In this sermon, the preacher focuses on Hebrews 10:19-23 as the culminating point of the epistle. The passage emphasizes the importance of coming to God with a true and honest heart, not hiding or pretending. The preacher encourages the congregation to draw near to God with full assurance of faith, knowing that their hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water. The sermon also emphasizes the need to hold fast to the profession of faith without wavering, as God is faithful to His promises.

The verses which we shall read now are generally thought to be the apex, the culminating point of the epistle. All that's gone before is leading up to these verses. Here, it seems, is the culminating exhortation. And what follows, the few remaining chapters, emanate from this passage. Hebrews 10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith, that it, without wavering, for he is faithful, that promised. This morning, we want to think of our last, let us go on. We have thought that we are called to go on from living in the spiritual counterpart of the wilderness, into living in the spiritual counterpart of Canaan. We've also seen that we are to go on from knowing the Lord Jesus as our Aaron, to knowing him as our Melchizedek. There was a third, which I'm not going to attempt to deal with, it needs another day, it could have come in here, and it is, let us go on from living under the old covenant, to living under the gracious, infinitely better provisions of the new. Historically, the old covenant's over, but experimentally, you can be living very largely under its old legalistic terms, and not knowing the full blessing of living under grace. Well, that is dealt with in a certain, in, where is the passage there, where we read about the the old covenant. Hebrews 8, a new covenant will I make you. The Lord Jesus is the shorty of a better covenant. And that is dealt with in Hebrews 8 and part of Hebrews 9. But we're going to leave that, there's so much that we have to leave out in this wonderful epistle. And now this morning, we want to go on to what I suppose is the culminating teaching of the epistle. Let us go on from living in the holy place, perhaps you didn't think you were even there, let us go on from living in the holy place to living in the holiest of all, the holy of holies. Now, at this point, of course, to say that doesn't mean a thing to you, unless, of course, you're familiar with the imagery of this epistle. But I trust by the end of this morning, we shall understand what is meant by going on from living in the merely holy place into living in the holy of holies of God's presence. Maybe you think that's impossible. Well, there's such wonderful provisions made that people no better than ourselves may live in that intimate place of fellowship with God. And that's where God wants us to live. And you and I aren't satisfied unless we somehow can find our way into the holy of holies of the intimate presence of God and dwell there and continue there. And I like to think that that's what the apostle was concerned about. Now, yesterday and the day before, we were concerned with the Lord Jesus as our great high priest. We saw that he's doing a wonderful work in heaven on our behalf. He's in the presence of God for us. His powerful blood did once atone and now it pleads before the throne. Without that, we would all be done for long ago. But because we have a friend at court, because we have an advocate who is himself the propitiation for our sins, we are kept in relationship with God. And as we learn to go to his feet in confession, just as often as we need to, so we're in the good of that life. The friend of the diver is up there sending down life. Moment by moment, I'm kept in his love. Moment by moment, I have life from above as moment by moment, I'm willing to walk with him and be cleansed by him and where necessary to repent. And that may be quite frequently because the devil knows how to bring many things of motive and thought that need the precious blood. Well, now we've been thinking then of the Lord Jesus as the high priest. But the high priest of old, his sphere of operations was what was called the tabernacle. That is, as long as they were in the wilderness and when they got into Canaan and built the temple, his sphere of operations was the temple. But the tabernacle seems to be much more important than the temple in the imagery of scripture. Paul doesn't talk much about the temple and what it typifies, but he does talk about this tabernacle which was that structure which was erected for their worship while they were in the wilderness and which traveled with them. The tabernacle means just a tent. When you talk about Spurgeon's tabernacle, you really mean Spurgeon's tent. Sounds rather an exalted name, but it isn't. It's quite an exalted building, very nice, now that they've redone it. But it's meant to be Spurgeon's tent, the East London tent. I don't know why they love to call them tabernacles. Temple, if you like, but tent. And all it was, this place of worship was a tent. Well, the people were living in tents, they were on the move the whole time, and therefore their place of worship was of the same order, it was merely a tent. And there it was in the midst of them. When they camped, all the tribes of Israel were camped in orderly fashion all around it. It was right in the midst. And of course, this tent, this place of worship, went with them. But the supreme thing about it was, it was that place where God manifested his presence. It was treated with the utmost veneration. You could only go so far near it, or in it, and then only special people, as we shall see. And any infringement of that was visited by death from God. And above all, the base of the pillar of cloud and fire rested over the tabernacle. And when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, there was the base of it within, lighting up that place with an unearthly light. There was no window, but it didn't need any. It was illuminated with what we call the Shekinah glory, the glory that emanated from that pillar of cloud. Quite obviously, it was meant to typify the immediate presence of God. Now, I believe the construction of that tabernacle, and it was all constructed in every detail by God's express command, was to express God's desire to dwell with men. All along, God has desired to dwell with the men that he has created. He created them for that purpose. He made them for himself. And God is restless unless he can dwell with these for whom he longs to, with whom he longs to have fellowship. God came down in the Garden of Eden to dwell with man. And the great sorrow to God was that sin separated man from himself, and man couldn't dwell with God. But God determined to dwell with man in spite of sin, and he was going to make provisions whereby he could. And this tabernacle was expressive of God's determination to find the way of yet dwelling with men. That is proved by the fact, if you look at the chapter where the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle are given, Exodus chapter 25. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, he shall take my offering. And this is the offering, gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats hair, ramskins, etc., etc., etc. Verse 8, And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. So here is this thing to typify God's determination yet to dwell among men. And over in the book of Revelation, we even turn to it, when the culmination of things, of God's purpose for the world, has come to pass, it says something about the tabernacle of God is with men. God's longing at last fulfilled. God dwelling with men and in men. Now, the lovely thing is, how does God dwell with men? If you turn to John 1, 14, you will see his chosen way of dwelling with men, typified, of course, by this tabernacle of old. John 1, 14, speaking of the Lord Jesus as the Word. Do you find that difficult, to think of the Lord Jesus as the Word? Well, the Word is the son of the thought. Right? First the thought, then the Word that expresses the thought. And so Jesus is the son of God, in exactly the same way as the Word is the son of the thought. Word and thought are one. Word exactly expressing the thought. So is Jesus to the Father. But this Word wasn't only in heaven. In verse 14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, that word dwelt in the Greek is tabernacled among us. It is in the margin of the revised, I've got it in front of me. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. You see, the lovely thing is this, that God of old, in type, dwelt among men, he chose to do so in a tent. The people were dwelling in tents, so he dwelt in a tent. And that's exactly what happened in the Incarnation. You and I are dwelling in a tent. The chosen imagery for the body in Scripture is a tent. Keep your finger in John 1 and turn to 2 Corinthians 5 1. 2 Corinthians 5 1. There you have the imagery of the body as being a tent. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle or tent were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Now, he's lightening a tent to a solid building. And your body is just a tent. It gets a bit red sometimes, and he's patching up. And it isn't going to last very long, I'm afraid. But when the time comes for that tent to be taken down and thrown in the scrap heap, there's no further need. Thank God we've got a solid building, so much better than a tent eternal in the heavens. There's some folks in the grounds of our party living in tents. Well, they don't always want, they're awfully glad to be in here. We see them in here quite a lot, and we're glad that they should do. How much better a building than a tent? How much better that mansion in the skies than this poor old torn tent in which we live? And it seems to be getting weaker and weaker. So we live in a tent. And when God came down in the person of Christ, he said, I'm going to live in a tent too, alongside of them. The word was made flesh, and he tabernacled among us, dwelling in the same sort of feeble tent that you and I dwell in. He partook of flesh and blood. And therefore, you can look at this Old Testament tabernacle as really a picture of Jesus. He is my tabernacle. And the wonderful name by which he's called is Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is God, the eternal God, confined to flesh and blood in the same sort of tent as we live in, but dwelling among us. How wonderful, how gracious. And just as there was a veil that hid the holy place from the holy place, we shall see in a moment, so with the Lord Jesus. The veil was his flesh. It hid the resplendent glory of God from eyes that couldn't bear it. And therefore, in the days of his flesh, there was only a partial revelation of God. It was only when that flesh was rent, that veil was torn away, that we really have the fuller revelation of what God is. That's the reason why it's not sufficient to be always dwelling upon the Jesus of the Gospels. Same as they point you to the Jesus of resurrection glory. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says, well, you better look at it. In 2 Corinthians 5, again, Paul says something that bears on this. 16. Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Because a historic Jesus was God, but veiled by flesh. And that's only a partial revelation. The full revelation of the gracious God with whom we have to do, waits upon the rending of that flesh. And now by the Spirit's ministration, we really see God and we really see who and what Jesus is. There are many Christians who are still trying to know Jesus after the flesh. Paul says, I don't. As a matter of fact, I didn't know him at all after the flesh. And I don't covet children's hymns. I wish I'd been with them there. I don't. I got something better. But more of that later. So, there you have this tabernacle expressive of God's determination to dwell among men. He does so in the person of his son. How wonderful that he wants to dwell among us. But if God was to dwell among them, it could only be on certain conditions. And therefore, we're going to look at a little more detail of this tabernacle and its construction and furniture in order to see how God dwells amongst men and how we can be in touch with him and live in his presence. Hebrews 9. Then verily, the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made, a tent, and there was two compartments. The first wherein was the candlestick, the table, the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, in the revised version, which is called the holy place. And after the second veil, there was a veil at the beginning of the holy place, but when you got in, there was another veil beyond which there was another compartment. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, the holy place, the holiest of all, divided by this veil, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. Every bit of all that was in those two compartments is full of Christ. But, says Paul, I can't go into all that now, and we can't either. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God, but into the second went the high priest alone, and then, once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people, the Holy Spirit, this signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing. Which first tabernacle was a figure or picture of the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation, until the time came when that was fulfilled to which they typified. So, there were those two compartments. They were in and out, the priests were the first all the time. The showbread had to be replaced every day, the candlestick had to be tended, new incense had to be put on the table, etc., etc. In fact, they used to eat in the holy place. It was the privilege of the priests to eat the sacrifices. Certain parts were burnt, others was their food. That was the way in which their sustenance was guaranteed. And the sin offering in particular was always eaten in the holy place. There was a lot going on in and out of the holy place. It was the place of their constant service. But into that second compartment, the holy of holies, only one man was ever allowed to go, and he the high priest. And then, only once in the year, on the great day of atonement, they had the two goats, you remember, in Leviticus 16. They cast lots for the scapegoat. He put his hands upon the head of that scapegoat and confessed the natural sins of the children of Israel upon it, and they took it away and lost it in the wilderness. You see what that typifies, can't you? And then the other was slain. It needed both goats to show the work of Christ for us. And its blood was collected, and it was with that blood, once in the year in the basin, he dared to pull aside that veil and stand in that awesome presence with that great luminosity filling it. He would come with incense to hide his person behind that incense. That too is a picture of Christ. We come in the very righteousness of Christ we don't otherwise stand. And he takes the blood and he sprinkles it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. And then he came out. And that was done once in the year. Now the passage says here, the fact that he only went in once in the year was a signification of the fact that not yet was the way back to God revealed. Men could only get so far in those days. And the fact that he only went once a year, it meant that there was written over it all, not yet. Not yet. All the wonderful saints of God came, they got so far, yes, but God said, not yet. Not yet is the way into the holy of holies of God's immediate presence manifested. But you remember this extraordinary thing. On that day when the dear Lord was crucified on that green hill outside that city wall, the sun hid its face. Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature's sin. There was a great earthquake, the graves were opened, and this significant thing happened. An unseen hand ripped that curtain, that veil that was in the temple, separating the holy of holies from the other part. And it ripped it from the top to the bottom. Maybe the priest went and sewed it up again. But something was done by which the Holy Ghost signified that the way into the holiest was now made manifest. And it was ripped at the very time when the Lord Jesus was saying concerning the work of redemption, of the putting away of sin, it is finished. And now the way into the holy of holies, the immediate presence of God is made manifest. And the feeblest, the most unprivileged, the most failing, if he truly repents, has liberty and freedom to go right into the immediate presence of God and live there all the time in a way that the high priest of old never had. And so we read in chapter 9, carrying on, verse 11, but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that tabernacle, whereas it's a, you see, the types switch around. All right, why shouldn't they? They haven't got to be consistent. Here we saw that the tabernacle is a picture of Christ. Here, Christ is the high priest and the tabernacle is a picture of the presence of God, heaven if you like. But not only heaven up there, heaven down here, wherever God is, is heaven. I tell you, it is rightly understood. And into that place of intimate fellowship we may go. But listen, but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, as of old, but by his own blood, he entered in once for all into the holy place, that holiest of all it means there, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And the Lord Jesus went in by his own blood. And we have that thought again, which we saw yesterday, that not even the Lord Jesus can go back to heaven, back into the presence of God, but by his own blood. He'd been stained with the world's sin. He'd been made sin. He'd become an effigy of sin in a deeper way than is ever true of any man. What can avail to bring him back? The gates of glory are shut against him. But God brought him again from the dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant. Some people say, you know, you ought to leave the message of the blood and go on to the resurrection. But I'm sorry to say the resurrection points back to the blood. The fact that he ever rose again proves there's power in the blood. If Jesus had not paid the debt, he never would have been at But the blood was enough, and he was brought again from the dead. And he went back into glory. Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, and be ye lifted up, for the King of glory entereth in. Who is this King of glory? It's the man of Calvary, and his right to go back to glory is the very blood he shed. He became our shorty. If he becomes responsible for my sins, he can only be set free in his discharged mind, which, thank God, he has for the whole world. And if the Lord Jesus had liberty to go into the holiest, so have I. If the blood availed for him, it certainly will avail for me. And the wonderful thing, he's gone into the holiest. And I think what Stanley Volk said here years ago, he's left the door open for us. Very respectful. And it doesn't matter who or what you are, this is the privilege of the children of God to live continually, without avail, in the place where God is now, where we can bring every need to him, where we can intercede for others, where the power of that endless life is made, put into our hearts. That's where God wants us to live. Every provision is made for that. But alas, we don't always live there. I know I don't always. But God wants us to go on, from living in some other place, the outer court, or even the holy place, to living within the veil, in that place of intimate touch with God all the time. Now, there were three partitions then, in that tabernacle of old. There was the outer court, there was a sort of partition, a curtain, screens if you like, right the way round the whole business. As you went in through the entrance, there's no tent now, just open to the skies, there was the altar made of brass, where the daily burnt offerings were offered, where the sin offering, the peace offerings, and all the offerings were altered on that altar of brass. And by the way, Bible students seem to be agreed on the fact that brass, in typology, is a figure of judgment. And that's a picture of the cross, sin judged. That's what happened at the cross. And the first approach to God is always met by that cross. You must acknowledge the judgment of your sin, that you deserve it, but it was finished there for you. And then as you went in, there was the lava, a big golden bath, where the priests would wash daily, and they went into the holy place. And then, so there was the outer court, and there within the outer court was the tent, which as I say, was divided into two, the holy place, and beyond that second veil, the holiest of all. Do you think it's right? I think it is. I think we can regard those three places as three possible experiences, three places where we can dwell. Of course, there's a fourth, way outside. In sin did my mother conceive me, we're born away from God. But we can come to know the Lord Jesus, we can see our sins judged. Please turn the cassette over now, do not fast wind it in either direction. But we can come to know the Lord Jesus, we can see our sins judged in him, and know the forgiveness of them. And thereafter, it seems to be that one of three places we can live. The first is the outer court. We can be outer court Christians. Where we know something about that brazen altar, we know something about the Lord Jesus dying for us, but that's about all. We don't do much more than that. A boy was asked, was his father a Christian? Yes, he said he is, but he's not working much at it. He's watching the other people do the work, other people being busy, other people going in and out of confidence in the service. He's just content to have made some sort of a profession, and to be able to come to a house party, knows the choruses, he doesn't feel too out of place, he knows the lingo. And he'd say, yes, at a campaign I signed a decision for. Some of us haven't even got as far as that. But we may be there. Then there's the second, and that's the holy place. And that is a place which I know I've been so often in, and not always within the holiest of all. And we can be, we can choose after we're saved, to live in one of three places. Well, not the outer court for me. Alright then, which of the other two? The holy place, or the holiest of all? And it is so easy to spend so much of our time as true believers only in the holy place. Well, what is it like to live in the holy place? Well, it's very grand, it's a great privilege, and there's a good deal of nearness to God. In Hebrews 9 we read, the priests, verse 6, went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. And I would say that the holy place, for many of us, is a place of service. We're busy, we're active in our church, or in one form or another. We're accomplishing the service of God. It goes on to say that in that holy place, verse 9, they were offered both gifts and sacrifices, a lot of gifts and sacrifices. And the Revised Standard Version, in which they performed their ritual duties. Now, that's verse 6, I think, the translation of accomplishing the service of God. They accomplished their ritual duties. I think that's rather suggestive. Do you know what it is to accomplish your ritual duties as a Christian? Your quiet time, though we often slip up a bit, your taking of the Sunday school class, your attendance at the Lord's house, you're going to communion, you're doing the outward motions. Well, in the holy place, we certainly do that, but alas, so often it isn't a lot more. Secondly, in that holy place, we offer, verse 9, gifts and sacrifices which cannot make him that does the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. We're doing a lot, but it doesn't seem to bring us into blessing. We pray, we do all we're told, we take a scripture memorization course, someone said they took a soul-winning course, send in the answers every week and so on. There are lots of things we have the opportunity of doing, follow-up courses, all sorts of things. But they don't seem to make him that does them perfect as pertaining to the conscience. They do nothing to remove the coldness in your heart and the sense of ill at ease in your conscience. All the things we do seem to accomplish nothing to bring us nearer to God in themselves. Not even the communion service in itself brings the heart nearer to God. It does nothing to make him that does them the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. That is the perfection spoken of in Hebrews, perfect as pertaining to the conscience. And you can't have that perfection. A conscience absolutely cleansed, void of offense in which you have boldness in your heart. And thirdly of course there was that veil hanging between those that did the service and the immediate presence of God, something between. May not always be a very thick veil, you can sort of see much, but you haven't quite got the shine, you aren't quite praising, haven't really got an up-to-date testimony. So testimony's got to be way back, down, not as someone says, crisp and tingling with the supernatural. We ought to be. There's a veil, something between. We pray but we don't seem to penetrate it. We try and do some witnessing, doesn't seem to penetrate it. There hangs that veil. And there we can remain for a long time. And I'm not saying it's once for all, I can get there any time. I've preached only in the holy place. Who hasn't? Done much only in the holy place. Something's gone wrong. I'm only in the holy place but I'm going on still with my ritual duties. Now the purpose of the epistle is to encourage us to go on from being in that condition to going within the veil and enjoy the immediate and continual presence and fellowship of God without a veil, where it isn't just a ritual duties, where everything is spirit and life, where Jesus is present and real to us, where he's got something for other people, where he's doing things for us and through us. Oh, we cannot stay to describe what it's like within the veil, but as the old lady said, giving her testimony is better felt than tellt. Now God has made a two-fold provision for our entering within the veil, and we turn for that to Hebrews 10. Verse 19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. The first provision is boldness by the blood. Boldness by the blood. Now those Old Testament priests did not have boldness. They were forbidden to enter in except the high priest, and he didn't have any boldness. He went in fear and trembling. He'd only got to slip up on some point in the ritual, and he might be struck dead for his pains, for having transgressed some important ritual. In fact, tradition says that they always used to tie a rope to his leg, so if he was struck dead, they could pull him out of the holy of holies without having to go in there himself. And this much is certain, that the fringe of his garment had bells on, and they could hear the bells as he moved around. He's alive, our high priest is alive. That's what Francis Ridley Habergle is referring to when she talks about, hear we not, thy golden bells. Our high priest is alive, and he's coming, we can hear by faith the bells. They didn't have boldness, but the feeblest believer has complete boldness and liberty to enter the holy of holies, how? By the blood of Jesus. Having therefore, whenever you have therefore, you've always got to ask yourself, what is it therefore? Well, of course, that therefore goes right the way back through the epistle. It includes at least the last two bible readings. This great high priest, who offered one sacrifice for sins forever, and then, because it was so much and so sufficient, for sins, right on to the end of history, sat down and completed his work. And in the previous verse, he says in verse 18, now where remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin, it's all over. That one sacrifice was sufficient to put the most feeble and capable offender into perfect relationship with God, if you'll only confess where he is and what he is. And so there's the first provision, boldness by the blood. And then, the blood of Jesus is said to be, in verse 20, a new and living way. It's, so to speak, the way, the road into the holiest. I must needs go home by the blood-sprinkled way. There's no other way but this. The blood of Jesus is the way into the holiest. The debt's paid, everything's finished. I have boldness by the blood. And it's consecrated for us. It's consecrated and laid out for failing people. The blood of the Lord Jesus always speaks of sin, but sin finished. When the person says, O Lord, we thank thee for thy blood, we want to come to thee by thy blood, it ought to mean that you're repenting. For the blood has no meaning apart from sin. We'd only shed for that, but it tells us it's finished. And here is a way into the holiest, which is consecrated for people in whom things do go wrong sometimes. But the wonderful thing is, they were all anticipated and settled before they ever went wrong. They haven't taken God by surprise. Their contingency of sin in the Christian is provided for, and it only needs the quick acknowledgement of it and say, God says it's finished. There's the blood. And always the Holy Spirit shows us the meaning of the blood of Jesus. Our boldness and peace can become ineffable. I've heard people pray with an intimacy that's taken away my breath. The things they've said to the Lord. I've heard a man say, Lord Jesus, I feel sometimes I could put my arms around thee and hug thee. Oh, I said, how could he say a thing like that? Do you know how he said it? By the blood. Could a sinner say that? Yes, he can. He was forgiven much last month. And he sees he's forgiven by the blood. Oh, the boldness. You won't have boldness by attainment. Only by the blood. And if you want to know more of God, you must know more of the precious blood of Jesus, and the Spirit can show you that. This is the only way of progress. This is growing in grace. Doesn't say growing in goodness, growing in grace. Grace is an apprehension, a growing apprehension of your sinfulness and of abounding grace to meet it. Oh, to grow in grace is to grow in the apprehension of all that's provided for feeble people like ourselves. Boldness by the blood. And there's a new and living way. You know, there are a lot of new ways, new highways being built. You know, Doncaster? Oh, I tell you, I've lost my peace about Doncaster in the past. It's been one of the great hold-ups. But there's a new and living way now. A wonderful motorway, a bypass. You get past it in no time at all. I wonder which way you're going to God. Threading your way through ritual duties? Threading your way through by the works of the law? Threading your way through by trying to be a better Christian and never succeeding in becoming such? And getting to such despair? Or have you seen as a wonderful quick bypass back to God? It's the blood of the Lord Jesus which tells you it's all done. The veil has been wrapped. The blood has opened it to our gaze. The second provision is a great high priest over the house of God. This too refers us back to all that we've seen. Oh, it is known here as this provision. You might say, well, that's a bit doctrinal, but wait a minute, there's a person there presiding over the holiest. And friend, he is your friend. He's your friend. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows when you get to prayer your mind wanders, you don't know where you are. He knows the coldness. He knows how easy it is to get worried. He knows how hard it is for stiff-necked people to repent. And he loves to stretch out a hand from within the veil to help you in. And you need to make use of him at the blessed mercy seat, pleading for me. Jesus my feeble faith looks up to thee. The great thing is make use of your high priest. Don't try and say, I ought not to feel cold. Just tell him you are. If we concentrate on anything, let's concentrate on telling him where we are and what we are at any given moment. That's what brings him to our side. And this great high priest who's on heaven for us, knows how to stretch out a hand. There's so many things that Satan brings. Sometimes you can't even sort it out, don't know where to repent. Well, tell him you don't. Don't get bound by some formula that you can't fulfill. You just thought, I'm all stuck today. You're no more. I want thee. It won't be very long before he's made it plain. He stretches out a hand. We have a great high priest over the house of God. The veil has been rent, the blood has been shed, the way has been best of all, there's Jesus there. And we ourselves have got to come, it says, in a, well I don't quite know, in a fourfold way or fulfilling four conditions. Anyway, let's read what it says. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter by the blood of Jesus, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near four things. One with a true heart, an honest heart, that's not hiding, that's not pretending, that knows how to tell God where you are at any given moment. I suppose that's what is meant by walking in the light, which shows up everything. Sometimes we do pretend it isn't a true heart, and our public prayers sometimes, we preachers are not always very true, lovely prayers and things aren't right in our hearts. A true heart, that's honest. Oh, the rest of it, just plain honesty to where I am. Lord, I'm in bad shape today. That's the way to come. That's not the way, the thing that keeps you away, it's the thing, the way to come. Lord, this is where I am. A true heart, hiding nothing, learning to know yourself and be able to confess where you are at any given moment. You come with a true heart, that's all he wants. Then we're to come in full assurance of faith, not full assurance of knowledge, having got all the notes of the Bible reading down, that in the hour of need won't bring you into the holiest. Nor are we to come in full assurance of feeling, that's the thing that foxes some of us, I don't feel it. I'm a devil going to accuse you, you don't feel it. It says full assurance of faith, faith that sees and appropriates and believes in that I have a high priest, that the blood is there for me, and this feeling that God's against me is just a lie, he isn't, if I've got an honest heart. It's full assurance of faith, faith in the blood, faith in my high priest, faith in this goodness of God to sinners. Thirdly, with a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience. The centre of the heart is the conscience. If the conscience is wrong, the heart's wrong. If the conscience is right, the heart is right, but the conscience often is wrong. Things of long-standing, never being cleansed and put right. Things that have happened just before you come to the meeting, and they seem to spoil the whole meeting for you, you've got an evil conscience, but God doesn't want you to. Oh, I know he doesn't want me to sin, listen, having sinned, he even then doesn't want you to have an evil conscience, he wants you to know it be cleansed, he doesn't want you to sin, but if it's happened, there's only one thing worse than not been falling, and that's not getting up, and not getting that heart cleansed. Sprinkled from an evil conscience. The priests of old, when they were consecrated, were sprinkled with blood, and the blood of Jesus had to be sprinkled on our hearts, on our consciences, which means you've got to name the thing, confess it. Be honest. Lord, I'm just not sure it is, and what is it? A moment's honesty and you'll know. Bring that to him, and the blood of Jesus as applies to that very thing, for it was shed for that very contingency, a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience. You can't live in the holy of holies if you've got a condemning heart, but the blood of Jesus is the very answer to that. And then it says, our bodies washed with pure water. Well, that of course is an allusion to what the priests did. When they were consecrated, they were sprinkled with blood, but as they went daily into the holy place for their service, they would wash their hands and feet in the lava. That's still done in Muslim mosques, I believe, too, probably a crib from the tabernacle. There's a lot that Mohammedanism has pinched from the Old Testament and from even the New. What does it mean for us, though? The heart is the inner life, the body is the outer life, a body washed with pure water. Not only enough to have been to Jesus for the cleansing power, be washed in the blood of the Lamb, and have lost that condemning heart, but things have got to be put right in our outer life. Someone asked the question once, I saw it somewhere, can a sinner be pardoned and yet retain the offense? The answer is no, he can't. You can't be pardoned for stealing unless you go and pay it back. Someone left this conference only yesterday to do a very costly matter of restitution. It might lead him into prison. We must pray for that brother. Well, the body must be washed with pure water. You can't expect to be in the holy of holies when your brother has ought against you and you're not willing to be the first to go and say, look, that thing I did, I realise it's caused resentment in you, I was wrong. He shouldn't be resentful. But what is he resentful of? Was that thing highest? Could it not have been done in a different way? I remember having to go to the leader of the society in which I was working and put something right. And it's happened often because if we walk with the Lord, these things, as we go on, these things do sometimes happen. And if I want to be continually within the veil, I must be willing to have my body washed with pure water, water there, meaning restitution or repentance. And so we had that. I read somewhere of a man who, in the papers or something, whether it's true or not, or just a joke, but a man who was a bit uneasy about his income tax. He said, I've been able to sleep at night, he said to the income tax collector, sent a long letter, here's the £50 I owe you. And if I don't get a good night now, I'll send you the other £50 later. You've got to go the whole way. God is faithful, he won't let you off. He won't let you down, but he won't let you off, and he won't let me off. And there have been a number of letters written from Abergery, back home or to friends, putting things right. The heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, the body washed with pure water. The holiest is open, by the blood, with our great high priest ready to help us in, kind and sympathetic to our infirmities, and we on our part come with that true heart, full assurance of faith, laying hold of the precious blood, and our body's washed with pure water. Well, we must close there, except this last word. These very next verses have a most terrible meaning. If we sin willfully, after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking forward of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. The very passage that speaks of the holiest open to us, also shows us hell open too. If we sin willfully, after we've received the knowledge of the truth. These Hebrews were the tricks in between, as we've seen. Believing in the Lord Jesus, in some fashion, but hanging on to the old sacrifices. It is after you've received the knowledge of the truth, you can never more hang on to them. There's no more sacrifices, and it's all finished with. You can't go back to what you had before. It made you feel comfy, I'm doing my ritual duties, that's all right. But now you've seen that in Christ they're all finished, says Paul. If you sin now, you can't go back to them. And if you don't go on to Christ, there's nothing more for you, but a fearful looking forward of judgment. And it comes to me to say this last word. We here have received the knowledge of the truth. We sought to proclaim the gospel, to saved and unsaved. And it may be somebody here is going to do nothing about it, hasn't done anything about it. Maybe he saw I'd gone as I was, I was all right, I was decent, now you can't go back. Those were never more availed to give you any more comfort. And if we don't come to the Lord Jesus and give ourselves up and be washed in the blood of the Lamb, and really be saved, there remaineth no more refuge in those old things that you thought availed, but only a fearful looking forward of judgment. You remember that word that he says in this epistle earlier? How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? What have you got to do to neglect something? Nothing. And should there be some who are going to leave our conference tomorrow or next week and they've done nothing, you have neglected this great salvation. And the Bible says, you shall not escape. Dear one, if you do nothing and fail to come to the Lord Jesus for the cleansing power and let him save you, come into your heart, there is no possibility of escape. Judgment is the most certain thing in the world for you, and if you go on doing nothing, I'm afraid we shan't see you in glory. Mother and father there, but that other one not. And all you've got to do is nothing. How shall we escape if we neglect? Not if we reject, if we neglect! And I say again, all you've got to do is nothing to walk straight into the judgment of that ultimate great white throne and hear him say, depart from me, I never knew you. But on the other hand, he not only offers you salvation, but he offers you a proximity to himself, the comforts of his love within the holiest available to the most failing sinner in the world. If only he'll come as he is and see that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin and brings him nigh. God help us if we've never come to come. And those of us who do not know what salvation is, shall we go on from living merely in the sphere of ritual duties, always with something between us and God, to repent and to see the veil wrecked and to come into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we want to thank thee that thou hast done everything possible to bring fearful, self-reproachful, struggling Christians like ourselves within the veil. Thou hast rented, hast made this new and living way perfectly adapted to our failing feet. Only we ask thee for the willingness to be true and honest about ourselves, to come to thee for thy cleansing power, to get rid of that condemning heart, to have our bodies washed with pure water. If there's something we've got to put right, help us to do it today. Maybe something way back or something just in the present. And how we thank thee that the holiest is open for us. We want to thank thee, Lord for Lord, for having done everything thou canst to enable us to rejoice in full liberty. May none of us go on without having come to rejoice in full liberty, have lost every burden and found every problem solved at thy dear feet. And for those of us who are still neglecting this great salvation, oh may we heed thy word of warning, that if we neglect so great salvation, we shall not escape. Lord, if necessary, make thy fear the motive, if not thy love. May it be fear and love that draws us to thee, especially love. We ask this in thy dear name. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.