Hi, everybody. Would you turn with me to the
10th chapter of Hebrews? I've entitled this message, Therefore. Therefore. Henry Mahan used to always say,
whenever you see the word therefore, look what it's there for. So
let's see if we can pick this up in our text. Hebrews chapter
10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness, to enter in to the holiest by
the blood of Jesus. I don't know of a more amazing
exhortation in all of the word of God than that. He's speaking
to every believer and he says, having therefore boldness, freedom,
cheerful confidence, fearless assurance, having therefore boldness, brethren,
to enter into the holiest, the very presence of God, the holy
of holies, by the blood of Jesus. Now he's writing to the Hebrews
and every Hebrew had been taught their entire life that no one
comes into the Holy of Holies but the great high priest. And
he comes only once a year and then not without blood. And here the writer says that
we, this is speaking to every believer, this is what is so
basic, I wouldn't believe this had we not had it in this passage
of scripture. Just like when, Bill, when you
read that passage of scripture, that God will rejoice over us
for singing, I wouldn't believe that unless the Bible said it.
But the Bible says it. Well, here's something that the
Bible says that is utterly amazing. This is the privilege of every
believer, I don't care who you are, having therefore, brethren,
boldness. Boldness. to enter into the holiest,
the very presence of God by the blood of Jesus. Having therefore brethren. This is not an isolated statement.
There's a reason that therefore is there. Now look over at verse
18. Now, and I believe that this
is what everything in this book had been leading to, now where
remission of these is. Remission of what? Sins. He says in verse 17, their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now there's only one
way God cannot remember something. What is that? There's nothing there to remember.
That's the only way. Wouldn't you love to be able
to forget when people have done you wrong? Wouldn't you love
to just forget it so it never comes into your mind like it
didn't happen? How well do you do at that? I'm
not asking you to answer me, but how well do you do at that?
We remember. We don't want to, but we do.
God doesn't. When I'm in heaven, he will not
look at me and say, I remember what you did. I will be there
as one having never sinned. Now where remission of these
is. Turn back to Hebrews chapter
one. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things. That means everything
belongs to him. By whom also he made the worlds. He's the creator. Who, being
the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged, blotted out, made not to be, our sins. He sat down, having finished
his work on the right hand of the majesty on high." Now, back
to our text, where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. Now that statement is the crescendo
leading up to The theme of this book, sin has been obliterated. Sin has been remitted. This is
speaking of the complete, total, and absolute remission of sins. There is no other offering. Don't
try to bring one. God's accepted what he did. When
I try to bring something, I'm insulting the Lord. Don't try
to bring an offering. This is the complete exoneration
from all sin. Now this is how God can be just
and justifier. This is the complete glorification
of every attribute of God. This is the absolute and complete
remission of sin so that Christ declares of every believer the
same thing he declared of that Republican in the temple, I say
unto you, there's the authority. It's not Todd saying unto you,
I say unto you, that man went down to his house justified. Let me tell you what that means.
It means having never sinned. It doesn't mean just as if I've
never sinned, because I'm going to still have. Having never sinned. Now that is the standing of every
single believer. You know, you're not afraid to
come into the Lord's presence if you don't have any sin. You
don't. Where remission of these is,
there's no more offering. for sin. Having therefore, therefore,
therefore, this is why he tells us that we can come boldly into
the very presence of God. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiness of Jesus. Now earlier, through the
blood of Jesus, earlier he said we have boldness to come to the
throne of grace, but this is even more amazing. boldness to
come into the very Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God,
and to have boldness, freedom, assurance, confidence to come
into His very presence. Now, who has this boldness? This
is not for everybody. This is not for the unbeliever.
You see, the unbeliever is not welcomed into God's presence
like this because the unbeliever hates God. If he could, he'd
tear God off his throne if he got there. The carnal mind is
enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can be. And if an unbeliever came into
his presence, if he could, he would pull him off the throne.
That's not the person who's given this boldness to come into his
presence. Well, who is it? having therefore
brethren. Brethren. This is for the brethren. Boy, that's a precious title,
isn't it? Listen to this scripture from Hebrews chapter two, verse
11. Both he that sanctifieth, that's Christ, and they who are
sanctified, that's every believer, are all of one. not just close together, not
just real tight, one. The Lord said, I am the vine,
you are the branches. The same stem that goes through
the vine goes through the branches. There's no connecting point.
Now that is just something to be believed. One with Christ. Both he sanctified and that he
were sanctified are all of one for which cause he's not ashamed
to call them brethren. whom he did foreknow that he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren." These are the
little brothers and sisters of Christ. His family that he's
one with. These are the people who can
come boldly into the Holy of Holies. Now, this is for the
brethren only. They wouldn't dare come any other
way. This boldness is through the
blood. of Jesus. And I want to say His
name with reverence. I want to speak of His blood
with reverence. I would want to do so with fear
and trembling. But this is our boldness, to
come into His presence through the blood of Jesus. Now, that's the blood spoken
of in Acts chapter 20, verse 28. That's the blood of God.
Feed the church of God, which He had purchased. with his own
blood. You see, the blood is what has given me this boldness. It's the blood of Jesus. And
his blood has actually put away my sin. His blood has made me
acceptable before God where I'm holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight only because of the blood. No other reason. But
that's the reason. Notice in our text, having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way. And that word new, perhaps you
already know this, that word new means freshly slaughtered. It's the only time that word's
used in the New Testament. And the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is always present. It's always new. It's always
powerful. It's always poignant to the Father. It's not old. It's new. the new, freshly slaughtered
way to the Father, the blood of Christ, and it's called the
living way. You see, this is not the blood
of a dead animal that has no power to put away sin. This is
the blood of Him who lives. The new and the living way which
he, verse 20, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say his flesh. Now do you remember what was
in the temple and the tabernacle? There were two rooms and there
was a veil that separated those two rooms. And that veil I read
was four inches thick. Now I've never seen fabric that
thick, but it was four inches thick and it had one statement. Separation. Separation. You can't come in here. You have
no right in here. Only the high priest would come
once, not without blood. That veil meant separation. Now when the Lord Jesus said, it is finished. Father,
into thy hands I commit my spirit. And he gave up the ghost and
died that very second. That veil was rent from the top
to the bottom. The Lord rending that veil Tearing
it in half, right through the middle, to let us know there's
no longer separation. Because of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, His flesh is that rent veil. When He died, the
veil was rent. The separation was taken away. That's why I can have boldness
to come right now because of what the Lord did. He took away separation. And now
every believer has a reason to have this boldness
because the Lord tore the veil away through his flesh. And look what it says, verse
21, and having an high priest over the house of God, now Not
only do I have what the Lord accomplished by His blood, I've
got Him representing me right now as my great high priest.
Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. Now, Peter failed, didn't he? Then you're going to fail. And
you just write that down. Peter failed. And I don't have
any doubt that after he denied Christ, he remembered the Lord's
words. Whoso denies me before men, him
will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. And he thought
it over for me. I have no doubt that Peter thought
he was not a believer. But, you know what? Although
he denied he knew Christ, his faith never failed. He still believed that Jesus
Christ was the Son of God. That's all he had, but was his
faith. His faith did not fail. When
the Lord said, Father, forgive him. They know not what they
do. You know, everybody he prayed
for was forgiven. That wasn't some kind of generic
prayer. Everybody he prayed for was forgiven. Now, to think of
this priest, having this priest over the house of God, the church,
the body of Christ. Having a high priest over the
house of God, a priest after you or Melchizedek. Let us, and this is one of three,
let uses, if that's a word, that come out of this text. He says,
let us draw near. And then he says in verse 23,
let us hold fast to the profession of our faith. And in verse 24,
he says, let us consider one another to provoke and to love
and to divorce. Now, from this command of what
we have, having boldness to enter into holiness by the blood of
Jesus and the things he says about his blood and the great
offerings, he gives us three lessons. Number one, let us draw
near. Does every believer have the
right to draw near? Do I have the right to draw near? If the only requirement is the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is, let me prove that to you. God
said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. He didn't say,
when I see your faith. He didn't say, when I see your
success in battling sin. He didn't say, when I see your
repentance. He didn't say, when I see your
sincerity. He said, when I see the blood.
He didn't say, when you see the blood. He said, when I see the
blood. I will pass over you. If that's true, and it is, every
believer is called upon to draw near. Now, when we have sin fresh
on our conscience, We have a tendency to wait. Wait until I'm a little
bit more spiritual. Wait until I'm a little bit better
before I come into his presence. That's wrong. That's wrong. You're not even coming if you
come when you're better. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor fitness fondly dream. The only fitness he requires
is to have a need of him. And every believer is called
upon right now to draw near. Come and welcome through the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice it says in verse 22,
let us draw near with a true heart. With a true heart. You know, I've always had kind
of a hard time with this because one thing I know about my heart
I know what Scripture says about it. It's desperately wicked and
it's deceitful above all things. And when it says, let's draw
near with a true heart, I think, how in the world can I draw near
with a true heart when my hearts are bad? I mean, I don't trust
my heart. I lie to myself. I make myself
believe things that I know aren't so, but I end up believing them.
I mean, treacherous is all you can call the human heart. That's
Scripture. Treacherous. Deceitful, desperately
wicked, which means incurable. How am I gonna come with a new
heart? You know, preachers say, ask
Jesus into your heart. You reckon he wants that to go
in there? Give Jesus your heart, you think he wants it? My heart, well, this helped me. What was the Lord talking about
when he talked about the pure heart? Blessed are the pure in
heart. He said a new heart will I give
you. David spoke of that one. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity
and in whose spirit there is no guile. This is talking about
drawing near with that true heart that He's given, that new heart. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. Now, let me say this. This is
not saying full assurance that you're saved. That's not what
that's talking about. Full assurance of faith. Full
assurance of what faith declares that Christ is all in salvation
and you rest only in Him. This is not talking about I've
got full assurance and I'm saying, you know, sometimes I do. Sometimes
I do. And as soon as I think about
it, it leaves. And I start thinking, what if
you're not? What if you're not? What if you're not? What if this
is all of, you've deceived yourself? This is not talking about full
assurance. No one, I know I'm saved. No one can tell me different. This is talking about the full
assurance of the faith. Let me show you this in scripture.
Hold your finger there. That's all in chapter one. Paul says, knowing, verse 4,
knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power. and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much or full assurance. You are fully assured
that this is the gospel. This is the only gospel. You
know you can't be saved any other way. The full assurance of faith. And then he says in verse 22,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Now, what's
an evil conscience? A conscience that's accusing,
a conscience that feels guilty. Somebody says, I have a clear
conscience. No, you don't. You have a seared conscience.
You don't have a clear conscience. You just convince yourself, and
it's no good. It's seared. An evil conscience
is that conscience that feels guilty, that feels condemning,
that feels accusing. The only answer to that evil
conscience is the blood sprinkling. And you remember when God said
to Abel, your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. What did it cry? Vengeance. Justice. Putting to death. What does the blood of Christ
cry? Remember, it speaks better things than that of April. The
blood of Christ cries justification, forgiveness, cleansing. And the only way your conscience
will ever be satisfied is by what the blood of sprinkling
does. I think that it's amazing, right
after Moses gave the law, In Exodus chapter 24, they said,
all the words the Lord has spoken, that will we do. What did Moses
start doing? He started sprinkling blood on
them. Why? He knew they wouldn't. And this
is our only satisfaction. This is the only thing we can
rest in, the precious blood of Christ. And our bodies washed
with pure water. That's the washing of water by
the word, the gospel, the cleansing of the gospel. Now that's the
first, let us, and this has to do with the Lord. Let us draw near. Let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Every believer
is called upon right now through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
to draw near. The message of the gospel, come.
It's not go and do. It's not make yourself ready. It's not do something. Come right
now to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the second let us has to
do with us. The first one has to do with
the Lord. Let us draw near. The second let us has to do with
us. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Now, let me talk about the word
profession. It's the same word confession.
Same word. And there are three things really
that are involved in this word when you confess or your confession.
Our confession is what all believers believe. If I'm a believer, and
you're a believer, we believe the precise same thing. Really, we have the same experience. We're nothing, Christ is all.
We have nothing of our own, he's all we have. Now this is the
profession that every believer has. Every believer believes
the same thing. It also has something to do with a public identification. When I confess, I confess before
men. Now I might not even be able
to articulate it before men, but I'm gonna be identified with
those who do if I can't even articulate it. Birds of a feather
flock together. And I wanna be with them. I wanna cast my lot with those
who believe. The third meaning of confession
is to plead guilty. This I confess to thee. After
the way they call heresy, so worship I, the God of my Father,
believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets."
Now he said, let's hold fast the confession of our faith. Now I'm not real sure why the
translators translated this word faith, because it's the word
that's generally translated hope. And it really makes it more understandable
to me. Let's hold fast the confession
of our hope. What's our hope? All my hope
is found in verse 14 of chapter 10, For by one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's where all
my hope is. Turn to Romans chapter 8 for
just a moment. We're to hold fast the confession
of our hope. Now remember, the confession,
it's what all believers believe. We have the same hope. There's
one hope, right? One hope. Paul says that in Ephesians 4.
It's what we publicly identify with. It's the gospel we believe
and we want to make public identification. This is, I'm with them. And it's
something we plead guilty, I plead guilty to believing this. And
that's what's involved in this thing of holding fast our confession
without wavering. Now look here in Romans chapter
eight. This is something that I know is near and dear to every
child of God. Verse 31. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And there's my hope. If God's for me, ain't nothing
can be against me. I can't mess it up. Nobody can
mess it up for me. If God's for me, who can be against
me? There's nothing to fear, nothing
to be intimidated by. If God's for me, who can be against me? And then
he says in verse 32, he that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things? If he's given his son, that's
the greatest. There's nothing that could prevent
him from freely giving me everything else. Nothing can prevent it. That's my hope. Look in verse
33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. There's
nothing that can even be brought to my charge. God justified me. You can bring something to my
charge, but it's invalid because God justified me. That's our
hope. God justified me. Well, I know
what you did. God justified me. That's my hope. God didn't offer me justification.
You know, I hate it when preachers present the gospel. God's offering
this, God's offering that. He never offers anything he saves.
That's what he does. He didn't offer me justification. Do you want to be justified or
damned? Well, I think I'll be justified. It doesn't work that
way at all. He justified, God justified me. Nothing to be laid
to my charge. That's my hope. Verse 34, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. There's
my hope. Nobody can condemn me because
Christ died. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. There's a man in glory representing
me. That's my hope. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Verse 35, nothing. I can't be
separated. Now that is my hope. Now he says,
hold that fast, without wavering. Don't go back and forth. And
here's your encouragement to hold it without wavering. He's
faithful. He's faithful. That promised. Now that let us draw near, that's
toward the Lord. Let us hold fast the confession
of our faith without wavering. That's what we're called upon
to do. Third, let us, and this has to do with how I am to treat
you. And let me say this at the outset.
The Bible never tells other people how to treat me. They're not
treating me right. Quit thinking that way. That's
childish. The Bible never tells other people
how to treat you. It tells you how to treat them. Let us provoke one another. Not to anger, not to irritation,
but to love and good works. Now you know what that means?
That means that I'm called upon to treat you in such a gracious,
non-judgmental, non-manipulative, caring, kind way that you're
provoked to love me. I wish I could say that happens
all the time. I'm afraid it doesn't. I could be mean as a snake like
anybody else, but it ought not to be that way. Let us provoke
one another to love. The Lord put it this way. Do
unto others as you would have them do to you. That's our rule
of life. Let us provoke one another to
love and to good works. Look what he says in verse 25,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is. Now, when he's talking about
provoking one another to love and good works, he speaks of
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Now, first,
this is not talking about this in church accounting. It's not talking about missing
services. It's actually talking about the sin against the Holy
Spirit. Because you can see, he goes on to say, for if we
sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there
remains no more sacrifice for sins. That willful sin is that
receiving the knowledge of the truth and living the gospel anyway.
So when he's talking about not forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together, there's some who forsake. Here's where apostasy begins. They forsake the assembling of
their selves together. They quit identifying with the
message. They quit identifying with the gospel. They remove
themselves. I've seen that happen at Todd's Road. You've seen that
happen here. It's a grievous thing. But I
think it's also important to realize that How I am is going
to affect you, and how you are is going to affect me. Just something
as simple as the assembling of yourselves, that can be such
an encouragement to somebody else. And if you're not there,
it's a discouragement. You can't separate that. We will be an encouragement one
to another, in our attendance, in our love for each other, or
we will be a discouragement. Now, what you do, what I do,
affects what somebody else thinks. Every time. And that's why we
want to provoke one another to love by being so gracious, so
accepting, so non-judgmental. Not being manipulated. I hate
when people manipulate me. I can feel it and I want to say,
leave me alone. But I don't want to manipulate
you and try to get you to do what I want you. No, be provoked
to love and to good works. Now, all of this is drawn from
this amazing exhortation. having, therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence really believing that we have
freedom of access, acceptance, and that we can come boldly to
the blood of our blessed son. And Lord, we really believe that
his blood put away sin and made us accepted in your sight. Lord,
we ask that you would drive away those things that hinder us and
draw near, and let us draw near. Enable us to hold fast to confession
of our faith without wavering. And Lord, enable us to consider
one another, to provoke, to love, and to good works. Not forsaking
the assembly of ourselves together. Pray for this assembly. We pray
that you would provide a pastor after your own heart, according
to your will. And we ask that you would continue
your blessings, the blessing of your grace upon this place
and upon all your assemblies. Lord, enable us to preach the
gospel in this generation. We ask that you would open up
doors for us to preach and witness. And Lord, bless us for Christ's
sake. Give us grace to love you more
and love one another more. In Christ's name we pray.