Draw Near with a Sincere Heart
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[00:00:00] Hebrews chapter ten, we're gonna read verses 19 to 25, so I'm gonna ask you to stand one last time, or one more time. And, uh, Hebrews 10:19-25, and again, hear this for what it is, the words of the living God. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh.
Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast [00:01:00] the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and obedience to his word. Please be seated.
So we come to a, uh, pivotal, a significant, uh, spot in the epistle to the Hebrews because what the writer is going to begin to do, he does it slowly, but he's gonna begin to do it, he is going to start to transition to more exhortation, to more encouragement. He's laid the theological groundwork, so to speak, and with this verse we come upon [00:02:00] three exhortations.
And just so you know, so you know where we're going, so you know what today is all about, and, uh, it's about drawing closer to God. So I would simply ask you this question as begin, as we begin today's sermon: Do you want to draw closer to God? Is that a desire that you have? Do you want a stronger relationship with God?
The writer of Hebrews begins to spell this out. He's laid the groundwork, he's laid all the theology, and now he's about to transition, much like the apostle Paul does in all of his epistles. So number one on your outline, and there are several things in the bulletin. You have a sermon outline. You have some extra notes.
I gave you an outline of chapter 10. But number one on your outline, have confidence and draw near. Have confidence and draw near. And kids, on your handout, these first two verses, verses 19 and 20, uh, it's a fill-in-the-blank, so you wanna fill in some, some work. So I'm gonna read verses [00:03:00] 19 and 20, and then we'll back up and I'll, I'll give you some more detail.
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence," literally we have boldness, we have courage, we have literally fearlessness, "to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new," and the word here means something that previously didn't exist, "by a new and living way, which He inaugurated," He started. Some commentators translate this word, He opened for us, "through the veil, that is, His flesh."
So a couple of comments on this verse, and the first word that should pop out at you is the word brothers, brethren. And the reason that should pop out at you is because the book of Hebrews, and we've looked at some of them, we're gonna look at another one next week, but the book of Hebrews is full [00:04:00] of these warning passages.
It's full of these warning passages, and as we've looked at some of the previous ones, and one of the biggest ones is Hebrews Chapter 6, Verses 4 through 8. It has those words, "And then having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."
And so many of us, we, we go to texts like this, and we think we can lose our salvation, and I hope that I've done an adequate job to demonstrate that the author of Hebrews did not believe that. The author of Hebrews believed that it was impossible to lose your salvation if Christ died on the cross for your sins.
But apostasy is real, and we learn that in this book, and apostasy is leaving the covenant, is making a profession of Christ and then walking away from that profession. And we'll look in a little bit more detail next week. We've looked at it in the past, but we'll, we'll review, we'll cover it again next week when we get to the next warning passage.
But he refers to [00:05:00] them as brethren. He treats them as believers. You see, not even the apostles had some magic insight to who was elect and who wasn't. And so they treated the congregation, they treated those who profess Christ as a brother in Christ. But not only that, he identifies with them. He says, "Brothers, we have confidence."
So he identifies himself with the people that he's writing to. We have confidence, and what is the confidence that we have? To enter the holy place. To enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ. And again, he's gone through pains to demonstrate this didn't happen in the Old Testament. There was one exception once a year where only the high priest could do it, and even then it would have been done in much fear and trembling.
But we are to have confidence. We are to have courage. We are to be excited about, and here's where the rubber meets the road, we should be excited about developing our relationship with God, about [00:06:00] getting closer to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, about living a life that's pleasing to Him. But as we read these words, I think it's important to understand, if we're going to understand these words correctly, that the author has also taken great pains to paint the superiority of Jesus.
Something new has happened. He has taken great pains to present the superiority of Jesus, the superiority of the new covenant. And what I want you to just percolating in the back of your head is he's also gone back and forth comparing what happens on earth, what happens at the earthly sanctuary, and what takes place in heaven.
And I think, I honestly believe he's painting a very clear picture. Something new is here. Something that the Old Testament saints did not experience the same way you and I now experience. They do now, but I think the author's telling us something new is here. Something is superior is here. Something [00:07:00] has begun with Jesus.
He inaugurates it. He starts it, and we are the privileged recipients. He says, "By a new and living way which he opened up for us through the veil, that is, his flesh." And if you remember the context of Hebrews, if you remember because he's mentioned this veil before, this would have been the second veil in the temple.
This would have been the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place where the priests entered day after day after day after day, and the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could enter once a year. And this is a new and a living way which Jesus started. Literally, Jesus began.
This word new means it didn't exist prior to Christ. Jesus inaugurated it. Jesus started it, and it takes place through the veil, that is, his flesh. And I find this to be very interesting language. As I said, it's that veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, and it was a barrier. [00:08:00] But with Jesus, it becomes an opening.
It becomes a doorway. And I find it interesting because the writer of Hebrews has already identified Christ with the mercy seat. I've shared that several times now. Christ is identified as the one who made propitiation, who satisfied the wrath of God. But that word propitiation is the same word in the Old Testament that would have identified the mercy seat.
He is the mercy seat. He is the throne of God Himself. He is the place where satisfaction takes place, and now he's identified as the veil. And the veil used to block entrance, but now because of the death of Jesus Christ, he's opened up a new way. And so he's the veil. Other comparisons that the writer of Hebrews has made, Jesus is the two goats on the Day of Atonement.
He's the scapegoat. He's also the goat that's sacrificed. Later in chapter 11, he's the Lamb of God that is given at Passover. Jesus fulfills all of what the old covenant system couldn't do, all of what the [00:09:00] old covenant system merely pointed to. He also brings up the fact, and we could, we could pass over this easily, but he brings up the f- the fact of the incarnation.
And hopefully you remember he first brought it up in chapter 2. He brought up the fact that Jesus became incarnate, and he became incarnate because he doesn't come to the aid of angels. He comes to the aid of man. So for instance, Hebrews 2:14, "Since the children share in flesh and blood, he," Jesus himself, "likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil."
So it was Jesus' flesh, and it was the ripping of His flesh, the tearing of His flesh on the cross, and He opens up this new and powerful way. And so in verse 21, the author says, "Since we have this great High Priest," since we have a High Priest is that is [00:10:00] superior to any high priest, including Melchizedek, who's ever walked on the face of the earth.
And I just want you to stop for a minute because again, it's so easy to take it for granted. Jesus Christ, God Almighty, the eternal second person of the Godhead, became incarnate to die for you. And if you ever get tired of hearing that, if that ever sounds blasé to you, fall on your knees and ask for help, because every time you hear it, it should blow your mind.
And He's been given to us as head over the church. The author of Hebrews puts it this way, "We have a great High Priest over the house of God." So now he begins with his first exhortation. It's not the first exhortation of the entire book, but [00:11:00] it's the first exhortation here. "Let us draw near. Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith."
And he gives three different exhortations here, and it's... Again, the language is really interesting. "Let us draw near in full assurance of faith," that's verse 22. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope," verse 23. And then in verse 24, "Let us consider how to motivate one another to love and good works."
And I don't know if you caught it, faith, hope, and love, the three Christian virtues that we, we tend to speak about a lot. Faith, hope, and love is how he breaks up these exhortations. So he begins with, "Let us draw near." And the word is very simple. It simply means approach. It means to come toward. It is drawing near to God.
So here's the question, and this is number two on your outline, and this is where I want to spend the majority of the time: How do we draw near? How do we draw near to God? [00:12:00] And I think the author here gives us six ways that we draw near. So again, I ask, do you want to have a closer relationship with God?
Do you want to have a better relationship with God? He's gonna tell us how we do this. So he begins, and he begins, so to speak, from the human side. He begins from the side that sounds like our responsibility, and, and it is, but more to say about that. He says, "Let us draw near with a sincere heart." And literally, this, this word for sincere is true.
Let us draw near with a true heart. And one commentator put it this way. He's asking us to draw near with genuine singleness of purpose and dedication. Is that how you treat your relationship with God? Is that how you treat everything you do? Everything I do, it doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter if it's work, it doesn't matter if it's parenting, it doesn't matter if it's being a [00:13:00] husband, everything I do, I do with genuine singleness of purpose and dedication to God.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard my wife speak to both of our children, especially when they were a little bit younger and, you know, they're graduating college and they're thinking about what they want to do, and, and Stacy would often say to them, "We don't care what you do," in the sense that do what makes you happy, do what's, what's pleasing to you, do what you're passionate about.
It- That's... Yeah, I would've liked my son to be a fireman, but hey, you know, break your father's heart. I get over it. But do what makes you happy. But my wife would always a- add, "This is what we care about. Do it to the glory of God. No matter what you do, no matter what you choose in this life, do it to the glory of God.
Do it with genuine singleness of purpose and dedication." We draw near with a true heart, and the interesting thing is this word translated [00:14:00] true, it often in scripture describes Jesus. It's that kind of truth. It's that kind of absoluteness. Jesus is the true one. It's used to describe the Father. The Father is that who is true.
So for instance, in 1 John 5:20, "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him," referring to the Father, "that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ." This is the true God and the eternal life, and it's the same word used of us, that we are to approach God with unwavering truthfulness in our heart, with unwavering dedication.
And yes, this is the human side of the equation, but if you're honest with yourself, you might be thinking right now, "I can't do this. I can't do it. There's so much sin in my [00:15:00] life. I can barely dedicate myself to earthly things. How do I do this? How do I dedicate my life in this manner to God?" And if you're thinking those thoughts, you're right.
You can't. But that's not the end of the story. So that's the first way, uh, on your outline. Kids, on your outline as well, there's some fill-in-the-blank things, but the first way we draw near is with a sincere heart. The second way that we draw near is in full assurance of faith. And again, we're still talking about human responsibility.
So let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. In full assurance of faith. And the same commentator that I quoted earlier, Philip Edghill Hughes, by the way, I would recommend his commentary on Hebrews to anyone.
But he says this idea of full assurance of faith, it has the idea with firm and unwavering trust. [00:16:00] Do you trust God? Do you trust God with everything? Do you consider trials, when trials come, and they will come, and just so you know, God will bring them your way because He loves you, but you consider them with all joy because you have unwavering trust in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Full assurance of faith. And again, if you're honest, but my faith wavers. My faith wavers so often. Listen to the words of Colossians 2:2. Paul is praying for them that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from full assurance, same word, full assurance of understanding, resulting in true knowledge of God's mystery, that is Christ Himself.
Do you strive to know Christ? Do you strive to know Him faithfully? Do you [00:17:00] strive to know Him truthfully? And again, if you're honest, the answer is no. You don't have the ability to do that. But the author continues, and let me just jump to the, to the end, and then we'll go back and look at it. God has prepared you to do this.
God has made it so that you can do this. God has made it so that you can rely on His Holy Spirit who dwells within you and never leaves you. Yes, you will exert effort. Yes, you will exert human effort and power, and you'll strive to do these things, but you fall back and you start on the foundation of what God does first, and that's what the third way of approaching Him brings to our attention.
And the third way of approaching Him is knowing that our hearts are sprinkled clean and our bodies washed. And the language here speaks of regeneration, speaks of God creating new life on your behalf. God brings you to new life. God [00:18:00] empowers you. God places His Holy Spirit in you. God rewrites His law upon your heart in a way that you want to obey it, you want to do it.
God gives you all the tools that you need. He's given you a love letter of s- 66 books.
But this is regeneration. This is the same kind of language that we see in Jesus, and maybe the most famous passage is when Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. And I want you to listen to these words because Jesus makes it very clear this must happen first, and then when it does, other things happen. So in John chapter three in verse three, Jesus answers Nicodemus and He says to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
And I believe a better translation of the word there is unless one is born from above. Unless God does something first, unless God first acts in our life, we [00:19:00] can't even see the kingdom in the sense of comprehend it, in the sense of comprehending, how would I ever get in? In the sense of comprehending a desire to get in.
We must first be born from above. And then in verse five, again Jesus answers Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." And this is Jesus' use of similar words to being sprinkled and washed. We must first be sprinkled by God, and we must first be washed by God.
And I don't think, if you're honest with the text, I don't think you can miss this. In the background is baptism. In the background is spiritual baptism. But our actual physical baptism should picture spiritual baptism, and it's interesting He describes it as sprinkling and washing. Listen to how Ezekiel describes it.
We've already read some of these passages, but listen to the words of Ezekiel in chapter 36 beginning in verse 25. [00:20:00] "Then I," Yahweh, "I act first, and apart from my action you will not respond. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart." and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit, typically referred to as the third person of the Trinity. I will put my Holy Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.
You see, the writer of Hebrews is very clear. The way we approach God is knowing that God did something first, knowing that God has prepared us for this, knowing that God has enabled us for this. And this is what [00:21:00] baptism pictures. It's a washing. It's a cleansing. Even Jesus' baptism, he goes into the water, he's washed, he comes back up on shore, and the Holy Spirit descends upon him.
Throughout the scriptures, this washing is always tied to the work of the Holy Spirit. And so if we're going to draw near to God, we must rely on the fact, we must trust in the fact that we have been born from above and we have been given the tools that we need. And he goes on and he says that our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.
And that's an interesting phrase and it's interesting the way he uses it because hopefully you'll remember the way the author has used this word conscience up to this point is basically a conscience that reminds you of sin, reminds you that you're guilty. So if he's using it in the same way, and likely he is, he refers to that kind of a conscience as an evil conscience.
Again, [00:22:00] something new happened with Jesus. In the Old Testament, it may not have been considered an evil conscience because they needed to be reminded as Paul makes clear in Galatians. But now that Jesus has died, we ought not be hampered by an evil conscience that says we're still lost in our sins. We're still guilty before God.
Not if we have faith in Christ Jesus. Not if we understand the finished work of Jesus Christ. The reformers used to say that we can actually have infallible assurance of faith. Are you walking with Jesus right now? Do you love Jesus right now? Then don't be afraid. Know that you're saved. Know that your sins are forgiven because it is always in the right now.
Because you have been born from above. You have been sprinkled clean. So number four, how do we draw near? It's the second exhortation. Hold fast our confession. Hold fast the [00:23:00] confession of our hope. In verse 23, the author writes, let us hold fast, literally adhere firmly to something. It's the confession of our hope.
So we are to hold fast, hold firmly to, believe, understand. That which we believe, that which w- brings us hope, the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And again, this idea of holding fast, it's used in Romans 7:6 as being slaves to the law. It is a vice grip hold. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, "If you wanna draw close- closer to God, then hold fast the confession that brings you hope."
But here's my question: Do you know your worldview? Do you know the Christian worldview? We just got done doing a, a parenting class here, and I can't tell you how [00:24:00] many... And I always read new books whenever I, I teach a parenting class. Most of the books coming out right now are horrid. Most of the books coming out right now must reject the Christian worldview to make their points.
So I ask, do you know your worldview? You see, I used to teach at the college level. I, I taught at a couple different universities, but I would teach ethics and philosophy. And I would always begin my class, uh, the first assignment that my students would get is, "You need to write out your worldview." And I'd give them seven questions, and they, they come from a book, uh, the author's name is James Sire, and the questions are in your bulletin, by the way.
So if you open up your bulletin and you look at that handout, you'll see the seven questions. Because I'm sending you with homework, and the homework is I want you to ask these questions of yourself. Do you know your worldview? Do you know the confession of your hope? Because it goes deeper than just, "I believe in Jesus."
It goes deeper than just, "I've accepted Christ into [00:25:00] my life." Do you know your worldview? And I- anyway, I would give the students this assignment, their first assignment, they'd have to answer these questions, and even my Christian students would mess it up. And I told them, uh, "If you do the assignment, you get 100% because you're gonna have more red ink on this assignment than any other assignment you ever do in any of my classes," because I would point out all the contradictions.
Do you know your worldview? So let me just g- rehearse the seven questions, because again, I'm going to exhort you, I'm going to encourage you, go home and talk about these things. Do you truly know what you believe? So the first question is, what is prime reality? What is the really real? And the Christian answer is God, but can you describe God?
How many attributes could you write out of God? How many attributes could you explain of God? What is God? Can you explain the Trinity? You see, that's our worldview. What is the nature of external reality that is the world around us? [00:26:00] Did God create or was it some chance evolutionary happening? What do you believe that the scriptures teach?
What is a human being? What do we consist of? Are we body, soul? Are we living souls? Do we have body, soul, and spirit? I mean, how do you understand the components of man? Are we ethical? What about free will? How far does that extend? Do you know your worldview? What happens to a person at death? And this is where most of my Christian students would mess it up, because basically you go to heaven.
Your body goes in the ground, your soul goes to heaven, your spirit goes to heaven. Nobody ever mentioned the resurrection. That's our hope. That's what we're waiting for. The intermediate state... I had one of my professors, the intermediate state is an ab- is a, an absurd, irrational state because we're in heaven without our bodies, and yet most of my students miss that.
What happens to a person at death? Why is it possible to have knowledge? [00:27:00] And you see, that's a, that's an important one. Most of you homeschool, and most of you are teaching your kids that you can't understand the world apart from Jesus Christ. The unbeliever rejects that, so how do they come to knowledge?
Well, the answer is found in Romans chapter 1. How do we know what's right and wrong? Do you have a Christian ethic? Do you understand your Christian ethic? Where does your Christian ethic come from? Do you compromise? Do we buy into what the world says? Because I can't tell you how m- how many Christian books that are coming out today buy in to worldly knowledge, deceptive knowledge, non-Christian, anti-Christian knowledge, and they're trying to instruct Christians.
And ultimately, what is the meaning of history? What is reality all about? Because again, most often it's about me, it's about my life, it's about me getting to heaven. No. Reality is all about the glory of God and everything else is secondary. Do you know the confession of your hope? [00:28:00] Because we're to hold strongly.
Fifth, the writer of Hebrews says, "Stimulate one another to love and good deeds." So the first question you should be asking is, that important to you? Do you love others? And let me just tell you right now, it's hard. It's hard to love other people. It really is. Sometimes it's hard to love our own family, and we need to repent from that, and we need to work on it, and we need to stimulate.
And literally, the word means to rouse to activity, to provoke, to inspire, to motivate to love and good works. And the Greek word translated love is here, love here, and most of you know it, it's agape. And we've talked about this in the past. I'll simply refresh your memories. And if you can find this, by all means show me, because I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
Typically, we hear this word agape and we think it means unconditional love. I have not found a [00:29:00] single Greek lexicon that defines it that way. It just means love. Now, how is it used in scripture? Again, it's not used unconditionally. Covenants come with conditions. The reason God loves us is because Jesus fulfilled all those conditions.
The way I see it used in scripture is it is sacrificial love. Okay? We've talked about that Hebrew word hesed. I told you that's one of those words you might wanna remember. It's God's loving kindness. And I'm just gonna be honest with you, I cannot find-- There, it might be there, 'cause I haven't done an in-depth study, but so far I haven't found one place where the Greek translation translates hesed by agape.
But as I understand the two words, they seem very equivalent to me, the way it's used, the usage of the word. Do you love one another? Have you considered, have you thought carefully about how I might stimulate others to love? How maybe my example of love might motivate [00:30:00] others to love? How my good works would motivate others to work?
And I just wanna give a few examples because I do want today to be practical. Do you practice hospitality? Because hospitality is one of the chief ways of loving others, of doing good, and motivating others to love and good deeds. Do you have people to your house? Do you have people that you're uncomfortable with to your house?
You see, we're commanded, not just the elders of the church, but we're all commanded to practice hospitality. And believe it or not, if you break down the word hospitality, it literally means to love strangers. So it's not something that we just practice inside the church, although it should begin there, but have you had any of your unbelieving neighbors over?
Do you have a relationship? And I know it's hard in Bonners because we can be separated by acres. But have you even tried to meet your [00:31:00] unbelieving neighbors? The men have started something, and the elders had nothing to do with this, but the men have started something on Saturday mornings that I think illustrates this well, and they pick at least one Saturday a month, and they've started reaching out to people, and if you need help with something, they wanna come over, and they wanna help you with that.
I think that's a fine example of this. I've asked you to make freezer meals for the Hillsons, and you ladies are great at this, and I am not trying to manipulate. This is-- You're just great at it. You've been great in the past, and I expect greatness in the future. We take care of one another, and we motivate people.
We motivate each other to love and good works. This speaks of unity in the body. Do you love one another? John thirteen, thirty-five: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Which as an aside, that is why I'm involved with the other pastors in this city. We do [00:32:00] not agree theologically.
You can attend a meeting and just listen to how we pray, and it's very obvious that we do not agree theologically, but I love these men. Because in their heart of hearts, I know they love Christ Jesus, and I know they want to do the right thing, and I know they strive to understand the, the scriptures. But until we love one another, until we build unity with one another, we can't talk about the differences.
What about forgiveness and reconciliation? And again, that's hard, and I'm just-- I-- This is a sermon in and of itself, so I can only say a few things. But I will say this as a, not so much a warning, but be careful. Often forgiveness and reconciliation is a two-way street. We can still forgive, but not all forgiveness leads to permanent or even complete reconciliation, not in this world, and I think there's plenty of scriptural [00:33:00] references that can demonstrate that.
But I will tell you this, I can't tell you how many people have left this church, how many people have left other churches I've attended because of a misunderstanding and a lack of desire to go talk to somebody. You hear something, it offends you. Instead of going to the person and figuring out what was said, people leave, and oftentimes what we think we heard is not what we heard.
And let's face it, every... well, most weeks, I spot-check the sermons. I'll go back and I'll, you know, listen to thirty seconds, fast-forward fifteen minutes, just make sure everything's working right, the sound's right, everything looks right. And I don't know if it's just God's way of humbling me or what, but no matter how random I am, I always catch a spot where I've misspoken, where I said the wrong word or the wrong name.
I preached an entire sermon about, uh, who was it? Hosea being [00:34:00] in the belly of the fish. If I ever do this here, gently raise your hand and correct me, okay? It was Jonah, apparently. Hosea may have been. Maybe it's not really... Anyway. But reconciliation and forgiveness, it is incumbent upon us to forgive whether the person repents, confesses or anything else.
Reconciliation comes with a little more work, and like I said, we don't live in a, in a perfect world. But do we work on that? Because that's love and good works. And lastly, number six, the author says, "Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another." And this again is an interesting passage because this has been shamelessly and mindlessly attacked on social media.
This passage, and this especially was prevalent during COVID, [00:35:00] because during COVID, many churches shut down. And I don't hold it against any church that shut down because, and I've shared this with you, my understanding of the civil magistrate, he can require a quarantine. The problem was it wasn't specific enough, and you can't just say shut down forever.
But initial shutdown was not sinful, I don't think. But pastors would get online, and pastors would get on social media, and they would attack this passage, and they would say, "We don't have to meet, and that's not what Hebrews is talking about." Wrong. There's no way to look at this passage in context, understanding the wording, the grammar, and the context of the, the book, and not know it means church.
The author is talking about gathering to worship. Now, we could set this verse aside because there's plenty of other places in scripture that tell us to meet. It even tells us when to meet. So for instance, in Acts Chapter 2 verse [00:36:00] 42, speaking of the new believers, "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching."
Do you come to church expecting to be taught something?
"Continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and prayer." And you trace those words out through the Book of Acts, it was the table. It wasn't necessarily a meal. And I'm not denying that they didn't eat together, but it was the table. And then later in Acts Chapter 20 verse 7, they're very clear, "On the first day of the week," on Sunday, on what we call the Lord's Day, on what I would argue and have argued in the past, on the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day.
"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to," again, "break bread," it was a worship service. And one can make the argument grammatically that this gathering together was something that was repeated. [00:37:00] "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them."
And then it goes on and matches up with the, the context of where they're at in Acts. But this verse is talking about our assembling together as a church. Why do I believe that? Why do I think that the text is very clear? Well, word meaning and usage as well as the context of the, the epistle. So this word gather together, this word is used, it's-- this particular word, it's a noun, and it's only used three times in the New T- actually twice in the New Testament, once in the Septuagint, and it always refers to gathering to Christ, always.
In fact, some would argue it's an eschatological gathering. I don't know if I agree with that, but it's gathering to meet Christ. The verb is used multiple times in the New Testament, and it has to do, again, with gathering to be taught, gathering to meet with Christ. It has to do with Christ gathering the elect to Himself, gathering to hear Jesus[00:38:00]
It has religious connotations. In addition to that, this word, "Do not forsake our gathering together," or literally what the text says, "The assembling of ourselves." This preposition in the book of Hebrews is used four times in the plural. It's in the, the plural right here, and every time it's used, it refers to the entirety of the group.
He is talking to the entirety of the group. He's not talking about a Bible study. He's not talking about going to someone's house for dinner. He's talking about the gathering of the church for worship. Now, can it refer to some of these other things? Absolutely, but primarily it is the gathering of the church for worship, and we see that many of the Hebrews were neglecting that.
It was the habit of many that they were neglecting this gathering together, and I find it fascinating he exhorts the readers, "Gather together for worship." And those that were neglecting [00:39:00] it, he warns them, and then the very next thing, he goes into a warning passage. You see, unity keeps one from apostasy.
But if you're trying to be an island, that's when apostasy happens, and I think that's the flow of the thought here. At least that's one of the very... the many principles that we could bring from this. We are to gather together on Sunday. It is a command of God. That doesn't mean you can't go on vacation.
Doesn't mean that if you're sick, we want you to come sick. But it means this is a priority. Do you wanna grow closer to God? Do you wanna grow closer in your relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Then be in this building on Sunday mornings. Be taught from God's Word. Participate in the reading and the recitation of God's Word.
Learn to pray. Learn to confess your sins. Learn to worship. Learn to give thanksgiving. Be blessed and [00:40:00] encouraged by the table. This is not an option. But again, where the rubber meets the road, yeah, it's a command. We're commanded to gather, so in that sense it's not an option. But there's another
more practical sense that it's not an option for your spiritual health.
God knows what He's doing. God knows what you need. For your own spiritual well-being,
God wants you in church on Sunday morning. "Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another." You see, encouragement takes place here. It is to appeal to people, appeal to their love.
At times it is to exhort people. Just so you know, when I write my sermons, I don't have any of you individually in mind. "I'm gonna say this because so-and-so needs to hear it." No, you all need to hear it And if it hits home, good.[00:41:00]
The context of the epistle, and we've talked about this so much, I'm just gonna briefly state it. It's a covenant document, and he's talking about a covenant community. Covenant communities gather for corporate worship on the Lord's Day. So I think word usage and context speak the same truth. We are to encourage one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Now, I'm just gonna tell you what I think, and then we're gonna come back either next week or the week after because the end of the chapter is gonna refer to this same idea here. I'm-- I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but as you see the day drawing near. And commentators are divided on what's being talked about.
And there are plenty of commentators out there that see it the way I see it. I think the author is referring to seventy AD. It fits the context. I've already talked about, uh, seventy AD being a [00:42:00] coming of Christ, not the Second Coming. That's not what I believe. I believe in a Second Coming. I believe He's coming sometime in the future to gather the elect, the great white throne judgment, all of that.
But I think contextually, it's Jesus coming to wipe out the old covenant system. How many times has He said it's about to disappear, it's going away, it's worthless? We'll come back to that. The point is we're to encourage one another.
So how do we do it? And that's what I want to leave you with. How do we do it? And I just want to review, because we've talked about it, in the power and the enabling of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I must rely on God. I must believe and know that I have been regenerate. I have been made new. I have a new heart.
I have been given the tools that I need. So we do it trusting in God. We do it with the help of each other, which again is why it's so important to come to church, to get to know one another, to spend time with one another, to [00:43:00] practice hospitality. We do it with a sincere heart, a genuine singleness of purpose and dedication.
We draw near in full assurance of faith, trusting God, unwavering in our trust, believing God. And when I do falter, and when I do fall, just like the man told Jesus, "I want to believe. Help me with my faith." Cry out. Ask for faith, knowing that God has prepared you for the task, knowing that your hearts have been sprinkled.
The grammar there is it's done. It was a past act if you're a Christian. Knowing that your heart has been sprinkled and your body washed, holding fast our confession of hope Do you know the Christian worldview? Again, please go home this week, at lunch today, and ask your family members these questions.
How would you describe God to someone that has never heard the d- the Christian description of God? Where would you begin? What are some of the... And [00:44:00] I hate to do it this way because there's no attribute more important than the other one, but what are some of the, the biggies, so to speak, that we should know really well when we share our faith?
Holding fast our confession of hope. Know and live according to our worldview. Know when we're getting bad information because we can siphon it through an understood worldview. Motivating each other to love and good works, and not forsaking church.
Draw near to God. He's given you everything you need, and He will bless you accordingly. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, thank you for this message. Thank you that theology matters. It really does matter what we believe. And as the apostles have all taught us as we read through these books, we need to know first, and then we live.
Not that we don't start living, not that it's not an, an intermixture, not [00:45:00] that we go back and forth, but it's important to know what we believe. So Father, help us know what we believe. Help us know why we have the convictions that we do have. And then, Father, help us live that out. Help us love one another.
Father, Your church, I believe this with all of my heart, lacks so much unity today. The American church, we lack unity and we lack love for one another. Father, I beg you, I ask you that you would pour out your Spirit, that you would create unity in your church, that we would love one another, and we would begin to work through differences.
We would begin to respect others even if we agree to disagree because we love you, because we recognize what you have done for your church, because we recognize you as head of the body. We recognize that you are [00:46:00] our great high priest and all the truths that come with that. Teach us, Spirit of God. Thank you, Jesus, for your completed work, because it's only because of you that we can approach the Father.
And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen.
