Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to cover a big section today and we're going to go
through it pretty quickly. Quickly for me, which is not too quick, but we're going to
get through it quicker than you think is possible. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll start in verse 1.
We're really going to split this up into about four different sections. By the time we get
to Hebrews chapter 10, what we have seen is that the author of Hebrews has begun to make
his case for Jesus Christ. He does so by starting with a lot of stuff in the Old Testament and
kind of working his way forward, pointing out how Jesus is better than those things
of the Old Testament. So the things of the law, the things of the prophet, the sacrifices,
the tabernacle, all of those things. He begins to make his point that Jesus is better. He
leads up to his main point that we see in 7, 8, and 9. That is that Jesus is a better
high priest who offered a better sacrifice and who has brought about a new covenant.
That's what we've been talking about the last couple of weeks, the new covenant that has
been established through Jesus Christ. So the author of Hebrews by this point has really
made his main argument. He's made his argument that he wanted to for his people. And we've
seen a lot of stuff as we've gone through the first nine chapters of Hebrews. We see
a lot of the Old Testament. The author of Hebrews loves to quote from the Old Testament,
and we're going to see some more quotations from that today. But after making his point
through the first nine chapters, in verse 10, he kind of spells out, and here's the significance
of everything that I have said up to this point. Here's how it applies to you. Here's
why it is important to you. And that's what we're going to talk about today. How is this
important to us? Now, we've looked at a lot of stuff from the Old Testament, a lot of
quotations and kind of learned a lot of things, maybe about the sacrifices and the tabernacle.
And we say, OK, well, that's all well and good. But what does it all mean? How does
it all apply to us? Well, we're going to see, and I think we have seen and talked about
in pretty good detail, how it applied to its original audience. So we're not going to talk
so much about that today as we are. How does this apply to us? What are we to do with all
this? What are we to do with all of these things that we have seen so far? Well, we're
going to talk about that in four different areas today as we go through Hebrews, Chapter
10. So let's pray and then we'll get started. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for
your good word. And I pray, God, that this morning that your Holy Spirit would be in
this place and among your people. I pray that you take away the distractions and the worries
of the world that are in my mind. I pray that you would take them from the minds of those
who are here, dear Lord, that in these few minutes that we would hear from you. God,
I pray that you take away any fear that I have today, any pride that I have today. God,
as I stand here and preach, it will be for you, dear Lord, and for your glory. And so
God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would help us to see Jesus in these words, God. We see
your word. We've seen a lot in your word, but God, we want it to apply to us. We want
to understand how it applies to us. We want to understand the significance and the importance
of Jesus and the necessity of Jesus in our life. And so God, I pray that if there are
any who do not know Jesus today, that maybe today would be the day that they would put
their faith in Jesus Christ. God, I pray that your word is powerful for us today, that it
speaks to us. Help me to know what to say and how to say it. Let your Spirit, God, do
the work today. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Hebrews chapter 10, verses
1 through 4 is where we will begin. Since the law has only a shadow of the good things
to come and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the
same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped
being offered since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of
sins? But in the sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for
the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Now that last verse there kind of goes
back to something we talked about last week. And that is that without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness of sins. But in the Old Testament, the shedding of blood was that
of animals. But here in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 4, it tells us that it is impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. So they had an old sacrificial system,
but the flaw in the old way of doing things was that the old way of doing things was a
constant reminder of their sinfulness. So here we see the problem. The problem is that
we are sinners, and our sinfulness is ever before us. Now, it was the same for the audience
that this was written to as it is to us. Our sins are sometimes painful for us. Sometimes
they are a burden to us. We are constantly reminded of our sins. The devil is constantly
reminding us of our sins, even those who are in Jesus Christ. And there are some in this
room today, perhaps, that have never put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And there
may be things in your past that are just building up, they are piling up, and the burden is
on you, and you just cannot escape that. And you live with that day and night, and you
lose sleep, and it just eats away at you. And that is the problem that the people of
the Old Testament faced. In the way that they were doing things, there was no real forgiveness
of sins. Simply by offering the sacrifices year after year was a reminder to them that
they were sinful people. And so the author of Hebrews is telling them the flaw in the
Old System. And we've talked about that a lot in the last few weeks. The flaw was the
old sacrifices weren't good enough. The old way of doing things was not good enough because
that reminder of sins was always there. Now you and I today probably have some sin in
our life that we constantly are reminded of. That's our problem, is that our sin weighs
on us, it pushes on us. And how are we to deal with that sin? Well, for those who don't
know Jesus Christ, we go back to the old ways of doing things. But if we continue to do
things in the old way, then our sin is still a problem for us. Our sin is still a burden
to us. We are still reminded of those sins. And so there has to be something new. There
has to be something better. There has to be some change that deals with our problem of
sin and the fact that it is ever before us. And that's true even for the believer sometimes.
We come to Jesus Christ, we know that Jesus Christ forgives our sins, but even still,
for some of us today in this room, there are sins that are in our past that are hard for
us to overcome. It's hard for us to get past those things. But what the author of Hebrews
says is that there has to be a way to move on from the problem. The problem is that we
are sinners and our sin is ever before us. Even probably some of you today as you come
into this building, there are sins that are weighing on you. Even as we talk about it
now, there are things that you're thinking about, but you don't know what I did. I did
this and I did that and I did the other and these sins, they pile up on us and we're reminded
of these things. That's our problem today for non-Christians especially, but even sometimes
for Christians, we struggle with this problem. Well, praise the Lord, there's a solution
to the problem. We see that in the next few verses. Verse five, therefore, as he was coming
into the world, he said, you did not want sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a
body for me. You did not delight in whole-burn offerings and sin offerings. Then I said,
see it is written about me in the volume of the scroll. I have come to do your will, God.
After he says above, you did not want or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole-burn offerings
and sin offerings, which are offered according to the law. He then says, see, I have come
to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will of God,
we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
Okay, here's the problem is that we are sinners and our sin is ever before us. And so as the
author of Hebrews often does, he quotes from the Old Testament. He quotes from Psalm here,
Psalm chapter 40 verses six and seven. Now, sometimes we see references in the New Testament
in quotes that are applied to Jesus that really it'd be hard for us to know that was talking
about Jesus if somebody in the New Testament didn't tell us that. Well, this might fall
into that category. He quotes from Psalm chapter 40 verses six and seven. And if you read those
verses as we just did, it may not be obvious to us that that's speaking of Jesus. Now,
the first thing it talks about there is the sacrifices, the sacrificial system, the old
way of doing things. And it says that God did not delight in those things, that those
things were not pleasing to God. But then the second part of that verse that we just
read is here applied to Jesus. So God did not desire those types of sacrifices. He was
not pleased with those types of sacrifices. But what does it say? It says, see, I have
come to do your will. Okay, God did not delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, but there
is something that God delights in and that God did delight in. And that is one who does
the will of God. This here is speaking of Jesus. What this passage is saying, the author
of Hebrews tells us is the first way of doing things, the way that God had the sacrificial
system set up. God was not pleased with that. That's not what he ultimately desired was
the blood of goats and bulls. What he desired was a people who would live according to his
will, and that's a problem. Now, God gives his people all these commands. He gives Moses
these commands to give to the people. And before Moses even gets back off the mountain
to give them these commands, the people are already off the rails making the golden calf.
They've already been disobedient to the will of God, and that is the problem. What God
really desired more than anything was one who could do his will. Now, those sacrifices
were sufficient momentarily to kind of brush over those sins, but they never could really
forgive sin. The only way that sin was going to be forgiven would be when one would live
by the will of God and praise the Lord one has come in Jesus Christ. One has come in
Jesus Christ who has lived by the will of God. When you read in the New Testament about
Jesus, you begin to notice how many times that Jesus talks about doing the will of the
Father. That is what Jesus is concerned with first and foremost more than anything when
he comes to preach and teach. He always wants to make sure that he is in the will of the
Father. God was not satisfied with sacrifices, but as we see in the Psalm as the author of
Hebrews pointed out, see, I have come to do your will. The author of Hebrews says, look,
the first way that was established, it's overtaken by the second way. The solution to our problem
of sin is that Jesus Christ has come. Now, the problem for the original audience is they
wanted to go back to these sacrifices that were not pleasing to God. They were trying
to make amends for their sins in ways that would never please God. Now, what about you
and I? Are we ever guilty of that? Now, we're probably not guilty of going in our backyard
and sacrificing animals, but are there ever times that we try to make amends for our sin
by trying to please God by the things we do? Maybe sometimes we are guilty of that. We
do something that's really bad, and so we try to make up for it. I did something really
bad this week, so I better make sure to go to church Sunday. I did something really bad
this week, so I better make sure. Let me just put a little extra money in the offering plate.
I did something that was a little bad this week, so let me go out and visit some folks
at the nursing home. We come up with all these ways because of that sin that we're reminded
of and that guilt is before us. We know that we are not right with God. It eats away at
us, and so sometimes what we try to do is we try to appease God by actions and ways
that God does not care about. This is not what gets us in right standing with God. These
are the things that we do. You ever got in an argument with your wife before? You said
something you shouldn't have done. You bought something you shouldn't have bought, and then
you send her flowers to work the next day. These are the kind of things we do. We think,
oh, I did something bad, and therefore I will make up for it by doing something good, but
that is not how Christianity works. We do not come into a good standing with God because
we can do anything good because we have failed to do the will of God, and God is not pleased
with anything we can offer. We could sit here today and we could empty out our bank accounts,
and God is not pleased with that if our hearts are not right. No matter what sin you have
committed, there is not a thing you can do today to earn God's favor. There is nothing
we can do to please God for our sinfulness. There is only one who could please God, and
that is Jesus Christ because he lived by the will of God. So we have got to stop that.
Sometimes as Christians maybe we are even guilty of that. We try to balance the scale
a little bit. I have done some bad, let me do some good. The scale is balanced because
Jesus Christ has died on the cross for our sins. That is the only thing that balances
the scales. So when we sin, we do not need to have this attitude that I am going to do
better or I am going to do more. When we sin, we need to come to Jesus Christ because the
only thing that is pleasing to God is Jesus Christ, the one who followed his will, who
was the perfect sacrifice for us. So our problem is our sins that are ever before us. The solution
is Jesus Christ fulfilling the will of God and us making sure that we do not try to please
God by our works and our actions, but turn to the solution, that is the better sacrifice
of Jesus Christ that God has provided for us. Let us continue on. Verse 11, every priest
stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time which
can never take away sins. But this man offering one sacrifice for sins forever sat down at
the right hand of God. Now this is kind of where we started back at the beginning of
the book of Hebrews. It started by lifting up Jesus, by exalting Jesus. And what did
it say? That he is seated at the right hand of God. And why is that important? Because
that tells us that the work of Jesus Christ is complete. Now what does it say of the high
priest here? We've talked a lot about the high priest. But what does it say of them?
It said that they stand year after year to offer sacrifices in contrast to Jesus. The
priests are standing. Why? Because their work is never finished. If we're going to try to
please God by the things that we can do, then our work will never be finished. We will work
our whole life to try to earn God's favor only to discover that when we stand before
God in judgment, it is insufficient. That all of our righteous acts are like filthy
rags before the Lord. That's what we will figure out if we are trying to earn God's
favor on our own. The high priest stood year after year. They stood continually to do the
work. Why? Because their work was never finished. But of Jesus it said he is seated at the right
hand of God. Why? Because his work is complete. When Jesus died on the cross, he said it is
finished. What is finished? Everything is finished. Everything that needed to occur
for your salvation and my salvation has been completed and finished by Jesus' perfect work,
his death and his resurrection. The high priest works continually, but Jesus' work is finished.
So he tells his audience here, don't go back to the old way when all that needs to be accomplished
has been accomplished in Jesus Christ. Let's continue on. Verse 13, he is now waiting until
his enemies are made his footstool, for by one offering he has perfected forever those
who are sanctified. What does that mean? We've seen this word twice here in the last few
verses. That those who are sanctified, those who are in Jesus Christ are sanctified. What
does that mean? It simply means that we are set apart, that we are made holy. That's what
that means. That those who come to Jesus Christ are set apart. We are made holy. We are a special
people. What a beautiful idea that is to know that we are sanctified, that we are being
sanctified. No, we haven't reached the state that we will one day reach when we are in
the presence of God, but we are a work in progress. That God has set us apart, that
he has declared us holy, and he is continually working on us to draw us closer to him. That
we can draw closer and do better at living by his will. We'll never succeed in that in
the way Jesus did. But the more that we grow in our walk with God, the more obedient we
should be in fulfilling the will of God. Verse 15, the Holy Spirit also testifies to us that
he will be a good man to us about this. Now, here he's about to quote from Jeremiah chapter
31. This is something that he did earlier in the book, and this is a pretty popular
passage, but here we'll see what it says. For after he says, this is the covenant I
will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts
and write them on their minds. Now, what he had told the people way back in Jeremiah was
that one day he was going to establish a new covenant. Now, when we look at the Old Testament,
that's the Old Covenant. That's the sacrificial system. That's the laws. That's the thing
that God had put into place, and they had a purpose. And their purpose was to lead up
to Jesus Christ, and they fulfilled their purpose. But they were flawed. They were never
going to be sufficient. So God had said in Jeremiah 31, I'm going to send a new covenant.
That's the new covenant that God's going to write his words in our heart, that we would
be the people of God. Not just the Jewish people, not just the people of Israel, but
the Gentiles. That is everybody else. That God was going to make a new covenant that
would stretch to everybody in this whole world, no matter who they were, no matter where they
came from, no matter where they were born, no matter what color their skin was, that
the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the new covenant that was going to be established by the Bride
of Jesus Christ, was going to be one that would cleanse the heart, that would touch
the heart, that the Holy Spirit would indwell in God's people. And so he's reminding his
audience here of the new covenant to come. But what comes with the new covenant? Well,
here's what's important. Verse 17, he adds, I will never again remember their sins and
their lawless acts. Now, while there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for
sin. Okay? So first we saw the problem. We saw the problem, that is our sin, that is
ever before us. We saw the solution. The solution is Jesus Christ, who lived by the will of
God and accomplished the work that we could never accomplish. And here we see the result.
What is the result of the work of Jesus Christ? It is forgiveness. The result of the new covenant
is that it brings forgiveness of sins. This was the biggest flaw of the Old Testament
covenant. It never brought forth forgiveness of sins, which is why the author of Hebrews
is telling his audience this. They want to go back to the Old Covenant and what he's
telling them is there is only forgiveness of sins in the new covenant. And what does
he say in that last verse? Now, well, there is forgiveness of these. There is no longer
an offering for sin. He is saying that forgiveness has come through Jesus Christ and there is
no other offering that is needed. There is no other offering that is going to be sufficient.
What Jesus Christ has done when he had offered himself is done. It is good. It is finished.
There is forgiveness through no other means than through Jesus Christ. That is what makes
Christianity so beautiful, is that there is forgiveness of sins. As one commentator I
read this week said, any religion that doesn't offer forgiveness of sins is a worthless religion
because that is our problem. Sin is our problem. That's the one thing that we cannot overcome.
And the problem that we see in our world today is there are lots of religion, there are lots
of people who are spiritual, but the problem with so many religions and so many religious
groups and so many who are spiritual is that they do not deal with sin. They just say,
oh, you need to be a better person. You need to be this. You need to do that. You need
to try to live better. You need to do all these crazy things. But the problem with so
many religions and so many spiritual groups that we see is that sin is not dealt with.
And that is why Jesus Christ came was to deal with our sin because apart from Jesus Christ
we are helpless and we are hopeless. Our sin must be dealt with. We can never be good enough
to earn God's favor. And so the beautiful thing about Jesus Christ is that he brings
about forgiveness of sins. That's what we see here in the book of Hebrews. That's what
we need to get today because let me tell you this, God loves you today and Jesus Christ
died so that your sins could be forgiven. Now there may be some of you here today and
you have been burdened with a sin that's in your life that happened 20 years ago. Maybe
it was something that happened last week. I don't know, but I know that our sin is ever
before us and there's good news for us today, brothers and sisters in Christ and those of
you who have not come to Jesus Christ is that there is forgiveness today in Jesus Christ.
There is forgiveness of that sin. We don't have to carry the burden of that sin around.
We don't have to live in that sin anymore because when Jesus forgives our sins it is
cast as far as the east is to the west. It is a sin that is remembered no more. It is
a sin that is forever atoned for. And you may be saying, but you don't know the stuff
I did. I did some bad stuff. No, I don't know the stuff you did. I don't know how bad your
sins are, but I know how good the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is. It's a sacrifice to cover
your sins and my sins and everybody else's sins no matter how bad they are and the devil
will burden us down with our sins. But I want to tell you today there is freedom from the
burden. There is freedom from the burden of our sin in Jesus Christ. We don't have to
carry those sins around anymore. Sometimes people will say this, it's foolish. They say,
well I know God's forgiven me but I can't forgive myself. Now that's just foolishness.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about us having to forgive ourselves. We don't
have the power to forgive ourselves. There is nothing about any of that that makes any
sense whatsoever because it is through Jesus Christ that our sins are forgiven. And if
God has forgiven you of your sins, then woe be unto us to say, yeah I know God's forgiven
me but I just still can't get over it. If the creators of the heavens and the earth
sent his son to die for you and you've asked for forgiveness of that sin, then you can
grab a hold of the truth today of God's word that says your sin is forgiven. And don't
let the devil drag you down and remind you of that sin and let you wallow in that sin
and the shame of that sin but you need to find the freedom that comes in Jesus Christ
through forgiveness of that sin today. If there are sins of your past and you've given
them to Jesus, then they have been forgiven. And there may be some of you today though
you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I want to tell you today there's forgiveness.
I don't know what you did. I don't know how bad it is but I know how good Jesus is. And
I know that he died on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven this morning. This
is the beauty. This is the beauty of Christianity. It gives you a peace and a joy that comes
through that forgiveness. That's what the whole world needs. We need peace. We need
joy. We need comfort. And the whole world, there are so many people in the world that
are struggling because they have not found that. Because they're trying to make amends
for the sins of their past by their own actions and good deeds and that sin is constantly
a reminder to them and they have no freedom from that. But I want to tell you today there's
freedom in Jesus Christ. When we come before God and say, God, there's nothing I can do.
I'm going to quit trying on my own. I'm going to trust in the one that you sent for me in
Jesus Christ. It is then that we will find comfort. It is then that we will find joy.
So we've seen the problem is our sin. We've seen the solution is that Jesus Christ has
come to die for our sin. We've seen the result of what Jesus did and that is he has brought
forgiveness of our sins today. And that's a beautiful thing this morning. Let's continue
on last section. Verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary
through the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, he has opened for us through the curtain,
that is his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from
an evil conscious and our bodies washed in pure water. Okay, so if we know the problem,
if we know the solution and we see the result of the solution, then what are we to do with
that? What should our response be? Well, he begins to tell us that here in this section.
And what does he say? He says, we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of
Jesus Christ, that is his flesh. Now we've talked some about the veil and the veil was
torn when Jesus died on the cross and the veil was that separator. It was just a big
curtain, but that's what separated the most holy place from the holy place. That's the
spot where only the high priest could go to once a year. And so the author of Hebrews
is reminding us of that here. When he uses that same language, when he talks about that
we boldly enter into the sanctuary. And how do we enter in there? Not by going through
a curtain, but by the flesh of Jesus Christ, that is through the death of Jesus Christ,
through his body that was nailed to a cross for us. That's our entrance into the presence
of God. But look at what he says there. He says, we have the boldness to enter the sanctuary,
the boldness to enter the sanctuary. Now in the Old Testament, there was only that one
person, that high priest who could go once a year into the presence of God. You'd had
to be a pretty bold dude to walk up in the tabernacle and just say, you're going to go
strutting up in there in the holy of holies. Now you would have been a dead dude too, but
you'd have been bold before you was dead. Nobody in the Old Testament under the old
system would ever for a moment have even thought about going into the most holy place. You
know, I looked this week, I tried to find if there was ever any examples, recorded examples
of any normal person ever trying to go into the holy of holies. Now I know what the result
would have been had they have tried to, and I could not find a single example anywhere,
any story of any just normal average dude that tried to walk up in the holy of holies.
Why? Because it would have took some boldness because they knew that they could not go into
the presence of God. There was a fear of God there, a reverential fear of God, not enough
fear of God or else they wouldn't have done half the stuff that they did. And maybe that's
true for you and me too, but it would have taken a lot of boldness to go into the presence
of God. And in fact, you just couldn't do it. But what the author of Hebrews says, but
I've got good news for you. Your sins of old, you don't have to remember them. Jesus has
come and your sins have been forgiven. And the response, the result of that is that God
now allows us to enter into his presence through Jesus Christ. What a beautiful truth that
is for us today. That today in the midst of all of our sins, as rotten as we are, that
we come into this building today. And I'll tell you that if you go before the presence
of God today, if you boldly stand in the presence of God today and say, God have mercy on me,
I am a sinner. God, I don't deserve your grace. I don't deserve to be in your presence, but
God, I need you. Would you please forgive me and have mercy on me? Praise the Lord.
God will hear those prayers when they come from the heart. That is the boldness that
the author of Hebrews says that we need to have. We need to have that boldness to go
before God today. And what does he say as he continues on here? Verse 22, let us draw
near. That's the call today that we would draw near to God. That's the call of Christianity
that we would draw near to God. In our sin, we are far from God. We are separated from
God. We are separated from the source of goodness and hope and life and comfort and peace and
joy. Those things are in God, but we are separated from those things. But what does the author
of Hebrews say? Let us draw near to God. Are we missing the joy of our salvation today
for those who are in Jesus Christ? Then let us listen to this call today that we would
draw near to God, that we would quit depending on our own ways and our own actions and we
would acknowledge our sin and give it to God and draw near to him, draw near to him and
grow in our relationship with him and in our walk with him and in our service to him. For
those today who have not ever put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the call is the
same for you. That you would draw near to God, that you would turn from your sinful
ways. You would turn to God, that you would draw near to him today in boldness, that you
would come before him with your sin today and repent of that sin and give that sin to
Jesus Christ who died on the cross to forgive it. That's the call today that we would draw
near to God and the forgiveness of sin that comes through Jesus Christ. So that our hearts
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Again, he's
using this same language that was used in the Old Testament. There was a sprinkling
of blood that would take place among the people and among the scrolls sometime that they were
reading from or parts of the things that were in the Holy Place or the Most Holy Place in
the Tabernacle area. There were some things that were sprinkled with blood and then we
see the idea of being washed clean. This is the same type of language. Those who were
going to go into the Holy Place, they would have to be purified. That sprinkling of blood
represented the atonement for sin that had taken place because blood had been shed. So
he uses the same language from the Old Testament system that they would have made a connection
with but it's language that's appropriate to us today because our hearts, what does
he say there? He says, our hearts sprinkled clean. Well today, I'll tell you that our
hearts are only sprinkled clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what God really wants
to change is our hearts. That was the problem that we see so many times in the New Testament
is people were good at following the religious ways but their heart was far from God. Our
heart is what has to be changed and our heart is only changed when it's sprinkled with the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's the language that he's using here. That our hearts
have been sprinkled, that our hearts have been cleaned, that we've been washed in the
same way that in the Old Testament system those who would be in the Tabernacle area
would go to the basin and they would wash themselves so that they would be made pure
and all of this had to occur just so that they could stand in the presence of God. And
the same is true for us that through the blood of Jesus Christ, through our sins being cleansed,
we have the right now through Jesus to be in the presence of God for all of eternity.
Has your heart been sprinkled today? Have you been washed pure today? When we have baptism
that's exactly the same idea, the same kind of symbolism. That's the same thing that we
recognize and we celebrate. That one who is coming to be baptized is acknowledging that
they've put their faith in Jesus, that their heart has been sprinkled with the blood of
Jesus. And that when they go into the water and come out it symbolizes that they have
been washed clean, that they have been made pure. But what about you today? Has your heart
been changed? Has it been covered by the blood of Jesus? Have you been made clean today through
him? Are you pure today? The author of Hebrews says, let us draw near to Jesus. Let us be
those who draw near to Jesus today. Verse 23, last verse. Let us hold on to the confession
of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Now here's the response. Here's
the response. We saw the problem. We saw the solution. We saw the result of that solution
and now we're seeing the response. What is our response going to be to hearing the word
of God and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ? Now for the audience of the Hebrews, they
had a choice to make because they had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were living
by the gospel of Jesus Christ and they were being tempted to deny Jesus Christ. So how
were they going to respond? How were they going to respond? Were they going to just
give up on Jesus Christ and go back to their old ways? Or were they going to respond by
saying I'm going to trust in Jesus Christ? And here the author of Hebrews calls them
to action. What does he say? Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering.
He's saying to them, don't give up. Don't give up on Jesus. Your life is tough. You're
in the midst of persecution. I know that you're tempted to go back to the old way, but I have
told you for nine chapters now that the old way is not sufficient. I've tried my best
to point out to you every way how Jesus has come and Jesus is better and there is no forgiveness
than anything else. And the old way is worthless. Don't look to the past, but look to Jesus
Christ. Don't give up. Let's read it again. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope
without wavering. Don't give up. Don't waver. Don't look to the past. Don't look to the
things of the past, but keep your eyes focused on Jesus so that you can keep going in the
right direction. You see, they wanted to look at what was behind them. They wanted to focus
on what was behind them. But when you look at what's behind you, you're doomed to rip.
You're not going to make it very far. You're going to have a bad go of it. Try it when
you leave today. When you leave today and you pull out in the parking lot, when you
start driving off, I want you to drive all the way home looking in your rearview mirror.
Well, wait till I leave before you do. Because what's going to happen is, if you're always
looking at what's behind you, you're never going to be able to make it very far to what's
before you. So what the author of Hebrews is telling them is the same thing we see elsewhere
in scripture, forgetting what is behind and looking at what is ahead. Don't look at the
old way. Don't focus on the old way. Don't let your sin get the best of you. The sins
of your past are forgiven. Leave them in the past and look forward to Jesus Christ and
do not waver in your trust in Jesus Christ. Continue to find hope in Jesus Christ and
trust in that hope in Jesus Christ because there is no hope in any other. This is an
important message for us today because maybe there will be times in our life that there
will be things that come, things that occur, things that happen, some difficulties in
our life and maybe we begin to question God. Maybe we begin to wonder why God does things
the way he does. Maybe we begin to say, well, maybe God doesn't know what he's doing. When
we face those tragedies and those difficulties, there are times in our life that we may be
those who are tempted to turn from God. Maybe there are those who come into our life and
they begin to teach us other things that are not of scripture. They begin to teach us other
religious things that sound pretty good and we begin to listen to those things a little
too closely and pretty soon this happens sometimes. People begin to turn from Jesus Christ and
they begin to turn to other things, things that will not save them. And so our response
to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ is to continue to live in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
to continue to live in that hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ and do not waver. Do not give
up on God today. He has not given up on you and you say, well, it feels like he has sometimes.
Yes, sometimes it may feel like he has, but I can assure you that he has not given up
on you. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised
is faithful. That's how I can tell you today, don't give up that God hasn't given up on
you because he who promised is faithful. If God has promised to be with you and he has,
he's going to be with you. It does not mean that everything is always going to be easy,
but I assure you this, that the God who has promised to deliver us from this world, to
give us eternal life, to give us a place that is free of sin and heartache and pain. If
God has made those promises to us, he is faithful to carry out the promises that he has made.
So let us not lose faith in God who is faithful. We must stand strong. That was the problem
for the Hebrew audience. Everything he said up to this point was leading to this point
that he could make this point that they would not turn from Jesus Christ, but they would
remain faithful to God and know that God's promises are good. So don't give up on God
today. Whatever difficulties you may be going through, whatever hardships you may be experiencing,
God loves you. He is not forgetting about you. He will give you strength on the days
that you do not think you can make it because that's the only way that you can make it.
So do not give up on Jesus Christ today because there is hope in no other. There's freedom
today. There's deliverance today. Those sins of your past, they may be bad. They may be
some of the baddest things that we could ever imagine, but Jesus has died to forgive you
of those sins. Jesus has accomplished the will of God by giving his life on the cross,
and as a result of that, he's established a new covenant by his blood, and that new
covenant brings with it forgiveness, forgiveness both now and forevermore. So therefore, let
us today be those who go boldly before God, who draw near to the presence of God, and
who hold firm on the truth and the promises of God that will fulfill in Jesus Christ's
crucifixion and resurrection. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you this morning. We
thank you for your good word. I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us, that maybe struggling
with sin, dear Lord. There are certainly things of our past, and we know the truth of your
word that says we're forgiven, and we still just struggle, dear Lord. And we shouldn't,
but we do because we're weak. So I pray that you would help us in that weakness. God, I
pray that whatever sin we have today, that we bring it before you. And whatever we're
struggling with today, I pray that you'd give us peace, dear Lord. When we come before you
with our heart to seek forgiveness, I pray, God, that we would know that we found it in
Jesus Christ. God, maybe there's some here today that just need to hear that and know
that truth, dear Lord, that they are forgiven. They don't have to live with the burden of
the sins of the past, dear Lord. Maybe there are some here today, and that's been their
story for years. God, I pray that you would just free them from that burden you already
have in Jesus, but I pray today that they would just accept that, God, that they would
rejoice in that fact, to know that their sin is forgiven. They do not have to carry it
around anymore. God, maybe there are some here today, and they've never trusted in Jesus
Christ. Maybe today they've never asked for forgiveness of their sin, but I pray that
they would ask today, that they would repent, that they would come to you for forgiveness,
dear Lord. God, they may be questioning or wondering how you could even love them, God.
Do you even have enough grace to forgive them of their sins, dear Lord? I pray that today
that they would know without a shadow of a doubt that your grace is greater than all
our sins, dear Lord. I pray today that they would just give you their sin, that they would
repent of it, that they would know that it's been nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ to
be remembered no more, dear Lord. God, I pray that we would rejoice in the forgiveness that
we've received. Dear Lord, if we rejoice in your forgiveness today, then let us forgive
others, dear Lord. Let us take the experience that we have and the grace that we've received
and give it to others, dear Lord, so that they can know the forgiveness of Jesus Christ
and the love of Jesus Christ. God, I pray that we would be those today who would draw
near to you, that we would come boldly before you this morning, and we do, dear Lord, because
we are such rotten, evil sinners, dear Lord. Our sin, dear Lord, is greater than we can
ever imagine, but your grace is greater than we could ever deserve. God, I pray that we
would be those this morning who come boldly before you, not because of anything we've
done, we've got nothing to offer, we've done nothing that's worth anything, dear Lord,
but we come before you today because Jesus Christ has forgiven us of our sins. We come
before you today to rejoice in you, dear Lord, to praise you, that you would have mercy on
us and grace on us and lead us and guide us in our daily walk. God, I pray that you would
help us to stand firm on those days that we may doubt you, on those days that we may be
tempted to give up, on the occasions that maybe things of the world are tempting to
us and other lies are tempting to us to try to turn us from you, dear Lord, that we would
never give in to such lies, that we would never give in to such temptations, but God,
we would know the promise of the truth of your word. It's a promise that comes through
Jesus Christ and Christ alone. So let us be those who stand firm today. Let us be not
those who turn away, but those who stand firm and grow in you and experience those promises
for all of eternity. God, I pray that if anybody's got something on their heart today, that now
they would respond in this time of invitation. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.