Would you turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10? When Paul came to the church
of Corinth, he said, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and
in much trembling. And that ought to be our attitude
with regard to preaching and listening. aware of our own weakness, fearful
of misrepresenting the Lord, much trembling. And I hope that's
our attitude this morning as we hear the gospel. Weakness,
fear, much trembling. Hebrews chapter 10, We ended with this Friday night. Now, verse 18. Now, where remission of these
is. Remission of what? Sins. Sins. They're remitted. They're gone. Where remission of these is.
There is no more offering for sin. Living 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. And having an 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 profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised,
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. I don't know of a more amazing
exhortation in all of the Bible than what we read of in verse
19 when he says, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. What is more amazing than that? to actually have boldness. That's a strong word. To have
boldness to enter into the very holiest, the very holy of holies,
the very presence of God in the light that no man can approach
to, you have boldness to enter. I've entitled this message, Therefore. Notice he says, having therefore,
brethren, boldness. There's a reason for that boldness. Henry Mahan used to always say,
whenever you see a therefore, see what it's there for. And
that is so true with regard to this passage of scripture. We
are not going to enter into this passage unless we have some idea
of why we can have this boldness. And this is a boldness that every
believer possesses, whether they know it or not. If you're in Christ, this boldness
is for you. Don't miss that. This boldness
is for you. Having therefore, brethren, boldness. Well, verse 18, tells us what
the therefore is now where remission of these is. And he's talking
about the remission of sins, my sins. My sins. My sins. Where remission of these
is. Where my sins are put away. where my sins are no longer,
where my sins are gone, where my sins are non-existent, where
remission, oh, don't you want this? The remission of all your
sins, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sins. Quit trying to come up with one.
Stop it. Now, I believe that everything
that the writer to the Hebrews had said was leading us to this,
where the remission of sin is. That's what our great high priest
accomplished on Calvary's tree. The complete full remission of
sins, the final total and absolute remission of sins. There is no
need of another offering. There is the complete exoneration
of all sin. This is how God can be just. You've already heard that. absolutely
just, absolutely righteous, and justify an ungodly, evil, wicked
sinner in a way that honors his glorious justice, honors his
holy law, where remission of these is. There is no more offering for
sin. God is glorified. Every attribute
of God is honored where the remission of these is. And because of this,
the Lord Jesus Christ can say with regard to every believer,
what he said of the publican in the temple. He said, I say
to you, you know something, every other prophet said, thus sayeth
the Lord. He never said that. He said,
I say it to you. That's the authority. I say unto
you, this man went down to his house. I bet you know the next
word, don't you? Justified. Not merely forgiven,
not merely pardoned, not merely shown mercy, but justified rather
than the other where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. Don't dare try to bring one.
That's an insult to the Lord. Don't bring one. Now look what
he says in verse 19. Having therefore, you see what
the therefore is there for? You do, don't you? Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest. by the blood of
Jesus. Every believer, without exception,
has this boldness. Somebody says, I don't feel very
bold. I understand that. But you have
every reason to. You may not feel it, but you
have every reason to. Why? The blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it's amazing when he
says, let us come boldly into the throne of grace. In Hebrews
chapter four, that's an amazing verse, but this is almost more
amazing. If you can say that, having boldness
to enter into the holiest, into the very presence of God. Now
you can bet that the Hebrews were shocked when they first
heard this because all they'd ever heard is there's only one
person who could come into the Holy of Holies, the great high
priest. It was sure death for anyone
else who tried to come into his presence. And to hear I, me,
as sinful as I am, that I can actually have boldness to enter
into the Holy, courage, freedom, Oh, this access into the holiest
Ephesians 3, 12 says in who we have access with confidence by
the faith of him to enter into the very presence of God. Now who has this boldness? What does he says having therefore
brethren boldness. It's the brethren who have this
boldness. Certainly that does not mean
all men without exception, because an unsaved man does not have
this right of access. You see, the unsaved man is an
enemy of God. Parnal mind is enmity against
God. If an unsaved man could get into
the Holy of Holies, which he can, but if he could, you know
what he'd do? He'd try to rip God from his throne. He has no
love for God. He has no right into the very
presence of God. He's God's enemy. He hates God. He's not welcome in that sense.
But every believer is. Everybody who is a brother Don't
you love the term the brethren? That's a very special, very special
term, brethren. Brethren. What a privilege to
be a brother. Look in Hebrews chapter two, verse 11. For both he that sanctifyeth,
that's the Lord, and they who are sanctified. are all of one. If he sanctified me, you know
what that means? I'm one with him. It doesn't mean I'm real
close, closely joined together. It means I'm one. The eternal
union of God's people with Jesus Christ, the Lord. Both he that
sanctification is what he does. Both he that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified are all of one, one with Christ. There's
no separation. And look what it says next. For
the witch cause, he's not ashamed to call them brethren. That's who the brethren are.
Verse 12, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
ashamed to call me his brother. That's my brother. I sanctified
him. Look in chapter three, verse
one. Wherefore, holy brethren. That's every believer. Holy brethren. Somebody says, well, I don't
much feel holy. I understand that. I understand that very
well. But if you're in Christ, you're holy. He is your holiness. Holy brethren. This is what God
refers to you as. If I'm in Christ. I thought of
that song, he calls me my undefiled, my dove that we just heard. I
thought the Lord says that of me. Yeah, he does. I'm his undefiled,
I'm his dove, I'm his holy brethren. That's what God calls his people. Isn't that amazing? Holy brethren. Romans chapter eight, verse 29.
Paul said, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. What a blessed thing to be in
the family of God. The brethren are those that Christ
died for. And only they can have this boldness
to enter in the blood of Jesus, in the holiness, but it's only
through the blood of Jesus. You know, when I talk about the
blood of Jesus, I hope I could say so, do it with fear, reverence,
trembling, amazed at the power of his blood that makes this
sinner allowed to come with boldness into the very presence of God. The blood of Jesus, blood spoken of in Acts chapter
20, verse 28, as the blood of God. Feed the church of God,
which he had purchased with his own blood. Back to our text in Hebrews 10.
And keeping therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. Would you dare come in the other
way? Would you have any right to think that you have the ability
to come into his presence with boldness apart from the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need the precious Jesus for
I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need
the cleansing fountain where I can always flee the blood of
Christ. most precious, the sinners perfectly. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. And look what it says in verse
20. He's still speaking of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, by a new and living
way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say his flesh. Now, when we're talking about
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first description the writer
to the Hebrews gives is a new way. And that word means freshly
slaughtered. That's the only time this word
is used in the New Testament. Freshly slaughtered. Present. Powerful. Poignant. Freshly slaughtered. It's not old. It's always new. It's always
all-powerful. It's always in the present. a
new, a freshly slaughtered, and a living way. This is the way into the Father's
presence. It's not the blood of a dead animal's sacrifice. It's the blood of the living
Christ. That is our way into His presence,
a new and a living way. way. This is my entrance. This is how I can come with boldness.
I wouldn't come any other way. If it wasn't written, we wouldn't
believe this, would we? If it wasn't stated right here that
we have boldness to come, we wouldn't dare say, okay, I'm
going to come. No, but it's written. It's yours. It's yours. This belongs to every
believer, the brethren. It's written that we can come
with this new and living way that he consecrated for us. And
I, my marginal reading says he made, he new made this for us.
He new made this for us. It's, he inaugurated it. He initiated it. He's the one
who did this. And look what it says next. Through
the veil, that is to say his flesh. Now what happened when
Christ died? The veil of the tent. was ripped
in half from the top to the bottom by God himself. That veil said
what? Separation. You can't come into
the Holy of Holies. You don't have any business in
here. The moment Christ died, the exact second Christ died,
God ripped that separation away. And now Every believer has no
separation. I can come boldly with boldness
into the Holy of Holies with cheerful confidence, free access
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the rending
of that veil was with the rending of his flesh. When he died, that
veil was torn apart and that gives us boldness to enter into
the holiest by his blood. Now, verse 21, and having an
high priest over the house of God. Now, this one who died,
lives. And he is the high priest over
the house of God, the brethren, the body of Christ, his bride,
every believer. When he said from the cross,
Father, forgive them. Every one of them were forgiven. That wasn't some generic prayer.
You see, whatever he asked the Father, the Father gives him.
He never asked anything in vain. Ask of me and I'll give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance. Everybody he prayed for was forgiven. Peter, I pray for you, that your
faith fail not. He didn't pray that he wouldn't
fall. You know, something that never
failed with Peter is his faith. Even after he denied Christ, and I have no doubt that after
he denied Christ, he remembered when the Lord said, who so denied
me before men, him will I deny before my heavenly father. He
remembered that, don't think he didn't. He was greatly concerned
over that. And I would imagine Peter thought,
I'm not saved. I couldn't be. There's no way
I could be saved. But you know what he never quit
doing? He doubted himself, but he never quit believing that
Jesus Christ is the son of God. He denied he knew him. He was
scared to death. He played the coward, but he
continued to believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of
God. Isn't that what faith is? Peter, I prayed for you that
your faith fail not. His faith didn't fail. He failed,
but his faith didn't fail. You see, his faith was the gift
of God. Oh, we have this high priest
over the house of God. There's our boldness. He represents
me, my great high priest. Now look what he says in verse
22. This is the first of three, let
us. Verse 22, let us draw near. Verse
23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith. Verse 24, let us
consider one another. All three of these are very important.
These let us, that's the way you say it. Let us, three times. Now, the
first thing he says is, let us draw near. And once again, I ask, is this
for every believer? Of course. Well, how do you say that? I
mean, this thing of drawing near. I draw near. What do you mean?
How do you do that? Well, let me ask you this. What
did God mean when he 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 faithfulness, he didn't
say, when I see your efforts and striving against sin and
making yourself better, he said nothing like that. He said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. Is that all that's needed? that this is for me and you.
Let us draw near. Let us draw near with a true
heart. Now that is something that I
have looked at many times and thought, okay, I see what it
says. That's a good thing to do, but
I've got a treacherous heart. I don't trust my heart for it.
I really don't. You know, the scripture says
he trusts his heart's a fool, doesn't it? And my heart is deceitful. The description in the scripture
is it's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And that
means incurably wicked. I've got a bad heart and I'm
aware of that. And yet he says, let's draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Now, this is the heart
that David spoke of when he said, blessed is he whose transgressions
are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin and in whose spirit there is no guile. No deceit. Now, I can't draw
near, well, this is my new heart I'm drawing near with. In my
consciousness, I can't do that. I mean, because it's always funneled
out of this one consciousness of this person. But I know this,
if I've got a new heart, I've got a true heart that's honest
before God. That's honest before God and
does not claim to be what it's not. A true heart draws near,
understanding what it is, nothing but sin. in the only way I have
of coming into his presence is through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ." Now that's a true heart. That's the pure heart
the Lord speaks of when he says, blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God. This is what Peter's talking
about when he talks about a meek and quiet spirit, which is not
corruptible, which is not even, this is the heart that comes
in to God's presence. This is the true heart. Now,
It's still me coming though. It's me coming through Christ. But I know the only true heart
is the heart that looks to Christ only. That's a true heart. It
looks to Christ only because it knows there's nowhere else
to look. Let us come with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Do you have full assurance? Now, as soon as I say that, you're
probably going to say to me, if you ask me, do you have full
assurance? I'm going to say, yeah. So this thing of full assurance
is not so much full assurance that you're saved. It's full
assurance that he's the savior. It's full assurance concerning
him. It's full assurance concerning the power of his blood. perfection
of his righteousness. Oh, I have full assurance. If
he's all in salvation, he is all in salvation. Full assurance.
Do you have full assurance? Uh, well, I've started looking
at my assurance again. As soon as I start looking for
my assurance, I'm going to start thinking, well, you know, I hope so. But, oh, when I'm enabled by
the grace of God to not even think about whether or not I'm
saved, but see his glory and his beauty and the perfection,
I've got full assurance. Jesus Christ is all I need. All I need. All I need. He alone
is all my plea. He is all I need. That's full assurance. Trusting
Christ only. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience. What's an evil conscience? Somebody
says, my conscience is clear. You've got an evil conscience
then. Your conscience is no good. It's seared. It doesn't work. I've got, I strive to keep a
clear conscience at all times. Well, I'm glad you do, but you
don't got much of a conscience. If you can even say something
like that, if you know yourself, You ought to. We ought not ever
sin again. I'm not in any way excusing.
We ought to never sin. Make it your business to never
sin again. But with regard to every, if
my fingerprints is on it, I feel guilty about it. I mean, the
sermon, anything. I mean, what is the answer to an evil
conscience? Not having anything to feel guilty
about. Not feeling guilty. Somebody says, I don't feel guilty.
Well, you ought to. It's not not feeling guilty.
It's not having anything to feel guilty about. And that's what
the blood of Christ has accomplished. The sprinkling, the sprinkling. of the blood on an evil conscience,
the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that
of Abel. Remember when God said to Cain,
your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. What does
it say? Vengeance, justice, kill him. He's guilty. What does the
blood of Christ say? He's justified. He doesn't have
any sin at all. Justice cries for his salvation. And that's the only thing that'll
satisfy a conscience. The blood of sprinkling that speaks peace. And your conscience is satisfied
that all God requires, he has through Christ for me. And our bodies washed with pure
water. That's the water of the word.
Whencewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed
thereunto according to your word?" Oh, the word of God. You can't
ever get away from... I love what Paul said to Timothy,
preach the word. Preach the word, whatever the
word declares, preach it. Washing of water by the word. Now, The second let us, let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. The first let us is toward God,
draw near. The second let us has something
to do with ourselves. Let us hold fast the confession of our
faith without wavering. Now the word confession, it means to speak the same thing.
So whatever my confession is, if I'm a believer, you have the
same confession. We have the same confession. One of the things that troubles
me about personal testimonies is they're trying to come up
with something that kind of outshines the other guy a lot of times.
And, you know, I've got this powerful, somebody once came
up to me and said, I've been radically saved. And I thought,
man, sounds to me like you're radically lost in the way you're
talking. But a confession is what we speak
the same thing. Speak the same thing. A confession
has something to do with what we stand for publicly. It's an
identification. A confession is what we confess
to being guilty of. This I confess to thee, said
Paul. I plead guilty here after the way they call heresy. So
worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all things which were
written in the law and in the prophets. Now hold fast the confession. of our faith. Now, that word
faith, it's the word, I don't know why the translators put
faith here, because it's the word that's always hope. Hope. The confession of our hope. You know what my hope is? No matter how remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. That's my hope. My hope is that Jesus Christ
is the only hope I have. That Jesus Christ died for me. That's the only hope I have. And I'm holding that fast. Without
wavering, I'm stating that publicly, the only hope I have, I want
everybody to know this. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ died for me. I don't have any hope in my works.
I don't have any hope in my preaching. I don't have any hope in my spiritual
life. All I have hope in is that Jesus
Christ, when he said it is finished, my salvation was accomplished.
That's my hope. Look in Romans chapter 8. Paul says in verse 31, What shall
we then say to these things if God be for us? Who can be against
us? What is there to fear? There's
nothing to be intimidated by, if God's for me. Verse 32, he
that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not? What could prevent him from freely
giving us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? There's nothing I can be accused
of. I'm one of God's elect. He justified me. I didn't justify
myself. Justification isn't something
I accepted. What, do you want to be justified or condemned? Well,
I think I'll be justified. No, God declared me to be justified.
This is God's work. Who is he that, who shall bring
anything to the charge of God's elect? God justified him. Now
look at this. This is the one I really wanted to get at. Verse
34. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. How do you know he died for you?
I can answer that question because I believe he's the son of God.
Because I believe he's the Christ. This is not about what I believe
about myself or what I believe about him. I believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the son of the living God. I believe that. You know
what that means? He died for me. I wouldn't believe
that if he didn't die for me. Hold fast that testimony without
wavering. Be unmoved for this singular
reason. He is faithful to the promise.
at your reason to hold fast without wavering. He is faithful that
promised. And then we read in verse 24. Here's the third, let us. Let us draw near through the
blood of Christ. That's what we do toward God.
Let us hold fast the confession of our faith. That's what we're
to do toward ourself. And let us consider one another. Let us consider one another to
provoke, to love, and to good works, not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some
is. Let's think about that. Let us
consider one another. Now, let me tell you, what that
means. The Bible never tells other people
how to treat me. Did you know that? I thought
they were Christians. If they were, they'd treat me
this way and they'd do this and they'd do that. Bible never tells
anybody how to treat me. It tells me how to treat them. Consider one another. I am to, I'm called upon, I'm
called upon. I feel like I've miserably failed
in this when I'm even thinking about it, but I'm called upon
to treat you in such a way, in such a non manipulative, loving,
nonjudgmental, merciful, gracious, kind way. that it provokes you
to love me. I can't help but love that guy
by the way he treats me. And that's what we're all called
upon to do. Consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works. I ought to provoke you to love me because
I treat you this way it ought to be. It's the way I want it
to be. I want to treat you the way I want to be treated myself.
That's what the Lord said, isn't it? That's our rule. If you want to rule, there's
one. There's one. Consider one another to provoke
unto love, to good works, works of mercy, charity, kindness.
I want to be like that person. Not forsaking. the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Now, let me say right off the
bat that this is not talking about missing church every now
and then. This is talking about apostasy. You can see that from the following
verse, verse 26, for if we sin willfully after that we receive
the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for
sins. Now let's talk about leaving the gospel. That's talking about
willfully after you receive the knowledge of how God saves sinners
and going back to works. That's it. That's it. You know, when preachers get on people about attendance,
I always get so uncomfortable with that. Don't, you know, manipulating
people and trying to make them feel guilty about church attendance.
I don't want to do that. I want to be there because I
want to be there. I want you to be there because you want to be
there. But I know this with regard to assembling ourselves together,
you can't say it doesn't matter if I'm not here. It matters to
everybody that is there. It matters to everybody that
is there and the assembling of yourselves together. That's what
we're doing right now. The church hearing the gospel,
the fellowship of the gospel, don't ever get to where You're
trying to fit assembling yourselves together into life's busy schedule.
Don't do that. Don't do that. Try to fit life's
busy schedule into assembling yourselves together. The assembly
of the saints. And I know this with regard to
anybody who preaches gospel, We better make sure we got a
good meal, the best meal every time we preach. And that's why
the people meet together to hear the gospel. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest through the blood
of Jesus. May that be stamped in our hearts
by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit. Amen.