Hebrews chapter 10. We're going
to look at just two verses, verses 19 and 20. But in verse 19 he
says, having therefore, that word therefore reflects back
to the previous 18 verses. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh." Now, the first 17-18 verses,
the writer is comparing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant,
and he's showing how much superior the New Covenant is. We're going
to look at entering into the presence of God, because that's
what he says, they're having boldness to enter into the presence
of God. So, and then he makes that comment,
therefore, that word connecting the previous verses, for example,
in verse 1 of chapter 10, the law having a shadow of good things
to come, not the very image. can never, with those sacrifices,
which we know were bullocks and rams, turtle doves, offered year
by year, continually make the comers there unto perfect. So
it compares the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old
Covenant was never given to save. The law was never given to save,
it was given to show sin exceeding sinful. So, the writer in this,
and actually all chapters 1 through 9, he talks about the angels
and then they kind of start going down, he talks about Christ.
He talks about Moses, and then he lifts up Christ. The high
priest, and then he lifts up Christ. And that's what he's
doing in these first several verses. It had a shadow, the
law had a shadow. It wasn't the very substance.
Christ was the substance. And then he also talks about
in verse 4, it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins. Christ actually accomplished
our salvation. He took away sins. And then you
go down a little further, he said, Then, lo, I come, the volume
of the book, verse 7, is written of me to do thy will. A body,
verse 5, thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast prepared for
me. The Old Testament, they always prepared the sacrifice. It did
not have to have blemish or spot. They always had to prepare it.
But God prepared this body, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
and He would perfect forever them that are sanctified, says
the Scripture. So, and then He says it very plainly in verse
9, then He said, "...lo, I come to do thy will, O God." He taketh
away the first, that He may establish the second. He taketh away the
first, to kill is what it means, literally it means to kill. He
takes away the first, that He may establish the second. So
He's making these comparisons, Old Covenant, New Covenant. The
Old Covenant or the Old Testament, This was done, this sacrifice
was done, once a year, the high priest would enter into the Holy
of Holies, once a year, but he did it with fear. Because if
you know anything about the Old Testament sacrifices, the outer
court, the inner court, and the Holy of Holies. And it was surrounded
by a veil. And they went in, but they went
in with fear, the high priest, once a year, because they had
a rope tied around one of their legs, and then they had bells
on the hem of their garb, of the priestly garment, and if
that priest misrepresented or misstepped, did anything contrary
to the law or ordinances, He was dragged out perfectly dead. So those who were ministering,
they could hear the bells, and if those bells stopped, if they
heard a thud, he did something he wasn't supposed to do. However,
the wonder of wonders in these two verses here, so we've talked
about the superiority of Christ's sacrifice compared to the Old
Covenant, but now he talks about their We have boldness to enter
into the holies. And that's what I want to talk
about the rest of this morning. Wonder of wonders of the grace
of God in Christ Jesus. But now, the New Testament, our
new covenant, he says, therefore, which like I said reflects back
to the previous 18 verses, because of all the truths regarding the
superior sacrifice of Christ, the supreme value of His person
and righteousness, we have boldness to enter into His rest. That word boldness is liberty. Now we talked about liberty,
I know I preached a message on, I think, Galatians, the liberty
that we have in Christ. But we have liberty, but we have
boldness as well to enter into the holiest by His blood, by
His blood. Where the law is, the scripture
says, there is no liberty. And I know some of you here,
if not most, can attest to bondage that law and people browbeating
you and making you try to do something or making you try to
conform to, they say the image of Christ, but it's usually their
doctrines, their thoughts, their image. But where the law is,
there is no liberty. But where grace reigns through
righteousness, we can say yea and amen. And all those are yes
and amen. The promises are yes and amen
in Christ. I want us to note that this boldness
or liberty is not sought for, but it is already possessed. That's important. Having therefore,
brethren, Boldness if you do this if you repent if you believe
if you believe these doctrines No having therefore Based upon
the sufficient work and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ brethren
We have boldness freedom to enter into the holiest By the blood
of Jesus this boldness or liberty that he speaks of it's not something
that you can seek You have it or you don't. You believe on
Christ or you're yet in unbelief. The grace of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ has made it so. In the previous chapter he talks
about, and in part of this chapter he talks about the conscience.
The conscience and guilt is put away. Is put away. Try to adjust your attitude,
adjust your thoughts, or I need to get in a better place in order
to come to worship. We've had this issue before in
our place, years and years ago, is when we partake in the Lord's
Supper, it's for the Lord's people. Somebody would say, well, I'm
not worthy. Well, that's not the word. It's not used that
way. Worthily, it's your attitude to actions. It's not whether
you're worthy. Our worthiness is in Christ Jesus.
So, you know, you go through those doors, if we're meeting
here, you come in and you're like, well, I need to prepare,
and we should prepare ourselves to worship, but you're not going
to get in a better state from out there to in here. this boldness
or liberty, we possess it, we have it. Conscience and guilt
is put away and we are free to enter into God's presence for
communion, for prayer, and He says, ask what you will. According
to His will, He will grant it. By His blood, that's this last
part of verse 19. By the blood of Jesus. It's always and only His blood.
It's nothing else. Like I said, it's not doctrine,
it's not denomination, it's not this or that. It's by His blood,
by His doing and dying, by His life and death, by His resurrection
and glory. Every singular act that Christ
performed for us, whereby we are made, as He says in Colossians
1, made meat to be partakers with the inheritance of the saints
in life. That's by His blood. We can't
add to it, we can't take it away. We can't take it away from Him.
And in verse 20, having therefore brethren boldest to enter into
the holiness by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. Now, this language that the writer
implores here throughout Hebrews, he's talking to the Hebrew believers
and they kept wanting, it wasn't like the Galatians. The Galatians,
you remember, somebody kept in and spied out their liberty and
were trying to teach them that they needed to keep the law plus
Christ. This is different. These were Hebrews And they were
trying to go back to the law. They weren't being told they
had to go back, they were just natural. We don't understand
it as Gentiles in a sense, how difficult it would be. But on
the other hand, we're probably, there's nobody here that probably
hasn't been in religion without Christ. And Melinda, we call
it baggage. How many times do we bring back
that old baggage? And we still have to do this. Challenge it by the Word of God.
Is this true? Or is this just something I picked
up? Or my flesh picked up? So, we're not Hebrews. And we didn't,
you know, the transition between the Old Covenant and the New
Covenant, it was difficult for them because they always, you
know, they'd bring something in to the high priest and they
would take care of this. But we don't. We don't have to
do that. Christ successfully satisfied
all of our requirements that were against us, the law, God's
justice, and we're free. We don't, I think we have a problem
understanding, well I'm going to go, I'm going to send way
too much. The believer sends more than he wants to. Don't use your liberty for a
cloak of lasciviousness. We have a tendency to worry about
that. But realize that Christ, what He's done, is superior than
anything the old covenant had. And He taketh away the first,
that He may establish the second. But remember that by a new and
living way, It's a new and living way. Now the Old Testament believers
understood the gospel the same as we did, in type and picture.
Actually, all those sacrificed, that all pictured Christ. But
to the mere religionists, it was just stuff to do. It was
just ceremony. But that's why he uses this wording,
by a new and living way. Of course, for the old is killed. The old way is done away. The
living way, which I like this, Christ is ever alive. Mohammed? Nope. Buddha? Nope. Joseph Smith? Nope. Catholicism, got to get, you
know, priests, just like the Old Testament, they couldn't,
by reason of death, they had to just keep on moving that,
and that'd be the line of Levi, the tribe of Levi. But Christ,
once forever. And so, to the Hebrew, it's like
a new and living way, and Paul, or the writer, just keeps on
bringing this up throughout the first nine chapters. This new
and living way, this way is alive, it's dynamic, it never decays,
it's eternal and unchangeable. And that's the first thing I
think of is the Old Testament. I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob, daughters of Jacob, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. What comfort This way is to the
believer. Always for us secure. And it
will never change. It will never change especially
due to our frailty and our faults. I think about some friends that
I've had over the years that have passed away and some of
them, they had their mind right up to the end and others did
not. Well, what comfort do I have? Well, if I lose my mind, go in
a state of Alzheimer, dementia, I'm still secure. I'm still secure. Because this covenant, this is
a new covenant, new and living way. never depended on me. Never once. And then he says
in verse 20, which hath consecrated for us, this is consecrated,
it literally means made new, dedicated or inaugurated for
us. For us. Oh the wonder of his
sovereign free grace. If you think about it, it's absolutely
limitless to the believer. And he's done all this for us. Now the last thing he says in
this verse, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, through
the veil, now this is referenced in chapter 9 and verse 7, he
says, but into the second went to the high priest alone once
a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for
the heirs of the people." That's just referring to the veil that
I talked about surrounding the holiest, the Holy of Holies.
But now, there's no more veil. There's no more veil. For Christ
has split it in two, thereby making access to all for whom
he suffered. That would be us. That would
be us. Now, Lynn and I were talking
more about this, and I didn't bring this up, I don't think,
when I was teaching this Wednesday night, but I just got all excited. And you think about it. You think
about this. This veil is written, Christ
is on the cross. He said it's finished. Earth
shook. The veil ran in twain. Two things. One thing, this is
what modern religion is doing. Okay, and I can imagine myself
in that holiest of holies. Stuff's going on, and Baal gets
rent in twain. The Armenian preacher, the preacher
of warped religion, and most modern fundamentalists, what
they would have done, does anybody have a needle and thread? I've
got to put this thing back together. I'm out of a job. Well, they
need to be out of a job. They need to be out on the streets.
They need to be doing some kind of secular work. Because they're
not preaching the gospel. And they're leading people astray. They're leading them to hell.
By not telling them who God is in Christ Jesus. That He's satisfied
and completed the work that needed to be done. So I could see them.
I could see them. Sewing it back up. Acting like
nothing happened. But I could see The grace believer,
or the gospel preacher, turns around, walks out, and
says, free, free, free at last. God has provided a ransom. That's so true. We will try,
as I think Henry preached years ago, fig leaf religion. Adam
and Eve, as soon as they saw that they were naked, what did
they do? They went and got fig leaves. And that's religion today.
Fig leaves. Cain and Abel. There's only two
religions in the whole world. Works of grace. Cain and Abel.
Cain, he brought the best. Even though his father told him
how to come into the presence of God through sacrifice. And Abel, It's about sacrifice. And his brother killed him. "...by
the sacrifice of Christ, having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, and that is to say, his flesh." We don't add anything. When I was telling Levi, I was
talking to my brother this morning, there's so many pictures of this.
People trying to help God and then the judgment of God is upon
them. Remember that when the cart was
being brought back from the Philistines, David was dancing and his wife
said, oh, you've made a fool of yourself today. He's like,
I'll make more of a fool of myself. But he's bringing that cart back,
and it had the ark of the covenant, and the ox stumbled. I believe
it's in 1 or 2 Samuel. And the ark stumbled, you know,
or the ox stumbled, and the cart kind of wobbly. The man put his
hand up to steady the ark. That is a natural reflex. Yes, what comes natural to us
works. We don't have to teach our children
works. They can bring it on their own.
They bring it on their own. Natural Reflex is, he didn't
do anything wrong. Maybe what you and I say. But
the gospel says, you don't touch that. And he got killed right
there. So this is, we don't preach a different God, a different
gospel. We preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of
God. And in Christ. We need to be hidden there like
Noah and the ark. A real safe place is in Christ. And so he's telling these Hebrew
people, these brethren, I'm telling you how Christ is superior. Quit
going back to that old law, that old works. Get rid of that baggage. Dump it. It's dead. It's done
away. And trust in Christ. Because
He's the only one whereby we can come to Him. Anytime. And petition our Father. And
our Father, He's pleased with Christ. And we desire to honor
and glorify this Father. And the only way that's done
is by trusting His Son. So, this new and living way,
it was to them. But this is kind of what we,
we understand that. But, I still don't think we understand the
full liberty that we have in Christ. Not to live to self,
but to live and to honor and glorify Him. Levi, you want to
close us in prayer? Thank you, Father, for bringing
us together, Lord. Thank you for the blessings you've
given us in your Son, Lord. We ask that you give us your
Spirit, Lord, direct our hearts. for silence and distractions
in our lives and just cause us to look, Lord. We're thankful
You sent Your messenger today, Lord. We're thankful. Thank You
for that. In Your name we pray. Amen. Carl, can you start us at 11?