What We Have & What We Do (Part 1)

Turn with me this morning to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Be reading verses 19 through 25. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with 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 promises is faithful. and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawn near. Let's pray. Father, now bring these words, these living words, these words of yours to bear in our hearts.

Father, it's too easy to get information and to tuck it away and just make sure we're orthodox in all we do and say. Instead of thinking about the truth of this for our lives, pray today as we understand more of Jesus, that you would help us to be what we should be. give us grace now as we hear your word minister it to us help us not to be satisfied until we have searched our own hearts to bring them into alignment with the truth of your word and we'll thank you in jesus name amen do you like theological discussions when I was younger in seminary in college I would spend hours literally hours with friends discussing theology or doctrine we would just discuss things like this did God really choose a people to be saved before the very foundation of the world and of course we would spend hours talking about the implications that had for our lives for witnessing for preaching all the sort of things that were part of that. We would talk about justification.

Did Jesus have to live a perfect life in order for us to be saved? That's what we call soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. Or we would discuss things like, what does it mean when we read, and God regretted that he ever made man? Isn't God omniscient? If he's omniscient, how can he regret doing anything? So we would talk about that for quite a while.

That's theology proper, the doctrine of God. Or we would discuss things like, was it necessary for Jesus to become incarnate? That's Christology, the doctrine of Christ. Now maybe you didn't spend hours in similar discussions, but you've wrestled with theology. All of you here have wrestled with theology on one level or another. And why would anyone of why would any of us do that because we're convinced that theology the way we think about God about salvation about the Bible about the spirit about Jesus all of that's going to have a profound effect on the way that we live what you believe works its way out in what you do now the writer to the Hebrews believes that as well now this pastor whoever he may have been wrote who wrote this book has given you a theological discourse on who Jesus is and what Jesus did in other words as we have worked our way through the book of Hebrews up to this point you have had a course in Christology, the doctrine of Christ.

He has unfolded for us all of these truths about who Jesus is and what Jesus did. And I would say to you that these first nine and a half chapters have been a textbook on Christology. Now, he wrote this book to believers wavering in their faith. wavering in their allegiance to Jesus. And in order to help them remain faithful to Jesus, he's told them exactly who Jesus is and what he has done.

And now we come to this division in the book that begins with this word, therefore. In verse 19, therefore. He's saying, in light of these marvelous truths, you must now act. In light of all that I've told you, in light of this course in Christology, now what do you have to do? At this point, God says to you, because of all that you have in Christ, you must do the following.

And so the remainder of this book, in the remainder of this book, our Hebrew pastor exhorts you to actions that line up and flow out of these eternal truths that he has taught you. And he begins with three immediate duties. Draw near to God, hold fast your confession, and encourage one another. The first duties that he draws out of his Christology are those three things.

And then he'll go on to tell you many more things that flow out of that Christology. Keep from spurning the Son of God. Persevere in faith and do not shrink back from that faith Take the right view of suffering Find hope in the new Mount Zion and in Jesus Show hospitality Submit to your elders and all kinds of other things that will take up the remainder of this book.

All of this flows from his Christology. All of this flows from what he's told us and taught us about who Jesus is and what he did. And so before he launches into these exhortations, exhortations he reminds you of what you have in Jesus two things he says you have confidence or boldness and you have a great high priest over the house of God those are the two things that's what he's going to remind you of the realities of what we have in Jesus carefully explained in the previous chapters are so important he gives us a real quick summation and review of that in those first two verses.

Now we're going to spend our time examining those two verses. You may be thinking to yourself, oh no, pastor, he's reverting back to your old ways when it would take you six years to get through two chapters in the Bible. No. But I think it's good for us to just rest here for a little bit. These are summary statements he's making. He's saying in these first couple verses, he summarizes very quickly everything he's said up to this point.

This is what he wants you to know about Jesus. All right? And so I want us to camp there because we need to just think a little bit deeper about that before we launch into the duties that he presses upon us because of what Jesus is and what Jesus did. All right? So he's reminding us. Let's look at the reminders.

Verse 19, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us do these things. I want us to camp in verses 19 through 21, just to remind us again of what we have in Jesus before we look at what we have to do because of Jesus.

And what he says, first of all, is you have boldness to enter the presence of God. there should be no fear in entering the presence of God because you are no longer forbidden to enter his presence under threats of curses and death. Boldness. Boldness. No more recalling your sin. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, a sacrifice that forgives our sin rather than sacrifices that remind us of our sin, We have a sacrifice now that actually removes our sin.

We have boldness. You're no longer captive to an accusing conscience that says you shouldn't be here before God. Our consciences have been cleaned, cleansed. We don't have those consciences. We have boldness. There's no more waiting on the high priest as your representative, as he walks into the most holy place.

There's no more waiting for your representative because now you can enter the most holy place. Not a representative any longer. You can actually go into the presence of God. That's boldness. You have boldness to enter God's presence for all of your worship. Now, do not think that because you have boldness that we make less of sin.

No. you cannot think that this confidence means that you eliminate repentance or contrition boldness does not mean that what does it mean you have boldness to enter and find god what willing and ready to hear your confession it doesn't eliminate repentance it says here is a god now who's ready to hear who's willing to hear what you have to say I mentioned it before as I talked about my experience as a teenager going up to a local monastery. In fact, I was just up in Wisconsin last week and standing on a piece of property that used to be farmland. You could look off into the distance and see rising up.

You can just see it. I wish you all could be there rising up and actually seeing the steeple of a great big building. It's a monastery that we used to call Holy Hill. And I remember seeing someone there, a man. All these candles around him, obviously burdened. I think of a man with all the candles he's lit as he prays to God, crushed by the burden of his sin, saying to himself, do I have a right to talk to God?

Will he even listen to me? What more must I do in order to gain his ear? Or over there is a woman headed for the confessional in order to talk to a priest to confess her sin and he then will absolve her sin temporarily. But you know what? She's glad to go to that priest because the thought of confessing her sin to God absolutely terrifies her. How could she, a sinner, possibly go directly to God in confession.

But you need not fear. You can boldly enter God's presence because in the new covenant he has promised to forgive all your sins. You have boldness to confess your sins. This boldness means joyful worship in God's presence. now we look at the old testament we see these sacrifices that were offered remember there was sacrifices of atonement of lambs in the morning and the evening there were there was a burnt offering you could bring to God when you recognized you had sinned against someone and you could go and offer this burnt offering Of course, there was the Day of Atonement, the big offering, where the priest, once a year, makes atonement for all the people for the past year.

But there were other sacrifices. In the Old Testament, if you wanted to express your devotion to God, you would take a burnt offering to the tabernacle. You want to express your devotion to God, you want to express your loyalty to Him, you want to express to Him your devotion, you would take a burnt offering to the tabernacle. But that offering, expressing your devotion, was offered by whom?

It was offered by a priest on the altar in the courtyard. two places removed from the very presence of God. Even the priest couldn't go there. He did it outside in the courtyard. If you wanted to express thanksgiving to God for his provision to you, you could bring a grain offering and you would bring it. But again, your thanksgiving had to be offered by a priest on the altar in the courtyard.

If you wanted to give thanks for the fellowship you had with God, you could bring a peace offering. But what? You're right. Offered by a priest in the courtyard. But now you can go into the very presence of God to give thanks. Now you can go directly into God's presence to express your devotion.

Now you can go directly to God for his fellowship. You see? Not someone else doing it for you. you you can worship god in his very presence on the lord's day as we gather to pray and to praise none of us are struck dead we are in the presence of god this very moment and you are all alive why you can have boldness i'll bet none of you very rarely do you think about that do you that on the Lord's day, when we gather as a body, we are all entering into the very presence of God.

When you sing your songs, I hope you don't think you're singing it to the person in front of you. I hope you don't think you're judging the quality of your singing. But you realize you're singing those to God. By the way, that ought to change your hymn singing right now, I'm telling you. When you think about the fact that you are singing those words to God, and guess what you don't have to think twice about it you can go into his presence you can sing at home if you want you're in the presence of God no one's there presenting you you are in the presence of God you have a right to confidence in God's presence now you say how can there be such a radical departure from the guarded presence of God that is so prevalent in the old covenant why is that presence not so guarded anymore well he tells us here does he not he says you have you can have boldness to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus that's the first thing he says by the blood of Jesus you have such boldness because you enter by Jesus blood now let's let's take a moment and let's think about your week.

You had a great day on Monday. You spent time in the Word of God. You got up and you read the Scriptures and you prayed. And you successfully resisted the temptation to linger on those images that flashed across the screen on the Internet as you're on your computer. You were patient with your children. And your boss chewed you out the other day.

And you responded with kindness. but on Wednesday you skipped your Bible reading you lingered too long looking at that woman at work who's very attractive you lost your temper with the kids and you slandered your boss behind his back now here's my question on which day will you have confidence to enter God's presence on which day will you find God more welcoming you know what we say to ourselves Well, of course, Monday. And you'd be absolutely wrong. You'd be absolutely wrong.

You have access to God only by Jesus' blood. Not by how virtuous you've been. Your access to God does not depend on your virtue. It depends upon God's grace. Always remember, your best days are not so good. You don't need the grace of God. and your worst days are not so bad.

You're beyond the grace of God. You need the grace of God to enter the presence of God. You don't need a virtuous life. You can have confidence to go into the very presence of God because of the blood of Jesus. You can have confidence to enter and find a holy God who hates your sin, but a merciful God who forgives you. Yes, you do have to repent, but you go to your heavenly Father confident that you will find a God who willingly, even eagerly, forgives your sins.

Not because of you, but because of Jesus. You enter with confidence. You have the right to boldness only because of what Jesus has done, not because of what you have done. Depends on his grace and not your virtue. Now, if that's not good enough, he tells us another way. Not only by the blood of Jesus, but what? by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.

All right? We have boldness because you enter by a new and living way It new because it under the new covenant It new entirely under the new covenant God's promised to forgive your sins. I don't know about you, but I have much more confidence to enter God's presence because he's promised to forgive my sins. Again, on the basis of what Jesus has done. And I plead, I plead what Jesus has done, not me, not me.

Let me make a confession to you. It is an awful responsibility to preach the Word of God to God's people in the very presence of God. In the early days of my ministry, those early days, Saturdays were absolute torment for me. You know why? It's because I would say to myself, you know how you've been this week. don't deserve to stand in that pulpit. You know what?

I still tell myself that. But then I say, but God, Jesus is my righteousness. I don't have a right to stand here. It's a privilege. And it's not because I'm worthy. It's because, it's because of what Jesus did Because of who he is.

It says it's a, and I know under the new covenant, God has promised to forgive all our sins. Now look, I'm not taking anything away from the qualifications that are necessary for an elder or a pastor. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is, we've got to be careful. And we don't look at our virtue, but we look at the promise of the new covenant. we look at the promise of the new covenant see it's a new way, it's a living way because Jesus it's living because Jesus is a priest forever with an indestructible life by virtue of his resurrection it's a living way because Jesus is in heaven now Jesus is in the presence of God he is the forever priest Remember, we've talked about that as we work through all of what he told us about this Melchizedekian priest.

He is a priest with an indestructible life who now represents us. And by the way, no curtain exists to keep you from the presence of God. You recall that in the tabernacle there was this heavy curtain that stood between, as you walked into the tabernacle there, remember there are two rooms. The first room is the holy place. All the priests there were there.

They show bread and incense and the table, all those things. The candelabra, all those were in there, and they ministered there in the way they were supposed to. And then there's the most holy place, and there was a great curtain that stood between this holy place and the most holy place, and only the high priest could step through that curtain and he could only do it on that one day of the year, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

It's the only day he could walk through that veil and the only day, and with blood. He had to go through that curtain with blood. And only he could go through that curtain and only but once a year. No one else could go through that curtain. But he says Jesus has made a new and living way through that curtain. What's he saying?

He's saying there's no curtain any longer. You can walk into the presence of God. And he did it by means of his torn and bloody body. That's what it says, through, that is his body. He gained access through that curtain by his body. we heard it already today we heard it already today and jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom as if god was saying in unmistakable terms the way to the most holy place has been open to all and he literally tore that curtain apart i've been wondering what the priest thought when he walked in the next day right priest is i mean the curtain is torn apart anybody can walk in there now that's what jesus has done through a new and living way through that curtain you now get into the presence of god in a few weeks well in about a month beck and i'll be going to romania let me tell you one of the things that i'll never forget you go into a worship service of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

And there's no Romanian in that church who has confidence to enter the presence of God. You know why? Because at some time in the service, the priest goes behind the curtain. Goes behind a curtain or a screen. He goes behind there and represents the people to God with incense and a number of other things. they don't have confidence it's portrayed before them every Lord's day you can't come into the presence of God there's a screen here only the priest can go back there that's not so that is not so you can boldly approach God not because of your efforts or virtue but entirely by the grace of God which opened the way for you Now, he's made that clear about Jesus.

That's the first reminder. That you have boldness. Now he says, remember that you now have a great priest. You now have a great priest over the house of God. Verse 21. Quickly, what is he talking about here?

He's told us all about that. He's told us all about that in the chapters previous. He's told us this. Jesus is a merciful and faithful high priest who dealt with our sin back in Hebrews chapter 2 Hebrews chapter 2 verse 17 therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people we have a merciful and faithful high priest who has dealt with our sin How else is he a great priest?

He's a sinless high priest and son of God. And as such, he offered himself as a sacrifice, atoning for the sins of his people. Hebrews 7, 26 and 27. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself Hebrews 9, 26 says, But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

We have a great high priest because he's sinless, and he is the Son of God who took away our sins. Not only that, as the risen one, he ascended into heaven and sits at God's right hand as a reigning high priest, a ruling high priest. We just read it recently in the last sermon, Hebrews 10, 12 and 13. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. finally, he is the superior promise priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 7, 15-17, this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witness of him you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. We have a great priest over God house that surpasses any priest that any system can come up with And even priesthood that God ordained under the old covenant Your theology should have a profound effect on your life.

But you better know your theology then. You better know your theology. and he is reminded of it in a few short sentences that draws together everything that we have heard about this Jesus as priest. It is God wants you to have the proper view of Jesus. Do you understand? Do you understand that Jesus gives you confidence? Again, not confidence to make light of your sin, but confidence to go into the very presence of God with your sin to know that there will be forgiveness.

Confidence to go and worship this God without someone else representing you. Confidence to enter the very presence of God. Do you have that confidence? If you don't have that confidence, do you know what that means? It means you don't know Jesus as well as you should. And you don't know what He's done as well as you should.

Confidence in the presence of God, not by your virtue, but by the grace of God and Jesus. And do you see that Jesus is a great priest A great priest Unlike any other priest that ever lived A forever priest A priest who by his sacrifice actually removes your sin and takes away the guilt so you no longer stand before God condemned and thus you have access to God because of this great priest. You must understand Jesus.

You must understand what he has done. You must remember that Jesus. Father, thank you for your word. Father, no matter where we are in the scriptures, it gives us hope. And we thank you for the hope that is ours in Jesus. A hope that is resting in the person of Jesus who then is our hope.

And because He is our hope, we can have boldness to come into Your presence. Because He is our hope. Because He is a priest, He is our hope. God, help us to look more at Jesus, who He is and what He has done. Help us to know Him for Your glory. and our good. We pray this in His name.

Amen.