Good morning to everyone. You can turn in your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews 10, as you're finding your way there, or if you are already there, just a couple words of introduction. If we ask the question, what do we do as Christians, or maybe more specifically, what are we to do as Christians corporately, that is, walking together in churches, we may ask the question as well, what is our motivation and what is our encouragement.
What are our encouragements for? Walking together in churches as Christians who have been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God, Christ, and Gospel. Well, Hebrews 10, 19 to 25, gives us some answers to those questions, and there are glorious answers to those questions that we'll consider after a reading of God's Holy Word here. So let's read Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 1 and finishing at verse 25.
This is the Word of God.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:1–25
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually, year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had to would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you had no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. Previously saying, sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin, you did not desire nor had pleasure in them. which are offered according to the law.
Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.
Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us, through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
God, we thank you for this time in your word and in this act of worship, the preaching of it, and we do pray that you'd now be with us. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you would strengthen preacher and pulpit, that you would grant much to those in the pews, that in worship we would hallow your name, we would give you honor, that we would give you praise, that we would rightly worship you, rejoicing in so great a God, We'd be marked by a reverential awe before the thrice holy God of heaven and earth, that we would rejoice in the gospel. Lord God, we do pray that you would now strengthen your people by your spirit and the preaching of the word, that you would save sinners, and that all this would be done unto the praise of your most high name. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, when we wake up in the morning on the Sabbath day, we have a threefold opposition against us. And that threefold opposition is seeking to derail our communion with God and with each other. The world, the flesh, and the devil rails against us in a peculiar way on the Lord's Day Sabbath. And what is the remedy?
What is the answer? How do we quell the tyranny of the flesh that is seeking to rail against coming in to the Lord's house for the worship of the triune God? From whence do we gain the confidence to rail against the devil as he seeks to assail the gathering together of the saints to worship the triune God? From where do we gather the courage and the boldness put up our hands and stop the allurements of the world that seek to steal us away from so gathering as we have now on this the Lord's Day.
Well, we see in the pages of Holy Scripture, and peculiarly here in verses 19-25, that we have the greatest foundation for boldness and confidence, the greatest motivation, the greatest encouragement, to oppose that opposition, to gather together as we have, to render worship to Father, Son, and Spirit, the one God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ, and to commune one with each other as we seek to foster love and good works. We want to look at Hebrews 10, 19 to 25, simply under two considerations, and I say simply. We might be biting off more than we can chew because there's so much here in verses 19 to 25. And you know my problem is the management of time, but bear with me.
I will try not to keep you here too long. But two simple things that we want to look at from this passage this morning. And the first is
The Two-Fold Foundation
the two-fold foundation for the three-fold exhortation. There's a two-fold foundation for the apostolic admonition that follows. There are three things that the apostle wants Christians to do in light of so great a truth that we have in Jesus Christ the Lord and the effectual supreme and sufficient sacrifice of himself. upon Calvary's cross. So we'll look at the two-fold foundation for the three-fold exhortation and then simply and secondly the three-fold exhortation.
So first off the two-fold foundation for the three-fold exhortation, I know that's a mouthful but we'll You know, a lot's going on there in that heading. But just in the way of context, let's remind ourselves what the book of Hebrews is all about. The book of Hebrews, as Pink sort of summarizes, is essentially this, that the sum and substance, the center and circumference, the light and life of Christianity is Christ. It is not to be found in those articles of Old Covenant religion.
It is not to be found in the multitudinous washings and ceremonies and sacrifices. It is not to be found in tabernacle, temple, the Aaronic priesthood. It's not to be found in all those things. Those things were good for their divinely designed purpose and utility in the Old Covenant, but the Christ having now come, to whom all those things pointed, We are now to be found as those who see Christ as the sufficient one, Christ as the exclusively glorious one.
We do not look back upon the shiny things of the temple and the priesthood, but we look to the glorious one who died upon Calvary's cross, who rose again, who is now ascended, and is the head and king of the church. And so in the context here, in chapter 10, the apostle here is comparing the animal sacrifices of old to the glorious sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There is an insufficiency to the animal sacrifices that were offered in the Old Covenant, and of course that were being presently offered by the high priest. in the temple at the time of the writing of this epistle. There is then, by contrast, a unique and exalted sufficiency to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but this man, in the sacrifice of himself, this one to whom the blood of bulls and goats pointed, in this one is the true efficacy. in this one is the true power, in this one is the salvation for the sins of his people. So let's look first off then at the two-fold foundation for the three-fold exhortation, and we see that in verses 19 to 21. There are two things that the Apostle sets forth as the basis for the exhortations that he's about to give. And kids, you probably hear that word a lot, exhortation.
That's a big word, exhortation, four syllables. Exhortation, four syllables, what does that mean? In the Bible, it's an urging, it's a pleading, it's a command on the part of the biblical writers, in this case on the part of an apostle, to stir up Christian duty and service in light of so great a salvation. So based upon the redemptive glories of God and his Christ, there are commands given, there are urges given.
You know, in your own household, your parents might say something like, you know, go clean up your room. Because I clothe you and I feed you and I gave you life. There's an exhortation there. Go clean up your room.
What's the foundation for your obedience? That exhortation and your obedience to it. Well, your parents clothe you, they feed you. And surely, actually, the Bible, God himself says, honor your father and your mother.
But you see there, there's exhortation given and there's a reason for it. Well, here we have before we get to the exhortations, we find two foundational truths in order to serve obedience in our service as Christians in this lower world. And
Boldness by Christ's Blood
the first of the two-fold foundation here is a free and fearless confidence in light of Christ's cross work. a free and a fearless confidence in the light of Christ's cross work. And where do we find that? Well, notice verse 19. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
You see, Paul is giving a foundation for the exhortations that follow. And the first one is a confidence, a boldness, a true and proper and wholesome Christian courage that is born out of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Lord. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Whenever you see a therefore in Holy Scripture, pay attention.
Pay attention always when you're reading. When you see a therefore, what is happening is that the writer is either pointing you back to what he said as the reason for an exhortation or a command or something that he's then going to say, or he's going to give the foundation or summarize the foundation in what follows the therefore. But so he's writing, based upon everything that he has written in the context with regards to the exalted and unique sufficiency and exclusivity of Jesus Christ, based upon that, therefore, brethren, take heed to what I am about to exhort you unto. Notice this foundation.
Boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. This speaks to, first off, is that we have, brethren, access to God. We have access to the triune God of heaven and earth. blessed thing that we have by virtue of Christ's cross work. You see, in the Old Covenant, they did not have the same access that we now have under the New Covenant.
There were pledges of God's presence and down payments of the presence of God. They came through the multitudinous washings and ceremonies and sacrifices. All of those articles, all of those things connected to the ceremonial law. Christ has put those former things away And we now have this free and this fearless access to God.
Spurgeon writes this. He preached this many years ago, speaking with regards to the opening up in our access to the holiest by the blood of Jesus. It is also the great opener of entrances. That is, the blood of Jesus Christ.
There was no way into the holy place till Jesus, dying, rent the veil. The way into the Most Holy of All was not made manifest till He died. If you desire to approach God, the death of Christ is the way to Him. If you want the nearest access and the closest communion that a creature can have with his God, behold, the sacrifice of Christ reveals the way to you.
Jesus not only says, I am the way, but rending the veil, He makes the way. The veil of His flesh being rent, the way to God is made most clear to every believing soul. You see, so what's going on then? Why does Paul write this?
Why does the author to the Hebrews write this? Having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You see, they were being stolen away by their countrymen. by their family, by the unbelieving Hebrews that surrounded them, to go back to temple religion. We have the physical holiest.
We have the holy of holies in the temple. We have the priestcraft. We have the glorious shining things of Mosaic religion. Don't follow this, Jesus.
Don't follow this so-called Messiah because true and proper religion is found in our holiest and in our high priest. And so Paul wants to set before them the foundation, no, you have access to God. You can draw nigh unto God because Jesus has entered the holiest once for all with His blood, with the power and the effectual nature and the perfection of His sacrifice. We have access to God now, into the holiness, a place, holiest, a place beforehand, inaccessible by God's people.
And it is access to God, whereas before in the old covenant, it was to pledges of His presence. You know, there would have been this pressure to put on the Christians at this particular time. They could cast their eyes upon that place where they once gathered for the worship of God, and where they once gathered lawfully and wholesomely according to the old covenant. Having been saved, having been brought forth from darkness to light in Christ Jesus the Lord, the reality that that particular approach to the worship of the triune God has been put away by the coming and the sacrifice of Christ, They would have been out of that now, gathering together in churches, assembling themselves together in churches.
But you see, their countrymen would be pointing back to the temple. What are you doing? This is where true religion takes place. The glory of this temple.
The glory of this Herodian temple. With all of the gold and all of those things that bedeck this structure. We have the priesthood. We have the high priest who goes in with his blue and with his purple and with his scarlet vestments, bringing the sacrifices.
He takes off of those garments to go into the holiest and offer up these bulls and goats and their blood in the sacrificial system. We have all of these shiny things. What are you doing gathering together in a dusty church where there are no shiny things and all you have left is a bleeding Messiah? You see, they would be tempted to go back to that.
Oh, OK, maybe there is something to this argument. Maybe we'll go back there because the shiny things, the beautiful things. Paul wants to remind them that the glorious and the beautiful things are not seen in the blue and the purple and the scarlet of the priest's vestments. It's not seen in gold.
It's not seen in jewels. It's not seen in anything save for the Christ, save for Jesus, who entered the holiest with His own blood." And notice verse 20, it is by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh. We have a new and living way. This is set in opposition to the ministry of death or to dead things.
You see, the priesthood in the Old Testament, it was not a living way. The ceremonial law didn't bring life. Obedience to those articles of Mosaic religion did not confer life. It was the thing to which those things pointed that brings everlasting life.
It was the Christ. The blood of bulls and goats never takes away sin. There is nothing inherently glorious to a blue and a purple and a scarlet vestment. There is no spiritual efficacy in a structure, in a physical veil.
There is every efficacy, every perfection, every glory in this Christ. In this One whose veil is His own flesh. This One who rent His flesh in the service of bringing many sons to glory. We have a new and a living way which He consecrated or inaugurated for us. not with a physical veil, not by entering in repeatedly to a place to offer up sacrifices which could never take away sin with the blood of another, but with His own blood, He entered the holiest, offering Himself to God in the stead of all who believe in His name.
You know, as often as a preacher preaches Christ, he realizes that he can never do enough justification and service to this glorious one while he's here on earth, while he's in heaven, because he's unique and exalted above all things, glorious. It's hard to enter into the mind of a preacher when you're not a preacher. Mike might share the same thing. When a preacher, a pastor, leaves the pulpit after preaching Christ, It's difficult because we haunt ourselves with points and gems and mind gold missed while we were in the pulpit.
We're up here and we have the word of God and the revelation of a glorious savior. We leave a pulpit after preaching and we metaphorically beat ourselves up for missing the multifaceted glory of Jesus Christ. You know, I come up here and I stand in a pulpit and I preach this Christ, this Jesus, this glorious one, and by the sanctification of God and through the mediatorial blood of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His sanctifying influence, some nuggets of truth come to your hearts and to your minds, but a preacher can never exhaust the multifaceted, variegated glory. that is Jesus Christ the Lord. And so as I'm working through this, feel the difficulty and sympathize with the trial it is to properly set forth before you the glories of so great a Jesus.
We have a new and living way which he consecrated for us. Look again at Hebrews 9. We looked at this last time. We looked at this last week just by way of observation to stress a particular point, but see the life that we have with respect to Christ, the new and living way in opposition to the old way.
Notice in verse 11 of Hebrews 9, but Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. You see then the folly.
And you see the madness of going back to a system of religion that did not offer a new and a living way. It did not confer life in the washings and the ceremonies and the sacrifices, but only prefigured and only set forth copies of the coming true, only set forth significations of the coming real, that is, the Jesus, this glorious One who entered the holiest by His own blood. We have this new and this living way. And it is a living way because Christ, once for all, when offered up Himself upon Calvary's cross in the sacrifice of Himself, there is no repetition which would speak to the insufficiency of the sacrifice, but rather a glorious once-for-all reality to the death of Christ which speaks to the perfection and the glory of His sacrifice.
And
Christ as Perfect Intercessor
notice then the second foundation. Remember, this is a two-fold foundation for the three-fold exhortation. The second is the reality of Christ as perfect intercessor. the reality of Christ as perfect intercessor. Notice what we have here in verse 21.
And having a high priest over the house of God. So the first one introduced by the having, that word having, was having boldness. And now it is having a high priest over the house of God. You'll see there in your Bibles the having is italicized.
That means that the word rendered having in verse 19 isn't there in verse 21. It's assumed. It's provided there because it's borrowing, if you will, from the previous having. We have, therefore, brethren, having boldness and a high priest over the house of God.
A two-fold foundation to the exhortation. But let's look at this. Having a high priest over the house of God. First, we have a high priest.
This language might not... You know, is there is this just a general statement is the Apostle Paul just saying we you know Jesus Christ is our high priest and and we have him he's He's our high priest and so therefore do this do that Let us you know draw an eye with a true heart. Let us Lay hold of the hope of our calling without wavering and let us stir up love and good works. So just a general statement that we have a high priest.
Well, I believe it's first and foremost an answer to their apostate surroundings. It's an answer to the unbelieving Jews that are tempting them to come back to temple religion. They would be saying, Christians, We have the high priest who goes in year after year offering up sacrifices to God. Who do you have?
You have no high priest. The Christians would answer, we have a high priest. We have a High Priest. And not a sinful one who offers up the blood of bulls and goats first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people.
Blood which can never take away sin. We have a High Priest who offers Himself up. The perfection of His blood. The glory of His person.
The virtue of His work. That's our High Priest. And so Paul says, we have a high priest over the house of God. Don't let their temptations and their mockings and their ridiculings affect you in any way.
Who is their high priest in comparison to the glorious Christ? the Son of God, who took to Himself our humanity, saved for sin, lived a perfect life of obedience to the law of God so that we might have a righteousness that avails with Him, died upon Calvary's cross so that all who believe in Him will have everlasting life and the forgiveness of sins. We have a high priest. That's the point. We have a high priest.
Back up in Hebrews 4. or in the book of Hebrews 2 chapter 4, just to see some of the same language. There's lots of glorious repetition in this book, where statements may be concise, and then later statements expanding upon that same thing might be more expanded, but all setting forth the same glorious truth. And notice with regards to our having a high priest in Hebrews 4, beginning in verse 14, seeing then, that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. That's, in essence, a one-sentence summarization of the passage we're considering this morning. seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." You see the weight that this would bring to the souls of those being tempted to go back to old covenant religion?
The weight and the confidence and the boldness that this would instill in the heart of a first century Christian? Now this, don't get me wrong, this instills boldness and brings much encouragement to our hearts 2,000 years removed. But you see, they're tempted to go back to temple religion. There's the priest.
There's the vestment. There's the glorious blue and purple and scarlet and the thick robes and the ropes and the glorious shiny things of old covenant religion. But don't be stolen away unto those earthy and temporary and now dead things, but rather see your High Priest as the One who is the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person, of one power and equal with Him who begat Him. This glorious Son of God, who has the same laud and the same honor as the Father and Spirit, who took upon Himself humanity, let us hold fast our confession, because our High Priest is not a sinful man only who offers up sacrifices for his own sins and us, but our High Priest is this Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, yet one Christ.
The glorious mediator between God and man.
Hebrews 7: The Greatness of the Priest
the greatness of this high priest is seen in Hebrews 7. You can turn there with me as we just close up in the next matter of minutes this two-fold foundation. Notice in Hebrews 7 the greatness of this priest. Specifically verse 26, but we want to actually read the context just to see how the apostle expands upon the greatness of this priest.
Remember, the idea is this. the persecutors, the opposers, the enemies, the unbelievers, even some who had beforehand been with them. Not true Christians, but false claimants to New Covenant inclusion. False claimants to the label Christianity. They had been there for a while.
They had heard the preaching. They had given some measure of consent to the preaching, to the sacraments, to church discipline. They had been found in the midst of the proclamation of the Gospel. but they had departed and they would have been saying along with all of the wicked, where is your priest? Where is your priest?
Notice beginning in verse 14, for it is evident. Hebrews 7.14, that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident, if in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. Now just pause for a moment.
That's the new and living way there. The power of an endless life. We don't put our confidence in an office of earthly priests where they're born, they live, they die, they're replaced, they're born, they live, they die, they're replaced, who offer up ineffectual sacrifices, but rather we have a priest who is after and according to the power of an endless life. That's wherein our confidence lies in that Jesus.
Verse 17, for he testifies, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. It wasn't a new and living way. It could not forgive sins.
For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath by him who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not relent, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. So by so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
Also, there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices for his own sins, and then for the people's.
For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son, who has been perfected forever. Man, why, preacher, did you read that whole section of Scripture? Can we not just get on with the rest of the sermon?
There's a reason. We want to highlight here the length to which Paul goes in order to set forth the sufficient and the effectual Jesus. this glorious High Priest. You see, Paul doesn't stop short and just give sort of a concise statement of Jesus is your High Priest, therefore, lay hold of the hope of your confession. Let's get on to some other stuff.
Much is at stake. Eternal souls are at stake. The truth is at stake. The salvation of His countrymen for whom He wept. is at stake.
And so He wants to go to great lengths here, to great pains and efforts to show forth this Jesus as the glorious One. And notice what we have just very briefly in this section of Scripture here. First, we have the spiritual power or saving efficacy of Christ's priesthood. Notice, He has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.
We have this beautiful language here, verse 19, the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. There is a saving efficacy, a glorious saving efficacy to Christ's priesthood. There is in his priesthood the secure ground of new covenant promise. in verses 20 to 22, summed up at the end in 22 by so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
In that one word, brethren, surety, you have your hope as Christians. By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. One who stands effectually in the stead of another and brings the legal and the glorious weight of resolving, in this case, the issue between God and man. We have the mediator Jesus Christ in our place, the surety, the provision, the guarantor.
He secures perfectly everlasting life for all who believe in His name. That's why, brethren, any doctrine that says the death of Christ does not bring salvation, assurance, full atonement, definite atonement, limited atonement, is an affront to the Holy Scriptures. We do not have an atonement of maybe. We do not have a redemption of perhaps.
If that's true, Spurgeon said something like this, then the cross quakes, the blood falls powerless to the ground, and our salvation is a matter of perhaps. No, we have in this Christ a surety. He so died so as to secure perfectly the salvation of a multitude which no man can number. We have a perfect high priest.
We have the unique and exalted nature of this priest in v. 26. A priest who is fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. Can you see how this would have built, truth upon truth, to well up the confidence of Christians who were being tempted to go back to the human high priest? to the one wearing the vestments, to the one who had to make sacrifices for his own sins and the sins of the people, how this would instill a confidence. We don't have this earthly high priest, this temporary high priest, this ineffectual repeated priest craft, but we have such a high priest who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens.
Wow. Again, the multifaceted, variegated glory of Christ that we cannot exhaust this side of glory and that we will not exhaust on the other side of glory. The distinction and perfection of His priesthood as well is brought out in verses 23 to 25 and 27 to 28.
Foundation Summarized
All that to say, brethren, as we find our way back to Hebrews 10, this foundation then, is twofold. By the blood of Christ we have free and fearless confidence in light of his cross work, and we have in the priesthood of Christ the reality of him as our perfect intercessor. We sang at the outset of worship, arise my soul arise, shake off thy guilty fears, the bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. You know, we can be plagued by our remaining corruption.
We've had a good week, perhaps, and we started out Monday after the last Lord's Day. charged. We took in the worship of the triune God. We heard God's Word preached. We've, you know, been filled as far as we can be this side of glory by the Word of God and the glory of His Gospel.
Get into, you know, we're into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We're starting to do good. Then we stumble. We trip up in our remaining corruption.
We entertain and fall into a familiar pattern of sin, perhaps, of some sort, a pet sin. We've grieved our God. We've sinned against him. We haunt ourselves with an undue and an unwholesome self-loathing, and we think ourselves to be outside of divine favor and grace. we're to be called back to this place where we have a high priest who stands before God, who pleads the merits of his blood.
You see, when we sing, arise my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty fears, we know what follows after that, but the foundation of our confidence and the foundation of our boldness is not our performance from Monday to Saturday. We don't puff up our chests and walk into the church because we've performed a good week. Ought we to perform a good week? Yes, we should.
We should be zealous for good works. We should, by virtue of salvation, by amazing and victorious grace, and the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. But when we walk in those two doors, the boldness and the courage by which we puff out our chests is not because we've performed well. in obedience to the law of God, it's because Jesus Christ has gone before us with the sacrifice of His blood, and He pleads the merits of perfection and sacrifice and substitutionary atonement before God. our righteous one, our surety, our mediator. Don't find the skip in your step in looking in the mirror at the perfection of your performance.
Look to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and find confidence in Him.
The Three-Fold Exhortation
Well, let's look at the threefold exhortation now. The threefold exhortation.
First: Draw Near with a True Heart
The first exhortation that we have is confident New Testament worship born of a perfect sacrifice and amazing grace. Notice in verse 22. So, just very briefly, based upon this, the boldness in the blood of Christ, the high priest, the fact that we have so great a high priest, then verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So the first exhortation is confident New Testament worship, born of a perfect sacrifice and amazing grace.
Notice this language, draw near with a true heart. We are to, in light of so great a truth, we are to draw near with a true heart. What does that mean? And is this, again, is this just language, this drawing near with a true heart, is that just sort of general language that the Apostle Paul is pulling out of an apostolic hat and writing for exhortation to these Christians?
No, it's rich with Old Testament meaning. It's rich with biblical meaning. There's an instance in the life of Jesus Christ where he uses this language where he says, they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. It's when the unbelieving religious leaders come to him and they indict him and his disciples because they're eating with unwashed hands.
And they've heaped up all of these additional things upon the law of God that have no place, the traditions of men. And he says, they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. New Covenant worship is a drawing nigh, not just in lip service to Father, Son, and Spirit, not just in lip service to Jesus Christ, but rather with true hearts. We come as Christians and we draw nigh unto God.
This access that we have to God by virtue of the perfection of Christ's saving work, the efficacy of His blood, this free and fearless confidence that we are to have, we come and we come with true hearts. I think, not I think, I know, it's very often the case that on a Sunday, for whatever reason, we're so rushed, we're so ill-prepared. You know, I don't know if it's that three-fold opposition that we wake up on the Sabbath day, the world, the flesh, and the devil railing against us. It's a peculiar day, set aside from the other six, because it's God's day, it's the Lord's day, it's the Lord's day Sabbath.
But there is this reality where we're more prepared for every other thing in the week than we are for the Lord's day. When we show up late, our hairs, maybe not all of us, but some of us show up. If you showed up late this morning, I'm not picking on you, really. But we show up with hair unkempt.
We show up perhaps unshaven, ill-prepared. Our button is either one hole too high or one hole too low, or whatever. And we're rushing the kids in and everything else. But if we were to go to a ball game, You know, we go two hours ahead.
We eat, you know, at a restaurant that we've made a reservation at. We're well dressed. We've got everything. We're good to go.
We find our seat a half hour before the ballgame starts. We got the program. We're ready to do this. What is it about church?
You know, what is it about, is it because there's no shiny things, you know, that we have in this place? Is it because I'm not wearing a blue and purple and scarlet vestment and all decked out in the, you know, bejeweledness of a high priest? What is it? We are to draw nigh unto God with true hearts.
And I believe what we are to read from that is not only that we have the reality that we've been given new hearts of flesh that beat for the Savior by sovereign and victorious grace. God has pulled out our hearts of stone, replaced them with hearts of flesh that beat for the Savior, the Christ. but also that we draw nigh with true hearts that reflect a genuine Christian reality. We love this God. We love this Christ.
We don't come to church because it's a weariness, because it's a labor. I hope you don't. If you call the worship of God labor, a weariness, a trial, and a trouble, you're outside of saving grace. We draw near with true hearts.
God has given us true hearts. God in his sovereignty and his amazing grace has given us new hearts, brethren. Let's use those new Christian hearts warmly, joyfully, and reverentially to respect his day, to glory in his presence, and to rejoice in the communion that we have, one with each other. Confident New Testament worship born of a perfect sacrifice and amazing grace.
It is to come in full assurance of faith. This is not intended as a call to look at ourselves, to find a confidence and satisfaction, but to look to the efficacy and merit of Christ Jesus the Lord. So this language here, when we read in verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart. in full assurance of faith, that full assurance of faith doesn't terminate again upon our faith. upon the strength of it, upon the merits of our faith, either the depth of it, you know, in contrast to what could be the smallness of our faith. It doesn't rest upon how we're doing in a week in our walk in Christianity, but rather the confidence by which we gain this or the confidence or where does this confidence come from?
Not from ourselves, but from this high priest. from this Jesus who gave his blood for us. That's the language of Hebrews 4. I don't know if we read the rest of it, but in Hebrews 4, when we read here, let us hold fast our confession, in Hebrews 4.14, it doesn't stop there. There's a reason given, and then there's a let us, an exhortation given, just like we have in our own passage.
Notice, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Verse 16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So let's just imagine that we were reading our Bibles at this point and there was no verse 14 and 15. Those verses weren't there.
And we read, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Okay, so maybe there's something inherent to my own Christianity. Maybe there's something inherent to my own renewed humanity that's been, we've been made alive in Christ, and there's something inherently strong and glorious about me by which I march with a lion-hearted boldness to the throne of grace. No, it says, let us therefore.
That therefore points us to something. And what does it point us to? It points us to the great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. So the boldness and the courage is not our lion-hearted Christianity inherent to our new life, but it is Jesus.
The foundation for our boldness and courage is this glorious one, this Jesus, this one who shed his blood, this one who gave his life, this one who rose again, this one who ascended. to the right hand of the majesty on high. And notice as well, back in Hebrews 10 then, we have this language, having our hearts sprinkled and our bodies washed. The language is, again, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled with an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Are we to take that literally?
Are we to take that literally, that our hearts are literally sprinkled physically from an evil conscience, and our bodies are literally washed with pure water? Well, say, of course not. The first proposition there, or the first clause, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, of course not. There's nothing where blood can actually be sprinkled upon our hearts.
But it does point back to the physical sprinkling of blood in the Old Covenant. whether it was the sprinkling of the blood of the Passover sacrifice, whether it was the sprinkling of the blood of those covenantal and mosaic implements for their consecration and sanctification, it points back to that, and it again shows the ineffectual reality of those things that were copies of the true, and the effectual and perfect reality of this Jesus, who, with his own blood, sprinkles us from an evil conscience. In other words, by the blood of Jesus, we draw nigh. By the perfect shed blood of the Savior, we are sprinkled. Our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies are washed with pure water.
Not a reference to baptism. Not a reference to a physical washing with water. but the real that points back to the signal of the old covenant where things were washed to sanctify and purify them. Paul is using that language showing that the meaning was always wrapped up in this Jesus. who by virtue of the perfection of His saving work sends His Spirit to save us, to wash us. We looked at that passage a number of weeks ago.
We're saved not by deeds of righteousness which we have done, but rather according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. So we're to draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Why? This rests upon the perfect sacrifice of Christ and the amazing grace of the Spirit bringing us forth in sovereign power from the deadness of sin to life in Christ.
Owen says, it is plain that the Apostle in these expressions alludeth unto the necessary preparations for divine service under the law. So just as there were preparations made for divine service under the law, under the Gospel, the preparation that we have for drawing nigh unto God is that Jesus has cleansed us in His precious blood. The Spirit has made us alive by amazing grace.
Second: Hold Fast the Confession
The second exhortation then is this. An immovable constancy in our profession of faith, buttressed by our unchangeable God. Where do we find that? Well, notice in verse 23.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. We have there an immovable constancy in our profession of faith, buttressed by, that is, held up and supported by our unchangeable God. You know, there's... There's an importance that we are to glean from this.
Now, when we read this language here, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. We could also read that, let us hold fast the confession of our faith. You know, we're a confessional church, and you hear Jim and I and young Michael, young Pastor Michael. I can only call him young Pastor Michael now for about another month and 10 days.
I've been thinking about this for, I only have about three months where I can sort of call myself a senior pastor here in the eldership. He's leaving in January 21st, so now I'm just back to the young guy there, the young, shaven-headed fellow that occasionally preaches. But coming back to this point here, there is an importance to having a confession of our hope or a confession of faith. The London Baptist confession of faith is not what I'm getting at here.
We have a confession of faith that summarizes what the Bible says with respect to the truth of God. But what we're trying to glean here is the importance of holding fast the confession of our faith. That is, in this Jesus, In this triune God, in this Christ who is God and man, yet one Christ, who gave Himself for guilty sinners. In the fact that in the giving of Himself, He brings us not a salvation of maybe, but a salvation of yea and amen. a salvation of verity and certainty that comes with an Amen, Amen.
He has saved us from our sins. All of those glorious truths that are wrapped up in this high priest who is the sum and substance, the center and circumference, the light and life of Christianity. We're to lay hold of the hope of our calling. We are to have an immovable constancy in our profession of faith.
This holding fast language is used in Deuteronomy 13, Joshua 23, to name only two of many, and 2 Thessalonians 2.15 in the New Testament, where we are to stand fast, lay hold of the hope of our calling, lay hold of that pattern of sound words, the tradition that has been handed down to us. The importance of a firm grip upon our confession of hope or faith is seen in the dangers of apostasy and the promptings to grow in faith. Do you want to grow in faith? Do you say yes to the exhortation to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Laying hold of the confession of our hope is not done without our minds gripping with an immovable constancy upon the truths revealed in Holy Scripture. Our emphasis and our constant stress of the importance of doctrine doesn't come because we like to think ourselves wise and able to articulate that doctrine. It's because it comes down to a vital and a very important matter between remaining in the faith or apostasy. If you do not know the truth, if you do not glory in the truth, if you do not fill your minds with the truth, if you do not engage in a proper Christian meditation, which is not lighting a candle and sitting before a golden fat man, but taking your Bible and filling your mind with it, reading the Word of God and filling it with the glorious propositions of revealed truth.
If you're not doing that, then the danger of apostasy could very well be in your future, proving that you were never one of us, and you went out of us, not because you were of us, but because you were not of us and God had not brought you forth. to saving faith in Jesus Christ. The importance of a firm grip upon our confession of hope or faith is seen in the dangers of apostasy, and as well, the very fabric of an enduring Christianity is that faith. These were faced with a body of people that were seeking to vanquish Christianity, to vanquish it, rid the earth of Christianity. That's why the Apostle Paul is pleading with them, don't go back to old covenant religion.
What will happen to the promised new covenant religion then? The reason that all that took place in the first place. It's gonna happen. The importance of laying hold of the confession of our hope, the truths of Christianity, is because the very fabric of an enduring Christianity is at stake.
Now obviously God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases with the you know, with the one and only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, there will be no vanquishing of Christianity, but he has so ordained the means that the endurance of Christianity comes through the faithful proclamation of the word and an immovable constancy and grip upon the truth of the living and true God. Basil, so many years ago, wrote this in the fourth century, our distresses are notorious. Even though we leave them untold, for now their sound has gone out into all the world. The doctrines of the fathers are despised.
Apostolic traditions are set at naught. The devices of innovators are in vogue in the churches. Now men are rather contrivers of cunning systems than theologians. The wisdom of this world wins the highest prizes and has rejected the glory of the cross.
Shepherds are banished, and in their places are introduced grievous wolves hurrying the flock of Christ. Houses of prayer have none to assemble in them. Desert places are full of lamenting crowds. The elders lament when they compare the present with the past.
The younger are yet more to be compassionated, for they do not know of what they have been deprived." You see that in our modern day, don't you? The elders lament when they compare the present with the past. When, you know, those among you whose hair is whitened by the sunlight of heaven, to use Spurgeon's language, you have grey hair or white hair, you've been around in Christianity for quite some time. Imagine if it was the case that innovative preachers entered the pulpits, and perhaps this is some of your stories.
Innovative preachers come into the pulpits, despising the old paths and introducing new ones that never entered into the heart of God. Elders lament when they compare the present with the past, oh, to go back when the Word was preached, when the whole God, the full Christ, the whole gospel was proclaimed from a pulpit that flamed with righteousness. Now we have this nonsense. The younger are yet more compassionate, for they do not know of what they have been deprived.
The young don't know anything else but the puppets and the ponies and the shows. And as we discussed last night, the three men in Lycra dancing around on a stage in a church to depict the intra-Trinitarian love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Blasphemy of blasphemies. We are to lay hold of the hope of our calling without wavering.
We're to rest simply upon the triune God, the glory of His Christ, the perfection of saving grace, the wonders of the Gospel, the mystery of so great a truth that we have such a high priest, Jesus Christ, who has entered into the holiest with effectual and saving blood.
God's Faithfulness as Anchor
The reason given for our firm possession and grip upon the confession of our hope is the unchanging faithfulness of God. I'm gonna pick up the last exhortation, I think, next, or the next time I preach, perhaps, because we have no time now, but closing with this, the reason, and it's a very important exhortation that I will come back to, but closing with this then, the reason given for our firm possession of the hope of our faith, the confession of our hope is this, He who promised is faithful. Why are we to lay hold of the hope of our calling without wavering? Well, first, because we have boldness to enter by the Holiest, by the blood of Jesus, and because we have such a great High Priest.
But also now, because the One who called us, the One who brought us from death to life, He's faithful. The One who promised is faithful. So many years ago at the fall when He said, there is one coming, the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, that has taken place. All who look to Him in faith have everlasting life.
The seed of Abraham. The greater prophet than Moses, the son of David, the Lord our righteousness, the branch, the suffering servant, all of those promises of old covenant religion have come to fruition, finality, consummation in this Jesus. The one who promised is faithful. He said that he would make a covenant.
Not like the old covenant, but a new one, in which He would be our God, we would be His people. He would write the law upon our hearts. That's the very context of 1618. He would give us the forgiveness of sins according to His eternal loving kindness and mercy, the one who promised is faithful.
Don't you love that hymn? Change and decay in all around I see. O thou that changest not, abide with me. This unchanging God, this God of unwavering promise, is the one who will keep us.
He will help us. He will grant us the grace of endurance to lay hold of the confession of our hope without wavering. And so, brethren, in 53 seconds, what are we to do with this language? Very simply, We're to draw near with a true heart, we're to hold fast the confession of our hope, and next time we are to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
Application
The application of this sermon is in the text of the sermon. Just a couple brief notes reflect often upon the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of his work. Wherein do you find your confidence as a Christian? Where do you find your boldness in the week to do what you ought to do in service to God and men?
And on the Lord's Day, when you wake up faced with that threefold opposition, from where does your confidence and your encouragement come? It's to come from Christ, the dignity of His person, the virtue of His work, the glorious promise of an unchanging God. We are to seek to foster our Christian confidence. How do we do that?
How do we seek to foster our Christian confidence? Well, in seeking to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Christ. We gain a greater confidence in our Christian walk when we fill our minds with Holy Scripture. When we fill ourselves with the truth of the living and true God, we get a confidence, encouragement, and boldness.
When we reflect with great joy upon the fact that our triune God, unchanging in His nature and in His promises, pulled us by amazing grace from out of the deadness and darkness of sin, placed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, giving us new hearts, all by amazing and victorious grace, when we reflect upon this Christ, the dignity of His person, that He is not simply an earthly high priest, but the Son of God, who came down from heaven, took upon Himself our nature, saved sin for our redemption and recovery. We reflect upon the glory of His work, that it isn't a work of maybe and perhaps, but a work of yea and amen. All who believe in him will have everlasting life. Pray that we will be a church where we have this that characterizes each and every one of us, drawing nigh with true hearts, holding fast the confession, and considering one another to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some. but coming here, coming to church, gathering together, and all the more as we see the day approaching.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we rejoice in your truth. We thank you for your word. We thank you that we have this opportunity so to gather as Christians in this place to worship you. We do pray, Lord God, that you would help us to be strengthened, to be nourished by word and spirit, that we might grow in our confidence and in our boldness, that we might grow in gripping with an unmovable constancy those truths most surely believed among us.
We pray that you would help us, Lord God, to consider one another, to stir up love and good works, We would do this while reflecting upon the glory of your promises, the glory of you as that one who is unchanging, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all of his glorious perfections. And we would reflect with great joy and find our confidence in Jesus Christ the Lord, our great high priest, who gave his blood for guilty sinners. We do pray that you'd strengthen us, Lord God, that you would save sinners, that any here who are outside of Christ, that you would now, by amazing grace, bring them forth to bend a knee unto the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And do go with us now.
Help us to have grace from you to endure, mercy and strength from you to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of amazing grace. We pray in Christ's precious name, amen.