The Problem, The Solution, The Result, The Response

Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to cover a big section today and we're going to go

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

through it pretty quickly. Quickly for me, which is not too quick, but we're going to

get through it quicker than you think is possible. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll start in verse 1.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

We're really going to split this up into about four different sections. By the time we get

to Hebrews chapter 10, what we have seen is that the author of Hebrews has begun to make

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

his case for Jesus Christ. He does so by starting with a lot of stuff in the Old Testament and

kind of working his way forward, pointing out how Jesus is better than those things

of the Old Testament. So the things of the law, the things of the prophet, the sacrifices,

the tabernacle, all of those things. He begins to make his point that Jesus is better. He

leads up to his main point that we see in 7, 8, and 9. That is that Jesus is a better

high priest who offered a better sacrifice and who has brought about a new covenant.

That's what we've been talking about the last couple of weeks, the new covenant that has

been established through Jesus Christ. So the author of Hebrews by this point has really

made his main argument. He's made his argument that he wanted to for his people. And we've

seen a lot of stuff as we've gone through the first nine chapters of Hebrews. We see

a lot of the Old Testament. The author of Hebrews loves to quote from the Old Testament,

and we're going to see some more quotations from that today. But after making his point

through the first nine chapters, in verse 10, he kind of spells out, and here's the significance

of everything that I have said up to this point. Here's how it applies to you. Here's

why it is important to you. And that's what we're going to talk about today. How is this

important to us? Now, we've looked at a lot of stuff from the Old Testament, a lot of

quotations and kind of learned a lot of things, maybe about the sacrifices and the tabernacle.

And we say, OK, well, that's all well and good. But what does it all mean? How does

it all apply to us? Well, we're going to see, and I think we have seen and talked about

in pretty good detail, how it applied to its original audience. So we're not going to talk

so much about that today as we are. How does this apply to us? What are we to do with all

this? What are we to do with all of these things that we have seen so far? Well, we're

going to talk about that in four different areas today as we go through Hebrews, Chapter

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

10. So let's pray and then we'll get started. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for

your good word. And I pray, God, that this morning that your Holy Spirit would be in

this place and among your people. I pray that you take away the distractions and the worries

of the world that are in my mind. I pray that you would take them from the minds of those

who are here, dear Lord, that in these few minutes that we would hear from you. God,

I pray that you take away any fear that I have today, any pride that I have today. God,

as I stand here and preach, it will be for you, dear Lord, and for your glory. And so

God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would help us to see Jesus in these words, God. We see

your word. We've seen a lot in your word, but God, we want it to apply to us. We want

to understand how it applies to us. We want to understand the significance and the importance

of Jesus and the necessity of Jesus in our life. And so God, I pray that if there are

any who do not know Jesus today, that maybe today would be the day that they would put

their faith in Jesus Christ. God, I pray that your word is powerful for us today, that it

speaks to us. Help me to know what to say and how to say it. Let your Spirit, God, do

the work today. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Hebrews chapter 10, verses

Hebrews 10:1–4

1 through 4 is where we will begin. Since the law has only a shadow of the good things

to come and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the

same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped

being offered since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of

sins? But in the sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for

the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Now that last verse there kind of goes

back to something we talked about last week. And that is that without the shedding of blood,

there is no forgiveness of sins. But in the Old Testament, the shedding of blood was that

of animals. But here in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 4, it tells us that it is impossible

Hebrews 10:4

for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. So they had an old sacrificial system,

but the flaw in the old way of doing things was that the old way of doing things was a

constant reminder of their sinfulness. So here we see the problem. The problem is that

we are sinners, and our sinfulness is ever before us. Now, it was the same for the audience

that this was written to as it is to us. Our sins are sometimes painful for us. Sometimes

they are a burden to us. We are constantly reminded of our sins. The devil is constantly

reminding us of our sins, even those who are in Jesus Christ. And there are some in this

room today, perhaps, that have never put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And there

may be things in your past that are just building up, they are piling up, and the burden is

on you, and you just cannot escape that. And you live with that day and night, and you

lose sleep, and it just eats away at you. And that is the problem that the people of

the Old Testament faced. In the way that they were doing things, there was no real forgiveness

of sins. Simply by offering the sacrifices year after year was a reminder to them that

they were sinful people. And so the author of Hebrews is telling them the flaw in the

Old System. And we've talked about that a lot in the last few weeks. The flaw was the

old sacrifices weren't good enough. The old way of doing things was not good enough because

that reminder of sins was always there. Now you and I today probably have some sin in

our life that we constantly are reminded of. That's our problem, is that our sin weighs

on us, it pushes on us. And how are we to deal with that sin? Well, for those who don't

know Jesus Christ, we go back to the old ways of doing things. But if we continue to do

things in the old way, then our sin is still a problem for us. Our sin is still a burden

to us. We are still reminded of those sins. And so there has to be something new. There

has to be something better. There has to be some change that deals with our problem of

sin and the fact that it is ever before us. And that's true even for the believer sometimes.

We come to Jesus Christ, we know that Jesus Christ forgives our sins, but even still,

for some of us today in this room, there are sins that are in our past that are hard for

us to overcome. It's hard for us to get past those things. But what the author of Hebrews

says is that there has to be a way to move on from the problem. The problem is that we

are sinners and our sin is ever before us. Even probably some of you today as you come

into this building, there are sins that are weighing on you. Even as we talk about it

now, there are things that you're thinking about, but you don't know what I did. I did

this and I did that and I did the other and these sins, they pile up on us and we're reminded

of these things. That's our problem today for non-Christians especially, but even sometimes

for Christians, we struggle with this problem. Well, praise the Lord, there's a solution

to the problem. We see that in the next few verses. Verse five, therefore, as he was coming

into the world, he said, you did not want sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a

body for me. You did not delight in whole-burn offerings and sin offerings. Then I said,

see it is written about me in the volume of the scroll. I have come to do your will, God.

After he says above, you did not want or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole-burn offerings

and sin offerings, which are offered according to the law. He then says, see, I have come

to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will of God,

we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

Okay, here's the problem is that we are sinners and our sin is ever before us. And so as the

author of Hebrews often does, he quotes from the Old Testament. He quotes from Psalm here,

Psalm chapter 40 verses six and seven. Now, sometimes we see references in the New Testament

Psalms 40 · chapter mention

in quotes that are applied to Jesus that really it'd be hard for us to know that was talking

about Jesus if somebody in the New Testament didn't tell us that. Well, this might fall

into that category. He quotes from Psalm chapter 40 verses six and seven. And if you read those

Psalms 40 · chapter mention

verses as we just did, it may not be obvious to us that that's speaking of Jesus. Now,

the first thing it talks about there is the sacrifices, the sacrificial system, the old

way of doing things. And it says that God did not delight in those things, that those

things were not pleasing to God. But then the second part of that verse that we just

read is here applied to Jesus. So God did not desire those types of sacrifices. He was

not pleased with those types of sacrifices. But what does it say? It says, see, I have

come to do your will. Okay, God did not delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, but there

is something that God delights in and that God did delight in. And that is one who does

the will of God. This here is speaking of Jesus. What this passage is saying, the author

of Hebrews tells us is the first way of doing things, the way that God had the sacrificial

system set up. God was not pleased with that. That's not what he ultimately desired was

the blood of goats and bulls. What he desired was a people who would live according to his

will, and that's a problem. Now, God gives his people all these commands. He gives Moses

these commands to give to the people. And before Moses even gets back off the mountain

to give them these commands, the people are already off the rails making the golden calf.

They've already been disobedient to the will of God, and that is the problem. What God

really desired more than anything was one who could do his will. Now, those sacrifices

were sufficient momentarily to kind of brush over those sins, but they never could really

forgive sin. The only way that sin was going to be forgiven would be when one would live

by the will of God and praise the Lord one has come in Jesus Christ. One has come in

Jesus Christ who has lived by the will of God. When you read in the New Testament about

Jesus, you begin to notice how many times that Jesus talks about doing the will of the

Father. That is what Jesus is concerned with first and foremost more than anything when

he comes to preach and teach. He always wants to make sure that he is in the will of the

Father. God was not satisfied with sacrifices, but as we see in the Psalm as the author of

Hebrews pointed out, see, I have come to do your will. The author of Hebrews says, look,

the first way that was established, it's overtaken by the second way. The solution to our problem

of sin is that Jesus Christ has come. Now, the problem for the original audience is they

wanted to go back to these sacrifices that were not pleasing to God. They were trying

to make amends for their sins in ways that would never please God. Now, what about you

and I? Are we ever guilty of that? Now, we're probably not guilty of going in our backyard

and sacrificing animals, but are there ever times that we try to make amends for our sin

by trying to please God by the things we do? Maybe sometimes we are guilty of that. We

do something that's really bad, and so we try to make up for it. I did something really

bad this week, so I better make sure to go to church Sunday. I did something really bad

this week, so I better make sure. Let me just put a little extra money in the offering plate.

I did something that was a little bad this week, so let me go out and visit some folks

at the nursing home. We come up with all these ways because of that sin that we're reminded

of and that guilt is before us. We know that we are not right with God. It eats away at

us, and so sometimes what we try to do is we try to appease God by actions and ways

that God does not care about. This is not what gets us in right standing with God. These

are the things that we do. You ever got in an argument with your wife before? You said

something you shouldn't have done. You bought something you shouldn't have bought, and then

you send her flowers to work the next day. These are the kind of things we do. We think,

oh, I did something bad, and therefore I will make up for it by doing something good, but

that is not how Christianity works. We do not come into a good standing with God because

we can do anything good because we have failed to do the will of God, and God is not pleased

with anything we can offer. We could sit here today and we could empty out our bank accounts,

and God is not pleased with that if our hearts are not right. No matter what sin you have

committed, there is not a thing you can do today to earn God's favor. There is nothing

we can do to please God for our sinfulness. There is only one who could please God, and

that is Jesus Christ because he lived by the will of God. So we have got to stop that.

Sometimes as Christians maybe we are even guilty of that. We try to balance the scale

a little bit. I have done some bad, let me do some good. The scale is balanced because

Jesus Christ has died on the cross for our sins. That is the only thing that balances

the scales. So when we sin, we do not need to have this attitude that I am going to do

better or I am going to do more. When we sin, we need to come to Jesus Christ because the

only thing that is pleasing to God is Jesus Christ, the one who followed his will, who

was the perfect sacrifice for us. So our problem is our sins that are ever before us. The solution

is Jesus Christ fulfilling the will of God and us making sure that we do not try to please

God by our works and our actions, but turn to the solution, that is the better sacrifice

of Jesus Christ that God has provided for us. Let us continue on. Verse 11, every priest

stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time which

can never take away sins. But this man offering one sacrifice for sins forever sat down at

the right hand of God. Now this is kind of where we started back at the beginning of

the book of Hebrews. It started by lifting up Jesus, by exalting Jesus. And what did

it say? That he is seated at the right hand of God. And why is that important? Because

that tells us that the work of Jesus Christ is complete. Now what does it say of the high

priest here? We've talked a lot about the high priest. But what does it say of them?

It said that they stand year after year to offer sacrifices in contrast to Jesus. The

priests are standing. Why? Because their work is never finished. If we're going to try to

please God by the things that we can do, then our work will never be finished. We will work

our whole life to try to earn God's favor only to discover that when we stand before

God in judgment, it is insufficient. That all of our righteous acts are like filthy

rags before the Lord. That's what we will figure out if we are trying to earn God's

favor on our own. The high priest stood year after year. They stood continually to do the

work. Why? Because their work was never finished. But of Jesus it said he is seated at the right

hand of God. Why? Because his work is complete. When Jesus died on the cross, he said it is

finished. What is finished? Everything is finished. Everything that needed to occur

for your salvation and my salvation has been completed and finished by Jesus' perfect work,

his death and his resurrection. The high priest works continually, but Jesus' work is finished.

So he tells his audience here, don't go back to the old way when all that needs to be accomplished

has been accomplished in Jesus Christ. Let's continue on. Verse 13, he is now waiting until

his enemies are made his footstool, for by one offering he has perfected forever those

who are sanctified. What does that mean? We've seen this word twice here in the last few

verses. That those who are sanctified, those who are in Jesus Christ are sanctified. What

does that mean? It simply means that we are set apart, that we are made holy. That's what

that means. That those who come to Jesus Christ are set apart. We are made holy. We are a special

people. What a beautiful idea that is to know that we are sanctified, that we are being

sanctified. No, we haven't reached the state that we will one day reach when we are in

the presence of God, but we are a work in progress. That God has set us apart, that

he has declared us holy, and he is continually working on us to draw us closer to him. That

we can draw closer and do better at living by his will. We'll never succeed in that in

the way Jesus did. But the more that we grow in our walk with God, the more obedient we

should be in fulfilling the will of God. Verse 15, the Holy Spirit also testifies to us that

he will be a good man to us about this. Now, here he's about to quote from Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

31. This is something that he did earlier in the book, and this is a pretty popular

passage, but here we'll see what it says. For after he says, this is the covenant I

will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts

and write them on their minds. Now, what he had told the people way back in Jeremiah was

that one day he was going to establish a new covenant. Now, when we look at the Old Testament,

that's the Old Covenant. That's the sacrificial system. That's the laws. That's the thing

that God had put into place, and they had a purpose. And their purpose was to lead up

to Jesus Christ, and they fulfilled their purpose. But they were flawed. They were never

going to be sufficient. So God had said in Jeremiah 31, I'm going to send a new covenant.

That's the new covenant that God's going to write his words in our heart, that we would

be the people of God. Not just the Jewish people, not just the people of Israel, but

the Gentiles. That is everybody else. That God was going to make a new covenant that

would stretch to everybody in this whole world, no matter who they were, no matter where they

came from, no matter where they were born, no matter what color their skin was, that

the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the new covenant that was going to be established by the Bride

of Jesus Christ, was going to be one that would cleanse the heart, that would touch

the heart, that the Holy Spirit would indwell in God's people. And so he's reminding his

audience here of the new covenant to come. But what comes with the new covenant? Well,

here's what's important. Verse 17, he adds, I will never again remember their sins and

their lawless acts. Now, while there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for

sin. Okay? So first we saw the problem. We saw the problem, that is our sin, that is

ever before us. We saw the solution. The solution is Jesus Christ, who lived by the will of

God and accomplished the work that we could never accomplish. And here we see the result.

What is the result of the work of Jesus Christ? It is forgiveness. The result of the new covenant

is that it brings forgiveness of sins. This was the biggest flaw of the Old Testament

covenant. It never brought forth forgiveness of sins, which is why the author of Hebrews

is telling his audience this. They want to go back to the Old Covenant and what he's

telling them is there is only forgiveness of sins in the new covenant. And what does

he say in that last verse? Now, well, there is forgiveness of these. There is no longer

an offering for sin. He is saying that forgiveness has come through Jesus Christ and there is

no other offering that is needed. There is no other offering that is going to be sufficient.

What Jesus Christ has done when he had offered himself is done. It is good. It is finished.

There is forgiveness through no other means than through Jesus Christ. That is what makes

Christianity so beautiful, is that there is forgiveness of sins. As one commentator I

read this week said, any religion that doesn't offer forgiveness of sins is a worthless religion

because that is our problem. Sin is our problem. That's the one thing that we cannot overcome.

And the problem that we see in our world today is there are lots of religion, there are lots

of people who are spiritual, but the problem with so many religions and so many religious

groups and so many who are spiritual is that they do not deal with sin. They just say,

oh, you need to be a better person. You need to be this. You need to do that. You need

to try to live better. You need to do all these crazy things. But the problem with so

many religions and so many spiritual groups that we see is that sin is not dealt with.

And that is why Jesus Christ came was to deal with our sin because apart from Jesus Christ

we are helpless and we are hopeless. Our sin must be dealt with. We can never be good enough

to earn God's favor. And so the beautiful thing about Jesus Christ is that he brings

about forgiveness of sins. That's what we see here in the book of Hebrews. That's what

we need to get today because let me tell you this, God loves you today and Jesus Christ

died so that your sins could be forgiven. Now there may be some of you here today and

you have been burdened with a sin that's in your life that happened 20 years ago. Maybe

it was something that happened last week. I don't know, but I know that our sin is ever

before us and there's good news for us today, brothers and sisters in Christ and those of

you who have not come to Jesus Christ is that there is forgiveness today in Jesus Christ.

There is forgiveness of that sin. We don't have to carry the burden of that sin around.

We don't have to live in that sin anymore because when Jesus forgives our sins it is

cast as far as the east is to the west. It is a sin that is remembered no more. It is

a sin that is forever atoned for. And you may be saying, but you don't know the stuff

I did. I did some bad stuff. No, I don't know the stuff you did. I don't know how bad your

sins are, but I know how good the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is. It's a sacrifice to cover

your sins and my sins and everybody else's sins no matter how bad they are and the devil

will burden us down with our sins. But I want to tell you today there is freedom from the

burden. There is freedom from the burden of our sin in Jesus Christ. We don't have to

carry those sins around anymore. Sometimes people will say this, it's foolish. They say,

well I know God's forgiven me but I can't forgive myself. Now that's just foolishness.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about us having to forgive ourselves. We don't

have the power to forgive ourselves. There is nothing about any of that that makes any

sense whatsoever because it is through Jesus Christ that our sins are forgiven. And if

God has forgiven you of your sins, then woe be unto us to say, yeah I know God's forgiven

me but I just still can't get over it. If the creators of the heavens and the earth

sent his son to die for you and you've asked for forgiveness of that sin, then you can

grab a hold of the truth today of God's word that says your sin is forgiven. And don't

let the devil drag you down and remind you of that sin and let you wallow in that sin

and the shame of that sin but you need to find the freedom that comes in Jesus Christ

through forgiveness of that sin today. If there are sins of your past and you've given

them to Jesus, then they have been forgiven. And there may be some of you today though

you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I want to tell you today there's forgiveness.

I don't know what you did. I don't know how bad it is but I know how good Jesus is. And

I know that he died on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven this morning. This

is the beauty. This is the beauty of Christianity. It gives you a peace and a joy that comes

through that forgiveness. That's what the whole world needs. We need peace. We need

joy. We need comfort. And the whole world, there are so many people in the world that

are struggling because they have not found that. Because they're trying to make amends

for the sins of their past by their own actions and good deeds and that sin is constantly

a reminder to them and they have no freedom from that. But I want to tell you today there's

freedom in Jesus Christ. When we come before God and say, God, there's nothing I can do.

I'm going to quit trying on my own. I'm going to trust in the one that you sent for me in

Jesus Christ. It is then that we will find comfort. It is then that we will find joy.

So we've seen the problem is our sin. We've seen the solution is that Jesus Christ has

come to die for our sin. We've seen the result of what Jesus did and that is he has brought

forgiveness of our sins today. And that's a beautiful thing this morning. Let's continue

on last section. Verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary

through the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, he has opened for us through the curtain,

that is his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us

draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from

an evil conscious and our bodies washed in pure water. Okay, so if we know the problem,

if we know the solution and we see the result of the solution, then what are we to do with

that? What should our response be? Well, he begins to tell us that here in this section.

And what does he say? He says, we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of

Jesus Christ, that is his flesh. Now we've talked some about the veil and the veil was

torn when Jesus died on the cross and the veil was that separator. It was just a big

curtain, but that's what separated the most holy place from the holy place. That's the

spot where only the high priest could go to once a year. And so the author of Hebrews

is reminding us of that here. When he uses that same language, when he talks about that

we boldly enter into the sanctuary. And how do we enter in there? Not by going through

a curtain, but by the flesh of Jesus Christ, that is through the death of Jesus Christ,

through his body that was nailed to a cross for us. That's our entrance into the presence

of God. But look at what he says there. He says, we have the boldness to enter the sanctuary,

the boldness to enter the sanctuary. Now in the Old Testament, there was only that one

person, that high priest who could go once a year into the presence of God. You'd had

to be a pretty bold dude to walk up in the tabernacle and just say, you're going to go

strutting up in there in the holy of holies. Now you would have been a dead dude too, but

you'd have been bold before you was dead. Nobody in the Old Testament under the old

system would ever for a moment have even thought about going into the most holy place. You

know, I looked this week, I tried to find if there was ever any examples, recorded examples

of any normal person ever trying to go into the holy of holies. Now I know what the result

would have been had they have tried to, and I could not find a single example anywhere,

any story of any just normal average dude that tried to walk up in the holy of holies.

Why? Because it would have took some boldness because they knew that they could not go into

the presence of God. There was a fear of God there, a reverential fear of God, not enough

fear of God or else they wouldn't have done half the stuff that they did. And maybe that's

true for you and me too, but it would have taken a lot of boldness to go into the presence

of God. And in fact, you just couldn't do it. But what the author of Hebrews says, but

I've got good news for you. Your sins of old, you don't have to remember them. Jesus has

come and your sins have been forgiven. And the response, the result of that is that God

now allows us to enter into his presence through Jesus Christ. What a beautiful truth that

is for us today. That today in the midst of all of our sins, as rotten as we are, that

we come into this building today. And I'll tell you that if you go before the presence

of God today, if you boldly stand in the presence of God today and say, God have mercy on me,

I am a sinner. God, I don't deserve your grace. I don't deserve to be in your presence, but

God, I need you. Would you please forgive me and have mercy on me? Praise the Lord.

God will hear those prayers when they come from the heart. That is the boldness that

the author of Hebrews says that we need to have. We need to have that boldness to go

before God today. And what does he say as he continues on here? Verse 22, let us draw

near. That's the call today that we would draw near to God. That's the call of Christianity

that we would draw near to God. In our sin, we are far from God. We are separated from

God. We are separated from the source of goodness and hope and life and comfort and peace and

joy. Those things are in God, but we are separated from those things. But what does the author

of Hebrews say? Let us draw near to God. Are we missing the joy of our salvation today

for those who are in Jesus Christ? Then let us listen to this call today that we would

draw near to God, that we would quit depending on our own ways and our own actions and we

would acknowledge our sin and give it to God and draw near to him, draw near to him and

grow in our relationship with him and in our walk with him and in our service to him. For

those today who have not ever put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the call is the

same for you. That you would draw near to God, that you would turn from your sinful

ways. You would turn to God, that you would draw near to him today in boldness, that you

would come before him with your sin today and repent of that sin and give that sin to

Jesus Christ who died on the cross to forgive it. That's the call today that we would draw

near to God and the forgiveness of sin that comes through Jesus Christ. So that our hearts

sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Again, he's

using this same language that was used in the Old Testament. There was a sprinkling

of blood that would take place among the people and among the scrolls sometime that they were

reading from or parts of the things that were in the Holy Place or the Most Holy Place in

the Tabernacle area. There were some things that were sprinkled with blood and then we

see the idea of being washed clean. This is the same type of language. Those who were

going to go into the Holy Place, they would have to be purified. That sprinkling of blood

represented the atonement for sin that had taken place because blood had been shed. So

he uses the same language from the Old Testament system that they would have made a connection

with but it's language that's appropriate to us today because our hearts, what does

he say there? He says, our hearts sprinkled clean. Well today, I'll tell you that our

hearts are only sprinkled clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what God really wants

to change is our hearts. That was the problem that we see so many times in the New Testament

is people were good at following the religious ways but their heart was far from God. Our

heart is what has to be changed and our heart is only changed when it's sprinkled with the

precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's the language that he's using here. That our hearts

have been sprinkled, that our hearts have been cleaned, that we've been washed in the

same way that in the Old Testament system those who would be in the Tabernacle area

would go to the basin and they would wash themselves so that they would be made pure

and all of this had to occur just so that they could stand in the presence of God. And

the same is true for us that through the blood of Jesus Christ, through our sins being cleansed,

we have the right now through Jesus to be in the presence of God for all of eternity.

Has your heart been sprinkled today? Have you been washed pure today? When we have baptism

that's exactly the same idea, the same kind of symbolism. That's the same thing that we

recognize and we celebrate. That one who is coming to be baptized is acknowledging that

they've put their faith in Jesus, that their heart has been sprinkled with the blood of

Jesus. And that when they go into the water and come out it symbolizes that they have

been washed clean, that they have been made pure. But what about you today? Has your heart

been changed? Has it been covered by the blood of Jesus? Have you been made clean today through

him? Are you pure today? The author of Hebrews says, let us draw near to Jesus. Let us be

those who draw near to Jesus today. Verse 23, last verse. Let us hold on to the confession

of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Now here's the response. Here's

the response. We saw the problem. We saw the solution. We saw the result of that solution

and now we're seeing the response. What is our response going to be to hearing the word

of God and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ? Now for the audience of the Hebrews, they

had a choice to make because they had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were living

by the gospel of Jesus Christ and they were being tempted to deny Jesus Christ. So how

were they going to respond? How were they going to respond? Were they going to just

give up on Jesus Christ and go back to their old ways? Or were they going to respond by

saying I'm going to trust in Jesus Christ? And here the author of Hebrews calls them

to action. What does he say? Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering.

He's saying to them, don't give up. Don't give up on Jesus. Your life is tough. You're

in the midst of persecution. I know that you're tempted to go back to the old way, but I have

told you for nine chapters now that the old way is not sufficient. I've tried my best

to point out to you every way how Jesus has come and Jesus is better and there is no forgiveness

than anything else. And the old way is worthless. Don't look to the past, but look to Jesus

Christ. Don't give up. Let's read it again. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope

without wavering. Don't give up. Don't waver. Don't look to the past. Don't look to the

things of the past, but keep your eyes focused on Jesus so that you can keep going in the

right direction. You see, they wanted to look at what was behind them. They wanted to focus

on what was behind them. But when you look at what's behind you, you're doomed to rip.

You're not going to make it very far. You're going to have a bad go of it. Try it when

you leave today. When you leave today and you pull out in the parking lot, when you

start driving off, I want you to drive all the way home looking in your rearview mirror.

Well, wait till I leave before you do. Because what's going to happen is, if you're always

looking at what's behind you, you're never going to be able to make it very far to what's

before you. So what the author of Hebrews is telling them is the same thing we see elsewhere

in scripture, forgetting what is behind and looking at what is ahead. Don't look at the

old way. Don't focus on the old way. Don't let your sin get the best of you. The sins

of your past are forgiven. Leave them in the past and look forward to Jesus Christ and

do not waver in your trust in Jesus Christ. Continue to find hope in Jesus Christ and

trust in that hope in Jesus Christ because there is no hope in any other. This is an

important message for us today because maybe there will be times in our life that there

will be things that come, things that occur, things that happen, some difficulties in

our life and maybe we begin to question God. Maybe we begin to wonder why God does things

the way he does. Maybe we begin to say, well, maybe God doesn't know what he's doing. When

we face those tragedies and those difficulties, there are times in our life that we may be

those who are tempted to turn from God. Maybe there are those who come into our life and

they begin to teach us other things that are not of scripture. They begin to teach us other

religious things that sound pretty good and we begin to listen to those things a little

too closely and pretty soon this happens sometimes. People begin to turn from Jesus Christ and

they begin to turn to other things, things that will not save them. And so our response

to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ is to continue to live in the gospel of Jesus Christ,

to continue to live in that hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ and do not waver. Do not give

up on God today. He has not given up on you and you say, well, it feels like he has sometimes.

Yes, sometimes it may feel like he has, but I can assure you that he has not given up

on you. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised

is faithful. That's how I can tell you today, don't give up that God hasn't given up on

you because he who promised is faithful. If God has promised to be with you and he has,

he's going to be with you. It does not mean that everything is always going to be easy,

but I assure you this, that the God who has promised to deliver us from this world, to

give us eternal life, to give us a place that is free of sin and heartache and pain. If

God has made those promises to us, he is faithful to carry out the promises that he has made.

So let us not lose faith in God who is faithful. We must stand strong. That was the problem

for the Hebrew audience. Everything he said up to this point was leading to this point

that he could make this point that they would not turn from Jesus Christ, but they would

remain faithful to God and know that God's promises are good. So don't give up on God

today. Whatever difficulties you may be going through, whatever hardships you may be experiencing,

God loves you. He is not forgetting about you. He will give you strength on the days

that you do not think you can make it because that's the only way that you can make it.

So do not give up on Jesus Christ today because there is hope in no other. There's freedom

today. There's deliverance today. Those sins of your past, they may be bad. They may be

some of the baddest things that we could ever imagine, but Jesus has died to forgive you

of those sins. Jesus has accomplished the will of God by giving his life on the cross,

and as a result of that, he's established a new covenant by his blood, and that new

covenant brings with it forgiveness, forgiveness both now and forevermore. So therefore, let

us today be those who go boldly before God, who draw near to the presence of God, and

who hold firm on the truth and the promises of God that will fulfill in Jesus Christ's

crucifixion and resurrection. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you this morning. We

thank you for your good word. I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us, that maybe struggling

with sin, dear Lord. There are certainly things of our past, and we know the truth of your

word that says we're forgiven, and we still just struggle, dear Lord. And we shouldn't,

but we do because we're weak. So I pray that you would help us in that weakness. God, I

pray that whatever sin we have today, that we bring it before you. And whatever we're

struggling with today, I pray that you'd give us peace, dear Lord. When we come before you

with our heart to seek forgiveness, I pray, God, that we would know that we found it in

Jesus Christ. God, maybe there's some here today that just need to hear that and know

that truth, dear Lord, that they are forgiven. They don't have to live with the burden of

the sins of the past, dear Lord. Maybe there are some here today, and that's been their

story for years. God, I pray that you would just free them from that burden you already

have in Jesus, but I pray today that they would just accept that, God, that they would

rejoice in that fact, to know that their sin is forgiven. They do not have to carry it

around anymore. God, maybe there are some here today, and they've never trusted in Jesus

Christ. Maybe today they've never asked for forgiveness of their sin, but I pray that

they would ask today, that they would repent, that they would come to you for forgiveness,

dear Lord. God, they may be questioning or wondering how you could even love them, God.

Do you even have enough grace to forgive them of their sins, dear Lord? I pray that today

that they would know without a shadow of a doubt that your grace is greater than all

our sins, dear Lord. I pray today that they would just give you their sin, that they would

repent of it, that they would know that it's been nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ to

be remembered no more, dear Lord. God, I pray that we would rejoice in the forgiveness that

we've received. Dear Lord, if we rejoice in your forgiveness today, then let us forgive

others, dear Lord. Let us take the experience that we have and the grace that we've received

and give it to others, dear Lord, so that they can know the forgiveness of Jesus Christ

and the love of Jesus Christ. God, I pray that we would be those today who would draw

near to you, that we would come boldly before you this morning, and we do, dear Lord, because

we are such rotten, evil sinners, dear Lord. Our sin, dear Lord, is greater than we can

ever imagine, but your grace is greater than we could ever deserve. God, I pray that we

would be those this morning who come boldly before you, not because of anything we've

done, we've got nothing to offer, we've done nothing that's worth anything, dear Lord,

but we come before you today because Jesus Christ has forgiven us of our sins. We come

before you today to rejoice in you, dear Lord, to praise you, that you would have mercy on

us and grace on us and lead us and guide us in our daily walk. God, I pray that you would

help us to stand firm on those days that we may doubt you, on those days that we may be

tempted to give up, on the occasions that maybe things of the world are tempting to

us and other lies are tempting to us to try to turn us from you, dear Lord, that we would

never give in to such lies, that we would never give in to such temptations, but God,

we would know the promise of the truth of your word. It's a promise that comes through

Jesus Christ and Christ alone. So let us be those who stand firm today. Let us be not

those who turn away, but those who stand firm and grow in you and experience those promises

for all of eternity. God, I pray that if anybody's got something on their heart today, that now

they would respond in this time of invitation. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.