Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. Hebrews 10, verse 19, having
therefore, brethren, baldness 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 have preached 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. With these verses, that I've
just finished reading, we begin the practical part of the letter
of Hebrews. As is typical of most of the
New Testament letters, and especially those written by Paul, first
we have the teaching or the doctrinal part, and then the practical. And that's not to say that in
the doctrinal part there's not practical teaching, because we
know that we have practical teaching here in Hebrews before we come
to verse 19 of chapter 10. For instance, in chapter four
and verse 16, he wrote, let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. But from this point on
to the end of the letter, there's going to be exhortations. We
say this is a practical part. There's going to be exhortations. And God's children, we all need
exhortations as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
going to be exhortations. There's going to be warnings.
God's children need warnings as well. Sometimes people ask,
well, why? If we believe in the security
of the believer, why is it that believers need to be warned?
We need to be warned that we might watch and pray and follow. And of course, there's going
to be encouragements. There's going to be encouragements,
and then there's going to be many examples. In chapter 11,
we have one example after the other of those who served the
Lord and were told what they did. by believing in God, their
faith. But in these seven verses that
I've read this evening, I want us to see Three truths of which God's children
should be aware, and then three exhortations to which God's children
should take heed. So first of all, three truths
of which God's children should be aware, and then three exhortations
to which God's children should take heed. First, three truths. Three truths of which God's children
should be aware. Now, whoever wrote this letter,
whether it was the Apostle Paul or some other inspired man of
God, he has encouraged these Jewish believers by showing them
how that the old covenant to which, remember, they were tempted
to look, the old covenant to which they were tempted to look,
he has shown them how it was replaced by the new covenant
And the new covenant, of course, he calls the better covenant. The old covenant, with its sacrifices,
its priest, and its tabernacle, had served its purpose, and now
it had passed away. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
great high priest. He had ratified the new covenant
by his blood, and we are new covenant believers, New Testament
believers. You know, two times he cited
this new covenant. If you look up above this in
chapter 10 and verses 16 and 17, he said, this is a covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I
will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write
them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And then in chapter 8, before
chapter 10, chapter 8, also he cited the new covenant in verses
10 through 12 of chapter 8. For this is a covenant, and we
know he's citing this from Jeremiah chapter 31. the new covenant
that God had promised that he would make. For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them
a God and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
know the Lord, for all shall know me. from the least to the
greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Notice that line here in chapter
eight in the New Covenant, and this is from Jeremiah chapter
31, where God promises I will be a God unto them and they shall
be my people. I will be a God to them. One of the Puritan writers, Thomas
Brooks, he opened up these words like this, these words where
God promises, I will be to them a God. That is, as if he said,
you shall have as true an interest in all my attributes for your
good as they are mine for my own glory. My grace, saith God,
shall be yours to pardon you, and my power shall be yours to
protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my
goodness shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours
to crown you. I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people. Now, back in the text, Hebrews
10, here are the three truths of which God's children should
be aware. Number one, we have boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, verse 19. having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The holiest, of course, refers
to that holy of holies in the tabernacle. It was a place, and
remember, he's writing to Jews. These first century Jewish believers,
when they read this, no doubt this got their attention because
they knew under that old covenant, No one would dare go into that
holiest, the holy of holies, except the high priest. And he
would only do that once every year. And no doubt, even the
high priest, when he went in there, he went in with a certain
amount of fear and trembling every time that he went in there.
And now the writer tells us this is something that every believer,
every child of God, we should recognize, that we have boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Remember
in that holiest, the holy of holies was the Shekinah. The Shekinah was a symbol, I
believe it was a shining, it was a symbol of God's presence. there between the cherubim on
the mercy seat, the Shekinah. And as I said, no Jew would dare
enter into there except the high priest. Well, it was a type of
heaven. That's what the Holy of Holies
was. It was a type, as just about everything in the tabernacle
was a type of Christ or of something to do with salvation and with
the Lord God. And the Holy of Holies was a
type of heaven. And now the writer tells us that
this holy place, the holiest, we have boldness to enter there
by the blood of Jesus. That place was the dwelling place
of God, the Shekinah. Symbolic, yes, but now you and
I, As new covenant believers, we must recognize we have boldness
to enter into heaven itself by the blood of Jesus. And I just remind us of this,
this word boldness, because we live in a day when people seem
to be so familiar. There's no reverence of God.
There's no fear of God for the most part in religious so-called
Christian religion today, this word boldness certainly doesn't
mean that we enter there with irreverence. We should always
remember that when we enter into the holiest, into heaven itself,
we do so in reverence, that it's still heaven where God's throne
is, and you and I, we are here upon his footstool upon the earth. The boldness to enter all comes
to us through our great high priest having entered there.
Listen to this. I thought of this. We enter accepted. We enter accepted in the beloved. That's what the scriptures tell
us, right? We are accepted in the beloved. So we have boldness to enter. We enter there accepted in the
beloved. We enter authorized. We have a right to come there. And we enter authorized by the
blood of Jesus. And we enter assured. that our
sins are purged. So we have boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, what is meant
by entering into the holiest? Well, we know that it means that
believers shall enter heaven when our life on this earth is
ended. We know that. But this is present. This is tonight. This is tonight,
this is while we are here in this worship service. We have
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. How do we enter into the holiest?
We do so in prayer. We have boldness in prayer and
we must remind ourselves of this when we pray that we are entering
into the presence of God, and we do so with reverence, with
liberty, with boldness, but still, what a privilege, what a blessing
that we may go there and lay our petitions out before our
Heavenly Father. And not only do we go there in
prayer today, I say we'll go there in reality when we die,
we'll enter into heaven. But right now, tonight, we enter
into the holiest, into heaven itself, the throne room of God,
when we go there in prayer. And also in praise, when we praise
the Lord. We go there to present our praises
unto the Lord. And even our, we know our prayers,
and we know our praises, all must be cleansed through the
blood of Jesus Christ. All right, the second thing we
have. First of all, we have boldness. This is something every child
of God should know. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Second, we have access. We have access by a new and living
way. In the tabernacle, the holiest
was separated by the veil. The holiest part of that tabernacle
was separated by a veil. And we see here in this verse
of scripture that that veil was a type of the flesh of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Notice that, if you will, in
verse 20. by a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh. The veil was a type of his flesh
or his body which was sacrificed, that offering The veil, we read
there in Exodus, the veil was made of fine twined linen. Fine twined linen. Well, in Revelation 19 in verse
8, we read, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. Fine linen is a type in the scriptures
of the righteousness that we have. And that righteousness
is His righteousness. He is our righteousness. He's
our righteousness. And that is called the righteousness
of God by the Apostle in Romans, isn't it? The righteousness of
God because He is God. But it is that perfect obedience
that began when He came into this world and all the way through
His life, from the cradle to the cross. His life was a life
of perfect obedience unto God. And that obedience, that righteousness
that pleased the Father is yours. It's mine. And that veil was
a picture, a type rather, of his flesh. Now the fact that
it was a fine twined linen, The Jews, according to John Gill,
say that twined means that it was, now listen, it was thread
six times doubled. You couldn't just take that veil
and rip it apart, I tell you that. It was very durable, very
strong. And so it was a picture, no doubt,
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his courage, and his steadfastness
under the afflictions and the trials and the difficulties,
the sorrows. You know, the scripture says
he was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. When did his sorrows
begin? It began when he came into this
world. It began at his birth. There
was no room for him in the end. In other words, the sorrow followed
him from the cradle all the way through his life. But he was, one place it says,
he set his face like a flint. His disciples warned him, now
if we go up to Jerusalem, you know what they're going to do.
Well, an average man probably would have said, well, we better
not go up there. We better change our plans if that's what they're
going to do up there. No, he told them what they were
going to do. But that didn't deter him. That
didn't deter him from going there. He set his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem, even knowing that there he would be betrayed
and be crucified and slain. Christ, it says here we have
a new and living way. We like to say Christ didn't
make a way, He is the way. He didn't make a way, He is the
way. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Now we preachers, we use
that a lot preaching to the lost, but that's true to all of us
who know the Lord. He's our only way to the Father.
No other way. It's a new way and a living way. It's a new way. It could be that
the writer here means to contrast it from the way the people under
that old covenant had gone to God. They came to an earthly
tabernacle. Remember that tabernacle was
there in the middle of the camp of Israel. They came to an earthly
tabernacle. They came with a sacrifice that
could not take away their sins. They came through a sinful priest
who had sins of his own that he had to deal with first on
the day, the great day of atonement. And they came with a conscience
that was not clean. Notice that here in chapter 10
earlier when he said, verse 2. For then, speaking of those animal
sacrifices, for then would they not have ceased to be offered,
because that the worshipers once purged, once washed, would have
had no more conscience of sin. Telling us that they did have
conscience of sin. Why? Because there was a remembrance. There was a repetition every
year. And so their conscience was never
pure. But you and I, through the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we look at the sacrifice of Christ
and we see that the Father He is pleased with that sacrifice.
He accepted that sacrifice. So do we. So do we. And our conscience is purged.
There's no more remembrance of sin. And I mentioned a few weeks
ago when we saw that verse, that doesn't mean that believers do
not have knowledge of sin. The scripture says if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. I believe we've become more knowledgeable
of our sins as we grow in grace. But at the same time, we grow
in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and the efficiency of
that blood sacrifice to take away our sins. When Satan comes
to a believer, and I know all of us at times we have thoughts
and doubts and fears that come into our mind, don't ever argue. I think Martin Luther's the one
who said this. Don't ever argue with Satan. If he tells you you're
so sorry, you're too bad, you're too sinful to be saved, Don't
argue with him. Just remind him that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. Don't argue
with him. Christ came to save sinners.
And no matter how sinful we may see ourselves, know this, the
blood of Jesus Christ is more powerful, more powerful to take
away our sins. He's the way and it is a living
way. Every time that we observe the
Lord's Supper, we're reminded of this, aren't we? That he is
a living way. When we see that bread that's
broken and we take a piece of that bread that's broken and
eat it, we're reminded of his flesh that was broken for us.
which was pictured by the veil that separated the holy place
from the most holy place, we have access through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. And the third thing that every
believer should know is we have an high priest. That's what he
says in the next verse. We have an high priest, verse
21, and having an high priest over the house of God. Now, Thirdly,
three exhortations, three things that every believer should know.
We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the way, by the
blood of Christ. We have access by a new and living
way, and we have a high priest over the house of God of which
we are. And then three exhortations to
which God's children should take heed. First of all, Let us draw
near with a pure heart, a true heart. Verse 22, let us draw
near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Someone asked,
well, why do we need this exhortation? Why do we need this exhortation,
exhorting us to draw near when we've just seen that we have
boldness to enter? Why do we need the exhortation?
Let me just remind all of us, it's one thing to hear the Word
of God, and it's something else to do the Word of God. It's one
thing to know that we have boldness, that we have access, that we
have a high priest, but it's something else to do, to draw
near with a true heart. One writer said we must draw
near without fear, and we must draw near also with anticipation
or expectation. This brings in the matter of
faith, and that's what he mentions here. Let us draw near with a
true heart and full assurance of faith. He that cometh to God
that a strong he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You know, it's possible to come
to God in prayer or to come to a worship service and come not
expecting a blessing, not expecting a blessing, not looking for a
blessing, and sometimes not even desiring a blessing. Just come
out of habit. Pray out of habit. When we draw
near, we should draw near with anticipation, expectation. We're coming into the presence
of God. How can we come into the presence
of God and leave like we came? What a blessing to be in the
presence of Almighty God. Can anyone come into the presence
of God and not be different, not be affected in some way?
We should come with expectation. You know, the psalmist confessed
that God is the health of my countenance, my countenance,
just the way my demeanor, the way I look, the way I present
myself, the Lord is the health of my countenance." And he says
that in that psalm when he asked himself, why art thou cast down? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. Draw near to God. And the second exhortation, let
us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Now
there's two things there. We must hold fast, first of all,
the doctrine of our faith. That is, what is it that we believe?
Jude said that we should earnestly contend for the faith, that body
of truth that we believe. We should earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Let us hold
fast our profession, or hold fast the profession of our faith. Look back to chapter 4 just a
moment. Hebrews 4 and verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. Not only hold fast what we profess,
but hold fast our profession. We profess to believe the truth. Then let's hold fast our profession. God is a promising God, and He
has promised eternal life. He promised eternal life. Look
in Titus just a moment. He promised eternal life before
the world began. Titus 1 and verse 2, Paul said,
in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. God promised eternal life. He's
a promising God. And notice, and know this, He's
a faithful God. He's a faithful God. He's promised eternal life to
all who believe in his son, Jesus Christ. Let's hold fast our profession
of faith. And then the third thing, he
said, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And the only
negative in this whole passage that we read is that next verse,
verse 25, not, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is. This is one way, this is one
way, that is the forsaking of ourselves together and worship
services. This is one way that we do not
consider one another and we do not provoke one another to love
and to good works. Actually, what we do by forsaking
and not being faithful in the services, what we do is discourage
rather than provoke to love and to good works. We discourage
other believers. Well, I pray that the Lord would
help all of us tonight to recognize, to know these three things and
to receive these three exhortations. It seems like even in the early
church, people took the services for granted. But you know, the
early churches were made up for the most part of slaves. I forget,
I've seen a very high percentage.