A New and Living Way – Hebrews 10:19-21 Part 1

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A New and Living Way – Hebrews 10:19-21 Part 2

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10, we're going to read together verse 11 through verse 18 as kind of a good reminder and summary of what we have covered here in recent weeks,

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Hebrews chapter 10 beginning at verse 11. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

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For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the

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Holy Spirit also testifies to us for after saying this is the covenant that I will make with him after those days says the

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Lord I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind I will write them. He then says and their sins and their lawless deeds

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I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin.

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Let's pray together before we begin. Our Lord we do ask your blessing upon our time of study in your word.

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We pray that you would help us to see the consequent of all that we have affirmed and studied thus far in the book of Hebrews, help us to see the intention of the author both the human and the divine in the pages of this book and help us to see how this applies to our lives and what you are intending to strengthen us for in the days and the weeks ahead.

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We pray that you would be honored and glorified through this time that you would give us clarity of thought and understanding in your word and that you would be glorified through all that is said here and through the meditation of our hearts we ask in Christ's name, amen.

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The Bible always is careful to connect orthodoxy with orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is proper belief, proper doctrine, it refers to the truth, those things which are objectively true that we affirm.

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Orthopraxy is proper practice, it's proper doing, it is how we live in response to that, how we comport ourselves.

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If you are living in a way that is not orthodox then you are not living in orthopraxy, you are not having a right approach in life that is in accordance with sound doctrine or sound teaching and the

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Bible always connects these two, these two things so that orthopraxy, what we practice is always grounded upon and rests upon a solid foundation of what is doctrinally true and biblical and right and so we always have to keep these two things in our minds as well, what we affirm to be true and how we live in conjunction with what we affirm to be true.

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It is in knowing the truth and understanding the truth, even the deep truths of Scripture that we are enabled and equipped by the

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Spirit of God to live in a way that is honoring and glorifying to Him. It is a right and proper lifestyle and a right and proper response to truth and our obedience to truth always rests upon a good solid understanding of deep doctrinal truths and if all we ever hear is the do's of the gospel and never the doctrine of the gospel, if all we ever get is the commands, the exhortations, do this, live this way, behave this way, here is what you should be doing, follow this example, avoid this example, don't do this, don't go there, if all we get is the do's of the gospel and we never are exposed to and taught the doctrine of the gospel, the truth that underlies all of that behavior, then all we are getting is

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Christian legalism, moralism, self -help philosophy, really it's nothing more than pagan legalism that is baptized in Christian lingo.

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And it's quite fashionable in modern churches today, in fact that is what is mostly fed from most pulpits across our land.

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It is very difficult to find teaching where the doctrine of Scripture is taught in all of its profundity and the implications of that are brought in and tied into that doctrine.

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Mostly what we get is just the therapeutic, self -help, do moralism,

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Christian moralism and Christian legalism that is sometimes attached to the gospel. It is very fashionable amongst skinny jean wearing, soul patch toting, tattooed, pierced pastors who are desperate to be applauded by the world to give us nothing but the self -help morality that is attached to Scripture rather than the foundational truths that undergird all of that.

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Oprah Winfrey can offer you as much. You don't need to go to the local silly center to get that kind of nonsense.

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Oprah Winfrey will give it to you for free without any obligation if you just tune into her on your average day of the week.

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Just moralism baptized in Christian lingo. Well, we don't want that. We want a practice, a behavior, a lifestyle.

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We want obedience to Scripture that comes out of sound, solid, biblical, deep doctrinal truths.

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That's what we should long for. Now, the Bible does not shy away from the exhortations that we find in Scripture.

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It doesn't shy away from do this, don't do this, avoid this, pursue this. Scripture is full of those.

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But those things are always connected to truth. You don't just read a book of here are all the do's, the things you need to do now that you're a

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Christian. We don't get that in Scripture. Instead, we get explanations of doctrine and then connected to the explanations of doctrines are therefore here are the implications of that.

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Here's how you live in light of that truth. Inform the mind and the heart will follow. The mind is the engine that pulls the train.

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The heart and the emotion, the affections, the obedience is the caboose. That's what's being pulled by it. And if we inform properly the minds that we understand what is biblically and doctrinally true, then our hearts will naturally follow after that as we let our minds inform our behavior and we allow our behavior to be shaped by doctrinal truth.

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This is the pattern that we see in the book in many epistles in the New Testament. For instance, the book of Romans, chapters 1 through 11 is doctrine.

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It's the doctrine of the gospel, the sinfulness of man, what it means to be justified, all the ways you can't be justified, what doesn't justify us, imputed righteousness.

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And in light of that, we present our bodies, chapter 6, and chapter 7 is the struggle that exists with the new man and the old man and the implications of that.

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Chapter 8, the victory we have in Christ. And then that gospel is worked out in terms of the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel in chapters 9 through 11.

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And you get to the end of chapter 11 and the beginning of chapter 12 begins with, therefore, present your bodies as living sacrifices.

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Here are all the implications of it. Doctrine in chapters 1 through 11, the implications of that, the application in chapters 12 through 16.

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You see it in the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters are the implications of the gospel. God has given us all things in Christ.

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He has ordained and predestined us to adoption as sons. He's given us redemption. He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

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We are seated with Him in heavenly places. As a result of what Christ has done, there's no longer Jew and Gentile. Now there is just one church, the new man, the church of God in Jesus Christ.

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And as a result of that, then we have chapters 4 through 6, right? The first three chapters of Ephesians are doctrine. How does chapter 4 begin?

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Therefore, walk in a manner that is worthy of the great calling with which you have been called. Now, it's not that the first three chapters are without any application, but it's that the apostle

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Paul wants us to understand what the gospel is and all the spiritual blessings that we have been given in Jesus Christ.

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And once we grasp the truth of that, then we can begin to work out and live out the implications of it.

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Therefore, because of all of these things that we have been given in Christ, therefore we are to walk in a manner that is worthy of the great high calling with which we have been called.

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Well, we have the same thing, the same pattern in the book of Hebrews. The first 10 chapters of the book of Hebrews, the first 10 and a half chapters actually, are heavily theological.

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It's the heavily theological section of the book. Now, that's not to say that in the first 10 chapters that there are no applications.

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There are. There are lots of exhortations, right, and lots of warnings. Remember the warning passage in chapter 2?

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How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? Remember the warning chapter in chapter 4? Hold fast to your confidence, firm in the faith, and do not be like the children of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt and into the wilderness and then began to disobey and didn't believe

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God and didn't have faith. Remember the warning passage in chapter 6? Remember that? Addressed to those carnal believers who were thinking about going back.

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Lots of warnings, lots of exhortations, lots of application in the first 10 chapters. But as we get to the end or the middle here of chapter 10, the heavily theological argument of the book has really come to an end.

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Now, that's not to say that in the rest of the book there's not theology. There is. But it is to say that he has completed or concluded his argument.

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And what is his argument? Jesus is better. He is better than the angels. He is better than the

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Sabbath. He is better than Joshua. He is better than Moses. He is better than Melchizedek. His sacrifice is better.

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His blood is better. He has inaugurated a better covenant based upon better promises that gives us better things.

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His work in the tabernacle is better. His intercession is better. His representation as a priest is better.

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Everything we have in Jesus is better than all we had under the Old Testament. And by now you probably are more than familiar with all of the things that we've talked about as we've gone through these first ten and a half chapters of Hebrews.

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Now you probably think, you know, I know more about the new covenant and animal sacrifices and the tabernacle and the priesthood and the

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Sabbath and Melchizedek than I had ever thought that I ever needed to know, right, by the time we get to this. It would not be, it would be okay if you were to admit that several times in the first very heavy section of this book of Hebrews that you might have dozed off once or twice.

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I would admit that and I was preaching it. I dozed off a couple of times going through the first ten chapters of Hebrews and I was preaching the book.

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It's some heavy theological stuff and what we have learned is that Jesus Christ is better than everything contained in the

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Old Covenant by far. He's not equal to anything. He is better than everything and He is inferior to nothing.

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Everything we have in Him is better. That's the whole point, ten and a half chapters to get us to that point.

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He has compared Jesus to every form, every feature, every fixture that was familiar to the

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Jews from the Old Covenant. Everything that they were familiar with. He has held Jesus up alongside of all of that to show us that in every way

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He is better. Point by point He is better. What we have in Him is better. Why would you go back to that? Remember, that's one of the whole points of the book of Hebrews.

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Why would you go back to what you had when you have something that is far better than anything provided under the

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Old Covenant? So now, having reached the end of the theological portion of Hebrews, 10 verse 18,

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I should say the theological argument of Hebrews because there's more theology to come, lots more, good stuff. But we've reached the end of the theological argument of Hebrews.

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We now come to chapter 10 verse 19, therefore, therefore, since we have this, now you can tell that the author is turning a page as it were.

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Now he is going to answer the question, what are we going to do with this information? We've seen that Jesus is greater than all of these things, that that Old Covenant has passed away, that Old Priesthood has done away, that our relationship to the law has changed.

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He has inaugurated a new covenant and so the Old Covenant has grown obsolete and it has passed away. We're no longer under that at all.

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Instead, what we have in Jesus is all of these things that He has provided. He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. Everyone for whom

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He has died has been perfected and sanctified and set apart. Our salvation has been purchased. There's nothing else to do. It is entirely finished.

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Now the question becomes, how do I live in light of that? So what? What do

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I do with that? How does this affect my life? How does this affect how I live and how

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I think and what I do? What am I to do with all of this information that I've received in the first 10 and a half chapters? That's the question now.

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The author is going to answer that and the rest of the book of Hebrews is while not avoiding doctrine is really the application of all the doctrine that we have studied thus far.

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And so now we get to a section of Hebrews where the author begins to warn us against certain things and encourage us toward other things.

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Now we get to the part of the book of Hebrews where he says, in light of this, do this and don't do this. Avoid this and cherish this.

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Pursue this, go after this, but stay away from these things. In light of this truth, here is how you ought to live.

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Here are the things that you ought to do. That's the section of Hebrews that we're now beginning. So at this point, I think it would be beneficial if we were to get kind of an overview, a bird's eye view, as it were, of the next several chapters of the book of Hebrews so you can see how the author is going to work out the implications of this theology.

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What is the main point that he's going to be driving at for the next several chapters all the way to the end of this book?

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We want to make sure that we don't miss that. So that's what we're going to do here for the next few minutes is give you sort of a brief overview of the road ahead.

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So beginning at chapter 9, verse 18, sorry, verse 19, we're going to be looking forward and you'll be able to flip through the pages of your

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Bible as we move forward. I'm going to give you some passages. We're going to read some verses together. I'm going to be highlighting some things so that you can see how this main theme is traced all the way through the following chapters.

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And here is the main theme. The central exhortation for the rest of the book of Hebrews is this, stand strong.

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That's the central exhortation for the rest of the book of Hebrews, stand strong. In light of what is true, stand.

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Stand in a world that is hostile to the truth. Stand in a world that hates the truth.

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Stand in a world that is built on lies. Stand in a world that does nothing but preach lies.

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Stand and stand strong. Don't deviate from the truth. Don't waver in unbelief. Don't question your faith.

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Hold fast to what is true. Hold fast to what Scripture says. Hold fast to Christ.

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Do not leave. Do not back away. Do not back down. Do not apostatize from the truth.

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The central exhortation of the next several chapters is that, and the author is going to come at that from every conceivable angle.

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That is what he wants his readers to do, is to hold fast and to stand strong. There are two responses to the truth, and we're going to begin now to go through these next few chapters.

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There are two responses to the truth that somebody could have. After reading through everything we have all the way up to chapter 10, verse 18, there is the response of the believer, and then there is the response of the almost believer, or the response of the believer, and the response of the make -believer, or the unbeliever.

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We could call it the make -believer, the almost -believer, or the unbeliever. They're anything but a believer. So we have believers, and we have unbelievers.

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The response of the believer is given in verses 19 to 25. Read it with me. Therefore brethren, this is believers, 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 high 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.

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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.

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That's the response of a believer. Since these things are true, we have access to God, and we have a great high priest in heaven, let us draw near, let us hold fast, and let us encourage others to do the same.

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That's the application of it. But then, that is how a believer should respond to that truth. A believer should respond to it and say, wait a second,

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I have access to God, and I have a high priest in heaven, if I have access to God, I'm going to draw near to him.

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And so the believer would do that, draw near to God, and hold fast to that truth because those are precious truths.

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And then the believer would encourage other people to do the exact same thing, draw near to God, and hold fast to what is true.

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That's the response of a believer, verses 19 to 25. Then there is the response or the warning against responding to it as an unbeliever would, beginning at verse 26, for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

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He is warning there against somebody who would listen to everything in the first ten and a half chapters of Hebrews and say, nah, not for me,

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I don't think so, I like the animal sacrifices better. You go to worship on a

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Saturday and that smell of freshly shed blood, that just takes me right back to my childhood. The incense, the bells, the priests, all the prayers, that smoke, that smell of burning flesh, man, that's just, that's the smell of worship.

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And I come to church with you Christians on a Sunday morning and what do I get? No smells, no bells, no incense, no candles, no freshly shed blood, and you're pointing back to something that happened 30 years ago and telling me that's where my hope is?

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I want to go back to my childhood. But if you do that, if you turn from this truth, you can expect nothing except for the fiery judgment that will be poured out upon God's adversaries and will consume them.

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Verse 28, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

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How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the son of God and is regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

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We know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. That is a warning against responding as an unbeliever would respond to that message. It's a warning against falling away or not drawing near, holding fast, and encouraging others to do the same.

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So there, right after this theological section that ends with verse 18, we have these two responses. The response of a believer, draw near, hold fast, and encourage others to do the same.

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The response of an unbeliever, turn away from that and face the fiery judgment that will consume

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God's adversaries and he will have vengeance upon those who are not his. You turn away from this truth rather than embracing this truth and you will experience nothing but God's judgment, and deservedly so.

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Then for the remainder of chapter 10, he expresses to them his confidence that those who are actually believers here have not responded the way an unbeliever would.

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They're not those who are falling away to judgment. He says in verse 32, remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through the reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

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Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

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For yet in a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

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But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

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And all the way through chapter, the remainder of chapter 10 there, there have been three of these expressions of your need for endurance and to hold fast.

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Remember I told you the central exhortation of the last part of the book of Hebrews is the exhortation to stand strong and hold fast.

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Look at chapter 10, verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

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Look at verse 35, therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

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Verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. What is he saying?

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Hold fast, stay strong, don't throw away your confidence. Hold on to your confidence that you have. You have access to God and you have a high priest in heaven, therefore hold on to that.

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Draw near, hold fast, and encourage others to do the same. That's the response of a believer. That's what he's getting at.

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Now you might say, are there examples of perseverance like that throughout history? Are there examples of people who saw the truth, understood the truth, and held fast to that truth even in the face of hostility and opposition?

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Are there such examples? Yeah, as a matter of fact, there are. That's what Hebrews chapter 11 is all about.

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One example after another in the great faith chapter of people who held fast in a world that was hostile to the truth.

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And so we have in chapter 11 that statement in verse 1, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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By it, men of old gained approval. Now he's going to give us a list of examples. And so we have Cain. He obtained a testimony and he made a sacrifice to God through faith.

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By faith, verse 5, Enoch was taken up. You see in verse 6, verse 7, that Noah is held out as another example.

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And then in verse 8, Abraham, he was called and he obeyed by faith. He lived in an alien land.

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And after him, Sarah was given a promise and she considered God faithful and she believed God. She exercised that faith.

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Well, verse 13 says, all of these died in faith without receiving the promises but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

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For those who say such things, make it clear that they are seeking not a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country of which they went out, they would have an opportunity to return.

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Then he gives down in verse 17, Abraham is an example and Isaac and Jacob and then Joseph, verse 22 is

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Joseph. After him, Moses. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months, his parents exercised that faith.

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Faith, Moses himself exercised that faith when he considered the treasures of God better than the treasures of Egypt.

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And he left Egypt, verse 27. Then you have Joshua and the children of Israel, verse 30. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down.

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By faith, Rahab, the harlot, she did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Verse 32, he's giving all these examples of people who held fast, who held strong, who stayed strong and firm, resolute, by faith, believing that their obedience to these truths and their obedience to these things would bring them a reward.

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Verse 32, and what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

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You say, well, these are great promises, Jim. If I respond by faith, I can expect to put foreign armies to flight.

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I can expect walls to fall down. I can move mountains. I can silence evil men. I can shut the mouths of lions, right?

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Is that the lesson? Verse 35, women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured.

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Uh -oh. Not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection, others were experienced mockings.

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What? Scourgings? Yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword.

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They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill -treated. What kind of promise is that of faith?

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That was going so well. We started off so well. Kingdoms, silencing evil men, shutting the mouths of lions, putting foreign armies to flight.

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That all started with, those are good promises, and all of a sudden, it just went off a cliff. Men of whom the world is not worthy, verse 38, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

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And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised because God has promised something better for us so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.

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What a list of great examples. Chapter 11, people who stood strong, held fast to their faith, even in the midst of a hostile world.

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We have even yet another example. Chapter 12, verse 1, we have this great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

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Let us also lay aside every encumbrance with the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance to the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

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Here's another example, not an example of faith, but an example of endurance. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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You can add Him to that list of great men who held fast and endured all the way through to receive the final reward.

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That's the message of chapter 12. Verse 3, consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

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Again, what does the author want us to do? Don't grow weary, don't lose heart. You are going to live by faith in a world filled with people who hate you, a government who hates you, people in power who hate you, people in education that hate you, and entertainment who hate you.

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You're going to live in a culture that is filled with unbelievers who are hostile to the truth, who hate the truth and hate righteousness and hate

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Jesus Christ, and you are going to suffer the same things that all the men of faith of old and the women of faith of old suffered.

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You're going to face a hostile culture and a hostile environment and people who would rather see you dead than see you at all.

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What are you going to do in the midst of that? You're going to stand firm because you have access to God and a great high priest in heaven.

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And since you have these things, you draw near, you hold fast, and you encourage others to do the same.

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Chapter 11 is the examples of that type of faith. Chapter 12 is an example of that kind of endurance.

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And this opposition that we are going to face, friends, it is all part of the disciplining process of God, which is what chapter 12 is about.

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If you face this hostility, this opposition, this affliction from sinners, don't think that some strange thing has come upon you.

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In fact, you are to embrace it, James says, and welcome it. Why? Because Hebrews 12 verse 4 says that this is part of the disciplining process.

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This is God's children go through this. If you go through this, if you go through the things that we listed there at the end of chapter 11, right, the scourgings, the mockings, being stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword, being destitute, having your property seized, you endure those things.

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It's not proof that God does not love you. It is not proof that your faith is in vain. It is actually proof that you are a child of God.

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If the world hates you, you know that it hated him before it hated you. What would you expect? They crucified him for living a righteous and godly life.

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Would you expect to live a righteous and godly life in this world and not face the same hostility? Well, if you do, chapter 12 verse 4, it's all part of the disciplining process of God by which he makes us pure and produces in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

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Chapter 12 verse 4, you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin. You've forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons.

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My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and encourages every son whom he receives.

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It is for discipline that you endure, remember endurance. That's the central exhortation of the last part of Hebrews, endurance.

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It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

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If you're without discipline of which all become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we have earthly fathers to discipline us and rather be subject to the father of spirits, and we respect them, shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?

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For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness.

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All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, yet for those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

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That type of affliction that you are going to face in this hostile world, it is for your discipline, it is for your good.

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God allows it because he loves you. It's not proof that you're not a believer, it's proof that you are a believer, and it's proof that the love of the father rests upon you because he disciplines those whom he loves, and it produces, verse 11, the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

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Therefore, chapter 12, the rest of it is filled with exhortations, things that we are to do in light of those great truths.

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Therefore, we strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, we make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed.

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We pursue peace with all men. We pursue holiness without which no one could see the Lord, understanding that, verse 17, for you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit a blessing, he was rejected.

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This is Esau. He found no place for faith or repentance, even though he sought for it with tears. And in contrast, we who have come to a mountain which cannot be touched into a blazing fire, the darkness and gloom and the whirlwind, we receive a kingdom.

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Chapter 12, verse 28, therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which way we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our

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God is a consuming fire. Don't let verse 29 scare you if you're a believer, because see that's, verse 29, that is a terror to those who hate believers.

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That is a terror to those who go after us. That is a terror to the unbeliever, the one who responds to the truth as an unbeliever.

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Our God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. And because God is a consuming fire and He will deal with His adversaries, you and I can persevere in faith and hold fast and stand strong and not waver in unbelief.

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The central exhortation of the rest of the book of Hebrews is to hold fast and to stand strong. Then we get into chapter 13, it's filled with some closing exhortations.

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The author talks to us about how we are to treat prisoners and how we are to honor marriage and how we are to deal with our own character, love of money and greed and selfishness, etc.

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And all of those closing exhortations of chapter 13, all of them revolve around this realization that the

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Lord Jesus Christ has promised to never leave us or forsake us. See, He waits to the end of chapter 13 to remind us of that, after telling us, hold fast, hold to the truth, don't waver, endure all the way to the end, just as the saints of old, just as Jesus did.

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And understand at the end of all this, the Lord Himself has promised that He will never leave you or forsake you.

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And if you know that, then you can endure, right? You can endure anything if you know that. If you believe that and rest upon that, let that sink down into your heart and your mind and there is nothing that you cannot endure in faith.

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If you know that the Lord Himself has promised, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you, then you can endure all the way to the end and receive the kingdom.

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Because the assurance of chapter 13 is that our Lord who has promised to never leave us or forsake us,

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He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, the kingdom is yours,

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Christian, and therefore the fiery judgment of God will fall upon His adversaries in due time and you will receive the kingdom.

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Therefore, hold fast to your faith, firm until the very end, endure all the way to the end in spite of the hostility, in spite of the hatred, in spite of the opposition that the world throws at you.

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Endure to the end and you will receive the promise. The central exhortation for the rest of the book of Hebrews is to stand fast.

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So go back to chapter 10, verse 19. The warning passage begins in verses 26 through 31.

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The author wants us to endure, to draw near, to hold fast, and encourage others to do the same.

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And I want you to notice here in verses 19 through 25, I'm giving you an overview of the whole last part of the book of Hebrews.

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Now I want to zero in a little bit, focus in a bit on chapter 10, verses 19 to 25, and I want you to see a very clear structure in verses 19 through 25.

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There are two things that he reminds us that are true, beginning in verse 19. Therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which

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He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh. Notice the word since. Therefore brethren, since this is true, we have confidence to enter into the holy place.

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Since that is true, we have access to God. Number two, since, verse 21, and since we have a great priest over the house of God.

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Those two things are true. Now all those two things are summary statements of all of the doctrine in chapters 10 through 19.

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You say, Jim, if you could have just read verses 19 to 21, you would have saved us three years and two months of going through the first 10 and a half chapters of the book of Hebrews.

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If this was a summation, why didn't you just begin there and tell us we have access to God and we have confidence, or we have a great high priest in heaven?

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You could have saved us 10 and a half chapters. I could have, but then what would I have done for the last three and a half years to bring us to today?

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So those two statements that we have access to God and we have a great high priest over the house of God, those two things are the two things that summarize basically the main points of all that he has said about the priesthood of Jesus, the intercession of Jesus, and what

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Christ in his work has accomplished for us. He has granted us access to heaven itself, and there our high priest sits, enthroned at the right hand of the

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Father, waiting until all of his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. Now since that is true, why don't you notice the author gives three direct therefores as a result of that.

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Verse 22, 23, and 24, all of them begin with that phrase, those words, let us. Verse 22, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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We are to draw near. Verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

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He who promised is faithful. It's reminding us that. Remember we get to the end of chapter 13, what is it? He will never leave you or forsake you.

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Hold fast, why? Because he who promised is faithful. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. What he begins in verse 24, he's going to come back to at the end of chapter 13 when he reminds us that our

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Christ is faithful. The one who is promised will himself fulfill his every promise to us. Verse 24 is the last of the lettuce, 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.

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So since it is true that you have access to heaven, and since it is true and it is that you have a priest, a great priest who sits over the house of God at the

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Father's right hand, waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet, since those things are true, let us, let us draw near to him, hold fast to him, and encourage others to do the same.

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Why? Because the world hates you with the white -hot hatred of a thousand sons, and it only hates you because it hated him first.

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And if you suffer, it is only because they have not wrung enough suffering out of him that now they want to bring it to you.

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I think it's quite providential that we have reached this point in Hebrews at this point in history, because I think,

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I think we're going to learn a lot of good stuff about suffering in the weeks ahead, and about God's purposes in it in the weeks ahead.

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Draw near, hold fast, and encourage others to do the same, all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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Do you see the day drawing near? Oh, man, I hope so. We'll get to that,

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I guess, soon enough. I have about 40 more minutes worth of stuff to go through verses 19 to 21, because all of that was really just introductory stuff, and I could preach for another 40 minutes, but with the smell of the food, and you know it's back there, and a potluck that is coming up,

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I know what you would say. You would say, Jim, we'll be here next week, you'll be here next week, it'll all be here next week, but the food won't be.

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So, better to end early than late on a potluck Sunday, so with that overview of Hebrews, we'll just consider that an introduction, and we'll start up at verse 19 next week.

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Let's pray. Father, everything that is necessary for life and godliness, you have provided for us.

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And our eyes are able to see that in the pages of Scripture, all that you've given and all that you have done. You are the one who has called us to yourself, you have secured our salvation everlastingly in the death of Christ.

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You have brought it to bear upon us, and you have made us to respond to the gracious offer of the gospel because of what you have done through the work of your

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Son. So we are grateful that you have accomplished this, and we are grateful that we partake in it, and we pray that you would help us to stand strong and to rest upon Christ, to hold fast and firm our confidence all the way to the end.

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Give us the endurance that is necessary, give us the grace and the strength to look to Christ who endured all of that, the

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Old Testament saints who endured hostility and opposition from an unbelieving world, and help us to rest in your purposes and in your grace, in your sovereignty and your providence.