INTRODUCTION
Sir Harry
Lauder was popular singer of our grandparents’ generation. Sir Harry was a
Scotsman who toured the country singing Scottish songs that he composed himself.
Many Americans had immigrated from Scotland, including my grandfather, and they
loved to go to Sir Harry sing. My grandfather went to one of his concerts and
talked to him.
Sir Harry
wore a kilt and carried a crooked walking stick. He spoke with an authentic
highland Scottish accent. He was also a comedian. He was funny
Because of
our Scottish grandfather, we had some of Sir Harry’s records that we loved to play
on our Victrola. One of our favorites was, “Keep Right On to the End of the
Road.” He wrote this song just after he learned of his son John’s death in
World War I. The refrain goes like this—
Keep
right on to the end of the road,
Keep
right on to the end,
Though
the way be long, let your heart be strong,
Keep
right on round the bend.
If
you're tired and weary, still journey on,
Till
you come to your happy abode,
Where
all you love and you're dreaming of
Will
be there at the end of the road.
That song has
something important to say to us believers because we are near the end of our
road.
Have you ever
wondered if you would have to strength to keep your faith bright to the end?
I think about
this because I have faced challenges I didn’t expect. I thought that when I got
old, I would just sit in my recliner and read my books. I didn’t think about weakness
and pains and memory problems.
Here is
something from the Book of Hebrews that helps me to keep my resolve to keep
right on to the end of the road. It is from Hebrews, chapter 10:
Let us hold
fast to the confession of our hope
without
wavering,
for he who
has promised is faithful,
and let us
consider how to stir up one another
to love and
good works,
not
neglecting to meet together,
as is the
habit of some,
but
encouraging one another,
and all the
more as you see the Day drawing near.
I. “Hold fast
to the confession of our hope without wavering.” That’s a challenge.
A. Something
that helps me is to repeat often to myself the promises God has given us in scripture.
Jesus said, “In my Father’s House are
many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a
place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Another
scripture I like to repeat to myself is found in 2 Corinthians 4:
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature
is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight
momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison,
because we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are
eternal.”
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
B. Another
way to “hold fast to the confession of
your hope without wavering” is to use your imagination.
Picture in
your mind what it will be like when you get to glory. Sometimes I do this when I’m
in bed before you go to sleep or when I wake up in the middle of the night.
Imagine
yourself meeting Jesus face-to-face. He welcomes you and puts his arms around
you.
Imagine what
it will be when old friends, who have arrived in the Promised Land before you, welcome
you and show you around.
Picture
yourself in your spotless robe, in front of the throne waving your palm branch
and praising God with the angels and old and new friends.
C. Yes, “Hold fast to the confession of your hope,”
but remember—according to our verse—it’s not all up to you: “He who promised is faithful.”
Jesus will
keep us from slipping away because he has a firmer grasp on us than we do on
him.
The psalmist
writes (Psalm 73):
Nevertheless, I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You will guide me with your counsel,
and afterwards receive me into glory.
II. Then we
read in our Hebrews text: “Let us
consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to
meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all
the more as you see the Day drawing near.” These are important instructions
for us if we are to keep right on to the end.
A. “Stir up one another to love and good works…”
Evidently
some of the believers were becoming apathetic, drowsy, and neglectful. They
were drifting away from their faith.
We all have a
tendency to drift away unless we get stirred up now and then.
I can think
of how believing friends have stirred me up to be more earnest about my faith.
Someone asked
me to take on a new responsibility in the church. I was anxious about it, but
it went well.
Someone complimented
me on something I did—and it made me want to do more.
Several
people have suggested good books. Some of them changed my life.
Some people
offered friendship, listening to what I had to say and sharing their lives with
me.
I have
received notes of appreciation that encouraged me.
These are
some ways fellow believers have “stirred me up to love and good works.”
I hope that I
also have encouraged others in important ways.
B. Now we
come to this phrase: “…not neglecting to
meet together, as is the habit of some but encouraging one another, and all the
more as you see the day approaching.”
Evidently,
even in those early days of the church, some of the believers had become
neglectful of their church attendance.
Some people
say that you don’t have to go to church to be a good Christian.
Sometimes
they say, “I don’t get anything out of it.”
Some say, “I
can worship God by myself.”
One friend,
who had formerly a faithful believer gave me this excuse: “There are too many
hypocrites.”
But we need
one another.
If you “don’t
get much out of it,” remember, you go to church, not for yourself but for
others.
As our writer
reminds us, we need to encourage one another.
And the more responsibility
you take, the more you get out of it.
The New
Testament never imagines that faith is something we do by ourselves. We need
each other.
The time in
my life when I made the most progress as a Christian was when I was in college.
We had a group of Christians who met one night a week for public meetings, at
other times for Bible studies, and every day for prayer. We had weekend
conferences. We also worshiped in our churches. I taught a Sunday school class.
Many in our fellowship were active in these ways.
We encouraged
each other in the faith. We provoked each other to love and good works.
The time in
my life when I made the least progress in my Christian life was when I was in
the Army in Korea. Most of the time I had no opportunity to go to chapel.
The men I
tented with weren’t interested in spiritual things. I felt isolated. I read my
Bible; I prayed. But I didn’t thrive as a Christian.
This story
comes from the early days of Christianity, during the terrible persecution of
the emperor Diocletian. It was the year 304. A group of 49 Christian believers
was meeting secretly in one of their homes in a town in what is now Tunisia.
They were gathered to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Suddenly,
soldiers burst in and arrested them. They were taken to Carthage to proconsul
to be interrogated.
When the
Proconsul asked them if they kept the Scriptures in their homes, the martyrs
answered that they kept them in their hearts.
As they were
tortured, they bore witness to their Lord. As one of their members was being
tortured the Proconsul asked him: “Why have you received Christians in your
home, transgressing the imperial dispositions?”
“We cannot
live without Sunday,” answered the Christian. He meant life would be unbearable
without the gift of worship and fellowship Christians.
On that day
49 followers of Jesus gave their lives because they refused to deny their Lord
by refusing to gather together in worship.
III. Our text
ends with the words “…encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
A. What is
The Day that’s approaching?
It’s the Day
of Glory—and the Day of Judgment.
It’s the Day of Judgment because, as the Bible
says, “We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according
to what he has done in the body” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
And it’s the Day of Glory because it’s the day God
takes us to our Heavenly Home, the day when Real Life begins, the day when we
“enter into the joy of the Lord.”
And the Bible
teaches that our joy there will depend on our faithfulness here.
B. It’s
easier to keep on to the end of the road when we keep our goal in sight.
As we’ve all
learned, life isn’t a sprint—it’s more like a marathon. I read of a famous
Christian who refused to have his biography written while he was still alive. He
said, “I’ve seen too many men fall out in the last lap of the race.
CONCLUSION
I’ll end with
a prayer from an old Christian believer in India. I make this prayer my own.
O God, you have kept me vigorously and joyfully
at work in days gone by,
and you now send me
joyful and contented into silence and inactivity;
grant me to find happiness in you,
in you in all my solitary and quiet hours.
In your strength, O Lord, I bid farewell to all.
The past you know; I leave it at your feet.
Grant me grace to respond to your divine call;
to leave behind all that is dear on earth,
and go alone to you.
“Behold I come quickly,” says the Lord.
Come, Lord Jesus.
