The Approaching Day (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Hebrews 10:19-25 and the Call to Draw Near

In your copy of God's Word, will you please turn to the book of Hebrews, to the 10th chapter,.

Please.

Book of Hebrews, chapter 10, and find your place at verse 22, actually we'll find our place at verse 19, and we'll read 19 through verse 25, Hebrews chapter 10. 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.

Let's pray together. Our Father, we do ask Your blessing upon our study, our reading, and our hearing of Your.

Word.

May You impress upon our hearts and minds those things that the Spirit of God would use to transform us and conform us to the image of Christ. We pray that You would open our eyes and our hearts so that we may behold in Your Word wonderful things, and that we may be transformed more and more into the image of Christ by the power of the Spirit through the instrument of Your Word.

We ask this for Your sake, for the glory of Christ, and in His name.

Amen.

Well, there are thousands of things that compete each and every week for our attention and our affections. Some of those things seek to crowd out our Sunday morning worship and our attendance here on the Lord's Day.

And those temptations and those allurements, they are common to every man. They are what all of us face, men, women, young, old. There are things that you would think of right now that you could probably be doing other than being here this morning.

There are maybe nothing that you would rather do than to be here this morning, but certainly you could fill this morning with other things. And sometimes even during a worship service, our minds and our hearts sort of drift away and our thoughts go to something else that we should do or maybe we'll have to do immediately after we get done with worship.

Things related to our office, things related to our business, things related to our home and maybe your estate and other things that need to be taken care of, there's all of these allurements and things that would try and keep us from worshiping on a Sunday morning.

And technology has a way of creating its own separate set of temptations. Spurgeon battled this in his day. Spurgeon, who preached in England in the 1800s, he was known for what was called the penny pulpit.

Every time Spurgeon would preach, there would be people on the front row at the front of his service who would be transcribing what Spurgeon was saying. Spurgeon didn't write out a manuscript for his sermons.

He had a very rough outline, sometimes something that would fit on a three-by-five index card. And Spurgeon would take that into the pulpit and from that he would almost extemporaneously preach every Sunday morning.

And if you've read Spurgeon's sermons, which are available online for free, then you know what kind of an accomplishment that is to come up with something like that, almost extemporaneous. But Spurgeon would preach and there would be people in the front of his church that would be transcribing that.

And then after the service, those transcribers would get together and they would compare notes and they would put together what they felt was the transcript of his message. And then later that week, Spurgeon would edit that and then approve it for publication.

Then that sermon would become...that would get printed and then it would be distributed all over England and all over London for a penny apiece and it was called the Penny Pulpit. And those sermons actually made their way across the Atlantic Ocean into the United States and they were quite popular over here, Spurgeon's Penny Pulpit.

That made Spurgeon one of the most read and one of the most influential preachers of his time, which is a good thing that the Lord blessed that. Far better to have Spurgeon's influence spread all over the world than Joel Osteen or a hundred others that you could name like that.

But the Penny Pulpit gave people an excuse to misworship because you could get the sermon from last week, pay only a penny for it, and then you could stay at home and read the sermon. And Spurgeon commented on that one time and he said this, there are some who make a bad use of what ought to be a great blessing, namely the printing press and the printed sermon, by staying at home to read a sermon because they say it's better than going out to hear one.

It is a bad example for a professing Christian to absent himself from the assembly of the friends of Christ. I wish that some who stay away for the most frivolous excuses would think of this verse, not abandoning our meeting together as is the habit of some.".

See, in Spurgeon's day, people reasoned, I could go buy the sermon, I could stay at home and read the sermon, I don't have to get up early, I could actually read the sermon with my coffee on a Sunday morning, I could read the sermon with my coffee in my pajamas on a Sunday morning, and then I could save all of the time of traveling to the church and coming home from the church, I could save those awkward interactions with the people who annoy me each and every Sunday, I don't have to worry about finding a seat, I don't have to worry about listening to the music, I don't have to worry about the music leader missing his cue and screwing everything up, I don't have to worry about the slide runner not getting the slides right, any of that, I don't have to be irritated by any of that.

I can just pay a penny and have all of that frustration disappear and I can stay at home and just read the sermon. I mean, after all, it's the same thing that Spurgeon preached the week before, right?

That was the excuse. Now the excuses are different in our day, aren't they? But only because the technology is different in our day. So the penny pulpit has been replaced by a podcast, or a live stream, or a live audio feed, or a television broadcast, or a newsletter, or even a printed sermon, or a book which is a collection of sermons, or sermon archives online.

You see, we live in our day when you don't have to pay a penny for a sermon, you can get hundreds of thousands of sermons preached by good men, solid men, good expositors from all over the world, from almost every age of Christianity up into the present, even last week, you can get all of that and it doesn't cost you anything.

Every sermon John MacArthur has ever preached is available on his website for free, the transcript and the audio, and so many videos. It's a wonder why anybody shows up here when all of that is available, right?

Or is it really a wonder why anybody shows up here? Because isn't there something that we gain by being here that cannot be replaced by the penny pulpit, or a podcast, or a live stream, or anything else?

There are things, there are benefits and blessings, there are graces and sanctifying effects that are present here with us when we gather together as the Lord's people that are not present through any of those other mediums.

You see, a podcast and a live stream, those are good supplements, but they're not good.

Substitutes.

They're good ways of supplementing what we normally get on a week-by-week basis of coming to church and gathering together for worship, but they're no substitute for the live gathering and assembly of God's people.

They're great if you can't be here because you're sick, or because you're injured, or because you're traveling, or because you're away, or some other constraint keeps you from gathering with God's people.

They're great supplements, but they're no substitute for the gathering and collecting together of God's people. Because when we fail to gather here, we don't assembly, we turn our back on God's people and not assemble with His people, we miss out on a whole bunch of things.

We miss out on what it means to be part of the body of Christ that is built up by being here with one another and fellowshipping and worshipping together. We miss out on being strengthened by His Word and by the encouragement that we receive from fellow believers, the strength that we need to go out and face a hostile world tomorrow morning, we miss out on that.

We miss out on the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and what each individual part of the body of Christ contributes to the whole. You can't experience that on a live stream. You miss out on what it means to submit to authority and to be watched over by shepherds of your soul.

You miss out on what it means to enjoy friendship and fellowship with people face-to-face and personal and intimately with one another. We miss out on corporate worship and observing the ordinances and the spiritual resources that are provided in and through and by the body of Christ for the body of Christ.

And not only do we miss out on those things, but listen, this is equally as significant. We cause other people to miss out on those things when we are not there. It's not just what we miss by us not being present with the assembly of the saints.

It's what we deprive other people of getting when we are not there. We're not just missing out ourselves, we're depriving other people. When you miss or when I miss, you deprive other people, we deprive somebody else of not only our spiritual gift, but also of our voice being added to the worship and corporate praise that is offered on a Sunday morning.

People on livestream or listening to a podcast, they can sing along with us, but can you hear.

Them?

Maybe you don't want to hear them, but you should want to hear them. You can't hear them. They're not adding their voice to our corporate gathering here. They're not joining with us in worshiping at the same time and in the same way, and they're not able to hear all of your voices.

You're not able to hear their voices. And so by neglecting our gathering together with the saints of God, we not only deprive ourselves, but we deprive other people of the graces that God would give to them through us when we gather together with His people.

This is why the assembly of the church is so vital in every single age. This is why the early church had to be reminded, do not turn your back, forsake the gathering together of God's people on the Lord's day when the people of God get together.

Do not forsake that, do not neglect that, but encourage one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. This is a reminder that every generation needs because the temptations are still the same.

Technology just makes them different. We just call them different things now. Human nature is still the same. Our needs are still the same, and the hostile world around us is still the same. So every generation of Christians needs to be reminded that we are to consider how to stimulate one another, to provoke one another, to love in good deeds by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of some, but instead we are to encourage one another and all the more fervently as we see the day drawing near.

That is our text for this morning. This is our third week in this text actually. In verse 24, this is the third of the let us statements, let us draw near, let us hold fast and verse 24, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good.

Deeds.

That's the exhortation. Then we saw the explanation of that is that we are to do this by not forsaking and turning our back on the assembly of God's people as is the habit of some, but, and now we look at the motivation, we are to encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So we looked two weeks ago at the exhortation, last week at the explanation of that, not forsake the assembly, but encourage one another, and now there is a motivation that is stated at the end of verse 25.

We are to do this all the more as you see the day drawing near. And we are to not forsake one another. We are to not forsake the gathering of one another, but instead, and this is the opposite, encourage one another.

I want you to notice how encouraging and not forsaking, these things are set in opposition to each other. We are to not do this, but we are to do this. That means that whatever, that one of the things that is withdrawn from the assembly of people when we turn our back on the assembly and stop gathering together, one of the things that is lacked there is encouragement that we receive and that we give to one another.

So the opposite of forsaking is encouraging. We are to not forsake, but we are instead to encourage. And that word encourage is a word that describes being called alongside of somebody else to encourage them or to comfort them, to exhort them.

It describes coming alongside to comfort or to exhort, to appeal, and to urge somebody. It kind of has the idea of stepping up beside somebody and putting courage into them by exhorting them and appealing to them and motivating them on to a certain activity.

What is that certain activity? Love and good deeds, verse 24. We are to consider how to stimulate, provoke. This is how we provoke one another, by encouraging one another. And this is the means by which we do it.

You want to know what it looks to provoke somebody else in a good way? Remember provoke is the negative word, but we're provoking in a good way. What does that look like? It looks like coming alongside of somebody and encouraging them in love and good deeds.

This is not the first time that this author in Hebrews has talked about encouraging one.

Another.

Back in chapter 3, verse 13, he says, But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And that reference to encouraging one another, just like in this passage, occurs in the context of one of the warning passages.

The warning passages that describe the danger of apostasy and drifting away and falling into disobedience and hardness of heart. That's chapter 3. That's the warning passage in chapter 3 and chapter 4.

Well, here we have this encouragement, that we are to encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near, and the very next verse, verse 26, begins the next warning passage. And we are to do this all the more.

That is a comparative adverb. It describes us doing something with an increased fervency, an increased frequency. We are to do it greater still, to a greater degree still. It means to do this especially, or still more, or even further, or greater than otherwise.

And notice that the idea here is not that we are to do something that we don't do under other circumstances. It's not that in extraordinary times that we are to do something that we don't ordinarily do.

Rather, it is that in extraordinary times we are to do something that we ordinarily do, but we are to do it in an extraordinary measure or with an extraordinary frequency. He is not asking Christians to do something that Christians had not always done, and it was not the normal habit and the normal lifestyle of believers.

It was the normal pattern, the normal custom for Christians to get together. Like a bunch of magnets and lead balls in a drawer, you put Christians anywhere near each other, and they're going to gather together, they're going to assemble.

And this is exactly what happened in the early church. Even from the earliest chapters of the book of Acts, you see Christians getting together. Originally, initially right after the Lord resurrected, the disciples met together on the Lord's day on Sunday that evening, and the Lord appeared to them.

And then one week later, again on a Sunday night, the Lord appeared to them. And then what was the custom of the early church? They would meet daily in the temple for the breaking of bread and the preaching of the word and to adhere to the apostles' doctrine and to fellowship and to encourage one another for worship and praise and the reading of the word.

They would be meeting daily in the temple for this, and then when that became too hostile, they spread out and they started meeting in synagogues, at least some of the synagogues outside of Israel that were friendly to the Christian presence.

But when hostility spread to the synagogues, they would then begin to meet in homes. No matter where it was, no matter what city Paul went to, there were always, after he preached the gospel and people got saved, what Christians instinctively do is get together.

They gather together and follow the pattern of the early church, which was to get together for the breaking of bread and to worship and praise of God, to follow the apostles' doctrine and to observe the ordinances.

That was the pattern of the early church. This is what Christians always did. So notice that the author is not telling them, now you need to do something that you've never done before. In light of this approaching day, now you're to do this.

No, this is what they always did. What he is calling for is an extraordinary fervency in this practice in light of the extraordinary times in which they lived. This is counterintuitive for most of us.

Most of us think that when times get tough, we ought to scatter. That's how most of us would think. We would think instinctively, just in ourselves as human beings in our fallenness, we would think that when times get tough that you need to scatter.

Stay away from people. Stay away from Christians. If the church is a target, we're going to stay away from the church. If those Christians are hunted and hated, stay away from them. Keep your distance.

But the author doesn't suggest that. Instead, he suggests that they do with increased fervency what they had always done, which was to gather together and to not neglect the assembly of the saints. We are called to do this especially in light of extraordinary times.

Do we live in extraordinary times? Yeah, if you don't think so, you're not. Were you sleeping for the last three, four, five years? Do we live in extraordinary times? Extraordinary at least in terms of our experience here in the modern West, right?

These are extraordinary times. Do you think they're going to get extraordinary-er? More extraordinary as time goes on? Or do you think that we're going to return to some sort of normal in the years ahead?

You might hope and pray for normal, but I'm telling you, I'm expecting more extraordinary. Well, the call for us then is not to neglect what it is that we have always done, but to do it with increasing fervency and increasing passion and increasing faithfulness.

He is calling us to selfless devotion to others during such times. Now, I say during such times because I would just remind you, beginning at verse 32, these Christians were facing persecution and hostility, the seizure of their property, reproaches and trials and tribulations and suffering just for their Christian commitment.

That was what they were experiencing at the time that he wrote this, at the time that he said this. So then he is calling them to this selfless devotion and care for others, almost a lively, fervent interest in the spiritual affairs of others in a good way.

And there is some wisdom in this. Homer Kent in his commentary says this, one who is genuinely involved in assisting others usually has little time to indulge the fears or nurse the resentments which might cause him to forsake the fellowship of the saints.

There's wisdom in that. One who is lively and actively involved in ministering and serving others who lives their lives focused on other people and doing good for them, they have little time to indulge the fears or to nurse the resentments that usually would cause them to absent themselves from the body of Christ.

There are a couple of things that these early Christians probably were facing which might have caused them to make themselves absent from the body of Christ. Number one was a fear. They had every right to fear persecution.

They were experiencing it. They had every right to fear that by gathering with the Christian assembly, they would become targets for those who hated the Christian assembly. They had every right to fear that.

And as chapter 12 verse 25 suggests, there may have been a root of bitterness there that was causing some resentments among the members of the congregation. And he says later in chapter 12, do not let this root of bitterness crop up by which many people are defiled.

But when you live so focused on other people and so impassioned by motivating others to love and do good deeds, when your life and your Christian service and your worship and your fellowship revolve around being with other people, serving other people, and being a grace to other people, that leaves you little time to indulge the fears which rise in the heart and then perpetuate themselves in our minds.

And it leaves us little time to nurse those resentments, that root of bitterness that crops up that defiles other people. You can put those things, the fears and the resentments aside and say, I'm just going to give myself to other people.

Maybe even those people that cause me fear to fear, and maybe even those people with which I would normally have resentment. There's a wisdom there. He's calling us to a lively faithfulness and a lively gathering and a frequent and fervent gathering together in the light of this coming day.

Seeing the Day Drawing Near

You'll notice verse 25 says, we are to encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now, what is this day? What is the day drawing near? And we might even ask, has that day passed?

Are we past that day? No longer that day is drawing near, but now it's going further away from us. If we've already gone past that day, then does this still apply to us? And how would this apply to us if that day has already passed?

What is the day that He has in mind? I want you to notice that there is no description of this day given. He doesn't say the day of and then give us a description. There's no adjective here that describes this day.

There's no other nouns that might qualify this day as to what day He has in mind. He doesn't tell us when this day was coming. He doesn't tell us if the day is going to soon pass after it arrived. He doesn't tell us any kind of a date on the arrival of this day.

He doesn't describe that. He doesn't even say what this day might look like. He doesn't describe how we would know that the day has arrived or if it's arrived or if it's still on the horizon. In fact, you'll notice that He doesn't even tell us how it is that we might recognize that the day is drawing near.

There's no description for this day whatsoever. So now the question is, which day does He have in mind? Is it a date? Is it a season? Is it a period of time? Is it an event? What is this day? Before I give you the four options that I think have been historically offered as explanations of this, I want you to observe a couple of things, not just that no qualifier is mentioned, but I also want you to observe that it is something that we can see drawing near.

Notice verse 25 says, the more as you see the day drawing near. He is assuming that whatever this day is, that those to whom He is speaking and writing would be able to apprehend this in some sense, that we'd be able to see that it is coming near in some sense, that we'd be able to see it on the horizon, something that they could watch approach them, as it were, over the course of time.

And He's saying that the closer that this day gets, the more fervently you are to follow this admonition. Second, well, actually, the second and the third, these are going to be patently obvious, but they need to be said.

Second, whatever the author had in mind, or sorry, whatever this day means, the author knew what he was talking about when he wrote this. He said, that's not all that profound. No, it's not, but the third one is not all that profound either, but here's the third.

One.

The original audience knew exactly what the author meant. The author knew what he meant, and the original audience knew what he meant. So whatever it is that he is describing, he didn't need to qualify it for them because they knew exactly what he's talking about.

And whatever it is he was describing, he has in mind, specifically, he knew exactly what it was, and they knew exactly what it was, and it was something that the author and the readers, the original readers, would have been able to see approaching them.

Now, with that in mind, here are the four options that we have for what this day was. First, someone suggested that this was a day of persecution that was on the horizon, a day of persecution, just a season or time of hardship or difficulty that would strike this early church, this early gathering of Hebrew Christians, and that this persecution is what he has in mind here.

Now it's true that persecution, increased persecution, was on the horizon when the book of Hebrews was written, but it is also true that that day of persecution for them had already arose, arose, arisen, however you'd say that, it was already had arrived.

There we go. It had already arrived. Chapter 10 verse 32 describes it. They were suffering reproach and tribulation and afflictions, and they were cast out of the synagogues. That persecution had already, in some sense, arrived on their doorstep, and they were dealing with it, and they had had their property seized, and some of them had been put in jail already.

So persecution, it can't be persecution because that was already their current reality. And just remember that even with persecution as their current reality, he is still telling them to get together.

He is still telling them, do not neglect the assembly of the saints. Even in the presence of persecution, do not neglect it. Now, some have suggested that it is the day of death that is in the author's mind here.

As you see the day, you know the day that you're going to die, that day, whatever that day is, as you see that day of your death drawing near, do this with increased fervency and frequency. Don't, gather together and encourage one another, and do this especially as you grow older and get closer to the day of your death.

I don't think it's the day of death that is meant here. Certainly you and I can see that day approaching, right? Yeah, if you're still alive, you can see the day approaching. That's one of the benefits of being alive, is that you can see the day of your death approaching.

Now I'm almost, even though I don't look it, I don't sound it, I don't act it, and I don't feel it, I'm almost 50 years old.

Hey, who was that?

I'm almost 50 years old. So I can say with pretty good certainty that there are more days behind me than there are.

Ahead of me.

I can say that with pretty good certainty. I would almost guarantee that I will not live to be 100 years old. I almost promise that. I didn't take care of myself well enough during the first 50 to think that I will ever hit the next, the mark of the next 50.

But even at 50 years old, almost, almost 50 years old, I'm still south of that, but almost at 50 years old, and I emphasize almost, I can see the day of my death approaching, because I know that that is coming.

And the more time goes on, the more aware of that I am, the more I wake up sore, the more I suffer whatever it is, and sprain my ankle, and hurt myself playing games in Adventure Club as those things unfold, and I experience all those pains.

I'm reminded again that this life is passing, and it's passing quickly, and my life is coming.

To an end.

My opportunities for service to the Lord are going to quickly come to an end. And if the Lord should tarry, and I should die in this world, I am able to see the day of my death drawing near. All of us can see that.

And if you're young, you may be not even thinking about it. I didn't, which is why I didn't take care of myself well enough to hit the 100-year mark, but we can see the day of our death approaching. I don't think it's the day of their death that He is describing here.

I'm going to show you in the context why that is here in just a moment. A third option, and this is probably one of the two most likely options, a third option is that the day that He is speaking of was the day of judgment predicted by Jesus in Matthew 24 when the Roman Empire and the Roman general Titus would come into Jerusalem, and they sacked the city of Jerusalem and tore down the temple and put an end to the sacrifices and to the priesthood.

And judgment was poured out upon the city of Jerusalem in fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy and promise in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24 verses 1 and 2 says, Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to the point of the temple buildings, to point out the temple buildings to Him.

And He said to them, do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn.

Down.

And He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, and that came to be in 70 A .D. Now the book of Hebrews was written prior to 70 A .D., I believe. And so even before 70 A .D., it might be that what the author has in mind here is that day that Jesus had predicted which would be the end of the temple worship and all of the Old Testament customs and the sacrifices and the feasts and the priesthood and all of the functions of the temple that He has already said in the book of Hebrews that they're passing away, they're obsolete, they are no more, they're being done away with because something new has come that has replaced all of that.

So it might be that in the context of the book of Hebrews, particularly His message that all of those old things have passed away, that what He has in mind is the sudden destruction of that old system, not just in terms of God's dealing with them as a nation and under a covenant, but also the destruction of that old system physically when the temple would be torn down and Jerusalem would be razed and the priesthood would come to an end.

And after 70 A .D., there has never been another functioning priesthood that has offered sacrifices on the temple mount since 70 A .D. That prophecy that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 24 has been fulfilled.

Now it is the position of John Owen, the great Puritan, who wrote this many volumes on the book of Hebrews, John Owen's position is that this refers to the destruction of the temple in 70 A .D. The principles then would come forward and apply to us in this way.

If that's the day that the author has in mind, that it's the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A .D., which for them was only a few years away, and it might be that the author is simply saying, look, you can see that this is coming to an end.

You can see that the time of this fulfillment is coming close. If that's what the author has in mind, then the principle here would apply to us any time we feel that we are on the brink of a judgment, a destruction, or difficult times.

So the principle would remain the same. The principle is, as you see the day of difficulty drawing near, do not neglect the gathering of the saints together. Do not neglect to gather together with the saints, even as you see prophecy being fulfilled and as you see judgment about to be meted out on God's people.

That's the third option, and that is a very strong possibility. I don't necessarily think that that is it. I think that the author has here something in mind that is broader still than that, and I think that what he is describing, this is the fourth option, that what is being described here is the day of the Lord, sometimes known as the day of Christ.

And this is just a reference to judgment writ large, just the idea of that end times, eschatological final judgment of God that we read about in the Psalms, that we read about in the book of Revelation, that day of the Lord when it comes.

The time of the end time judgments that are being described here, generally speaking, I think is what the author is speaking of here. That day, that day of the Lord has already dawned in the sense that the Messiah has come, the one who has been appointed the judge of the living and the dead.

He has already arrived, and having died and borne the sins of His people and been buried and rose again and ascended to the right hand of God, and He makes intercession for them now, He is coming again and returning again.

And I think it is that final return of Christ, the eschatological end times, final judgment that is being described in this passage. This is the judgment that is described by the Old Testament prophets.

It's called the day of destruction, the day of God's wrath, or God's day upon the nations. You see this in prophecies in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Joel, and Zephaniah. I'm going to read to you one passage from the book of Isaiah that describes this, and I want you to listen to the cataclysmic nature of this judgment as Isaiah describes it.

Isaiah 13, beginning in verse 6, wail, not w-h-a-l-e, wail, w-a-i-l, wail, for the day of the Lord is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty, therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man's heart will melt.

They will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them. They will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger to make the land a desolation, and He will exterminate its sinners from it.