but i also think that that challenge is very much for us today in the easy days because you know days are not always going to be easy anyway because do we know what's around the corner we don't at present i think the present time is to build ourself up and to use this time rather than just become lapsed and easygoing and the challenge that he gave to the hebrew christians was to remember the former days after they were illuminated that after the light came into them you know is that same love for the lord that burned in your heart when the holy spirit brought into you is that as strong now as it was then and he tells them to look back and to remember the time when they were illuminated when that happened they were dead in their trespasses and sins but god made them alive they were in darkness and the light shone in when they believed and they were filled with the love of the lord jesus and their faith given the ability to face any opposition and they were able to fight any affliction and any difficulty that they faced and when we look back what do we see i wonder because i did look back on my life and i just think about this you know the time of illumination was it was a fantastic time when you saw that all this is true everything in the bible is true we can take it as definitely believable in every sense in every word that god has spoken

[12:03] but is it sadly the case that our love has somehow grown cold that our delight in the word of god has just decreased or diminished our prayer life has not the same vigor and our overall zeal has gone down well you might say to me that's not my case well that's great if that's not your case but i think here we see that if it is your case there's a purpose there's a purpose that he writes to them and to challenge them and there's a purpose in it for us to remember that power that we that came into our life um at that time when we were illuminated um and what he's showing them i believe is this and what what is what the verse is showing us is that do we need something new i don't think so i think what he's showing them is this is that that power um we need no other greater confidence we need no other greater power than the power he has given us for whatever we face to have the triumph over every situation and every difficulty and every opposition because god has given us his holy spirit and his word and we surely are living in the victory of that and we need to exercise our faith not just to go and be be totally have our minds listening into what the world is telling us but to know that when we come to the word of god the holy spirit will enlighten that in our soul and we will be strengthened and god will be with us through anything we face and the same power that lit us up lights us up today and that living faith leads us to be obedient to god and to be separate from the world and every believer has has that faith given to them you know ephesians 2 and verse 8 says it's by grace you are saved through faith that's not of yourself it's the gift of god not of works these any man should boast and we need to exercise that faith every day of our life but in you know but in life we will have many difficulties every day will test you and every day will try you and every day will try to hinder you from depending and from trusting continually upon the lord there'll be all sorts of difficulties but these difficulties are overcome by faith and further down the chapter in verse 38 he reminds them that we're not living like the world but the just shall live by faith we go over to chapter 11 that great verse of faith it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god how important the word of god is for us and he chapter 11 also tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen that faith operates in the invisible with respect to the things not seen faith is not sight one day we will see face face face face first john 3 and verse 2 but until that day faith is required and it's the conviction of things not seen but faith is a certainty that what is not yet visible to your eyes you will they hold of you know faith the faith the christian by faith the christian knows that the world was created out of nothing by the word of god and by faith you see everything upheld by the hand of god that formed everything and when you come to the word of god you know as well that not even a hair of your head can fall to the ground without his special permission and faith is the evidence it says in evidence of things

[16:07] there is such a proof there is such a evidence that silences all objections your faith any questions in your mind the word of god will clear all that um and you know to the believer it's just as if we were subjected to sight we have the evidence there you know i i think of a peter i think it's amazing what peter said in second peter 1 and verse 18 he speaks there about the transfiguration of jesus on the mount how he was there and how they witnessed that wonderful event but he says we have an even more sure word now when we turn to the word of god the importance of the word of god it's as sure as being there and seeing it we can be certain of that and peter tells us that he compares that marvelous event we say oh if we had seen that but he says here this is what you see by faith is just as powerful to us today and the holy spirit brings that before us the importance of the word of god faith is a substance of things hoped for there are things hoped for that are future you know we we think of heaven and all that and we think you know we might think oh they're unpossessable but they are possessible now by faith the things hoped for can actually be enjoyed you know i can enjoy the fact that we can know from the word of god that we're going to be heaven it's not going to be just the end as people hoping for the best we have a hope in heaven that is real and true and the word of god tells us that today and in chapter 11 verse 4 i'm just going on to going on or going back back to genesis in a way to this story of abel and how that he was so different from his brother cain the different what the difference was that abel lived by faith his sacrifice to god was by faith he brought the best lamb and he offered it the firstborn lamb he shed its blood god had regards it says to his faith to his sacrifice because he had faith in god and what god had said and what had been revealed through his parents and the the the shedding that god uh shed the the skin the skin that killed the lamb to clothe adam and eve um but cain brought the fruit of the ground cain brought something that he thought you know this this could be good enough like you know and it was the fruit of his own labor that he had kind of worked for this and in his opinion well it should be good enough you know that's a lot of attitude today um but you know we're not justified by works without faith it is impossible to please god it's faith in god not by works that any man should boast um and it was not acceptable uh what cain brought and cain got mad and he killed his brother abel and in that passage i think it's interesting as i just thought about that it's interesting that when abel was alive well i can't see it anywhere i can't see a single word that he spoke it speaks about him but it doesn't say anything that he actually said but here in that passage about faith it says that him being dead he still speaks today i think that's interesting and i was thinking what is abel uh speaking today and i think this is what abel would be speaking to us today is this that the life of faith is the only life worth living um and i kind of thought about this and i put some bit of order in i could be back to front but

[20:08] uh this is kind of what i thought about uh this is kind of what i thought about is that you know the life of faith does go on because what you saw today will go on even through um generations you know even i don't remember what color carol at fredhead but i remember the verse that he gave and i remember people who were such an encouragement to me and what they said and and so on and how their life of faith came on um but you know one thing that if i make that statement that the life of faith is the only faith worth living one thing i can't say i can't say this that it's that it is the case i can't say it's the case that if you live the life of faith you'll have an absence of conflict because it's all it's all it's the opposite in fact if you live the life of faith we only have to look at the verse before us to know that you're going to have conflict you're going to have a battle so you're not going to have an absence of conflict you're going to have conflict so in in the case of abel he had conflict stephen you know we could look through people in the way with david everyone they all had conflict they all had a battle so if we make the statement the life of faith is the only life worth living from that point of view that's not the case but from this point of view it is that it's only to the life of faith that gives us the knowledge that god is our god and that we are his that's a wonderful thing to know in life and to experience the knowledge that god that that god calls us to obey but also the fact that god has accepted the obedience of the lord jesus christ you know when we have failures the lord jesus christ obedience covers us and that through the cross and through faith in his blood that my sin has been defeated and i'm accepted into god's family as children of god and the holy spirit is working in us to accomplish his good work for us to do so let's not be sidetracked sidetracked by by the things that are easy let's let's not be allured by the world let's not be allured by our own flesh or by the devil or all the attractions that are ours today just at our fingertips but let us look to jesus for he is the author and the finisher of our faith um the life of faith is worth living it starts off with light and it finishes with light and i'm going to take a verse um that jesus uh gave the words jesus gave when jesus said jesus said unto them i am the light of the world he that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life and that's it that's what we have the life of faith is the only life worth living the life of faith is the only worth living and may we be able to say with the apostle paul the life i now live i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me amen we're we're in we're in we're en we're in we're in

[24:09]  we're in