Let Us Live the Covenant Life (Hebrews Sermon 40)

Well, I’m sure all of you that are old enough to remember the events of 10 years ago today are thinking about it, have been thinking this week. I know I have. I will never forget that day. I remember hearing as I was driving to church that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I had pictured a little two-seater or something like that hitting a radio antenna at the top. I hoped that the person would survive, although I thought if we’re hearing about it, probably they didn’t. Those are my thoughts. It wasn’t until we got here that we realized the magnitude of what happened. And I think the one image that sticks in my mind from that dreadful morning was the tower is literally coming down. That’s the thing that sticks with me still. And as I was watching on YouTube this week, just clips from that day, a just horrifying moment for people, people crying out, “Oh my God, my God, my God,” running, that kind of thing and just facing death, you know, mortality, facing that.

The fact that, as I just prayed a moment ago, all of the achievements of our hands, are there’s nothing. Those towers just seemed to melt to me. That’s the word, the verb, I just give you, is they just melted. They just disappeared that quickly. Now it’s been 10 years. And, you know, I think about those 10 years, and it’s so many thoughts in my mind. One of the things is just the brevity of life. That’s 10 years of my life and yours. And for me, that’s good. I’ve been thinking good thoughts about that. I’m 10 years closer to heaven, 10 years of futile attack by Satan against my soul. Amen, hallelujah. For 10 years, he’s been trying to get me to turn away from Jesus and he’s failed. To God be the glory for that. I’m still a Christian 10 years later. So are you. And to God be the glory. And if you’re taking credit for that, then get back in the word and realize it isn’t you, but you’ve been held with a mighty hand now for 10 years. Praise God for that. Time goes by quickly. Our lives are brief.

And thank you Janet and Lin for that testimony. It’s just we are here for that. We’re here for labor and for good works. We’re going to talk about that in the text today. This is why God left us here. And so, let’s redeem the time. Let’s get the word out. God is not frustrated. He’s not thwarted. He’s on his throne. The kingdom is advancing.

I mean it may feel just as you look at one level politically or militarily that terrorism is every bit as much a threat as it was then. What have we achieved in 10 years? But I just look at things differently, and I just think the issue is the advance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Has God been failing for 10 years? No, he has not. And think of all the thousands, tens of thousands of new brothers and sisters that have come into the kingdom in that time. So to God be the glory. And I can think of no better book than the Bible to be studying with you now in the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks than the Book of Hebrews. We already saw in a message I preached recently from Hebrews 12, we’re receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The earth can shake. Everything here is temporary. But we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

And so, rejoice in that while we are so reminded, like Paul said, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. We know that we’ve been given this kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so, as we look at Hebrews 10 today, verses 19-25, we come to an important kind of fork in the road or turning point in the Book of Hebrews. The author has been telling us the glories of the New Covenant, the glories of the achievement of Jesus Christ on the cross. He’s been making that clear. He summarizes that again briefly in this text. But now he turns and says, “Okay, if we have all of these gospel riches, what kind of lives should we live?” And, by the way, this is a common pattern in the New Testament. Again and again, you see this in the Epistles how the author, usually Paul, will lay out doctrine and then at some point say, “Okay, how then shall we live? What kind of lives ought we to live in view of these truths, in view of these mercies of God?” Or, “How should we live our lives in that all of these doctrinal things are true?”

And so There’s basically a two-part outline to the message of the text today what it is that Christ has given us and what is Christ commanding us to do. And so the author just quickly lists a catalogue of blessings that we have been covering in detail up to this point in the Book of Hebrews. And then, he turns and starts using… Five times he uses this expression, “Let us. Let us do this. Let us do that,” etcetera. And that’s a five part outline of the second half of the message. And so, we’re going to be looking this morning at what Christ has given us, and that really by way of review, and then we’re going to turn and ask, “Okay, what kind of lives should we live?”

I. What Christ Has Given Us

And so the author starts in verse 19 and following. It says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God.” So the first thing that I want to tell you that Christ has given us is he has given us his body and his blood. He’s given us his flesh. Literally in the Greek, it says flesh in verse 20. He has given us his flesh. And in verse 19, the blood of Jesus mentioned again. And so, we have again a mention of the actual physical nature of the gift of Jesus Christ. He gave everything he had.

Earlier in chapter 10 we saw sacrifice and offering. God did not desire, but a body he prepared for Jesus and that Jesus has shed his blood. The blood of bulls and goats and animals cannot, it is impossible for them to take away sin. And so, God ordained that the blood, the precious blood of his own son, would avail for us. And so we have the body and the blood of Jesus, and this points also to the priestly ministry of Jesus. Jesus is there as our great priest over the house of God it says, pleading the merits of his achievement for us. And so we have that once for all sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus and we have that ongoing priestly ministry of Jesus at the right hand of God, and he is there as a great priest over the house of God, a picture of Jesus’s authority. He is reigning and ruling over the house of God, and we are that house we were told earlier.

And so here is the picture of sovereign Jesus our great priest, and he’s there at the right hand of God. As we have talked about earlier, he is interceding for us. So these are things that we have. And from that we have a perfect atonement. We have a perfect atonement. If you go ahead to verse 22, it says, “Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water.” The giving of the body and the blood of Jesus is sufficient for the atoning of our sins. Jesus said mysteriously, but to us I think it’s clear, in John 6, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

A complete mystery to the people who heard him the first day he spoke it. But now we understand the giving of the flesh and the blood of Jesus was for atonement, his death on the cross sufficient for us. And so we have a perfect standing with God. As we just sang in that beautiful hymn before the throne, we have a perfect standing with God, all of our sins forgiven. And we have a cleansed conscience. Our consciences are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We have a perfect atonement. We can’t have any better standing. It’s impossible for us to have a better standing with God than we do in Jesus. These are gifts of grace that God has given, and it speaks there of “having our bodies washed with pure water.”

Different ways of interpreting that. What is it referring to? Some go back to the Old Covenant where Aaron and his sons in Exodus 29:4 were brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting and it was commanded that they should be washed with pure water, the implication that they had to be cleansed from their sins before they were fit to enter into the presence of God. So that’s a symbolic picture, that cleansing of Aaron and his sons, to enable them to come into God’s presence. Maybe the author was picking up on that. Others say it’s referring to Christian baptism, water baptism.

And so we have in 1 Peter 3:21, “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” And that’s fine too, but I think for me, it just goes to the issue of what it is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus accomplishes for me, the cleansing, the purifying of my life, my standing inside and out, the purifying of my heart, the cleansing of my life by the atoning work of Christ. And so we have in Ephesians 5, for example, husbands are to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any kind of blemish, but holy and blameless.”

So that’s the washing with pure water that I see here is the work of Jesus Christ on his bride, the church, cleansing us and making us holy where it says in Titus 3:5 that he saved us not because of any good works that we have done, but because of his own grace. He saved us by the washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit. And so there’s no physical water here, but it’s just a symbol. We know that water cleanses, and so the work of the Holy Spirit on us in regeneration cleanses us and makes us fit to stand in the presence of God. Perhaps the best text of all is in the Old Covenant in Ezekiel where the Old Covenant promises very much like Jeremiah are given. And again, we have this washing and this cleansing with water.

Ezekiel 36, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your impurities and from all of your idols. I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you and I will remove from you your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit in you and I will move you to follow my decrees and obey my laws.” Oh, that’s the New Covenant work, isn’t it? And at the beginning of all those words were a cleansing, the washing with water through the Spirit. All of those are fine. I think it’s pointed to the cleansing that we have. We have a perfect atonement in every way. God is perfectly at peace with you if you’re a Christian. We have peace with God, and we have been cleansed both inside and out.

And we ought to meditate much on that internal cleansing. That heart of stone has been taken out now and we have a heart of flesh. We have the mind of Christ. And what that means is our allegiance to and our affection for sin has been severed forever. We owe it nothing and we don’t love it. We hate it and we want it gone, Amen? Oh, how we yearn to be clean and pure from all sin. It is the enemy of our souls. We want to be free from it, and we have been positionally set apart from sin. We have been once for all sanctified from it and made holy unto God, and we have been cleansed in every way. But also, there’s an implication of what kind of life we are to live.

Our bodies washed with pure water implies what kind of life you’re living. You know in Romans 12 it says we’re to present our bodies as living sacrifices, and the body is the vehicle of action. And so, having our bodies washed with pure water to me speaks of a sanctified lifestyle, a purified life where we are actually walking as Jesus walked in this world. We are following by the power of the Spirit his laws, his commandments, and obeying them. So we have this as well. We also have, thirdly, access to God’s holy dwelling place. It speaks in verse 20 of a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body. Now, friends, I have plundered this text for months now.

And so it’s kind of… You may think it’s kind of used up. It’s never used up. But I’ve been going ahead to Hebrews 10 and talking about this, venturing through the living way into the presence of God. But now we’re at the text. And so, I’ll just mention again by way of review. You know that human beings, the Jews, were forbidden from entering into the most holy place universally, every single Jew forbidden except one man, the high priest, and that only one day a year. He was forbidden from entering into the holy presence of God. But the moment that Jesus died when the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, there was physically symbolized there an opening, an access into the presence of God. And this text tells us what it is: By the body of Jesus, by the flesh of Jesus given on the cross, we have an access. We have a new and living way into the presence of this Holy God. And what’s amazing here, we have the right to be there.

We have the legal right to be in the presence of a holy God. It says in Romans 5:1-2, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” You have the legal right to be there, dear brother and sister in Christ. But this text goes beyond that. You have the moral obligation to be there. You are actually commanded to come into the presence of God. We’ll get to that in a moment, but this text goes beyond just that we have the right and the privilege. You’re actually now under a moral obligation to be close to God, that by the blood of Jesus, you have this new and living way opened for us. And one more gift he gives us. He gives us boldness or confidence to be there, and what a beautiful gift that is.

“It was grace that taught my heart to fear and it was grace my fears relieved.” And so, we don’t tremble like those in bondage to sin, trembling that we are about to be condemned by the justice and the wrath of God. But in verse 19, it says, “We have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus.” What is the nature of this? A better translation may be “boldness.” Why does it take boldness to enter into the presence of a holy God? We’ll just have to read the Bible and know the answer to that one. He is the thrice Holy God who sits on a holy throne. A throne in Daniel 7, this picture is a throne of fire on wheels of fire and a river of fire flowing out from before him. Our God is a consuming fire, all of this fire language speaking of the justice of God and the holiness and the purity of God.

At the very least we would say it’s illegal in the Old Covenant for us to be there, and we would come under the death penalty if we ventured into the most holy place and we weren’t the high priest and it wasn’t the day of atonement. But this goes far beyond that. It just has to do with the character of God, God’s perfect holiness. He will lash out against wickedness and evil, and we are evil, and we are wicked apart from Jesus. Jesus said it. It’s not the pastor saying, “Oh, here we are again another statement about our wickedness.” Jesus said it when he was talking about prayer and about fathers being generous to their children and said, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children…”

So we were. But it’s not who we are anymore. We have been transformed. And so we now have, because of the blood of Jesus, a boldness and a confidence given us by the Holy Spirit. You have the right to be there. You need to be there. You need to be close to God. We’ll get to that in a minute. But you have boldness and confidence to come right into the presence of God.

So, this is what Christ has given us. This is a brief catalogue. If you want the full list, then read the entire New Testament. Amen? Read it all, all of the blessings that are ours in Jesus. This is a very short list, but we have the body and blood of Jesus. We have a perfect atonement. We have access into the presence of God, and he’s given us through the Holy Spirit boldness and confidence to be there. Alright, how then shall we live?

II. What Christ Calls Us To Do

And so we turn a corner now in the Book of Hebrews: “Since we have all these things, let us, let us, let us,” five times it tells us what we must do. And the first thing that we must do is draw near to God. Now, I’ve already talked about this a moment ago.

We are commanded to draw near to God in this text. Verse 22, “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” First and foremost, the best application of this is come to Jesus for salvation.

Perhaps you were invited here yesterday from the health fair. Perhaps you wandered in off the street. Perhaps you’re sitting next to the person who invited you, and you know you’re outside of Christ. You know you’re not a Christian. You’ve never made a commitment to Christ. Your conscience testifies that you’re not a Christian. You’re lost. But this text tells you what to do. Draw near to God by faith in Jesus. Accept his cleansing, the cleansing work of Jesus. Don’t leave this place in an unregenerate state. Don’t leave this place with God as your enemy.

Rather as your adopted father. Let him adopt you as a son and daughter of the living God. Draw near to God by faith. Come to Christ. Trust in him. Well, you could say that this text is written to Christians. Is there no application for me? What if I’ve already come to Christ. Well, come to him again. Draw near to him again. Have you never felt distant from God as a Christian? This text urges you as a believer to draw near to God. And so here we get to this great gift, this command, but also the gift of intimacy with God here and now. I’m not talking about a heavenly blessing. This is not talking about heaven. It’s a command now, that here and now while we are in the body, before we die, that we should live very close to God, that we should draw near to God. Now, how do I know that? Well, it says in full assurance of faith.

Friends, you don’t need that in heaven. There’s no need for faith in heaven. What is faith? We’ll learn about it in a few weeks. In Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of” what? “Of things hoped for.” But Romans 8 tells us we don’t hope for what we already have. You won’t be hoping in heaven. You’ll have all your hopes realized in heaven and it’s the conviction of things not seen. Well, this will not be one of the things not seen in heaven. You will see God’s face. You will be in his presence in heaven. No, this is for right here and right now that you should receive through the Spirit that deposit guaranteeing your full inheritance.

Give me a bigger stipend check, Father. I want more of foretaste of heaven. I want to be close to you. I want to have a sense of intimacy with you. I want to walk in the light of God every day. I want to be in his presence. It’s what old mystics call practicing the presence of the Lord, that kind of thing. It’s what it was said of Enoch and Noah that they walked with God. Enoch walked with God and then he was no more, for God took him away. And Noah walked with God. Abraham walked with God. Let us walk with God. Walk implies an everyday life, just whatever you’re doing, your chores, your errands, as you’re driving in the car, as you’re doing housework or work out in the yard, as you’re at your work, your employment during the week, you’re going to be with Jesus. You’re going to be close to God. Let us draw near to God.

This is the greatest earthly gift God could give you, a sense, an immediate sense of his presence in your life. He’s here with you now in manual, God with us. He is with you now and he loves you and he will help you and he will protect you, and you’re commanded here to draw near to him. It’s what the psalmist found in Psalm 73, this great, great blessing. You remember Psalm 73 where the psalmist is complaining about the prosperity of the wicked and he’s frustrated about how well the wicked people do and he wishes he could have some of that, some of that material blessing, some of all that physical health. It seems their bodies are always strong and everything goes well for them all the time, and they’re wicked, lawless people.

And the psalmist essentially says, “Everything was frustrating to me and I almost stumbled away from a healthy faith in God until I entered the temple and realized their final end and what it is they’re going to get because God puts them in slippery places. And at some point, the judgment of God catches up with them.” But then he says so beautifully at the end of the psalm, “My heart was grieved and my spirit embittered. I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a brute beast before you.” I have days like that. I have times in which through unbelief, through sin, I act like an animal. “Yet I’m always with you. You guide me by my right hand. You guide me and help me with your counsel, and afterward, you will take me into glory. Whom have I in Heaven but you and Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish. You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God.”

Well, that’s what we’re talking about here in this text. Let us draw near to God. Don’t stay away. Satan is constantly assaulting your souls with temptation to keep you in some sense distant from God. You feel like you don’t deserve to come closer. You will never deserve to come closer, has nothing to do with what you deserve. Do you realize you have no better standing on your own merits, on your most obedient day of your life, to stand close to this holy God than you do on the most disobedient day of your Christian life? You have equal standing in and of yourself and that is zero. But in Christ, you have the right and are commanded to draw near, to come close. Sins damage your assurance. They damage your boldness and confidence. But they do not damage your standing before our Holy God.

And so make intimacy with God your top priority every day. Start your day with a quiet time. Be in the word and make a central goal of your quiet time a sense of the presence of God in your life, a sense of his love for you, that he loves you in Jesus. Pursue it and don’t wait, don’t stop until you get it. Develop a hunger and a thirst. Like in Psalm 63, “My soul yearns for you. I’m hungry. I’m thirsty for you. I was in a dry and weary land where there’s no water. I’m thirsting for the living God. When can I be near God?” That should be the sound of your quiet time every day, God’s mercies new every morning. He feels you up then with a sense of your standing in Christ and how much he loves you.

And if you’ve sinned, there is no other place to go. Bring the sin with you. Bring it in. Confess it to God and give it to him and let him plunge it into the sea, the ocean of grace. Hebrews 4:16, “Let us draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Secondly, Let us hold unswervingly to the hope. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Now, what do I mean by hope? Hope is a sense of certainty based on the promises of God that the future is gloriously bright. It’s going to be good, really good. And it gets really specific. Alright, well, what’s there going to be in the future? Well, there’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth, a home of righteousness. It’s going to be beautiful. They’ll be no sin there. There’s going to be this majestic glorious city, the new Jerusalem coming down as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

It will be irradiated through and through with the glory of God through Jesus Christ. The colors, the beauties are scarcely describable, and there’s going to be a banquet table with your name at a certain place if you’re a child of God, and you’re going to sit down there at the banquet table. I don’t know if you’ll sit at the right or the left, but Jesus said that that’s whoever God’s got that place ready for it. But he’s got a place for you. If you’re a child of God, you will sit at banquet table with Jesus and you’ll feast and you’ll be there with a multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation that have been redeemed just as you are.

This is hope. I’m speaking the language of hope right now, the blessings of the future, a glorious future, and the author has already talked about this. In Hebrew 6, he calls it this hope and anchored for the soul that goes in behind the veil and anchors us to Jesus. And in both texts, both in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10, it tells us to hold firmly to that anchor, hold onto that hope that we profess. Hold onto it. Believe that these things are going to come. And the basis of our confidence is the character of God. Is it possible for God to make a promise like this to your soul and not keep it?

It says in Hebrews 6 God does not lie. He cannot lie. These are unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. He has made these promises to us. So I guess all I’m asking you to do as a believer in Christ is to imitate God. Be as unshakable in your hope as he is unshakable in his promise-keeping. Just imitate God. And so it talks here about an unshakable faith. The Greek word gives a sense of a trembling or a tremoring of our faith.

We have in our living room, we have a light, and I don’t know if it’s the socket or the light bulb, but every time I walk by, the light flickers and gets dim. If I stomp my foot next to it, it goes out completely dark. Something has to be done and we all know who is going to do it, alright? It’s going to be me. “There’s an electrical problem, hon.” Okay. It’s my job. Alright? But I’m just kind of enjoying it just like a scientific experiment. Like if I walk by lightly, it flickers a little bit. If I stomp, it goes out. If I stomp again, it comes back on again. Is that the nature of your hope? Is it that fragile? Does it flicker that much? We’re called on this text to hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, to make that hope just come alive in your heart. Read Revelation 21 and 22. Just read again and again what you’re going to get. Read the other promises that describe your future heavenly life.

Are you characterized by an unshakable hope? Do you see these things in your mind’s eye or do you flicker every time some sin comes in your life, or if some temptation or some trial, medical trial, financial trial, do you flicker? Does your hope flicker? Don’t have a flickering hope. Now, these first two exhortations were internal.

The author now turns and causes to look outside of ourselves to other Christians. We’re not on this Christian journey alone. And so he wants us to look outward to other Christians and build them up in their faith. Look at verse 24: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Let us consider.” So the Christian life is a thoughtful life. We’re considering people. We are a thoughtful people. We are a meditating people. We don’t just go through life not noticing what’s happening.

We’re alert. We look in the text. We try to find details. We read. We think about these things. We consider them. As Jesus said, “Consider the ravens. They don’t sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds.” Or, “Consider the lilies of the field. They don’t labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Now, if that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow thrown in the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” We’re to be thinking these things out, reasoning them out. We’re thoughtful people. Earlier in Hebrews 3:1, we’re supposed to consider Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. We’re considering him. We’re thinking about him. We’ll be told to do the same again in chapter 12. We’re thinking about all of this, the thoughtful life.

Well, what are we supposed to consider here? Well, here’s where the translation probably is going to lead you astray. The NIV gives us this: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” ESV, just about the same. Most translations go from “consider” to a word like “how.” If you’re considering a “how,” you’re considering a procedure, a technique, an approach, a method. But that’s grammatically incorrect here in the Greek. The direct object of the verb “consider” is “one another.” In other words, it’s very plain in the Greek that what you are to be considering are people and not a technique or an approach or a pattern or a program. You’re supposed to consider your brothers and sisters. We are supposed to think about each other.

Now, in what way are we to think about each other? Well, to spur or provoke one another to love and good deeds. Now, this is a fascinating word: “paroxusmos” is the word. Usually in the Greek, it has to do with something that causes a conflict or a fight or some kind of heat to rise up between people, causes bitterness between them, causes some kind of chafing or problem between people. That’s the usual use of this word. But the author here uses it positively. Let’s provoke one another toward love and good deeds. Or some of the translations gives us spur on. Let’s spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Have you ever been spurred by a brother or sister in Christ? It’s like, “Yeah, but I wasn’t thinking love and good deeds at that moment.”

Oh, listen, friends, there are good ways to do this and not good ways to do this. We’re not going to forget what we learned in 1 Corinthian 13 and other places about the love that we have for one another, the good manners of the Christian life. But there is a spurring that the author has in mind here. So I meditated on an illustration for this, and I was reading recently an article about the development of the microwave oven after World War II. I love these techno geek-type illustrations. If you don’t, just bear with me. Maybe I’ll put a poll in for you next week or something like that, or describe a painting or something. But we’ll go with techno geek this morning. I’m so sorry. But I think it’ll be helpful. If not, just pause and then I’ll get back to the message in a minute. But this is just an illustration.

In 1945, there was a company, Raytheon, that had developed all kinds of high-tech equipment and other things for the war effort. The war was over now and they had to transfer over to a peacetime economy. And like many companies, they wanted to find commercial applications for some of the things that they had developed during the war. And this one researcher was working with microwave tubes, and he had a candy bar in his pocket. No joke. And he walked by it and the thing melted in his pocket, and he thought, “Hmm,” and that was the start of the microwave oven. And he said, “Okay, we can use these microwaves to heat up food.” And it took a couple of decades to get it to be commercially viable as a product. But it’s just an amazing story. But how does it work? Well, these microwaves in some mysterious way, excite or stimulate the water molecules or the fat molecules in the food and cause friction one to another and it heats up, and it cooks.

So we are to be like the microwave for each other. We’re going to stimulate people. They’re kind of static. They’re like a block of ice. They’re not moving. They’re not doing anything for Jesus. They’re frozen. They’re not getting off the dime, and we are going to find a way, we’re going to consider them and think, “How can I be a microwave oven for this person? How can I get them move? How can I do it?” And it could be through words of exhortation. It could be by the power of your example.

Sometimes it’s just a simple invitation. “Hey, we’re doing this, or we’re doing that. Why don’t you come with?” Or you hear a testimony like from earlier about Baptist men, and who knows? But a handful of you will get involved in that ministry. And so, they were just provoking you in a very sweet and positive way to love and good deeds. I think that we ought to make it a project or a pattern of behavior where we take on a handful of brothers and sisters in Christ and pray for them intentionally based on Hebrews 10:24, “God, what could this brother or sister’s ministry be? What could they do for you? How could they serve you? What kinds of gifts do they have?” And if you have no idea, get to know them then. Get to know them. Find out what they love, what kinds of things they may be good at.

I think it’s a perfect ministry for home fellowship, don’t you? Starting tonight, just find out. Learn what people might be good at, what kinds of ways they might be able to serve. You don’t want your brother or sister to be poor on Judgement Day, do you? Rich and grace saved by grace, but what about the good works? Do they have any rewardable activities? Do they have any good deeds that they did by faith? Do you care about that for your brother and sister? You should. We should be caring about each other’s rewards, Judgment Day rewards. I care about yours. That’s why I’m preaching this sermon right now.

I want you to be rich on Judgment Day, good works galore. And I want to provoke you to love, a river of love and good deeds just coming. And why? Because Ephesians 4 tells me those good works build up the body of Christ to full maturity. We need you to do your spiritual gift ministry. We need you to do those good works. And so if you’re more like static in your life right now, think of yourself as like a frozen dinner that just got taken out of a freezer and then you come to a good church or you’re involved in a good ministry and there’s just microwaves in you and pretty soon you’re going to be hot and useful to somebody. Let’s provoke one another to love and good deeds.

Let’s consider each other, let’s ponder each other, let’s pray for each other so that we can do this. And by the way, this is the second half of what I gave you earlier in a sermon months and months ago of two reasons why for the rest of your life, you need to be a covenant member of a good church. Remember what I said, Hebrews 3 negatively, you need to be a covenant member of a good church so that people will protect you from your own sinfulness. We are to watch over one another and encourage one another daily so that nobody will be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. You remember that. And now in Hebrews 10, we’re going to watch over one another and think about each other, consider each other and pray for each other, so that they’re not empty-handed on Judgment Day, but they have good works to show. So, we were rich.

And by the way, in both of those, Hebrews 3, Hebrews 10, you need to know and be known. You’ve just got to know each other and be in community with each other. It’s hard to do in this church, isn’t it? I mean, you people, very few people live within walking distance. And so you got to get in the car and drive, and that’s why home fellowships, if you’re not involved in a home fellowship, please pray about it and get involved, because I don’t know how you’re going to know and be known just coming and sitting and listening in a few conversations and go. It’s hard. So bottom line, we’ve got to be involved in a good church, covenant members of a good church. And so the author says let us keep on meeting together.

Forth, “let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.” We need assemble together. This is huge. In the Old Testament, again and again, the psalmist talks about, “I’m not going to hide your faithfulness in the great assembly. I’m going to speak in the great assembly.” God’s people were meant to be together. Now the Jews got together three times a year, a whole nation for those assemblies, and then weekly in their synagogues. But they would assemble together. And so the author is saying fundamental to our growth as Christians is we need to meet together. We’ve got to get together as Christians. We’ve got to be healthy in this. And the author puts it negatively. He says we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

This is not an accident. We’re not talking about an accidental thing that happens, just happened to me in the Christian life. No, this is a willful choice. Says, “Let’s not forsake the assembly.” So willful choice you make to turn your back on faithful church attendance, to turn your back on your brothers and sisters in Christ and not fellowship with them anymore. It’s something that you decide to do. It says later, “As some are in the habit of doing,” this is a habitual thing. The word habit there is ethos. It’s the ethic of their life. They have made a decision and they have turned away from faithful involvement in a local church. They’re not coming to worship anymore.

And this is a huge thing. We have got to be faithful to be here. You just need to come. You need to be here for corporate worship. You need to be involved in the life of the church and receive what you need for spiritual health and growth. So let me ask you: Do you have an increasing desire to meet with God’s people in fellowship, a corporate worship? Do you have an increasing desire for that? Or is your desire tailing off? If you have an increasing hunger for good Christian fellowship, then you’re healthy spiritually. If you have absolutely no desire to be in church, there’s a good question whether you’re a Christian at all.

Now, we generally are kind of in between those two extremes. Our desire to be here on Sunday morning, waxes and wanes. Sometimes it’s stronger than others. And what we need to do is study what types of things cause our desire to be in church to wane. What are the things that Satan’s using to cause you to not so much want to be in church? First and foremost, you know it’s your own personal sins. When you’re in sin, you don’t want to be around people who seem to be doing great and their struggles with sin, and that’s church, right? Everybody’s doing great. I had a flawless week. Do you believe that? No, talk to my wife. Well, don’t. Well, at any rate, I didn’t have any flawless week. I’ve never had a flawless week.

I don’t think I’ve had a flawless hour in my life. But you know what it’s like? If you’re really in sin, you’re violating your conscience, you’re in some habit, you don’t want to be in church, it causes you to want to drift and say, “Look, it’s just I don’t feel good there. The sermons are too clear about that. I just don’t want to be involved in that.” And so you start to drift. Or it could be a broken relationship. It just would take one. One person says something, does something, hurts you in some way at church, and there’s bitterness and there’s unforgiveness.

The Book of Hebrews, we’ll talk later about a root of bitterness that springs up and defiles people. And because of that, you just don’t want to be there, trying to avoid that person. It’s uncomfortable, or it could be a sin of omission. You feel that the church failed you. You had a medical need. You had a financial need and no one called. No one cared. No one came. No one did anything. And so there’s a bitterness that comes in your heart and you don’t want to be there anymore, and Satan uses that to trap you. Something happened.

It could be pride and arrogance. This happens with some people. “I don’t need church. I minister all week long.” This is especially a danger for those involved in ministries, parachurch ministries and others. They don’t really need Sunday morning church because they’ve had Bible studies all week long and do other things. And so they just don’t need to be involved in church, and plus, “Those mediocre Christians hold me back anyway.” That’s an attitude of arrogance, like you don’t need the church in some way. It could be a problem of a lack of submission, the lack of joyful submission to God-ordained authority. The elders or the pastors may be leading the church in a direction that you’re not comfortable with or something like that, or you may have had an encounter with one of them.

Or again, the proverbial sins of omission which are just killers in ministry. You know, the pastor didn’t do this or didn’t do that or the elders didn’t do the other. And so, again, a feeling of bitterness can come up and that person starts to drift away or not want to be involved in the church anymore. It could be an increasing love for the world, a love for your career, a love for money, a love for hobbies. That’s a real danger. We have so many options as Americans to please and amuse ourselves, and some people choose some of those amusements rather than church involvement. Perhaps a simple love of sleeping in. You know, you work hard throughout the week and Sunday’s your one chance to sleep in.

But it’s dangerous. You know, it’s dangerous. The elders of the church are called on by God to watch this one almost more closely than anything else. This is the signal sin. This is how we know there’s a problem. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there’s weirdness in church attendance, there’s going to be some problem. It could be of any one of these types, but there’s some issue. So the elders are called on as undershepherds to watch over this issue very carefully and to look after it. And it’s exhausting because people can be fine in April and having a hard time in June or July spiritually. And so it’s just so important and it’s important for the church to support and pray for the elders in that ministry and not fight it if the time comes for there to be church discipline on the issue of people that aren’t attending anymore.

It’s my conviction that every church role, Baptist church or any other church, well, let’s talk about Baptist, should be made up of only two categories of people, those that are in a very healthy way regularly involved in the life of the church and those who are physically unable to do so and are receiving ministry from the church. That’s it. What category did I leave off? People we haven’t seen in a long while but are able-bodied. We have got to work on that one. And it’s a whole church effort. And so in your home fellowships, or just as you noticed in your Bible for Life class…But different things, let’s shepherd each other and let’s keep close to each other and let’s watch those attendance patterns.

We don’t have to be cult-like, you know? “You weren’t in church this morning.” You know, you get a call at 1:10 in the afternoon, you know? Hey, look, I’m not against 1:10 phone calls, I’m just saying it doesn’t have to be… The metal detector doesn’t have to be set at that level. But I think we need to shepherd each other and be aware, need at least know that they weren’t there to see if there’s a ministry opportunity.

And so, finally, “Let us encourage one another,” it says, “and all the more as you see the day approaching.” How sweet that this place would be an oasis of encouragement. You come here and you get courage in your Christian life. You get courage to fight against sin. You get courage to minister. It’ll be a witness at the workplace, you get courage, and it comes in a variety of ways, power of example, people using words to build you up, prayer life of the church, you get encouraged and accelerates as you see the day approaching. What day is that? Friends, that’s Judgment Day, that’s Second Coming of Christ Day. When Jesus comes back, it’s coming soon. And so, all the more, let’s encourage one another as that day comes. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

I.   What Christ Has Given Us

Hebrews 10:19-21 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God

A.  His Body and His Blood

1.  Jesus has shed His precious blood for us

a.  We have seen the entire theology of the blood of Jesus Christ

b.  The blood of bulls, goats, lambs could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4)

c.  BUT Jesus shed His blood for us ONCE FOR ALL

d.  Vs. 19 “by the blood of Jesus”

e.  Vs. 20 “that is, His flesh” (i.e. Jesus’ body)

f.  God prepared a body for Jesus that He might give that body on the cross for sins

2.  This gift of the Son of God is of infinite worth… God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32)

3.  Jesus gave His flesh for the life of the world; Jesus gave His blood to cleanse us from our sins

John 6:54-55 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

B.  A Perfect Atonement

1.  The result of this gift of the body is a perfect atonement for sins

2.  God’s wrath has been completely removed

3.  Our sins have been completely covered

4.  Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to our account

5.  So the Author to the Hebrews says:

Vs. 22 …having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water

6.  Our guilty conscience has been CLEANSED… we no longer have a sense of impending doom, impending wrath because of our guilt

7.  Our bodies have been washed with pure water

a.  Some people think this hearkens back to the atonement and purification of Aaron & his sons to be priests and fit to enter the Most Holy Place

Exodus 29:4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.

b.  Others think the washing with pure water refers to the ordinance of Christian baptism

1 Peter 3:21 this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also– not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.

c.  Best of all is just to consider it part of the perfect atonement that Christ has worked to allow us to come into the presence of such a Holy God

Ephesians 5:25-27 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Titus 3:4-5 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit

Ezekiel 36:25-27 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

8.  This atonement is perfect in every way

a.  God is perfectly at peace with us, perfectly satisfied with the work of His Son for us

b.  We have been cleansed both INSIDE and OUT

i)  INSIDE: Our hearts have been cleansed, not only from a guilty conscience, but also from the allegiance and affection we had for sin

ii)  OUTSIDE: Our bodies have been washed with pure water, meaning we are walking in newness of life, imitating Christ in His holiness, forsaking sin in that new resurrected life we live by the Spirit

9.  On the basis of this perfect atonement, we now have…

C.  Access to God’s Holy Dwelling Place

1.  This is the point the Author had been making… the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle symbolized God’s throne room, His dwelling place

2.  The curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place symbolized the restriction, the prohibition that every single Israelite had from the presence of God… only the High Priest was permitted, and that only once a year

3.  When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; God had made what this text says

Vs. 20 a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body

4.  We now have not only the RIGHT to draw near to God, but we are COMMANDED to do so even in this text (more on that in a moment!!)

5.  So here, Jesus has given us the right of access to the very throne room of God, the very presence of God Himself

Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

6.  Christ has given us this access by the blood He shed, by His body given on the cross, by the perfect work of atonement—the sprinkling He has done to cleanse our hearts and our bodies from sin and to make us perfect in God’s holy eyes… because of this Christ has given us ACCESS

7.  He now gives us one more necessary gift… CONFIDENCE to enter

D.  Assurance of Faith = Boldness

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus

1.  NIV: confidence; KJV: boldness

2.  This is “full assurance of faith” mentioned in verse 22… more on that in a moment

3.  Christ has worked in us this boldness, this confidence by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit

4.  Why “boldness”?

a.  The restrictions of the Law of Moses that we have mentioned: the DEATH PENALTY came down upon anyone who was not a son of Aaron if he ventured into the Holy of Holies

b.  Deeper: the holiness of God, which ABHORS sin and lashes out in righteous wrath against it… fear and trembling accompany drawing near such a holy God

c.  God in many ways throughout scripture gives us a sense of the terror of His presence

Exodus 20:18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance

Isaiah 33:14 “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

1 Timothy 6:15-16 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

d.  It takes astonishing BOLDNESS to draw near to such a terrifying God

5.  This gift of the BOLDNESS of FAITH is what Christ gives to us

So… we have a full list of what Christ gives to us: His body and blood…

A perfect atonement…

Access into the presence of God… Confidence to enter

II.   What Christ Calls Us To Do

A.  Let Us Draw Near to God

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

1.  Drawing sinners near to God is the goal of Christ’s saving work

2.  Sin put us at a distance; Christ brings us near

3.  This is the GREATEST GIFT God could ever give us in this world: intimacy with God

The Psalmist in Psalm 73 had to learn this in a very powerful way:

Psalm 73:21-28 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. 23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.

4.  This is a PRESENT EXPERIENCE of intimacy with God… not our future glory in His presence

a.  It commands us to draw near NOW

b.  Especially, it commands us to do so “in full assurance of faith”

c.  Faith is

The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen

d.  In heaven, we will have FACE to FACE fellowship with God; we will draw near then in perfection

e.  Faith is absolutely UNNECESSARY in heaven

f.  So this command is for a present experience of intimacy with Almighty God

5.  By tempting us to sin, Satan is seeking to put a distance between us and our God; to use God’s holiness against us

Isaiah 59:1-2 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

6.  He entices us to sin, then accuses us of those sins

7.  The Author urges us to draw near to God by faith

a.  Not to claim that our purity of lives is ever sufficient to merit drawing near to God

b.  Not to wait until we have lived the perfect day, or the perfect hour, so we can DESERVE to come close to God

8.  Now: our sins can greatly damage our assurance, not our standing with God

a.  We are no more deserving to draw near to God when we have had the most obedient day of the year; and we are no less deserving when we have had the most disobedient day of the year

b.  BUT when we violate our conscience, we greatly damage our own ASSURANCE… the Author speaks here of FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH

c.  He speaks of having our consciences cleansed and our bodies washed with pure water

d.  The more faithfully we live our Christian position out in daily lives, the more confident we will be to draw near to God

9.  Practical Application

a.  Make intimacy with God the greatest goal of your life

b.  Every day, set it before yourself that you will walk in constant consciousness of Christ by the Spirit; you will seek by faith to be aware of God’s holy presence

c.  Like Enoch and Noah or old, you will seek to WALK WITH GOD

d.  You will fight indwelling sin by the power of the Holy Spirit so that your assurance will by MIGHTY and you will feel CONFIDENT drawing near to God

e.  If you have sinned, still, make it your immediate goal to draw near to God for cleansing and forgiveness

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

f.  You will make intimacy with God the goal of your daily quiet time: you will seek to develop a hunger and thirst for the living God

Psalm 63:1-3 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

B.  Let Us Hold Unswervingly to Hope

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

1.  The whole goal of the Author in writing to these persecuted Jewish believers was to give them STRENGTH to PERSEVERE in their profession of faith in Christ

2.  They had made an initial profession, despite much persecution; why? Because they believed in the lavish incredible promises of the Gospel

a.  They could see with their mind’s eye the promised New Heaven and New Earth;

b.  They could visualize the magnificence of the New Jerusalem, the city of the living God

c.  They could sense the holiness of the mighty angels—100 million of them— eager to serve God

d.  They YEARNED to see these things, to be in that place

e.  And their hearts were filled with HOPE: a biblical hope, based on the certainty of God’s promises and the vividness of God’ descriptions

f.  This hope was strong, an anchor for their souls in the midst of a storm of trial and persecution

3.  The Author has already described this vigorous, living HOPE… he described how God labored to give His people a sense of absolute certainty about the promises of God so that their HOPE would be unshakable:

Hebrews 6:17-20 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

4.  The Author here wants them to HOLD UNSWERVINGLY to our hope

a.  Word translated “hold” = seizing the promises with the powerful arms of faith

b.  “Unswervingly” = no doubting; no wavering, no flickering, no trembling in faith… not easily moved, not having a heart shaken like the fluttering leaves of a tree in a strong breeze

5.  The Ground of Unshakeable Hope: the FAITHFULNESS OF GOD

a.  As we just saw a moment ago in Hebrews 6:17-20, it is IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE!!!

b.  We are insulting God if we think He will renege on His solemn promise to save us completely—to raise us up on the final day and bring us to a glorious inheritance

c.  The Author is urging us to IMITATE GOD: be as unshakable in your hope as God is in keeping His promise!!!

6.  The heart attitude of CONFIDENCE in drawing near to God, and HOPE in living every day is the goal of this entire epistle

a.  The author wants everyone who reads this to become immovable in a bold faith

b.  We can look at everyday life and laugh at the troubles we face

c.  We are buoyant in trials, energetic in service, because of this FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH and this UNSWERVING HOPE

7.  Does this HOPE characterize YOU today?

a.  Can you close your eyes and allow the joy of your future inheritance in Christ wash over you, cleansing you from doubt, fear, guilt, worry, anger, etc.?

b.  Do you see by faith the greatness of the New Heaven and New Earth, the majesty of the New Jerusalem, the beauty of the place?

c.  Do you flicker through unbelief in your financial trials? When you struggle to make ends meet, do you get depressed?

d.  How about your struggles with sin? Do they cause you to doubt the promises of God for you?

e.  What about relational trials? Illness or physical pain? Do any of these dim your hope… make you flicker?

The first two exhortations were internal… having to do with our own FAITH and HOPE

Now the Author urges us Christians to LOOK OUTWARD to other Christians, to build them up in their faith

C.  Let Us Consider One Another

NIV: Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

ESV Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works

1.  “Let us consider”

a.  The Christian life is a life of THINKING… of careful consideration

b.  We Christians are to give deep and careful thought in general

c.  The Greek word here refers to the a diligent inspection of something; concentrating on it, pondering it thoroughly

Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Luke 12:27 “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

ESV Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession

2.  Not HOW but WHO:

LET US CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER…

a.  The grammar is clear: the direct object of the verb “consider” is “one another”

b.  Most translations immediately put in a “how”: “Let us consider HOW we may spur one another on to love and good deeds”

c.  But that implies a TECHNIQUE… a METHOD… we are not here commanded to think about a technique or method… but about a PERSON

3.  Provoke, spur on, stimulate… AMAZING WORD

a.  Greek word = “paroxusmos” from which we get “paroxysms”…

Webster’s definition: A sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity

e.g. “All the toddlers were having paroxysms of laughter over the puppet show… they were literally rolling on the floor”

b.  The word in Greek usually refers to “provocations” that lead to conflicts, or embittering the spirits of others; stirring someone up to anger or resentment; doing something that causes a heating up of someone’s spirit

c.  But here the use is completely positive: SPURRING SOMEONE ON to

LOVE and GOOD DEEDS, not to anger or conflict

Illus. SPURS… HORSE…

Better:  microwave… getting WARMED UP to a ministry

4.  The end result: LOVE and GOOD DEEDS

a.  The desire is to greatly increase the FRUITFULNESS of the Body of Christ

b.  Therefore, the consideration should be of two sorts:

i)  What are the needs of the Body of Christ… individually and corporately?

ii)  What are the gifts of this specific person?

Illus. How Mark Dever loved me in both ways

First, when I was a single man, living with my parents—“Who’s loving you right now?”;

Second, my greatly encouraging my teaching gift

c.  Though we are not saved BY good works, we are saved TO good works

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Titus 2:14 [Jesus] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

d.  Those good works are the very things that build up the Body of Christ, the church, to full maturity

Ephesians 4:12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Ephesians 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

e.  All of us need stimulation to be maximally fruitful in our Christian lives

f.  Our flesh is constantly opposing the good works that God has ordained for us to do

Romans 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

g.  Also: we need the benefits of other people’s spiritual gifts to prepare us for the use of our spiritual gifts

h.  As we sit under good preaching/teaching, as we are in a loving and encouraging body of Christians, as people pray for us, as we know the needs of others and have opportunities to serve them… all of this is the matrix for MAXIMUM FRUITFULNESS in the Christian life

5.  Reminder: two great reasons to be in a church the rest of your life

a.  Negative: to protect us from our internal sinfulness… our blind spots; Hebrews 3

Hebrews 3:12-13 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

b.  Positive: to maximize our fruitfulness for God’s glory and our rewards on Judgment Day

6.  Know and Be Known, Part II:

a.  Hebrews 3: in order to protect someone from their own tendency toward a sinful unbelieving heart and the deceitfulness of sin, we must KNOW and BE KNOWN

b.  Hebrews 10: In order to spur someone on to love and good deeds, we must KNOW and BE KNOWN

7.  PRACTICAL APPLICATION

a.  Develop relationships with people at FBC for the very purpose of knowing each other enough to CONSIDER THEM in order to stimulate them to love and good deeds

b.  Choose a handful of people to consider and pray for them, to learn how to spur them on to love and good deeds

c.  Go through the phone list for the same purpose

d.  Make a major focus of the Home Fellowships fulfilling this same purpose… seek to consider each member of your Home Fellowship in heartfelt prayer and ask God “What are some fruitful ministries that he/she could be involved with? How can I personally stimulate him/her to love and good deeds?”

D.  Let Us Keep Meeting Together

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing

1.  Foundational to all we’ve been saying: you’ve got to KEEP MEETING TOGETHER with the Body of Christ

a.  God delights in having His people ASSEMBLE TOGETHER

b.  We are redeemed out of isolation and brought into a glorious family, a worldwide family of God

c.  In the Old Testament, the Jews were called on to assemble together as a nation in corporate worship three times a year… therefore the Psalmists celebrate frequently the “great assembly”

Psalm 22:25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

Psalm 26:12 My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the LORD

Psalm 35:18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.

Psalm 40:9-10 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD. 10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.

d.  Heaven is already a place of glorious ASSEMBLY

Psalm 89:5-7 The heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. 6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? 7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly

e.  In heaven, there will be a multitude greater than any can number from every tribe, language, people and nation in one glorious assembly

Revelation 7:9-11 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God

f.  There is no loneliness, no isolation, no alienation, no arrogant superiority… we are going to ASSEMBLE TOGETHER into one place, with the throne of God and of the Lamb in the center of everything

g.  So, an essential element of the healthy Christian life on earth is the assembly of ourselves together with other believers

2.  The Author puts it negatively: don’t give up meeting together

a.  The Greek word translated “give up” is also translated “forsake”… a willful choice to not go to church

b.  The Hebrew Christians were under severe persecution, and some may have chosen to forsake the assembly of themselves with other Christians to avoid being attacked

c.  Others were perhaps drifting away from Christ through a gradual process of increasing worldliness and sin, and were thus forsaking the assembling of themselves with other Christians because they no longer had a taste for Christian worship, fellowship, and instruction

3.  The HABIT is the issue

a.  The Author refers to the fact that some are in the habit of forsaking the assembly

b.  It is not a matter of an isolated issue… that it is some unforgiveable sin if you ever miss church

c.  It is a matter of the HABIT PATTERN which results from a shifting heart… a lack of desire to assemble

4.  APPLICATION

a.  Do you have an increasing desire to meet with God’s people week by week, a yearning for public worship, a delight in the proclamation of the word, a deep taste for Christian fellowship? You are HEALTHY

b.  Do you have NO DESIRE for these things? You are UNREGENERATE… not a Christian at all?

c.  But what about in the middle? Our desire may wax and wane… it may be caused by some conflict we have with another church member, or some sin issue in our lives, or some disaffection with something going on in the church… or even worse, we may gradually develop a taste for a quiet Sunday sleeping in, or playing golf, or going to a vacation home, or something OTHER THAN church… it is a very dangerous habit to get into

d.  The elders of the church look at church attendance as a KEY DIAGNOSTIC to spiritual health… if someone starts pulling back from attendance, we must pursue it and find out WHY???? “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire…” and where someone is ABLE BODIED and not attending worship, there is inevitably clear evidence of a HEART DRIFTING FROM CHRIST, a growing hardness of heart caused by sin’s deceitfulness

e.  Whatever would cause you to decrease in your affection for the Body of Christ is a deadly danger to your soul

i)  Secret sins that make you feel guilty and estrange you from God… the last thing you feel like doing is going to church, surrounded by seemingly happy and holy people

ii)  Bitterness and unforgiveness: a relationship that has soured, a harsh word spoken, some thoughtless deed that has caused hurt; perhaps a sin of omission—the church showed you no love at a time when you needed someone to care; as a result, you feel hostile to the church

iii)  Pride and arrogance toward other Christians… feelings of superiority; you are better than others, and you don’t need them; they are only holding you back in your Christian life; you have such a fruitful ministry during the week and such great quiet times, why would you need to go to church (problem especially for people in full-time ministries with parachurch groups)

iv)  Lack of submission to God-ordained authority—the elders; you don’t like the direction the church is going on this or that issue; some elder or pastor hurt you in some way, or failed to serve you when you needed help; this causes a feeling of anger, a resistance to the leadership of the church, and you begin to skip worship

v)  Increasing love of the world—pursuit of career, money, power—that dominates your life so much you can’t make time for church any more; or increasing love of the world’s pleasures: hobbies, pastimes, travel, vacations,

vi)  Increasing love of sleep and rest and ease: you say, “I work hard throughout the week, and I need a day to decompress and relax”; I love sleeping in, and I never get to do it… Sunday is the best day for it”

5.  The elders of the church HAVE TO BE DILIGENT on this issue; if someone makes it a habit to forsake the assembly of the saints, the elders (and others in the church) need to be ALERT and deal with it; if the people won’t repent, they need to be removed from the membership of the church through church discipline… AND the church MUST support that process…

6.  TOO MANY BAPTIST CHURCHES have church rolls filled with people who never come… let the church be diligent to achieve an accurate church roll: everyone on the membership list is either faithfully attending or physically unable to do so (and is thus receiving ongoing homebound ministry from the church); NO THIRD OPTION

E.  Let Us Encourage Each Other

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

1.  The final exhortation in this string is the verb we’ve seen again and again in Hebrews…

Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

2.  in fact it is the point of the entire epistle

Hebrews 13:22 Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.

3.  the action: speaking words of exhortation, encouragement, instruction, warning… whatever is needed to keep someone safe from sin and productively loving and doing good deeds

4.  The time frame: ALL THE MORE AS YOU SEE “THE DAY” APPROACHING

a.  “The Day” is Judgment Day, when we must give an account of every earthly action

b.  As we see that Day approaching, we should encourage each other… the stronger our faith, the more we will see the DAY approaching

5.  General: let FBC be a place of incredible ENCOURAGEMENT in the Christian life

a.  Let this be place where we speak words of blessing, thanks, praise, instruction… even urging and warning and rebuke where needed

b.  Let this be a place where we are genuinely committed to each other’s WEALTH on Judgment Day

6.  Specific: Men’s and women’s mentoring… accountability relationships