"Be Bold & Do Good" Sermon: Hebrews 10:19-25

“Be Bold & Do Good”

[Hebrews 10:19-25]

June 9, 2013 Second Reformed Church

            “Therefore”

            We have now ended the author of Hebrews doctrinal argument and moved into his practical application, and he begins with the infamous word, “therefore.”  In this case, the word “therefore” refers to everything he has argued thus far in his letter.  And so we remember:

            Jesus is the very incarnation of God the Son Himself.

            Jesus is greater than the angels, because He is the Son of God.

            Jesus is greater than Moses because He fulfills everything Moses taught.

            Jesus is greater than the high priests of Aaron and Levi, because He is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

            Jesus is the High Priest of a better Covenant because salvation is only through Him Alone.

            Jesus is a better Sacrifice than any and all of the sacrifices of the Sacrificial System because He and He Alone is the Perfect Sacrifice Who secures salvation for His people – forgiveness of all their sins, freedom from slavery to sin, and the imputation of His Righteousness to them.  And because this Sacrifice only need be offered once for all those He came to save, because He is perfect and holy.

            “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,”

            Therefore, since all those things are true, we have confidence, we have boldness, we stand and enter with assurance of salvation – of reception as sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus – the holy places – Heaven itself, the throne room of God – through the Blood of Jesus.

            The author of Hebrews draws the parallel between the shadow in the First Covenant, where we remember that only the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple – that place where the Ark of the Covenant resided and the Presence of God descended – once a year with the blood of animals for the forgiveness of the sins of the people that they came to confess.

            And the fulfillment of the shadow through the Work of Jesus Who entered the Holy of Holies – that is, Heaven – by tearing open the curtain to the Holy of Holies in the Temple as He hung on the cross, making the way for all those who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation to enter God’s Presence through the Blood of Jesus which is effective to eternally save all those who believe.  Jesus’ Blood permanently opens the doors of the holy places that you and I can come into this sanctuary and worship before God Himself, with no curtain separating us – we are before our God now, in the holy places, before Him, and we shall be received into the Kingdom where He will ever be with us and we before Him in worship.

            And we enter the holy places confidently – boldly – even now – because He has raised us to life through His Resurrection – we are perpetually consecrated through Him – holy in the sight of our God and Father.  The atonement that Christ made through His Work on earth is the key to our entrance into the holy places now and forever as believers in salvation through Jesus Alone.

            That does not mean that we enter arrogantly – God forbid!  We enter with confidence and boldness and assuredly, but only through faith in the Blood of Jesus – through confidence in His Work,  boldly asserting the efficacy of His Blood, going forward with the assurance that all those things that the author of Hebrews has argued are true, and nothing we can do – not even following the Sacrificial System – could ever gain us entrance into the holy places, but our hope, in which we stand tall, in that we can enter through the Work that our God and Savior has done on our behalf.  We enter, not through our name and our works, but through proclaiming the Name and Works of Jesus.

“by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,”

We enter the holy places – not though the old way – not through the curtain, which has been torn asunder and no longer separates the areas of the Temple – because it no longer exists.  We enter the holy places – not through the old way – not through the work of a high priest of the order of Aaron or Levi – who could never secure salvation for us, anyway.

No, we enter through the new way – through the New Covenant – Who is Jesus.  We enter through the living way – through the way that leads to life eternal – not through a way that leads to temporary forgiveness – or less.  No, Jesus allowed Himself to be torn open in body and soul – taking on Himself all of the sins of everyone who would ever believe and the Wrath of God for those sins, that we could come through Him – and only Him – into the holy places – into the Presence of God.

Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9, ESV).

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6, ESV).

And let us understand that Jesus is using imagery – we do not literally climb through the flesh of Jesus in to the holy places.  Jesus does not literally have a door in His Body that we have to open.  No, He, Himself, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  If we believe in Him – if we believe the Gospel – if we believe the New Covenant, we are welcome into the holy places, and we shall not die in the Presence of God.

 “and since we have a great priest over the house of God,”

What is the difference between a priest and a prophet?  A priest pleads before God on behalf of the people – especially with regards to their sins.  A prophet proclaims the Word of God to the people – on God’s behalf – which is why preaching has been called prophesying at different times in history.

Christ stands as Mediator and Priest – High Priest – over the house of God.  Jesus pleads for us before His Father.  Why?  Because we still sin.  Jesus does not die again for each sin we commit.  Jesus does not re-present His Sacrifice for each sin we commit.  But He stands before the Father and pleads for us as One Who has already paid the debt for every sin we will ever commit.

And we might wonder if that means we should not worry about sinning.  Paul confronted the Romans, some of whom thought it might be good to continue in sin – as much as they could – that God’s Grace would increase among them.  Paul wrote:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:1-14, ESV).

Do not misunderstand what Paul is saying:  Paul is not saying that we, Christians, will never sin again.  Paul is not saying that we will not struggle with temptation to sin.  Paul is saying, first, that we ought not to sin unrepentantly – happily – as though it doesn’t matter.  And, second, that through Christ, we have been freed from slavery to sin, so we do not have to sin, we do not have to give in to temptation to sin, we are to not let sin reign over us, as though we were still slaves, but we are to strive and fight towards that righteousness – that newness of life – into which Christ has called and saved us.

But, do not despair, the author of Hebrews says we have – we still need – a mediator, because sanctification – becoming holy – is a process – sometimes a violently difficult process – we all have sins that we enjoy or have especial difficulty saying “no” to.  We have a mediator, because we need one and He loves us and has chosen us to be His.  He stands before the Father to assert that we have been forgiven in Him – not to excuse our sin – but to show us – because the Father already knows – He gave Christ His people – Christ’s mediation shows us that He has not left us alone, and He has, indeed, covered all of our sins, and our only hope is in Him.

Paul writes, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5, ESV).

Christ has made the way for us to enter the holy places – the Presence of God – through His One Sacrifice, and He now stands as Mediator for us before the Father that we would fight against sin and know that we are forgiven, even when we fall – He is still the High Priest for His people.

“let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

“Let us” or “Therefore” – here’s what we ought to do:

“Draw near” – the last thing we should do as the adopted children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ is run away or hide from God.  We are to continually draw near to God – especially in worship.  When things are good, when thing are bad, when we are doing well, when we can’t seem to let go of some sin – draw near!  Go to Christ.  Go to the Father.  Implore the help of God the Holy Spirit.  But don’t turn your back.  Don’t neglect coming into the holy places – especially when you are in trouble.

If you fall off a boat and someone throws you a life preserver, what should you do?  Should you push it away and say “you don’t know what kind of man I am?”  Or should you take hold of it with all your might and be brought to safety?

R. C. Sproul tells the story of a woman who came to him and told him that she had done such and such, and R. C. told her to confess her sin to God and receive forgiveness.  She came back and told him that she had done what he said, but she still did not think she was forgiven.  So, R.C. told her to ask for forgiveness one more time – and she became enraged – why should she ask for forgiveness one more time – she had asked and asked to no avail.  And R. C. told her that, this time, he wanted her to ask forgiveness for believing that her sin was too great to be forgiven by God.

If you believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ – draw near!  Do not neglect to drawn near!  Come into the Presence of our God and Savior – to worship Him, to hear His Word, to receive His Sacraments, because you are forgiven through the Blood of Jesus.

And “let us draw near with a true heart” – that is, let us draw near to God – especially in worship, in doctrinal truth – knowing what the Bible teaches.

And “in full assurance of faith,” – that is, with sincerity of heart, believing in the efficacy of Christ’s Salvation.

And it must be these two – drawing near in doctrinal truth and in sincerity of heart – it can’t just be one of these, because it is possible to know everything the Bible teaches about God and salvation, and not sincerely believe.  And it is possible to sincerely believe in things that the Bible doesn’t teach.

Knowing the Truth without a passionate love of it is death, and just being sincere, doesn’t meant that you can’t be sincerely wrong.

One of our seminary students who was examined last week said that she believed that the Bible teaches that Jesus’ Birth was a Virgin Birth – that Jesus was conceived without male human participation.  But, she said, as far as the meaning of the text, it didn’t matter if Mary was a virgin or if she slept around.  She was sincerely wrong.

We must know what the Bible teaches and sincerely believe it when we draw near to God.  But that is not all we ought to have in drawing near to God:

“with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience”

Sadly, this is not a proof for infant baptism.  What the author of Hebrews is saying is that our hearts – our consciences – our internal self – that which remains who we are, even if our body is damaged – that part of us is to be sanctified.  Our heart and soul and mind are to be sanctified as we come to draw near to God. 

“and our bodies washed with pure water.”

But, that is not all, our bodies are also to be sanctified – not through a literal washing with water, but in taking the symbolism of Judaic baptism, which was a baptism for repentance – initially for the Gentiles who were becoming Jews, but, as John the Baptist made clear, was for all people, even the Jews, who recognized their need of forgiveness through the Promised Savior – sanctifying our bodies as we come to draw near to God.

We are gathered for worship this morning – we are gathered near to God – in the holy places.  Are you sanctified – holy – in your mind and soul and heart?  Are you sanctified – holy – in your body?  Are we – in every part of our being – holy, before God?  No, but yes.  Peter wrote:

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

“To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you” (1 Peter 1:1-2, ESV).

We are not yet holy in body, soul, mind, and heart – we still sin – we are imperfect.  Yet, in Christ, and through His Blood, we are – in Him – not only righteous – but holy in body, soul, mind, and heart.  We are striving towards holiness now as the people that God has saved, and God sees what will be – that we are the holy people of God.  We ought to strive towards holiness in all things, but, before the Face of God, we are holy through the Blood of Jesus – so we can draw near to God in the holy places through Jesus, believing what the Bible actually says, in all sincerity, being holy in body, mind, soul, and heart.

If we believe that – though we come boldly, confidently, and assuredly into the holy places, we will also come humbly, recognizing that we are still sinners – we are not what we are called to be, yet, through the Grace of Jesus, we are received through Him as what we ought to be now – and through the Work of God the Holy Spirit in us, we are truly becoming what we are called to be.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

Therefore – let us hold fast – tightly to the confession of our hope without wavering.  What is our confession?   God came to earth in the person of Jesus, lived a perfect life under God’s Law, died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, and physically rose from the dead and ascended back to His throne.  We are to believe all that God has said, but, in short, we are to believe this Gospel.  And we are to hold on to it without wavering.

Why?  Because God is faithful!  The reason for our holding on to the Gospel is that we know God does not change – He cannot change – He is perfect and holy – and since God has clearly stated One Way to be right with Him and carried out every aspect of our becoming right with Him – we have no reason to doubt and every reason to trust.  No matter what failing and corruption we see in ourselves or in the world, God has promised resurrection and restoration and life eternal – and He is faithful.  So hold on and don’t waver.  All will be as God has promised – for you and me and all of Creation.

As Paul wrote, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9, ESV).

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”

Therefore – let us – find ways to stir each other up to love and good works. 

The word “love” that the author uses is “agape.”  That is, a conscious, giving love.  “Agape” is not a love that is based on anything you did for me or anything you will do for me, and it does not stop if you do something to me or someone else that I don’t like.  This is a love that – since we are brothers and sisters in Christ – continues to love each other because of Christ.  It is a love that looks out for one another – encouraging each other in what is good and true and right, and guiding each other away from what is wrong and false and dangerous and sinful.

This is a love which can look at a person you would not care to hang out with if you were not a Christian, but since the both of you are Christians, you can sincerely encourage that person – in love – in using his or her gifts in the Church.  This is a love which can look at a person engaging in sin and lovingly take them aside as brother or sister and gently help him or her to see that what they are doing is sin and that they need to stop.

You might be a very laid back, slobby kind of person and someone else might be a very prim and proper type of person – and out in the world, you might not have had anything to do with one another – but you notice that she has a great voice, so you go up to her in love and tell her and encourage her to use it in the church.

You might be someone who notices another Christian in the supermarket, and he is “sampling” from the produce section, and even opening bags to try different foods.  So, in love – probably not in the middle of the store – you should explain your concern for what he is doing and how it is stealing – a sin – and encourage him to stop.

And so forth.

“not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another,”

R. C. Sproul asked in one of his video series if there is a command in the Bible to attend worship.  Those in the audience said “no.”  And then R. C. pointed them to this verse:  “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another,”

God says we are all to regularly assemble together for worship.  Why does God have to say that?  Because some people thought – even in the first century – that they had met their obligation to God if they stay home and watch or listen to a worship service on TV or radio or the Internet.  I listen to sermons on CD and on the Internet – there are some good things out there – and there is a lot of junk – but it cannot take the place of being in worship with other Christians.  We must join together for fellowship – to sit under the reading and preaching of the Word together, to prayer together, to sing together, to receive the sacraments together, and to receive discipline together.  We are the body of Christ – not the bodies of Christ.  It is not possible to be a Christian alone.

Luke records the actions of the early Church:

 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42, ESV).  They gathered together for worship.

Gathering together for worship is not an option for Christians – there are times when we cannot get to worship, when we are ill, in severe weather, if we are homebound, but normally, every Christian should be in worship regularly.  It is when we gather together and receive the Grace given by God in worship that we grow.

Where are the Christians?

What impression does it make if we tell our friends and neighbors that we are Christians and we gather for worship on Christmas and Easter?  How well shall we grow if we are fed twice a year?

The word “encouraging” in this verse indicates congregational activities, as well as worship – that our being together in worship and in other activities in the church is our food.  It also indicates the attitude we are to have about each other – in addition to what we have already seen:

We ought not to set ourselves above each other.  We ought not to think that we don’t need each other.  We ought not to be in contempt of each other because of our sins.  We ought not to envy each other.  We ought to receive each other in love.  We ought to cultivate unity – though not to the neglect of doctrine.  We ought to encourage each other in doing what is good and right.  We ought to strive to lead each other in the truth.  We ought to help restore each other after we have fallen into sin.    And so forth.

Bringing a bunch of different people together and telling them to love and encourage each other is not easy, but it is what we are called to.  For the sake of Christ, we are to help each other be the best we can be for Christ and His Church.

Are we willing to love each other like that for the sake of Him Who has made the Way through His Flesh and by His Blood that we would be made holy by God and welcomed into the Presence of God?  Are we willing to really commit to joining together for worship and joining in other times we gather as the church for the sake of the One Who is always faithful?

Our text ends this morning with a motivation to be quickly at these things:  “and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  The only question is what day the author of Hebrews is writing about.  The commentators are split:  some say that he is referring to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. – remember we have seen that the author of Hebrews says that animals are still being sacrificed, so the letter must have been written before 70 A.D.  So, the author of Hebrews could be saying, “and all the more as you see the end of the Sacrificial System coming through the destruction of the Temple drawing near” – which will increase the persecution of Christians.  Others say that the author of Hebrews is referring to the return of Jesus, “and all the more as you send the end of this age coming with the return of Jesus drawing near” – after which comes the judgment.

Whichever the author of Hebrews intended, the fact of the matter is we don’t have time to play games in church.  We need to know what we believe and stand for it, and love and help our fellow Christians in the Truth, for the time has come, as Paul warned Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, ESV).

Don’t neglect joining together for worship.  Come boldly through Jesus and His Gospel, Who is making you holy.  And let us cling to our confession and the One Who is faithful, lovingly joining together for the good.

Let us pray:

Lord, You have given us an unparalleled privilege to come into Your Very Presence to worship You and live – yet, we have often thought it a small thing.  Help us to see and believe passionately in the Work of Christ Who makes us one body and one people.  Help us to seek after holiness in all ways, as You bring us to holiness.  And help us to truly love each other, for the good of every Christian, and to the witness of Your Gospel through our good works – that those who see us will know there is a God and Savior in Irvington.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.