Welcome to our program. Now,
today I'm going to be preaching from the book of Hebrews chapter
10, beginning with verse 19. And the title of the message
is Boldness in the Holiest. Now, when we consider the very
presence, nature, and character of God, the first and foremost
attribute of God is holiness. God is holy. And everything about
God is holy. When we speak of God's justice,
justice from God is not unfair. It's a holy justice. His justice
extends from His holiness. God is holy. When we speak of
His mercy, His love, and His grace, His mercy, love, and grace
are holy. God cannot save sinners in mercy
and love and grace. At the expense of His holiness,
He must be holy. And then when we think of ourselves
and what the scriptures tell us about mankind by nature in
Adam, that we are sinners, that we are dead spiritually, that
we are condemned under the law of God, that even our best works
to keep the law, our best efforts, rather, to keep the law, are
filthy rags in the sight of God. When we read passages of scripture
like this that talk about boldness to enter into the holiest, that
ought to get our attention. That ought to perk our ears up,
as it were, and say, now, how is that possible? How can I,
a sinner by nature, who has sinful thoughts and sins not just what
I do, but what I am, how can such a person as I am have boldness
to enter into the holy presence of God. Now that's a good question.
No man by nature has any right to enter into the holiness, holiest
of God, the holy presence of God. We don't have any works
to pave our way into the holiest. So how is that possible? Well,
these verses answer that question. And there's a beautiful order
here concerning this passage beginning in verse 19 of Hebrews
10 and carrying on through verse 25. And what we see here is both
the foundation of boldness and secondly the fruit of boldness.
Now you might say it this way, the foundation of salvation and
then the fruit of salvation. The foundation of salvation. is seen in these words here in
verse 19 when it says, having therefore. The foundation, you
know, false religion is always talking about what man can attain. Something that he has to strive
for in order to possess it. Something that he has to work
for. Something far off into the future. But the religion of grace
The religion of Christ begins by speaking of what God's children
already have. What we already possess by virtue
of being united to Christ because of his finished work on the cross
of Calvary. So he starts off having therefore. That's the foundation of salvation.
The foundation of salvation which incidentally is the foundation
of our boldness to enter the holiest, is Christ and Him crucified. It's His shed blood and His righteousness
imputed. It's a work finished for me by
my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was made sin for
me in order that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
So based upon what I already possess, not by my works, Not
by my efforts, but by what Christ has accomplished, here comes
the fruit of salvation, or the fruit of boldness. And he says
in verse 22, let us, let us draw near. In verse 23, he says, let
us hold fast. In verse 24, he says, let us
consider. The let us there has to do with
what a saved sinner is to do. His works, works of faith, not
legal works, not works aimed at attaining or maintaining salvation,
but works that proceed from love and gratitude because of what
God has freely given His people in Christ. Having therefore,
let us. Having therefore, let us. Having therefore, let us. You
see? It's not the other way around.
It's not let us in order that we might have it, but it's having
therefore let us. So, let's look at this passage. Here's the foundation of salvation,
the foundation of boldness. He says in verse 19, having therefore
brethren. Now, he's talking to brethren,
and that's important. Who are brethren? Those who have
the same Father, the God of grace, the God who is sovereign in salvation,
the God who justifies the ungodly through Jesus Christ. the redeemed,
redeemed by the blood of Christ. He's the firstborn brother. He's
the first one risen from the dead. He's the firstfruits, the
Bible tells us. These brethren are sinners saved
by the grace of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and called
into the family of God by the power of the Spirit who gives
life from Christ and brings them to saving faith and repentance. You see, these redeemed are the
family of God. And these brethren, they've been
adopted into his family by grace. They believe the gospel. They
look to Christ for their salvation. They rest in him. He is their
wisdom, their righteousness, their holiness and redemption.
They don't look to themselves. They don't look within. They
look to Christ. They look to him as the author
and finisher, completer of their faith. So he says, having therefore
brethren. Now what do we have? Boldness
to enter into the holiest. Boldness to commune with God. Now I want you to think about
this. This entering into the holiest means entering into the
very presence of a holy God in a way of acceptance. They are
accepted into the holy presence of God. Now how can sinners be
accepted? Well, the Bible says in Ephesians
chapter 1 that all who are accepted of God are accepted in the Beloved,
in Christ. They're accepted not in themselves,
not by themselves, but accepted before God in Christ. You see,
God said, this is my Beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased,
hear ye Him. How can God be well pleased with
a sinner like me? only in Christ, in whom he is
well pleased. So we have boldness to enter
the holiness, commune with God, worship God, serve God, honor
God, have communication from God, and receive of His blessings
of grace, and here's the key, now here's the foundation of
it, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. It's by His blood. Now what does
that mean? That means it's by his death.
Blood means death. And blood is the shedding of
blood unto death. Now the Bible says without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Now why is
that? It's because sin deserves death. God's justice now, we spoke of
God's justice. God's justice demands death where
sin is charged, where sin is committed. You see, the wages
of sin is death. And my friend, either you must
die an eternal death and perish in your sins, or you must have
before God an appointed, able, willing substitute for your sins. You must have one who can stand
in your place and take your sins upon himself, and take care of
that problem by drinking damnation dry, by paying the full debt
of sin to the justice of God. You must have one who is appointed
of God, You must have one who is able to do so, and you must
have one who is willing to do so. Well, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have all three. He was appointed of God before
the foundation of the world. The Bible calls Him the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He's the Lamb of God. And then is He able? Well, He's
God, and He's man. It is the God-man. Now, listen
to me very carefully here. It is the God-man who substituted
himself for the sheep. In his person as God-man, and
as God-man he became our representative to stand before God and represent
God to his people and his people to God. But not only did he become
the representative, he became the substitute. He took the place
of his sheep. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And as the Bible says, he was
made to be sinned. The sins of his people were charged
to his account, and he felt the full brunt of those sins in his
very soul as he suffered and bled and died on the cross of
Calvary, shedding his blood. You see, he's man. God cannot
shed blood. God cannot die. But this God-man,
this man who is God, he did die. He did shed his blood. And in
the bloodshedding of Jesus Christ, we find the total, complete remission
of sins. All the sins of all of God's
children, the brethren, His church, Christ's sheep, all their sins
were paid for in full by the blood of Christ. He finished
the work. He brought in everlasting righteousness
right there on the cross, and they were justified in Him. Their
sins charged to him, and his righteousness charged to them.
Now, it is upon the basis of the finished work of Christ that
sinners can enter into the holiness of God with boldness. Now, that
word boldness is an interesting word. It means a lot of things.
Basically, it means liberty. It means the way is not barred.
You know, back in the Old Testament, in the tabernacle and in the
temple, The way into the holiest of all was divided by a veil,
and that veil kept that holy place, the holiest of all, separate
from the people. One time a year, on the Day of
Atonement, the high priest of Israel could enter into that
holiest, not without blood, the blood of an animal. Now, all
of that typified a sinner coming into the presence of God by the
blood of Christ. But you see, when Christ died
on the cross, And this is recorded in the book of Matthew. And he
hung on that cross and he said it's finished. He gave up the
ghost, he died, and immediately the veil in the temple was torn
in two from top to bottom, signifying that the way into the holiest
spiritually and eternally was open. So that now, in Christ,
every believing sinner has liberty, freedom, free access into the
holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. And that word boldness
means confidence. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory, have confidence in, boldness, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have boldness, freedom,
liberty, confidence and assurance, a sinner going into the holiest
of all, not by his best works, not by his best intentions, but
by the blood of Christ. Now, the next thing in this foundation
we see is verse 20. He says, "...by a new and a living
way, which he," that is Christ, "...hath consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Now, this foundation,
this foundation for entering, have boldness in the holiest,
you see. Now, that's the key here. We
can have boldness because we have a sure foundation. Well,
this foundation, first of all, it's a new way, and it's a living
way. Now, it's a new way because it's
a way in opposition to the old covenant. knew not in that it
was newly brought about, this way of entering into the holiest
by the blood of Christ is older than creation. In the mind and
purpose of God, it was brought out in the everlasting covenant
of grace between the Father and the Son, when the Father chose
a people and gave them to his Son. People who were sinners. who needed a way of salvation
that they could not provide for themselves. But in time, the
old covenant, the old way, you see, through the tabernacle,
in time it was revealed first. It was brought about first on
earth. But this is a new way because it's the new covenant.
It's the New Testament. Christ came. You see, that old
covenant was instituted. and established on Mount Sinai
with the children of Israel through Moses after they'd been brought
out of Egypt. And it carried on for almost
1,500 years until the time of change, of Reformation, when
Christ would come and do his work here on earth. And it's
new because it's new in time. It's newly revealed in time.
So it's a new way. It's a new way in that Everything
about it is eternal and spiritual, not temporal and temporary like
the old way. And it's a living way. It's a
living way because there's life in this way. There's life in
Christ. Christ said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He told Martha, he said, I am
the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes on him, though
he were dead, he'll live again. Christ is life. He made the way of life. And life comes from him. So he's
the living way. In the Old Covenant, that was
a dead way. In other words, there was no
eternal life and no spiritual life in the Old Covenant in and
of itself. It could not give life. The Old
Covenant could point the way to life when it pointed to Christ. But there was no life in that
Old Covenant, and no one gained life by keeping that Old Covenant. In fact, no one really kept it
because they were all sinners. So it's a new and living way,
and look here, it's a way, verse 20, which Christ hath consecrated
for us. Christ is the one who made this
way, because He is the way. Christ is the one who brought
forth everlasting righteousness for His people. Just as sin demands
death, righteousness demands life. And righteousness is only
to be found in Christ, who is life, for the wages of sin is
death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For as by one man sin entered
into the world, that's Adam, and death by sin. But it goes
on to say, later on, by the obedience of one the many were made righteous
and they come unto justification of life through Christ. So it's a way that he consecrated,
he made it. Now what does that mean? It means
he kept the law perfectly in every way. It means that he went
to the cross of Calvary having the sins of his people charged
to him And He went to that cross, and He suffered, and He bled,
and He died for those sins, and He satisfied justice. You put
it all together, His perfect satisfaction to law and justice,
and you see the righteousness of God worked out in Christ,
and that's the way of life. Christ did it. Verse 20 says
that He did it through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The
veil of His humanity. Now remember what I said, He's
God and man in one person. The veil of His humanity, that
is to say His flesh, is the way by which He made the way of life.
You see, Christ suffered the just for the unjust. He offered
the sacrifice of His sinless humanity upon the altar of His
deity, having sin charged to Him, And as we say, sin permeating
his very soul in which he did not become corrupt in his thoughts,
in his heart, in his soul, but that he became affected with
the troubles, the infirmities, the burden, and the pain and
the sorrow of sin. He offered himself without spot
to God for the sins of his people. And it was his humanity that
enabled him to be such a sacrifice and a substitute. So it was his
flesh, his perfect human flesh, not tainted with sin, but charged
with sin, and affected by sin in his soul suffering. And that's
the way. Now verse 21 finishes out the
foundation now. Now, having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated, he finished the
work, for us." Now, who are the us there? The brethren. For brethren
who have boldness to enter the holiest. And let me say this
before I go on. There are a lot of people who
express boldness and assurance and confidence, but how do you
know it's true boldness? The boldness and confidence and
liberty and assurance that God accepts, or that is of God. Well,
there's not but one way. What is the foundation for your
boldness? If your foundation is anything
but Christ Himself, Christ and Him crucified, His blood, His
righteousness, then it's a false presumption. It's presumption,
not assurance, not faith. You see, faith enters boldly
into the holiest of all by the blood of Christ. So he says,
a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say his flesh, and then verse 21, and
having an high priest over the house of God. Now, these brethren,
these sinners saved by grace, these people who have been redeemed
by the blood of Christ, washed in his blood, who are clothed
in his righteousness, who have the Spirit of God abiding within,
the Word of God within, who have the Spirit of Christ, who have
new life within. They've been born again by the
Spirit of God. One of the reasons that they
can enter into the holiest boldly is because, number one, they
have a high priest, and number two, he's over the house of God.
Christ is our high priest. Now, we've talked about that
quite a bit in the book of Hebrews because that subject comes to
the forefront, doesn't it? Christ is our High Priest. You cannot come to God without
a priest, without a mediator. And the Bible says there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He is God-man. He is mediator. He's the High Priest. The High
Priest had to have something to offer unto God for the people. And what Christ offered is his
own precious blood. He offered it upon the altar,
which set the sacrifice apart. Now having a high priest, we
who are brethren in the faith, who know the Lord, we who have
come to Christ, we have a high priest. He's one appointed of
God, He's one who's able to get the job done, for he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, and
he's willing. He loves his people, and he's
willing to stand for them. And he's over the house of God.
He's our king. Somebody said Christ is our priest
to make the way into the holiest forest. He's our prophet to show
us the way into the holiest by Himself, and He's our King to
bring us into that way and keep us in the holiest. He's over
the house of God. What is the house of God? The
house of God there is not a building. It's not an earthly temple. It's
the church. It's the people. The church which
Christ redeemed with His own blood, His own precious blood.
That's who the house of God is. If you're one of the brethren,
if you've come to Christ for all of salvation, if you've submitted
to him and his blood and righteousness as your only hope of eternal
life, then you're a member of his household, and he's your
Lord. Now you think about that. Now
he goes on to give us the fruits of salvation, and I'm going to
go into these more next week. But let me just read them to
you this week. This is important. Now, based upon everything that
has been said, concerning the finished work of Christ, that
sinners might have boldness to enter in the holiest, those who
believe in him, he says, let us, verse 22, 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."
Now, I'll go into that next week, but look at the second one. What
he's talking about there is communion with God. Secondly, he says,
let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful, that promise. That has to do with the believer's
relationship with the world and their testimony and their witness
to the world. And then verse 24 and 25, and
let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is. but exhorting one another, and
so much the more as you see the day approaching." Now that has
to do with the believer's relationship in the church with his brethren,
provoking them to love and to good works. Now let me say this
in conclusion. The Bible teaches plainly, and
this is what we have laid out here in the book of Hebrews,
that faith without works is dead. What that means is this, a person
who professes to believe in Christ, and to know Christ, and to love
Christ, and to follow Him, to be sold out to Christ, but that
faith is not backed up and evidenced by works of love and works of
faith, That person has a mere profession. It's dead faith.
It's not the kind of faith that saves. The kind of faith that
saves is the kind of faith that looks to Christ. But the Bible
also teaches this, that works without faith are dead. In other
words, here's a person who's doing their best to keep the
law, to be dedicated, to be sincere, to be honest, to be a good family
member, a good husband, good wife, a good son or daughter.
Here's a person that's doing their best to do everything they
can, but they don't know Christ? They don't believe in Him? Well,
those are dead works. Faith and works go together. And the issue is this, which
is the ground of salvation and which is the fruit? Now, false
religion will tell you to work, work, work in order to gain salvation. or to attain or maintain it,
or to earn your blessings from God or your rewards in heaven.
Well, that's legalism. That's not faith, you see. That's
legal works of self-righteous religion. But God's Word tells
all who will hear it to receive Christ, that which is freely
given. It says, receive Him, rest in
Him. and trust in him, and then work
as the result. In other words, the works are
the fruit and the effect, not the cause and the ground. The
works are evidence. You see that? Now, faith and
works go together. But the ground of salvation,
all of salvation, is the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the works that believers
do are not to be done legally in order to attain and maintain
salvation, but they're to be done out of love for Him, gratitude
and grace. Someone said this, that grace
is our doctrine and gratitude is our ethic. And that's the
issue of these passages.