Let Us Draw Near With A True Heart Sprinkled Clean

Once again, if you will turn your scriptures to Hebrews chapter 10 the epistle to the

Hebrews Chapter 10 once again before we go to the

Word of God. Let us ask his blessing upon our time together Indeed our

Heavenly Father we come before you and once again, we ask that great privilege The presence of your spirit with us.

We know you delight to meet with your people as we come this day We confess our need for your guidance.

We need your light We need your spirit to give us understanding. So be with us now all to your honor and glory.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen For quite some time now we have been working through the book of Hebrews when

I've had the opportunity of standing behind this pulpit and we are in the 10th chapter we have worked through the

Central theological Argumentation of this particular letter and now we are transitioning into the exhortation section we are coming up on a very difficult section a section that is

Probably one of the two that is most often cited from this book and beginning of verse 26, but we're not quite there yet Instead we have a few more verses to go as last time we had worked through verse 20 and so I will begin reading

Hebrews chapter 10 at verse 19 and Look at the section that we will be examining today

Therefore brethren since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus 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 Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean

From an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water 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

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 we in the last time we were together worked through verse 20 and once again saw that the

Apostle now upon asserting from So many scriptures that he has brought together that that great assertion verse 18 now where there is forgiveness of these things

There is no longer any offering for sin He has demonstrated that the old

Levitical priesthood has been fulfilled the sacrifices have been fulfilled the way has been opened through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that once for all

Sacrifice that one time sacrifice the way has been opened into the very presence of God and therefore

The pressure being put upon these believers to go back to the old ways

The pressure being put upon them to go back and offer sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem There is nothing to go back to Those sacrifices are no longer pleasing to God Because they are in essence a continued testimony on the part of those doing that that what

Jesus has done is not Sufficient he is not truly the Messiah.

He is not the Son of God. He is not the final sacrifice and we considered briefly the fact that all of man's religions that try to undo the things that Christ has done to go back and establish priests and to go back and establish mechanisms whereby

There are sacrifices offered over and over again a complete undoing of the work of Christ You cannot put these things together where there is forgiveness of these things

There is no longer any offering for sin and so the primary argument of the epistle has been accomplished, but now there needs to be application and there needs to be exhortation just as we see in the book of Romans While Paul finishes his great argumentation then beginning in chapter 12 you have the exhortation the application the very practical

Outliving of these theological truths and so Paul has said we have

Confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way

Which he inaugurated for us to the veil that is his flesh. We looked at that and we saw in the the tearing down of that veil that stood between God and man in that work of Christ that veil was torn from top to bottom at his death

We now have a new and living way There have been many parallels drawn to Old Testament Types and shadows, but now the living way the new and living way has come

He is inaugurated that for us through the veil that is his flesh And so we pick up with verse 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God That is we have one priest we don't have many priests there are no

New Testament priests You will search forever to find in the New Testament any establishment of any concept of a priest

Who is separate from the people who functions in the way the Old Testament priest did who stands in an altar?

There is no such thing in the New Testament And I have debated those who call themselves priests and what they've done as a well

You know you have the presbyters and you have the bishops and and over time the presbyters developed into the priests well

If you look at the use of the term presbyter whether it's elder overseer bishop

They're all interchangeable in Paul's thought there is no difference between them. They're all one office.

Yes centuries later those offices started to divide as People added traditions to the

Word of God, but nowhere in the New Testament. Do you have any concept of? These idea of priests in fact the only discussion of priests in the

New Testament is that every one of us male and female are a kingdom of priests unto

God and so there is no concept of this idea of a priest we have a great priest singular one

Now that is the same term that is used of the high priest It really is a synonym

It could have just simply said a we have one high priest over the house of God We are the house of God We the people of God are the house of God, and it is interesting

I'm not sure to be honest with you if this is where it comes from but it is very interesting that if you go back to Zechariah chapter 3

You discover when you look at the Greek translation of the Old Testament that there

Joshua is called the the great priest and Interestingly enough in the

Greek Septuagint that is the name Jesus And so you have one who is called

Jesus in the Old Testament who is called a great priest there in Zechariah?

3 1 is there an echo of that I don't know But it is interesting to note that that does appear in the

Greek translation of the Old Testament And as we have seen so many times in our journey through Hebrews That is the translation of the

Old Testament that the writer is Referring to and drawing our attention to and so we have a way through the veil through the body of Christ We have a great priest one singular over the house of God as A result look at verse 22

Let us draw near Then look down at verse 23 let us hold fast and Then in verse 24 let us consider so you have three commandments here and We are to draw near We are to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering and we are to consider how to stimulate one another

It's a love and good deeds You might add to that Considering not forsaking so it's a it's a positive thing to consider how to Stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

That's pretty much impossible to do if you're never around the brethren If you're not in the fellowship of faith, if you're not meeting on a regular basis with them

It's sort of hard to fulfill that command and so you have the negative aspect in verse 25

Not forsaking our own assembling together. We will be looking at especially This evening so verse 22.

Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, so Here we have the exhortation to draw near the way has been opened

The way has been opened through the sacrifice of Christ. The veil is no longer there

The altar is no longer there there were all these things that were between the people in the presence of God Opened up and so now let us draw near Well now think with me for just a moment

When the people came to worship on the day of atonement the day of atonement as we saw and that priest did he just Show up in a pair of overalls and a t -shirt

Was he wearing jeans, you know, I mean, that's the big thing today is, you know we don't we want to make sure everyone's real nice and nice and comfy, you know, and and So I in fact, it's it's really starting to drive me crazy

I will I don't know who wrote the memo because I didn't get the memo Maybe pastor

Frye got the memo and he didn't pass it on to me, but he's been ignoring it too but every time I see

Christian leaders today and They're gonna be on Fox so they're gonna be on MSNBC they better wear asbestos and armor if they're gonna be on MSNBC, but They're making some kind of public appearance

It seems like if you're a Christian leader now, you want to look cool That's all you can tell especially today.

I don't worry too much about that In fact, I try to go against that flow as much as possible

In fact, I really appreciated as as some of the Broyles children came in a little daughter looked down and saw me down front said bowtie and I'm like, yeah

Good good Recognition training or well, there you go Which I did tie myself.

Yes, it is. Yeah, I just want to make sure mention that but anyways Nobody wears a tie anymore It's all like why

I just want to look like you all and yet, you know when you think about it The same thing with worship today, you know in many many churches today the whole idea has become what we just want

We just want anybody who just walks in off the street To just feel like they're just at home

Well, we are in the house of God But I hope no one's gonna be putting their feet up on the pews and taking your shoes off There is a reason why we are concerned about the attitude we have when we come into worship

Because it's not something you do every day. Oh, yes, you should worship every day

But gathering together in the place of worship where the Word of God is being opened.

I Don't know that high priest He didn't show up in work clothes He was decked out

He was investments there was something about the way he was dressed that demonstrated that you know

What he took seriously what he was doing and what was happening that day is not what happens every day There was something special happening.

We're meeting with God worships going on here It's not just an everyday thing.

And so this description in verse 22 Might help us to understand how is it that we should approach the worship of God?

Is it is it just this well where you get together with God and you know, he's our bud and you know

We're just gonna you know, just sort of you know, hang out together There's a lot of people who think that's the way to get people to come now

They can feel like we're just hanging out with God ask the sons of Aaron about hanging out with God ask

About hanging out with God God takes his worship

Seriously and just because Christ has opened the way into the very holy place doesn't mean that it's become unholy

It's become more holy. And so when you think about this, this is

I'm not saying well Here's some here's some new and even harder rules and regulations. They couldn't do it on the old covenant

We can't do it under the new. No, I'm not saying What I'm saying is in recognizing

That the way has been opened by Christ that there is a new and living way that it's no longer in the temple

It's no longer that man who wears all those vestments. No but in letting us draw near The author says with a sincere heart, it's literally with a true heart

It's the very word for true and truth with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water when that when that priest

When he entered into the holy place There were all sorts of washings and cleansings and everything else.

And what was that meant to show? Was meant to show that we're sinful. God isn't God is holy.

We need to take his holiness seriously Well, we don't have any washings or ablutions anymore that we're supposed to do because now we recognize that since he's opened that way through his flesh that sacrifice the holiness that is

Necessary to be in the presence of God is provided by someone else is provided by our relationship with Christ it's internal and So when we talk about this our hearts sprinkled clean there was the sprinkling

Of the altar with blood and all there was lots of lots of sprinkling that went on in the in the in the old covenant

But now it's our hearts That have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience our bodies washed with pure water.

This is a spiritual thing This is a spiritual reality

And many people in looking at this description Have looked back and gone.

Well, you know, this is this this has a reference to our baptism It has a reference to to baptism.

Well, I'm not a hundred percent certain about that, but certainly everyone in the

Christian congregation that was following after Christ could look at their baptism as An example as that as Peter puts it.

It's not the putting off of the of the the dirt of the flesh It's that appeal of the conscience to God and here you have the same term our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience

And so if there is an echo of that, it would be something that all the people in the Christian congregation had experienced they had experienced that baptism and as a result they could think back upon that confessions they had made that Assurance of faith that sincere heart they had but here's a description of The attitudes that should be ours as we seek to draw near To God The first exhortation is indeed to draw near but when we do so when we when we recognize the holiness of God When we recognize the holiness of God, does that not result in maybe some people fearing?

To enter into his presence. Well, it did under the Old Covenant.

That's why he had all the sacrifices He had to have a representative but now if the way has been opened up What must we understand if we were to have full confidence full assurance to enter into his presence

We have to understand why we have peace with him. So often in the church today people are afraid to talk about deep theology

That's why they this book of Hebrews isn't one of the first places. They necessarily go when you're going to be doing a preaching series and as a result,

I think The people of God are robbed of being able to have the full assurance of faith because they don't know what is the basis why can

I Enter into the presence of God and there is a balance that we must maintain

There is a balance we must maintain and to be balanced. We must understand what

God has done for us in Christ Jesus we need to understand everything else. The writer has said we understand.

Yes There's been one sacrifice and it's over. It's one time and He has accomplished and it's only in him that we have this salvation.

It's only in him that we have righteous all those things are true Do you see the danger is?

Well, if he's done it all then I don't have to worry about anything. I can just you know I can just live a life of apathy.

No, how could a person who's been united with Christ recognizes what he's done for them Recognizes my soul dependence upon him.

How can anyone have an attitude like that? but then the other hand there's always that that tendency on the part of man to be trying to Stitch that veil back up and create priests and things

I've got to do and I've got to go through all these sacraments and I've got all these works and and There's always this imbalance and to be balanced.

We have to know what God has done in Christ Jesus and how it applies to us.

So I just simply ask those of us that are here today When we draw near to God let's let's ask that that that first description a true heart a

True heart now. Sometimes we use the word true in the sense of straight

For example as brother Rich will tell you If you want a true cut of wood

If you want something done true in the sense of built well Don't have me do it

Amen, so you got I got I got an amen now I can trust him to do that.

But I Know no, we recognize when something's been made.

Well We can recognize when something hasn't been made. Well because you know, there's there's deviations the measuring wasn't done, right?

You can tell when a piece of woodworking has been done real well and someone has taken care and all the cuts are right and The measurements are right

Reminds me of Paul's statement to in Galatians. He describes what Peter was doing. They were not walking straight

Orthopoieta, oh, they were not walking straight in accordance with the truth of the gospel.

There was there was a variation They're veering off the path and sometimes at the beginning of a woodcut

It can be very small by the time you get to the end. Well, it gets even worse a true heart a

Heart focused upon God desirous of doing his will

How often do we come into God's worship with a distracted heart Distracted by so many things or maybe with the heart that as the pastor was just saying has started to come to Love a certain sin

Something is opposed to God's truth You see as Jesus said

The Father seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in what? truth truth a

True heart and so we should pray Lord as I come into your worship. May I not have a heart?

That is untrue That varies that wanders from the path that when my heart

Experiences the proclamation of your word Does my heart receive it as it truly is your word and desire to have that influence my life?

Or because of some hardness in my heart. Do I bend your truth? It sometimes is amazing to me what people hear when

I speak I do a lot of speaking do a lot of talking and Sometimes somebody will come up to me after I've spoken somewhere

They'll will say they were listening to something on YouTube or on the internet or something like that And they'll say and you said this and I go

What I said that really and then we go back and look at what I really said And I sort of look at them like how could you have heard me?

How could you have thought that I that's what I meant or even thought that I said something like that Sometimes it's amazing and then you dig a little farther.

It's because there is a Tradition frequently a false belief in the way. I just did a debate Friday night almost three hours with a

Subordination is a Unitarian a person who denies the deity of Christ and the comment that I've gotten from people over and over and over again is

How could he not hear what you were saying? It was so obvious in your Cross -examination.

He wasn't getting the point at all Well, it's easy to see in situations like that it's easy to see what's causing the blindness but amongst believers can be more subtle a true heart a

Heart that does not twist God's truth a true heart full assurance of faith

Full assurance of faith, you know when you

When you go into the presence of God, is it?

Honoring to God is it something that God finds pleasing That we might be fostering in our hearts in the back of our mind a

Question as to whether he really desires to fulfill the promises. He's made to us in Christ Jesus, you know back in January You know,

I had a little trip down to the hospital and I had to trust a group of men and a particular doctor to fiddle around with my ticker, you know, and I Don't know that it would have helped the doctor a whole lot when he came in that morning

You know They always come in to see you and they're smiling and stuff like that and trying to set you at ease because they know your

Heart rates elevated and your blood pressure is elevated and you're nervous. That's the natural thing to me. I Better surgeon that day.

I don't know that would have lifted him up If I had laid there saying doc, you sure you're up to this

How many years were you training it how many times you've done this you sure I'm not sure that would really help the guy out a whole lot and yet sometimes

Do we not have? And we may not we're not gonna say it openly. We're something I can say it openly in the church

But by our actions By the way, we think aren't we sometimes basically saying to God I'm not

I'm not really sure if if the promises you've made me in Christ Jesus, sir I'm not

I'm not sure you're gonna really follow through a Full assurance of faith means we know the one we've placed our faith in and we know

That he is Himself Truthful and he is capable and he is able to do what he said.

He's gonna do Jesus told us back in John chapter 6

That he's come down from heaven Not to do his own will but the world one who sent him and was the world one who sent him that of all

That he has given him he lose none of it, but raised up on the last day. Do we really believe that?

Is it not really the case that all of man's religiosity

All of and I refer here specifically to quote -unquote Christian religiosity

All of man's false teachings under the name of Christianity Isn't it all just basically man saying, you know,

I don't think that Jesus can really do this of his own Let's let's help it out some Let's add some things to his work

Cuz you know, I you know Just throwing myself completely upon him boy. You know, it's it's sort of scary.

Yeah I think it's a saving faith really is a true heart

The full assurance of faith I suggest to you that the full assurance of faith

Comes to us as we truly Look away from ourselves

To the one who is able to truly save You know if you're sitting around contemplating your navel and don't get me wrong

Bible tells us examine yourself all those things. That's true. But when

I examine myself, I am driven from myself to my Savior and a full assurance of faith comes when we are convinced of the ability

The mercy grace and love of The one who has said to us.

I will fulfill my promise. I've given my spirit to you. He's the down payment He is my promise to you that I will finish the work of redemption in your life.

How often in ingratitude Do we question?

God's ability to finish that work within us when we come before God we are to draw near a true heart full assurance of faith

Having that heart Sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water now

I I think most of us know the tremendous beautiful background to this when you hear these words

Water and sprinkling clean heart Hopefully one of the first passages that comes into your mind is

John chapter 3 and G is talking about the new birth and what it means to be born of the

Spirit being born of the the water and But then you've thought about that text and you you realize there's actually a prophetic text

That leads us to that that gives us the background and it is that tremendous text in Ezekiel chapter 36 and there it is

Ezekiel 36 beginning verse 25 then I will sprinkle clean water on you and You will be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I'll remove

The heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances

Oh What a tremendous promise I mean you consider the days in which that promise was given and the long history of the rebellion and the failure of Of the people of Israel This has got to be something

God does This has got to be a divine Fulfillment because it's pretty obvious the people of Israel couldn't bring this about.

No They had tried and they had failed over and over and over again

But you see here the writers telling us fulfillment Completion The way to true worship has been opened up through Christ Jesus.

Our hearts have been sprinkled clean that evil conscience

Has been washed away not by anything we could do But by the very action of God Having our hearts sprinkled clean it's something that God has done.

We didn't do it to ourselves That evil conscience has been cleansed and our bodies washed with pure water the shadows of the old

Have been fulfilled and now God is worshiped in spirit and in truth by his people because he's made them to be a new people

He's taken out that heart of stone He's given a heart of flesh and the worship which we now offer.

It's not worship mediated by types and shadows But it's worship offered by a people who have been

United with Jesus Christ in him.

We are able to approach Into the very presence of only in him

Not in any other way all the insult

That is offered to God When people who call themselves Christians out of the fear of men and a love of this world

Are willing to say well Jesus is one way, but there are many others that is

Absolute possible that is absolute heresy.

It is a fundamental denial of the entire message of the

New Testament that in Christ and only in him Has this way been open to us?

I know I've said before I know I sound like a broken record But if pastor Frye can quote the story about Pilgrims progress and the oil being poured in and the stuff like that as many times as he has

I can repeat this one a few Times myself, okay But you must realize that every day

That the world is putting pressure upon you and it does Unless you're living in a lead -lined cave

The world is putting pressure upon you to be embarrassed That you believe

God has opened the way into his presence in a unique way in Jesus Christ The world says to you don't you dare say that out loud?

In fact, you can't even think in your heart That is the ultimate heresy in our culture today and yet it is the heart of what the gospel is that there was a need and God met that need in the only way it could be met in the person of Jesus Christ and to say there's some other way

Is to blaspheme his name and the world says to you you better do that We can't and all the subtle ways that pressure is brought against us and because it's so subtle It's very easy for us to to sort of adjust to it

You know, it's it's some of you don't do a lot of flying

I do I Mean, I'm that close to being platinum this year I never wanted to be platinum trust me, but it doesn't mean

I'm always up in the cushy seats either I get a few upgrades and you start getting that many miles, but oftentimes,

I'm I'm just sitting back with everybody else and and Sometimes it's a full flight

I'm over in one seat The aisles been taken and there's that middle seat I'm just going

Lord and I'm watching the people coming down here comes this little this little thing

It's about four foot eleven then. Oh, that would be perfect She goes by and then here comes the linebacker for the

Green Bay Packers And I get that sinking feeling that he's going to be in the middle seat

And lo and behold, that's where he's going. I Don't know why they don't get on earlier. But anyways, they you know, he's just done now and I just got to get used to this reality, you know, there's

I'm on I paid for this whole seat But I ain't getting all of it on this flight ain't gonna happen Okay, and so You know after a while you just sort of get used to you just sort of squished over and it's just sort of like well

This is this the way it is, you know Now that's only for a few well sometimes many hours

But you know, it might just be for just a few hours and you know after you get off After a while you just sort of forget about it and they all just sort of meld together and you don't think about it much

But you know if you have that pressure put against you all the time You know if I just flew down to Australia, man

I my back would have been a mess if I had had to sit in a seat like this the whole time Because there's be a long but 15 hours

You see we live in a culture Where they don't just put a little pressure on you once we're pretty good when you got just for once, you know

I mean a flight over to here a lot of handles. I don't care who's sitting in the middle seat It's only you know, 45 -50 minutes. We're gonna be out of here.

No big deal But you see the pressure it's placed upon you every day And it might be very subtle and you might not even recognize it and you might just make a little accommodation

I'm a little more comfortable now And what you've done is you've become silent about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ We have to look to ourselves.

We have to ask ourselves the question Do we have a true heart?

Do we recognize the centrality of Jesus Christ for our faith and Have we've been forced to compromise in a way?

Well, let us draw near draw near in a particular way that is pleasing to God and Let us hold fast the confession of our

Hope now when you think about it, what would you normally expect to come after confession of our faith and then it'd be easy for us to sort of think about so, you know the confession of faith and and the

The body of doctrine and things like that, but it doesn't use that now faith and hope are used

In a very closely related way in the epistle of the

Hebrews. There's no question about that But there is a sense in which hope hope points us to that that constant

Looking away from ourselves to someone else. I hope they're going to be able to do that.

I have faith in them Yes, you see you see how closely related they are, but there is a little bit of a difference and We are to hold fast the confession of our hope without Wavering same idea as the preceding verse where you have that that slight variation

That little bit of a change You know since I'm talking about airline flying

If you fly those fly over the ocean Long flights, they'll normally put up on the screen somewhere something used to be that right in front of you

Depends on which airline you're on you can you can watch the flight and you can see your little plane slowly very slowly moves

You know going across the globe and when you get to the end, it's like wow I travel a lot of that's that's pretty cool

But you know when they first take off that point you're trying to get to is a long ways away and If they're off by just a little bit remember that that that Korean Air jet that was shot down back in the 80s by the

Russians The error in navigation wasn't all that much at the start

But after a half hour an hour two hours that little bit of variation that little bit of wavering

Gets bigger and bigger and bigger and sometimes we don't even see it coming he exhorts the readers to Hold fast the confession of our hope he wouldn't have to do that if there weren't pressures upon us to let go to abandon

Because you see to hold fast the confession of our hope means We will be put in a direction.

That's exactly opposite of the flow of the world and The pressure the world is going to come at you in every form possible, and we must hold fast

They say well now I think you're contradicting yourself because you said Jesus does everything and now you're saying we must hold fast

God ordains the ends and the means and Why do

I even have a desire in my heart to hold fast? Why do any of us sitting here who have held fast for decades on end?

Why are you still holding fast? Because Christ is a perfect Savior But he uses means to do it.

He's changed my heart I want to hold fast to honor him to glorify him, but also because I realize

What would I have to turn to? If I'm not holding fast the confession of my hope without wavering

What else is there? What else does this world have to offer when you think about it anything else the world has to offer is is?

No place in the storm It's nothing it's shallow. It's empty

We are to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering

But you see While I'm holding fast the direction.

I'm heading my goal Look at the last phrase of the

Of the sentence for he who promised is faithful you see

I can trust the one in whom I've placed my faith I Can trust the one in whom

I've placed my faith? He has proven himself Faithful why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ so important?

Oh for so many reasons, but here's another one Because you see How could

I really have trust? If Jesus is like all the rest of the religious leaders in the world, and I could go visit his tomb

How would I know his sacrifice was accepted? How'd I know he wasn't just like any of those other religious leaders?

I don't know what happened to them after they died, but you see his tombs empty

Because God raised him from the dead showing he accepted his sacrifice showing he was who he said he was

He who has promised is faithful. I may not be faithful I May stumble and fall

But he is faithful he cannot deny himself as Paul put it writing to Timothy and So that hope is not an empty.

Hope it's not an irrational faith It is focused upon the one who has promised to finish the work in me promised that I'd have that open access to the father through the work of Jesus Christ and he is

Faithful and so we've looked at two of the three two of the three exhortations found in this particular section to draw near If you're still afraid of entering into the presence of the father knowing what

Jesus Christ has done Then you don't understand what Christ is done you don't understand that you are in him and that in him you have his righteousness and the wrath of God finds no place in You and his sacrifice is finished and complete if you're still fearing the wrath of God, then you don't understand

The one who's promised you don't realize he's faithful. So we're to draw near But we're not to draw near in a lackadaisical way.

We're to draw near recognizing what God has done with in us a clean a Ace a sincere heart a true heart full assurance

Our hearts sprinkled cleansed with an evil conscience our bodies washed with pure water the work of God in regeneration

It's the regenerate person that comes in the presence of God and then we are to hold fast the confession of our hope

Because we know that the one In whom our hope our faith our trust is placed is faithful.

So there's the God word attitude verses 24 and 25

There will be an inevitable result of that When we desire to enter into God's worship in the proper way

There will be a result of that now may I offer in conclusion a

Pastoral exhortation if you are able to be here in the sovereign providence of God this evening

Be here Because to be honest with you preaching verse 25 the

Sunday night folks is pretty much a fulfillment of the old saying preaching to the choir if you are not providentially hindered and We understand there is providential hindrance if you've got to get up in the wee small hours the morning

If you've got work to do I we understand having a job today

It's a great blessing from God. All those things are true But I really think that verses 24 and 25 need to be

Examined and need to be believed in the church today Because we have a

Responsibility before God and before each other we have a ministry to one another

So may I strongly encourage you to be here this evening as we take a look at those texts and see what they would have

For us let's close our time in the word of prayer our great and gracious Heavenly Father We do indeed desire to draw near draw near to you

In recognition of what you've done for us you you you call us to come into your presence

And it is an amazing thing to us that you the Holy God would desire to have communion with us

But you do and we thank you for that and Lord. We thank you that you've opened the way

We could not have done it ourselves In any way shape or form we know our unworthiness and yet you've opened the way

What a privilege is ours may our hearts truly be filled with Thanksgiving as? We consider the great access that we have and May we indeed father come before you with true hearts

May we recognize what you've done and taking out that heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh and as we?

Seek to serve you this week May we do so as the people? Who fully understand what you have done for us if there be any in our midst that have not understood?

There being in our midst who do not know what it means to bow the knee and repentance and faith before Jesus Christ Or we pray that you would be merciful to them that you'd show them their sin

You'd show them their need for a perfect Savior That he is the only way of salvation

Father thank you for being with us today by your spirit Bless even our conversations now as we fellowship together and bring us back together again this evening