Entering the Holiest

I want to read with you from Hebrews chapter 10. And we'll begin reading from 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, or he has initiated for us, inaugurated through the veil that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest, having a great priest, or literally, 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, a guilty conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession or the confession of our faith, the faith, without wavering. For he is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke or to stimulate unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting or encouraging one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. That's all I'd like to read, and I trust that we'll encourage our hearts by reading it, and even what we might say about it might be a help to us.

I would take it that these verses commence the practical section of the epistle to the Hebrews. We have been, we could read in the past chapters before this the exposition of the doctrinal aspect of what the writer is seeking to convey to our hearts, and laying before us the great importance of the work of the Lord Jesus, the grandeur of his person, the attractiveness of all that he is, and every evidence that he has been, that he's presenting to them that might draw their hearts out to him and away from all else, especially in the background, no doubt the identification with the religious practices that were connected with the temple and its worship, an ordinance that was passing that had been superseded by the coming of the Lord Jesus and by his final sufficient work of the cross that has ended all sacrifice for sin and made it possible for believers to enter in. The epistle to Hebrews, of course, is an epistle that is full of the presentation of Christ and all of his beauty and all of his importance and all the essential aspects of what he has provided for us.

And he wants these believers, of course, to leave aside everything else that they might be totally identified with him. They might not go back to the old thing, but they might recognize it as a passing, typical arrangement that is now given away to that which is going to endure and last for eternity. Fifteen times the writer uses this word, therefore, and he begins this section by telling them that because of what has been elaborated before and established in his teaching to them, relative to what we've been saying already, the superlativeness of Christ and the complete sufficiency of his work, he says, as a result of this, therefore, he says, we have boldness to enter in.

Now, when I look at these verses, I want to just summarize my thoughts by three little headings, and the first one has to do with the privilege of our priesthood. The privilege of priesthood, verses 19 through verses 22. Then in verse 23, I want to try to bring before us the responsibility of testimony.

And then when you look at verse 24 and 25, we have the activity of our fellowship. Those three things would certainly take in the majority, if not the entirety, of the function of the life of a believer today. An activity that is Godward in relation to being a priest, and the privilege as well of bearing testimony for him and to do so with faithfulness.

And then finally, to recognize our responsibility toward others, to seek to be an encouragement to God's people by life as well as by worth. Now, having established those great truths, he ends that section in verse 18, that where remission of these is, that is the sins and iniquities of verse 17, there is no longer no need for any sacrifice or offering for sin. And so as a result, he says, first of all, that as brethren and believers today, we are to have boldness, to enter into the holiest, the presence of God by the blood of Jesus.

That word boldness indicates the idea of confidence, the absolute assurance that we can come near to God, not with an attitude of carelessness, not with the idea of casualness. We're seeing a lot of casualness today. We don't want to be too hard on our brethren, but really brethren, when we think about coming together as God's people, we need to recognize the need for reverence.

We need to appreciate the privilege that we're coming into the presence of the God of eternity and the God of all heaven. And here we have this confident access, this assurance that we are certain to be accepted. No doubt that as we come before him, we can do so.

And the idea here is not like it is in chapter six, because in chapter six, it's a relation to our need, presenting that at his throne, because we have great needs in our life, don't we? But here it is, the activity of worship. It corresponds to the activity of the priests in the Old Testament. But there they would be primarily, I know it's the high priest and is entering into the holiest once a year on the day of atonement.

But he is emphasizing to us that as believers today, we have something that they never had. We have something they could never have participated in. Were you to have been one of the gentile nations around, you could come to the temple of the tabernacle, but you couldn't enter in.

You had to be an Israelite. But to enter in as an Israelite didn't mean that you could enter into the tabernacle of the temple. You had to be a priest.

But in order to enter into the holiest of all, you had to be the high priest. So it's virtually impossible for anyone in that day to have this great privilege of entering in, as he tells us we have today. We have boldness, or he says, we are to have boldness to enter into the holiest of all, the very presence of God.

What a privilege has been afforded us. What a wondrous opportunity has given us, not only on set occasions when as a people of God, we gather together to carry out functions of the assembly, but this is a activity that you and I can be engaged in as we come to the presence of God with our worship and praise and adoration. We can have boldness.

I hope you have boldness when you think about approaching God. I hope there's no one here as a believer that would have any doubt that we are perfectly and fully accepted before God and all the sufficiency of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. To know that he is there provides for us a certainty that his work has been accomplished and there's nothing to keep us or hinder us, shouldn't be anyway, from coming into the presence of God in worship.

We have a condition expressed there, that is the thought of boldness. We have a privilege to be enjoyed, that is to enter in. We have that opportunity that is afforded us.

And brother, we ought to prize it. We ought to appreciate it. We ought to work.

We ought to genuinely value it. Well, we think of the cost that was paid in order to make it possible. He says, we have boldness as a result of the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus, the precious blood of Christ has made it possible that you and I can enter in.

And who can put a price, who can put an evaluation on that which has made it possible that you and I who are once strangers to grace and to God, you and I who are far from God and had no possibility of access into God's presence without fear of judgment, but now we can enter in by or because of the blood of the Lord Jesus, because of his totally complete sacrifice accomplished for sin is made you and me fit, suitable for the presence of God. That is something that ought to cause us to bow in wonder and to worship God continually in appreciation for what he has accomplished on our behalf, nothing that we deserved, nothing that we could ever possibly merit. Not only is there a privilege enjoyed here, but also a distinction that is indicated.

He says there's a new and living way. We read in Weiss' commentary that that's the idea of a road. It's not a narrow pathway, but it's like a road that is open wide with no restrictions, nothing to hinder and nothing to keep you and me from enjoying this access.

He says it's new. I take it as new because it's totally different from the limited access that was found in the Old Testament. It's new because it is linked with a new dispensation, a new condition of things.

And thank God we're in this present dispensation of grace, having this great privilege to enter in, no restrictions, no limitations, nothing to keep you and me from enjoying the blessedness of offering as it comes into chapter 13, let us offer up the sacrifice of praise continually, the fruit of our lips, confessing his name. That is our privilege. But, brothers and sisters, it's our responsibility as well.

And you notice that it's also a living way. It's not only living because it is that which has conveyed life and is associated with your life that you have in Christ, but it's also because it's centered upon a living person. It's living instead of dead.

It's living in all that characterizes it, that we've been brought near to enjoy this place in the presence of God. What a blessed privilege it is, a new and living road right in the very presence of God. I read this somewhere.

I don't know if it connects with what I have in my mind or not, but I'm going to tell you because it comes to my mind. Maybe you shouldn't say everything that comes to your mind, but nevertheless, it had to do with the open side of the Lord Jesus. And perhaps it's just an application, but that's all right.

But in Africa, there was a native believer there that was asked something in connection with the pierced and open side of the Lord Jesus. He says what that has done is it's opened up a highway right to the heart of God. I like that expression.

I don't know if it's theologically correct or not, but it certainly is warming to think that we have access right in the very presence, right to the heart of God. As a result of the work of the Lord Jesus, a new and living road right in the presence of God today. He says it's consecrated.

It's initiated for us. It's been inaugurated. He has put it into play.

He's brought it into reality. Thank God he himself did that. Only he could have done that.

He has brought it to pass and you and I can enter in and enjoy this privilege. It's through the veil. Now you come to a difficult passage, but I'll just tell you, I know that there are different interpretations of this passage.

Well, I just simply would suggest to you that what the writer is telling us is that we have access through the veil that is through his flesh. I don't think we should bring the idea of the rent veil in this. It's not the rent veil.

The veil is his flesh. And just as the veil was the means by which the high priest entered into the holiest in the old Testament, it's by means of the humanity of the Lord Jesus as one who came from God out to men and accomplished the work of redemption and has sanctified his people in chapter two and has brought us near. It's as a result of that great purpose that God had in his humanity that we are able to enter in by means of the one who gave his life at Calvary, by means of the one who laid down that life and perfect sacrifice and completed the work for God.

Now we can enter in as a result of that because that's where he is today. You and I have such a great privilege. We have a link that's established in these passages.

Not only a distinction indicated, but a link established. It's a great priest. It's not a high priest in this passage correctly.

It's a great priest. I take it as great. He's great because he stands superior to all others.

He stands great because he is a king and a priest. He's a priest in the presence of God, a king upon the throne, and he's great far beyond all measure and nothing that can possibly be compared with him. We have one who is great.

And let me tell you, brethren, I think that in our own minds he ought to be far greater than he is. Would to God that his greatness overwhelms our hearts and souls, that we might be totally impressed with the greatness of our Lord Jesus and to appreciate a deep reality, a deep sense of our own dependence upon him as well as the privileges that have been given us, what he's accomplished on our behalf and what he is for us in the presence of God. The Old Testament priests, you remember, had their function because of the relationship to the high priest.

Because of what he was and who he was, they were able to function in the presence of God. In the light matter, you and I have this access, this privilege today because of the one that we're identified with, our sacrifice and our priest. But he mentions four requirements.

I need to quickly look at them. I don't want to take all the morning. It's a grand subject and it's wonderful to think about.

He says there are four conditions that are connected with this. He says, first of all, we are to draw near with a genuine heart, a heart that is sincere. This word seems to convey the idea of gladness.

It indicates the thought of freedom. In some way, it suggests the idea of enthusiasm. You know, dear brother, when I think of the privilege of drawing near to the presence of God, I believe it's not something in any way that we should become complacent or become, as it were, taking it for granted.

We're to act as if it is ours for sure without any question, but to do so with genuine thanksgiving to God, genuine reality. The Father seeketh worshipers. Those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth.

Reality is what he's looking for. And you and I are to draw near with a genuine heart, one that is faithful, one that is true. And he says in full assurance of faith, that is indicating a heart that is based upon absolute confidence in God, full assurance of his promises, that what he has promised he is faithful also to fulfill.

Full assurance of faith. Hearts sprinkle from an evil conscience. A number of times you can find in this epistle that he deals with the subject of the conscience.

He says if those sacrifices of the Old Testament would have affected the work, then the conscience would have been cleansed. It would have had no more continual sense of sin. He says it never could do that.

But you and I as God's people today can enjoy the fact that our hearts have been sprinkled from an guilty conscience, an evil conscience, a conscience defiled by sin, a conscience that has been made clean and fit that gives us a certainty of acceptance before God. And then he talks about the body washed. And I do not believe in any way this pertains to baptism, although many books that are written on Hebrews would tell us that this is a indication or at least a reference in an indirect way to baptism.

I personally believe it indicates that there's a complete cleansing that is so entire. It has not only affected my heart, but it's also affected my life. Total cleansing.

You remember the priests in the Old Testament, they were sprinkled with the blood. They were washed in the water. They were made fit for their service before God in a corresponding way.

You and I have received the value of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. And we have been fit for the presence of God in a cleansing like the Lord Jesus refers to in John chapter 13, he that is washed or bathed, he is not saved to wash his feet. Thank God we are made fit for God's presence. This is the privilege of worship.

This is the privilege of priesthood. And the thought that I have before I leave this is, do we in truth appreciate and do we exercise ourselves in a spiritual way as priests before God? That comes first in the order here. That comes first in the life of a believer.

That comes first in God's purposes for you and me. Priesthood worship comes before servants. Life flows out of that worship.

And we find here that we can enter in as worshipers presenting the sacrifice of praise and extolling the name of the person of the Lord Jesus. We have this privilege. I wonder sometimes if we would ask ourselves honestly, when was the last time when in reality I entered into the presence of God? When was the last time I knew in a genuine way that I was in God's presence presenting to him the person of Christ and extolling his blessed name? Brethren, it's not formality.

It's not going through the motions. It's not a matter of just doing it because of routine. This is the work that God by the Spirit produces that comes from the heart that results in praise and adoration to the Lord Jesus.

So there are conditions that are necessary for this to be the enjoyment of God's people. God has provided his side of it, so to speak, and we have a responsibility to maintain those conditions of life that cause us to have this liberty. Verse 23, very quickly, the responsibility of testimony.

You notice what he says in his second exhortation, not only drawing near, but he says, let us hold fast. That word hold fast seems to indicate the idea of having a firm grip upon it, not allowing it to slip away, not in any way permitting that which has been confessed from the heart to lose its effectiveness in the life. He says, let us hold fast to confession.

The word really is the idea of a confession instead of just profession, but it's a profession of the hope. I think more literally it's the idea of the hope. We have three essential aspects of a believer's life in these verses.

We have the faith, first of all, full assurance of faith, and we have the hope in this verse, and verses following we have love. Faith, hope, and love. He's going to develop those three themes when you come to chapter 11, 12, and 13, because chapter 11 deals with faith.

You come to chapter 12 and he's going to deal with the hope. You come to chapter 13, he's going to deal with the love. Let brotherly love continue.

So here are the three essential features of a believer's life, and he says there's a holding fast to confession. No, there are always things in our life that are in danger of slipping away. They're in danger of being let go.

There was a time when in the assembly in Ephesus they had a fervent love for the Lord Jesus. The Lord has to come to them in Revelation 2 and he charges them with the fact that they had abandoned their first love, indicating it was not only a casual thing that had happened over time, but it was a deliberate act. There are things that you and I have that we have professed, perhaps things that go back years in your life.

Some of us have been saved longer than others. There can be a tendency to drift away from them, to allow them to lose their power and their effectiveness in the life, to guard us and to keep us. He said let us hold fast with a tight grip upon it.

The confession of the hope without wavering, without leaning to one side or the other is the idea of the word, without allowing ourselves to be deviated and to be detracted from the work that we're, the purpose that we're supposed to maintain. What to do is to hold fast. What not to do is the wavering, and in this case I'm sure that it applies to the possibility of them returning to what they had once abandoned, going back to the practices of the religion that they had been raised in.

What they were to, why were they to continue? What would enable them to continue in this profession? He is faithful, that promised. You notice it doesn't talk about our faithfulness. We're so unfaithful.

A number of times the word of God reminds us of the faithfulness of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 9, against the background of the unfaithfulness of God's people there in the assembly in Corinth, he says, God has called you into the fellowship. He is faithful who has called you into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

He wants to remind them at the outset of a God who has never failed to complete his word, or failed in the accomplishment of his promise. Chapter 10 and verse 13, he reminds them again that God is faithful who will not allow you or suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And then again he reminds the believers in Thessalonica in chapter 5 and verse 24 of a faithful God, as well as in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 3, against the background of a world of unfaithfulness, and the existence of a measure of unfaithfulness in you and me.

How good it is to be able to rest upon the fact that we have a God that is absolutely faithful. That enables us to hold fast. That enables us to maintain this testimony.

That's what enables us to go on in the anticipation of the hope being fulfilled. And so the result is when we apply this to ourselves, that our testimony is to demonstrate fidelity to Christ. We are to have lives that are consistent with what we profess or what we professed at one time.

And we have to be careful that the truth of God that we once claimed to have convictions about is not being abandoned or not allowing other things to substitute for it. Last of all, just briefly, he speaks in verse 24 and 25 of the activity of fellowship. The privilege of priesthood, the responsibility of testimony, now the activity of fellowship.

Notice what he says in verse 24, let us consider one another. I think that is similar to what we read in Philippians chapter 2 where he speaks about the believers. He says, look not every man on his own things, but on the things of others, that which pertains to the welfare of others.

Now he says, let us consider one another. Now that's not to consider one another with a critical attitude. That's not to consider one another so as to judge other believers, but it's to consider one another to seek to recognize their need and how we can be a help to them and a blessing to them.

Our activity is to consider one another, he says, to provoke. Well, you know, provoke can be in a bad sense as well as a good sense. You and I may be provoked in a wrong way, incited to do something or say something that we shouldn't say.

Well, the idea of this word is to incite other believers or stimulate them for the purpose of love and good works. Two demonstrations of the reality of Christian experience and what we profess, love toward God's people, love for the sinners, love for the Lord Jesus, and the good works that flow out of that, works that are not based on legalism, works that are not based on Old Testament law keeping, works that are the result of a heart that is that is longing to bring honor of the Lord Jesus and be a means of blessing to others. He says, let us consider one another.

That word indicates an attentive, continuous care for others, to be aware of their spiritual state, and to be conscious of the needs and how we can be instrumental in the hand of God to minister blessing to them. Then he says, not only our activity toward fellow saints, but our activity or our attendance in relation to the assembly. He says, not forsaking the assembly, the gathering of ourselves together as a matter of summons.

Likely he's referring to the fact that in the difficulty of the circumstances they were facing, pressures upon them from those friends, neighbors, and the family that was still adhering to the old practices of the temple. He says, there were those who were abandoned. It cost them too much, too much in the way of difficulty.

Things that had come in their minds and their lives that caused them to decide perhaps in their own attitude that it's not worth it. And so they had forsaken the assembling of themselves together. Sometimes it doesn't take very much for a believer to forsake the assembling with the saints of God.

Sometimes it can just be a decline in their spiritual exercise. Sometimes it can be because they're expecting to come to the assembly to receive instead of to seek to give. Sometimes it can be because conditions are difficult and they can be difficult.

But the exhortation to each one of us, regardless of circumstances or conditions of life, don't forsake, don't abandon the regular assembling of yourselves together. And that is not only on the Lord's day morning, brethren. Sorry, that's not the only meeting the assembly.

That's not the only time when the Lord is there. That's not the only time when we are together with the Lord's people. Whenever the saints come together as much as possible, unless there are genuine hindrances, we should seek to be there.

And I believe with all my heart, like the psalmist in the writing in the Psalms, he could say that, he said, I was glad when they said to me, let us go up into the house of the Lord. His longing desire was to be there with the saints of God to receive from them, but also to give to them. But most of all, to give to the Lord and worship and praise.

Don't, he says, abandon, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. It may be that you see others that don't attend to the meetings in the assembly like they used to. Don't become like them.

You may look at others and they have excuses for why they don't come to the assembly gatherings. Maybe you can find excuses yourself, but the exhortation is still the same. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

Don't follow the pattern of others. Don't follow the example of those who are failing to go on in faithfulness for God. No, he says, you go on.

Personal responsibility as a manner of some is, he says, so much the more as you see the day approaching. Another difficult verse, another part of the verse. Of course, I know that there are those who would say that this day refers to the day of the Lord, and perhaps it does.

I know that Mr. Flanagan and others, I've thought this a number of years, really seem to indicate that it refers to the day when all this worship connected with the temple, all the activities of that religious ritual, were all going to be destroyed when the temple was destroyed in AD 70. Be that as it may, we don't look to the temple to be destroyed, but we're not really looking to the day of the Lord, but we have a day that is approaching, and that is a day that will end our service, our sphere here in this world. We're looking for the Lord to come.

We're looking for that moment when what we are occupied with today is only, as it anticipates the future, will give way to the reality of being in his own presence. Whatever the context might mean in this passage, so far as that day that was approaching, he is certainly exhorting them in view of the imminence of the day, the reality that it is coming, and as a result of it, they themselves should not abandon or forsake the principles and the practices that are so essential and so important to the honoring of the Lord Jesus. So we have in this little passage the privilege of priesthood.

May God help us, brethren, to appreciate and to exercise ourselves in a spiritual way continually, and the offering up of sacrifice of praise, entering in a genuine sense in the presence of God, the responsibility of our testimony. Don't waver. Don't become uncertain.

Don't allow yourself to be influenced by the standards and the voices of the world around us. No, he says, hold fast the profession of the hope without wavering. And not only that, he says, consider one another.

Continue on in the things of God. May God help us in this conference to be encouraged and exhorted as well as instructed that this might be the case in our lives until the Lord comes.