The Book of Hebrews 10:19-25 A new and living way
Hebrews 10:19-25 · Vern Peterman · Feb 9, 2014
Hebrews, No. 42
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926417164286

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Previously, I want to mention it again. When we get to Hebrews 12, we're going to be spending several Sundays on biblical parenting. And it's because that passage has some about parenting, and we're going to kind of take a short detour to look at biblical parenting. What does the Bible have to say about it? And so I just want to kind of give you a heads up about that when we get there.

We're in the latter part of Hebrews 10 now, so it'll take some weeks, but that's what we're looking forward to. One of the things that you have here on your slide set is that there is a kind of a table of here's the sections on explanation, and here's the exhortation portion of it. Today we're going to begin the point of exhortation, and that's from Hebrews 10, 19 through 39, where this exhortation section is now. And then once we get into chapter 11, we'll begin explanation for the last time. The last two chapters of Hebrews is exhortation, so that's the pattern that we'll be looking at here for the time to come.

When we do this section on biblical parenting, we're not going to have a month of Sundays of this kind anyway. So, anyway, just so you know what we're looking forward to. Now, one of the things I just want to say ahead of time, this is a phenomenal passage. It is just astounding.

When you look at it, especially if you look at it in terms of the Jews and their background, the Hebrews to whom this letter was written, Only Aaron the high priest entered the holy place once a year on the Day of Atonement. No one else was allowed, no one else was allowed to do what Aaron was allowed to do, or the subsequent high priest. And he couldn't even do that on the wrong day. So only one guy on one day could do this, and that's it. If the high priest entered on the wrong day, it would be fatal. It's not like, oops, I'm going to get a headache today. No, you're going to be gone. That's it. You have to do it once, the right guy, on the right day, and that's it. Anything else is fatal.

Here's another instance, Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6. He came on the heavenly scene. He was overwhelmed as a human being to be in the presence of the infinitely holy and righteous God. He says, woe to me, I am undone. How can this be? This is going to be beyond me. It's going to be the end of me, he's thinking. But we, this passage says, have confidence to enter. For everybody else, this is just unfathomable. You can't do it. Only this guy can do it. And only on a certain day are you going to die. Isaiah goes in there and he says, I'm undone.

Ah! But this passage says we have confidence to enter. This is amazing. It's not saying how we feel, it's saying we have a positional confidence. Let's talk about that after a bit. It's not about how you feel in terms of confidence, it's positional confidence. This verse is telling us we have as a possession, as a part of our position, it's based on our position, we have as a possession the confidence to enter.

Boldly we can enter. Boldly we can enter. Under the reigning principle of grace, the grace in which we stand, we have full privileges of access to the very place where God dwells all the time as a possession because of our eternal position in Christ and Christ in us.

Going into the temple is like, hey, we want volunteers. No, no, I'm not going in there. If I do that, I'm going to die, right? And now, a complete reversal. We can run into the holy place. We can run into the throne room and say, Abba! Papa! Hey? This is phenomenal stuff. And we haven't even started studying the passage yet. Okay, here we go. You get me so excited. Come on. Alright.

Here's Hebrews 10.19, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, Here's Hebrews 9 we looked at before. It has some kind of introduction to this.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is, the one in the heavenlies, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. So Christ entered by what? His own blood. And now this passage is telling us we get to enter by Christ's blood.

That's something that none of even the priests except for the high priest thought that they would ever do and we get to do it all the time. That's just fantastic. Christ entered the holy place through his own blood shed on the cross who qualified as both the priest and the sacrifice This starts with a therefore.

Based on the prior explanation of Hebrews 6.13 to 10.18 that we've been looking at, and the truths laid out in verses 19, 20, and 21, the author of Hebrews is about to exhort his readers. He's writing to brethren, so when he writes, we have, he's saying that he and his readers, and by implication, ourselves, we here in the body of Christ, have the spiritual possession that he describes. That's what this, therefore, is drawing conclusions from what's before and from truths that are going to be summarized and laid out in these next few verses here. We have confidence to enter the holy place, the spiritual possession, that confidence is something we have as a spiritual possession, based upon our eternal position in Christ.

We do have that position in Christ by the blood of Christ. Christ shed his own blood for our sins and purchased us. He shed His blood for us once, one time, and it is eternally effective. It is effective. So we always have, as a possession, the confidence to access the holy place in the heavenlies, where other people would, like Isaiah, ah! I'm in the heavenlies! I'm with God! Ah! How will I handle it?

Instead, here is our awesome Awesome privilege we can run into the throne room anytime and say Papa Abba Father That's just awesome. That's phenomenal So here's verses 20 and 21 by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh and Since we have a great priest over the house of God.

I Now, something to let you know about, that word new that's there is a different word from what you see new in other places in the New Testament. It's a different word. As a matter of fact, it is only used in this place in the whole New Testament. And the reason that I say it's different and point it out, it doesn't mean new like in it's not old.

It means freshly or recently slain or slaughtered. Isn't that astounding? What a word to put together. So it's not just we got a new as opposed to an old living and living way. We have a freshly slain and living way. Wow, what's that saying? This set of words refers to Christ's death and resurrection. A freshly slain and living way. How do we get that?

Because Christ, even in the memory of some people still living at the time of this letter, Christ had given his life. for them, and for you, and for me. And a living way, because He was resurrected. Astounding. We have a freshly slain and living way. Christ began and inaugurated this freshly slain and living way by His death on the cross as a sacrifice. He began it with a sacrifice. He ended and continued it with His resurrection. A freshly slain and living way.

In Hebrews 4.14, some chapters back, Christ is called a great high priest and the meaning is the same here. This great high priest, that's the role that Christ held and holds and will hold. In the Old Testament, the high priest went in alone to the holy place just once a year or he would be dead. That's it. One guy, one time, that's it. That's all you get. But Christ, our Great High Priest, is constantly representing us before the Father, and we are called and privileged to go in with Him. To the Jews, that would be unimaginable. You're going to go in with the High Priest, into the Holy Place. That just would have been unfathomable, that you would even think of doing that.

But that's what we get invited to. As a matter of fact, we're supposed to. We're supposed to. Supposed to go into the holy place with Jesus, our High Priest. And be with Him. Spiritually. Right now. Go to that place where He's representing us before the Father and be right there alongside Him. Oh, this is cool. Alright.

We're called and privileged to go into that holy place with Him. You see, we, being in Christ, have been identified with Him in His crucifixion and His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and His seeding. And guess where this sequence ends? With the seeding. That's where we are. Where we're seeded, that's where we're to be. We get to go there right now. We have full access privileges. It's great. It's wonderful.

Then he talks about the house of God. Is this physical house of God? By the way, is this building the house of God? No. The house of God is us. The house of God is us. The house of God is the one way to refer to the body of Christ, also known as, aka, the church.

So here's 1 Timothy 3.15, Paul's writing to his apostolic delegate, Timothy, as Timothy has been sent to Ephesus, and he says, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God. We have a further statement earlier in Hebrews, Hebrews 3, 5, and 6, but Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are. Whose house we are. So the house of God is clearly referring to the church as a body, not to some building.

And now verse 22. This is a really cool verse. Let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. What's he mean by that? So, let us. What let us?

Let's talk about lettuce. It's important we talk about lettuce. Translators have tended to use this word pair lettuce often in exhortation, and I urge you to do, or I command you to do something. And so frequently you'll have lettuce come across as the translation.

Let us hear, and in most places in the New Testament, and I would say actually all except for parts of the Gospels in the King James Version, let us hear in most places in the New Testament is really an imperative, indicating must or ought to. It does not mean allow. It does not mean allow. So it is mild as an invitation as let us, but it really means you really ought to. This is a must.

Now, so this grace-motivated imperative, and that's something that's important for us. When imperative is there, it's grace-motivated, not a legal imperative. You don't get legal imperatives as part of the church. It's a grace-motivated imperative based on our position, a call to draw near to God in prayer and fellowship and in intimacy in our moment-by-moment condition. That's what lettuce is about. So here is a principle I want to bring out that fits here, but it fits other places in the Bible, in the New Testament particularly.

A command or urging is about your moment-by-moment condition. If there's a command or urging, it's not saying do something about your position. It's about your moment-by-moment condition based on your position. See that? So this is a general principle here. Statements about what we have are about our possessions based on our position. Statements about who we are and where we are address position. We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That's position. We have confidence to enter boldly. That is a possession based on our position. Verses and passages that urge or command us to do something based on our position or possessions are about our moment-by-moment condition. Are we following through based on our position and possessions? Yes or no, that's the condition question.

So, just make those things clear. This phrase, sincere heart with a full assurance of faith, the word that is translated sincere means true, that is in reality and honesty as opposed to one coming with false or fleshly motives. And by the way, have you ever heard that sincere means without wax? Ever heard that? It's not true. Okay, let's go ahead here. That's a rumor.

Okay, so in Hebrews 6.11 we saw the full assurance of hope. So we saw that a few chapters before. I see some shocked and surprise look. Anyway, it's not true. Here is another dimension of full assurance, faith in what Christ did and does. So we had the full assurance of hope in 611, now we have the full assurance of faith. What is our faith in? Our faith is in what Christ did and what he does.

Sprinkling and washing in this verse Why is that there? Why the sprinkling and washing? We're not very well equipped for sprinkling and washing right here, so what's this about? They're words that use the temple ritual illustrations to tell us that we are in right standing with God. We've been cleansed and we've been purified by what Christ has done. So it's using the temple ritual illustrations to tell us that we're in right standing with God. That's what that's about.

Now verses 23 and 24 go like this. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. So that's Hebrews 23 and 24 and as you might expect there's more lettuce in this. So we'll address the lettuces. Here is this hold fast term, and what we've seen is this continues through Hebrews. This is the last time we're going to see it, I believe.

And so what we see, we saw it first in Hebrews 3.6, but Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence. Here's this confidence issue again. But hold fast, it was a shipping term, a nautical term.

We saw it again in Hebrews 3.14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance.

And then hold fast in Hebrews 4.14, let us hold fast our confession, and that word confession is one we'll get to. And then 10.23 here, the last time it shows up, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for you promised is faithful. So, hold fast the confession.

One of the things we see is this lettuce issue again. It means we must or ought to hold fast, which is grace-motivated. It's a grace-motivated imperative based on our position and our possessions in Christ. Hold fast was a shipping term that meant to carefully guide the ship towards the place you were headed. That's what hold fast means.

Stay the course might be the way to bring it across. You stay the course headed for the harbor or place where you're going to bring the ship in. He's saying stay the course, look at the markers, look at the buoys, look at the landscape, stay the course. Keep a careful path as you head for where you're headed.

So the confession for believers is doctrinal points that always matter. Doctrinal points that always matter. That's what the confession is. Doctrine really, really matters. It matters a lot. It matters a lot. Am I saved by faith, by God's grace, or had I better get working for it in order to be saved and stay saved? Am I really just hanging by a thread? Or am I completely safe and I'm completely under grace? Which one is it? It matters. Does grace, the reigning principle, mean that I can sin as much as I desire and still be saved? So that sin just doesn't matter anymore. If I sin, then grace just abounds all the more? Is that the idea?

No. And so doctrine does matter. Doctrine isn't just some dry, dusty thing where we kind of blow the dust off of it once in a while and say, hey, we believe this, don't we? Yeah. OK, good. It's not something that's irrelevant. It's not something we just say we believe and then just walk out the door and it doesn't make any difference. Doctrine matters every minute. Doctrine matters every minute.

And that's what this passage is telling us. The confession of our hope. In the letters of the New Testament, the word confession is not spilling the beans about what we did wrong. That's important. It's not just spilling the beans about what we did wrong. The word confession is from a compound word that means to say the same thing about doctrine.

So we have, here's the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians, and boy, they are a church with problems. Big problems. Lots of problems. Just after his greeting where he says, Hi, I'm Paul, and gives him some initial words, he writes this in 1 Corinthians 1.10, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.

And by the way, it's the same words as confession, right? That you all speak the same thing. There are no divisions among you, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Is this exhorting people to be unified in spite of doctrinal differences? No, it is not. It is not here in 1 Corinthians, and it is not doing that in Hebrews either. It says the same thing.

That's what the confession is. The same things that we who believe say together form the basis for a solid, absolute, and certain hope that will not fail. The confession of our hope is a set of words we must not forget because we have a certain hope because we have certainty about what the Bible tells us. If you don't have certainty and we're not saying the same thing about what the Bible tells us, then you're not going to have a certain hope. It's going to be an I hope so hope.

And that's not what the Bible is drawing us to. He who promised is faithful. We find a pattern in the New Testament regarding the things that are urged or commanded with an imperative. If there is an, I urge you to, or there is a command, like these lettuces here, urging or commanding is often done with telling what God accomplished, His character, or His power and presence.

That is, it's not, here's not a delegated thing for you to do. As you do it, God's character, will be there for you. As you do it, God's provision will be there for you. As you do it, God's power will be there for you. As you do it, remember what God's already done. So when we get a command in the Bible, and this is no different, when we get a command in the Bible, God is never delegating something to you. He's there with you as He gives you the command.

Paul wrote in Romans 12.1, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God. God's character.

Now we have Ephesians 4.32, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other. Why? Just as God in Christ has forgiven you. He doesn't ask us to forgive except that we've already been forgiven. That's grace motivated. That's grace motivated. The law says you better forgive or you won't be forgiven. Grace says Forgive because you've been forgiven.

So again, what we find here is, be kind is an imperative. That you should do. And forgiving each other, etc. But what we find, this principle, urging or commanding, is often done with telling what God accomplished, His character, His power, and His presence.

God doesn't delegate anything to us. He never does that. He doesn't operate that way. He doesn't say, here, do this. Here's your list of stuff to do. And when you're all done, we'll check in, see how you did. He does not do that. What he has accomplished in his character, his power, and his presence are always right there with the command. Oh boy, this is fun.

Consider how to stimulate one another. And by the way, there's one other place where this word is used. And that's describing the contention between Paul and Barnabas. The first thing, if you just say how to stimulate one another, and if that were by itself, you might think, boy, we're going to go around provoking each other. In fact, if you think about it, that's what happens in some churches. A lot of churches. People go around provoking each other.

But he's got a particular direction he wants to talk about. This is a verse that's directed to action and interaction within the body of Christ, and it has an imperative with it. This is not a, you know, it might be kind of nice if you do this, you know, sorta, once in a while, here and there, some of you. But no, let us, all of us, be considering, this is an ongoing action of interaction within the body of Christ.

The word used for consider means to consider intensively. As a matter of fact, it doesn't just say consider. It has a prefix that says intensively consider. As a matter of fact, it's like pedal to the metal, full on, full out consider. Do this intensively, not just kind of mildly sort of when you think about it occasionally once in a while next year.

So our involvement with the body of Christ and that we are stimulating one another is not to be done without thought or to be done casually or incidentally. That stimulation of one another also has a specific kind of outcome intended. Because believe me, we could provoke one another here in all sorts of ways, but it does have a direction, and that's this.

Stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Now, certainly it is possible to stimulate one another in ways that are not good, maybe even really bad feelings and actions. Ever heard the words church split? People are provoking one another and it's not with this. That's why there's a need to point the stimulation in the right direction. Provoke one another?

Okay, but it has a specific direction intended. As a generalization, churches would be far better off if believers in those churches would consider this verse more carefully. What are we doing when we gather together? Oh, we're working on a church split, and it's working real great. Right? No. That's not it. To consider this. I'm going to church today. How am I going to stimulate my brothers and sisters to love and good works? And as a matter of fact, I'm going to think about that intensively. That's what he's saying. Now, here's 23 through 25. And I'll just start with 25. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now, ever heard of Lone Ranger Christians? Oh boy. These are the ones who do not see the need for gathering together with other believers as needed for themselves or for the sake of others or a high priority. What's in it for me? How do I feel this morning? You know? I'm sorry, I didn't finish my breakfast so I'm not going to church today.

To the Lone Ranger Christians, the body of Christ is just a bunch of independently moving body parts doing their own thing alone. This is the Lone Ranger Christian idea. I'm a toe, and I just kind of hang out there and toe. So this is the Lone Ranger Christian approach. The Bible gives no valid place to Lone Ranger Christianity, just kind of hanging out there. I'll show up at church once in a while, you know, a couple times a year. Christmas and Easter sound great.

Now this is something to ponder, because is this laying a law on you? No. It is not that. And look, God's keeping score, and He's keeping your attendance record, and looking at what's going on, and if you don't keep up your attendance record just right, He's going to give you what for, right? No, it's not that.

He's saying that based on your position, part of your position is not just you personally, part of our position is we are in the body of Christ. We've been identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating, and we've also been as a work of the Holy Spirit identified with and placed in the body of Christ. That's a part of your position. It's a part of your position. So he's urging about our condition based on our position. See that?

So encouraging one another, stimulating one another to love and good deeds, and encouraging one another cannot happen when we hang out together all alone. apart from the body of Christ or except on occasion. Encouraging is from a word that means to call alongside, and it is the verb form that means that it is an ongoing action. You know, two or three times a year, I go and encourage people.

That's not what he's talking about. It's an ongoing action. Ongoing actions encourage one another. So being called alongside in an ongoing matter is not occasional. We make the statement here in this slide, anticipation is a motivation. So what is this day that is drawing near? What is this day?

Philippians 1.6, 1.10, and 2.16 all refer to the day of Christ as the day when Christ will come for his church and will take them to be with him forever. This day that's drawing near. Anticipating Christ coming for us to take us to be with Him forever is given as a motivation in more than a half dozen rapture passages in the New Testament. That is, we are to be motivated by anticipation. Motivated by anticipation.

And 2 Timothy 4.8 says that there is an eternal crown for looking forward to that day when He takes us home. There's an eternal crown for looking forward to that day when he takes us home. When he takes us home, it'll happen in just an instant.

Twinkling of an eye. And isn't it amazing that for what's going to happen in a twinkling of an eye, our looking forward to that, we get a reward that lasts forever. How cool is that? How cool is that? We get rewarded forever for looking forward to that little instant, that moment, that short moment in time when the Lord will call us home.

This morning we're going to be taking the Lord's table very shortly and the passage that we typically look at, verse 26 in 1 Corinthians 11 says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death dot dot dot until he comes. Until he comes, even taking the Lord's table has an anticipation. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. First Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18 is kind of the defining passage on describing the rapture. And there's some things that I've underlined in it and want to point out to you.

But I do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. And that's his term for those who are believers and have died physically. So that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope. that is, those who are not believers. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Again, here's a reference to those who are believers and have died.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ, those who have died, as believers, will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up, and that's the word that we use the word rapture for. Rapture is the Latin term for this word caught up, which in the Greek is harpazo. So if somebody tells you rapture is not in the Bible, that's the place it is. It's simply a matter of the form that we use.

Together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord What's going to be happening a thousand years from now? Where will we be or who will we be with? The Lord okay ten thousand years from now who will we be with the Lord, okay? I? Could go on right for eternity who are going to be with the Lord right the Lord I? Therefore, comfort one another with these words. That word comfort is the same word as encouraging in our Hebrews passage. Encourage one another. Same word. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage. It is an awesome, phenomenal passage.

What an amazing thing that though people feared going into that holy place, we have open, continuous, non-stop, universal privileges of just running right into the throne room, running right into that holy place, just anytime, all the time. And we can just run in there and say, Abba Father.

What an awesome privilege we have. What a wonderful thing you have done. And your grace is so amazing. You have given us a hope that this world does not know. It's an absolute and certain hope. And you have given us, Lord, a welcome into the throne room of heaven. And we thank you for that. Thank you for that boldness and confidence that we can have, even this very moment, to go into the throne room and just talk to you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.