Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Boldness, access, representation. We will look at these three this
morning. I want to start in verse 19. Primarily, the apostle has been
dealing with the doctrinal application of the priesthood to Christ,
the sacrifices to Christ, but now he's going to move to the
application of these things to the believer. We hear the gospel,
we believe the gospel, but there comes a time when we do act upon
it, live, live upon it. And these three things that I've
just mentioned we will see as benefits to the believer because
of the person the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in
verse 19, "...having therefore, brethren, boldness," over in
the margin it says, "...liberty, to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by new and living way." living way, and
we know who that is. The living way is Christ. He
said, I am the way. In another place he says, I am
alive forevermore. It's a new and it's a living
way, which he hath consecrated, new made. That word also means
open for us through the veil. And he's not talking about the
veil in that temple, that curtain. He's talking about his flesh,
that is to say, his flesh. And having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith. Any other way would be presumption. Full assurance of faith. Having
our hearts shrinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
washed with pure water. What is our boldness, our liberty
to come into the presence of God? What is it? Our boldness to come into God's
presence is His blood, His representation, his priesthood,
his person. That is our boldness to enter
into the presence of God. I want you to think and remember
to whom this is written. Hebrews. The Hebrews. It's written to us also, but
when it's first written, it's written to the Hebrews to whom
this was first written. And I'm sure that when they first
heard this, read this, especially those who had not yet believed
or did not believe, it was shocking. It was absolutely shocking to
hear that anyone could come into the Holy of Holies, come into the presence of God and have communion with God, to have fellowship with God.
The high priest, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies
one time a year and no one followed him in that place. Those whom he was offering the
sacrifice for, Israel, they did not follow him into that place.
They stayed outside. If anyone else went into that
place but the high priest, they would be killed. They were not
allowed in there, not at all. And now to hear that all who
believe on Christ can now come freely into the Holy of Holies? What a radical change was made
from no admittance to come with boldness, liberty. Come on. We have liberty to come into
the presence of God. We have liberty to approach the
One the Scripture describes as being the light unto which no
man can approach. But in Christ we can approach God. We can come
unto the Holy of Holies. We can come there now in prayer,
but in a little while we are going to come there by experience.
into the Holy of Holies, though Israelite was allowed to do that
back in the Old Testament. They couldn't do that. Listen,
it's one thing to come to the throne of grace. Look back in
chapter 4. In chapter 4, verse 14, Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passing through the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace." We can come to a throne of grace.
the throne where grace reigns and find help. He says here that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
But now listen. I think he said, I say that a
lot. I said, well, you know, when the Scripture says behold,
and when it says behold, that means you're about to say something.
Well, when I say listen, I'm about to say something. So over
here, back over here in this chapter 10, verse 19, Having therefore, brethren, boldness."
He's not saying just come to a throne of grace. He's talking
about coming into the very presence where God dwells. Where God dwells. That Holy of Holies. We can't
even imagine this. I can't imagine it. I mean, I
struggle to find words to describe what I'm talking about here.
But he's talking about coming into the very presence of Almighty
God, and we have liberty to do so in Christ, in Christ. Now where does this boldness
come from? Where do we get this boldness?
By the blood, listen now, by the blood of Jesus. The blood by which we come is
not that of a dumb animal. It is the blood of a sinless
sacrifice that God made. There's our boldness. There's
our liberty. The blood of atonement that we
have in Christ is the blood of God. His blood is the blood of
atonement. His blood put away sin. The blood
of those goats and calves and lambs, they didn't put anything
away. But the blood of Christ has put
away our sins. And coming to God in Christ, we can be heard, we can commune
with the Creator. We can cast all our cares upon
Him, for He cares for you. We can come into the presence
of God and cast all our cares upon Him because of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the priest of old, even he could not enter that
place, that holy place that he went into with boldness. He entered with fear and trembling.
What if he missed something? What if he missed a step? You
know what happened? God killed him. God would kill
him. That's why he wore bells on the bottom of his garment.
If the bells stopped ringing, and a rope tied to his foot,
they'd drag him out. Christ didn't miss a step. And we enter into the Holy of
Holies upon the merits, the sacrifice, the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we can enter boldly. That doesn't mean cocky. We can
enter in with confidence. In verse 22, let us draw near
with a true heart and full assurance of faith. We can enter in with
full assurance. Full assurance has to do with
Christ. It has nothing to do with how I've lived or how I'm
living. It has nothing to do with. It
has to do with Christ. Now, my relationship to Christ
has a lot to do with the way I live and what I do. But my assurance before God is
Jesus Christ Himself. It's His perfect work. It's His
perfect sacrifice. It's His blood. He's my assurance. And I tell you what, to come
any other way or with less than that is presumption, and it's
not a faith. We come authorized to do so. We come into the Holy of Holies. We come into God's presence.
authorized to do so. We come with a cleansed conscience. I want to say it again in verse
22, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. We come
with a cleansed conscience. We know that in Christ, listen,
this has nothing to do with what I feel. It's not that I feel
clean. It's not that I feel holy. I
come with a cleansed conscience knowing that in Christ my sins
have been put away. My confidence is in the man Jesus
Christ. It's not in me and cooperating
with him. It's him. It's him. It says in verse 14, look back
in verse 14 of this chapter. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Do you believe that? Do you believe
that he has, if you believe the gospel, do you believe he has
perfected you? That you stand perfect in God's
sight? Then come with boldness, liberty, confidence, assurance. My faith, my baptism, my accepting
Christ is not my boldness. It's his person. It's his work. It's his atonement. He is my
boldness. We've got to be very clear on
this, because as I said, any other way is presumption. Secondly,
access. We are to come boldly, and we
have access. Do you have access to the President
of the United States? You just try to go visit him.
See if you can get past the front door. We have access by a new and living
way. Those Israelites couldn't go
into that holy of holies, only the high priest. But through
our high priest, we have access to God's very presence. Our access to the holy presence
of God is not only through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it's also through his life. Also through his life, he lives. He lives. Listen, new and living
way. Not like the Old Testament that
did not cleanse anybody from their sins, did not cleanse any
conscience. What we have is a new and living
way. Let me read to you what John
Owen wrote. He says, it's new because it
was but newly made and prepared by our Lord. And then because
it belongs to the new covenant. That's why it's called a new
and living way. And then because it admits of
no decay. It's not going to wax old. It
admits of no decay, and it's always new. I find the gospel
to be always fresh. It's always new. It's always
what I need. It admits of no decay. It's always
new in its efficacy and use. I thought that was a good article
that John Owen wrote. And it's called a living way
because that way is Christ, our Lord. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. He lives. He is our life. The covenant
that we have It's not only between the Father and the Son, it is
the Son. He is the embodiment of that covenant of grace. There is a way for sinners to
come continually, and we do this. We believe God, walk the faith
in Christ, we come to the Father in Christ. And we continually come to Him
in Christ, continually, just like we did the first time. It's a new way and it's a living
way. If you'll note the word consecrated,
that word means open, open. Christ has undertaken through His incarnation, through
his death, his resurrection, now seated at God's right hand,
he's undertaken to be our eternal access to the Father. He is our access to the Father. This way that has been opened
was created It says here, through his flesh, through his flesh, by the offering of his body,
he offered himself up as a sacrifice. There now he sits as our mediator. It is through him, through his broken body and shed
blood that we have continual access to the Father. John said,
when he went to the third heaven, when he was on the Isle of Patmos,
he said, he went to the third heaven, he said, I saw a lamb
stood in the midst of the throne. I saw a lamb as it had been slain. We have access to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
through that man, through his offering, his sacrifice, his
blood, and his person as he is seated there at the right hand
of God. Then last of all, we have representation. It says here in verse 21, and
having an high priest over the house of God. We have a high priest, not one like Aaron, not one of
this earth, not some earthly high priest, but the Son of God
is our high priest. We have a high priest over the
house of God. And this is said because he's,
you know, going through the book of Hebrews, this has been established
that Jesus Christ is the high priest over the house of God.
But it's said to remind us that we have this high priest over
God's house representing us. He represents us. Even after
being saved, even after being washed in the blood of the Lamb,
even after being cleansed We still never come to God alone. We still come through this priest.
This priest continually represents us before God. He's over the house of God. He
rules over it. You know, the church right now
is scattered all over this world. There are local assemblies gathered
together this morning all over the world. But there's one who rules over
every one of them. You go down to Mexico, where
Walter's at, and their service will be like this service. They may do a few things a little
differently, but the message will be the same. One Lord, one
faith, one baptism. That's because there's one who
rules over the church. And he guides his body, whether
it's here or in Mexico, or in Africa, or wherever it's at,
there's one head ruling over the church. And he owns it. The ownership
of it's his. And he represents everyone in
the house. He represents everyone in the
house. Can you think of a better representative than the Son of
God? Not any. Let me give you this, and I'll
close. Keep this in mind. He represents
everyone of God's children in that holy place. Now, back in
the Old Testament, the high priest, he was going to that holy of
holies, written on his breastplate. were
all the tribes of Israel, all of them. When he went in there,
he represented all of them, all of them. They were written there
as a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord. This pictures Christ representing
his people before the Lord. before God the Father in that
holy place. But where are our names written? On His heart. Not a breastplate. On His heart. On His heart. There is one on whose heart we
are written. He knows our need, He fills our
infirmities, and He intercedes for us at all times. At all times. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
our boldness, our access, and our representative. Now let us
draw near. Don't be afraid. Let us draw near with a true
heart, sincere heart, that true heart is that new heart, and
full assurance of faith, fully confident, fully confident that we have
in Christ all that we need. Is He enough? Is Jesus Christ
enough? Are you fully assured of that? Really, are you fully assured
that He is all you need? Then draw near. Come close. Come right into the Holy of Holies.
In full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure waters. Come, come boldly, come boldly
in full assurance of faith that Christ is enough. He's enough.