Christianity's practical application is explored, emphasizing fidelity to God and fellow believers. The sermon highlights the superiority of Christ's sacrifice and covenant, urging believers to draw near to God with boldness, hold fast to their faith with unwavering conviction, and actively consider one another to provoke love and good works. It warns against willful sin and apostasy, reminding believers that while they are eternally saved, God does not tolerate persistent sin in their lives, which can lead to severe consequences even for the faithful. The message concludes with a call to assemble together, especially as the end times approach, and to actively share the gospel.
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We are turning to it. There are some of you who may not have a copy of the outline. And I appreciate very much the words of appreciation about the outline. The outline is just to help you in case your memory is like mine, the thing that you forget with. So if you haven't an outline, would you please raise your hand and Mr. Willie will pass one to you. Put your hand way up in the air so that we can see it. Now, if you've already had one and lost it, please unearth it because we're running out of outlines and lots of people still have bad memories and need them.
Talking about bad memories. Do you hear about the absent-minded professor? He must have been the man who came down in the morning and kissed his egg and hit his wife on the head with a spoon. However, his wife said to him, he was a professor and he was going off to teach at college one day and his wife said to him, now darling, she said, will you please remember, today is the day that we move. She said, if you come back to this apartment, we shall not be here, because I've arranged everything, and I've taken this apartment key off your key ring, and I put the key to the new apartment on your key ring, and because I know you won't remember, I've written out the address of the new apartment, and I've tucked it into your breast pocket.
He said, yes, dear. And then off he went to school. And he had a harrowing day. And when the school day came to a close, he heaved a sigh of relief, and he made his way wearily homeward, and he got to the apartment, and his key wouldn't go into the lock. He fiddled around, and it wouldn't go in no matter which way he tried it. And then suddenly he remembered, I'm not supposed to be here. Now where do I go? So he searches through his pockets and he can't find the address. And now in a state of near panic, he looks around and he sees a little boy standing a few yards away and he says, Sonny, come over here.
The boy comes over, he said, tell me, Sonny, did you know the people who lived in this apartment? He said, yes, sir. He said, well, they don't seem to be here. They've left. Would you know where they've gone? So the boy looked up at him and he said, it's okay, Pop. Mom thought you might get into trouble, so she sent me over to fetch you. Now, I don't know whether your memory is quite that bad, but that's the reason why we have the outlines. Now, we got to chapter ten and verse one, or at least we got to the end of chapter nine. Now, if you remember, and if you don't, you can consult the outline, you'll notice that our first section, the long section, in which the Lord Jesus is presented as a revelation of God, as a Savior from God, and the high priest before God ends with the eighteenth verse of chapter ten.
Now we've talked about the better priesthood and the better sanctuary, and this morning we talked about the better covenant and the better sacrifice. Now as we move into chapter ten and close the section, we find that this sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is the subject for these last eighteen verses. And I'm just going to read the beginning and the end, and then I want us to move into the second, the short, the practical section. Here's then chapter ten and verse one. For the law, having the shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, There is a remembrance again made of sins every year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering, thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
And verse ten says, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And then verse sixteen says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts. And in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. And so the first section, this long section, comes to an end with that verse. This is then the section in which the person of Christ is the thief.
Now we're going to look at the second section, and this deals with the practice of Christianity. Look at your outline, will you, and notice from verse nineteen through chapter thirteen and verse twenty-five, we are going to touch upon three things. A plea for fidelity in what remains of chapter ten, a panorama of faith in chapter eleven and the first thirteen verses of chapter twelve, and then a path to follow chapter twelve and verse fourteen through chapter thirteen and verse twenty-five.
This then is the outline for the remaining studies that lie before us With the thought then of a plea for fidelity in our minds, let us read again this time from verse nineteen of chapter ten and launch into the second, the short, the final section. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us, verse twenty-two, let us, verse twenty-three, and let us, verse twenty-four.
Now before we look at these three let us is, do you know what honeymoon salad is? Let us alone. All right, here it is. Let us do this. Let us do that. And let us do the other. But very, very beautifully, in the first three verses, we have summed up what we have covered in the last several chapters. Let me read again. Verse nineteen. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter in to the holiest. Now what do we have there?
The new sanctuary. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, what do we have there? The better sacrifice. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us, what do we have there? We have the better covenant, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, and there we have the better priesthood.
These four things are found then in this introduction. And then we read, Let us draw near, let us hold fast, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. Now the plea for fidelity is divided into four parts according to your outline. There is first of all a call in the verses nineteen through twenty-five, and then there is a warning. in the verses twenty-six through thirty-one, and then a reminder in the verses thirty-two through thirty-four, and finally a promise in the verses thirty-five through thirty-nine.
Let's think about the call in the early section here. Let us draw near, that's verse twenty-two. Let us hold fast, that's verse twenty-three. Let us consider one another, verse twenty four, and verse twenty five, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. This is the call. and fidelity is the subject. The writer is pleading for fidelity on the part of the Lord's people.
Now since we have such a wonderful Savior, and we've been dwelling upon him in nine and a half chapters, it's not a surprising thing that the Spirit of God should demand of us loyalty, that the Spirit of God should demand of us fidelity, And yet this is not one of the earmarks of the day in which we live. And it is not one of the earmarks of the Church of God today. There are lots and lots of disloyal believers. There are lots and lots of believers lacking in fidelity. They find it so easy to turn their backs upon the meetings and turn their backs upon other believers and to feather their own nets and make themselves comfortable and to thrust behind them the priorities in spiritual things.
Now God says, let us do this, let us do that, and let us do the other. And he is saying in a word above everything else as Christians, let us be true. This is a play for fidelity. Now we've mentioned that the key word to this epistle is the word better. Now in the New Testament there are four Greek words that are translated with our English word better. There is a Greek word kalos, which means honorable, and it is used a number of times in the New Testament. but you will not find it in the Hebrew epistle.
And then there is another Greek word hupperecho, which means higher, and it is also used in the New Testament, though only once, in Philippians chapter two and verse three. You will not then find this word in the epistle to the Hebrews. Then there is a Greek word crestos, which means kindlier, and once again it is not found in Hebrews. The other word is, and it's the word creson, which means stronger. And this is the word that the Spirit of God reserves for this epistle. Every time we have the word better, in our English version here, it is this word creson, meaning stronger.
And what God is saying to us is this, that under the new economy these better things are the stronger enduring and absolutely indestructible things. Now in view of that, when God makes demands of us, it must be apparent that there is in our Christianity and in the Christ of our Christianity, everything that we need to make possible our obedience in these areas. Let us draw near, let us hold fast, and let us consider one another.
Now let's look at verse twenty-two then, let us draw near. Three very simple things, but very wonderful things are said here. Our entrance is a bold one. That's the first thing. Let us come, or having boldness to enter. Now it's interesting that when we read here, let us draw near, or rather, when we read about the boldness in verse nineteen to enter into the holiest, the word that is used there is the holy place.
Now we've already noted that under the old economy there was a partitioned building with a holy place and the holiest of all. But now we have been to come into the holy place, the reason being that the holy place has become the holiest of all. The temple has been rent in twain, and there is no petition. And so we have been to come boldly into the holy place, and that is, but now the holiest of all. And unlike the high priest, who must surely have come tremblingly, entering into that holy place, sprinkling blood, and not knowing whether he might unknowingly presume.
Every high priest, I'm sure, on that one day a year that he came into the holiest of all, must have come timidly, must have come tremblingly. How different is our position? Our entrance is a bold one. We have a claim upon the God of heaven through the Lord Jesus. And then according to these verses, our way is a living one. Verse twenty says, by a new and living way. And because it is a living way, it cannot age. And it is a living way because it is based on the living Christ.
So our entrance is a bold one. Our way is a living one, but our approach must be a sincere one, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Although there is a way opened for us into the presence of God, let's never forget. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Let us then draw near. and presently appropriating as we confess our sin cleansing for it.
That's the first let us. Let us draw near. Now look at the second one. Let us hold fast. Verse twenty three. Let me ask the questions. What? Are we to hold fast? How are we to hold fast? And why? Are we to hold fast? The answers are here. What is it that we are to hold fast? Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. I was interested to notice that what is said in the original here is, Let us hold fast the declaration of our hope.
In other words, God wants us to be men and women with a ringing certain testimony. I remember when I was a pilgrim preacher and we were having an open-air service in a certain English marketplace. We invited testimonies from the Christians gathered around, and there was a girl in her team. She raised her hand and she said, God said it, Christ did it, I believe it. and that settles it. Her testimony was a certain one. It had the ring of assurance, and that is what God wants from us.
Let us hold fast the declaration of our hope. Are you a talking Christian? I mean one who talks about the right things. The early believers went everywhere gossiping the gospel. Modern Christians, many of them, go everywhere gossiping everything but... I had a Scottish colleague who came to visit in this country, and he was one day to preach at a conference, and sharing the platform with him and preaching prior to him was a good brother who felt it was his responsibility to harangue the saints of God for thirty-five minutes about having and using television in their homes.
My friend got more and more uncomfortable. Feeling that the preacher could have done so much more if he administered Christ. And so when eventually he stood up to take his place in front of the rostrum, he looked over the heads of his congregation and he said, Now, if in view of what you have been listening to, you are making up your mind you're going to go home and put a hammer through the screen of your television set, there are two things I'd like to say to you. Number one, to do that is extremely dangerous. And number two, there's something you should do prior to that. Before you go back and destroy your television set, you go home and rip your telephone out of the wall.
Because, said he, there's far more harm done in fifteen minutes on many a telephone than is done by fifteen hours of sitting in front of a television set. You might hurt yourself. sitting in front of the television set, especially if it's a color one and you sit too closely. But when you get on the telephone and talk about other people, you do them damage. It was a wise say you said your tongue is in a wet place. Mine it doesn't slip. A rabbi once said, remember that your ears are open, but your tongue is walled in with teeth. When you talk, make sure you talk about the Lord.
and then you won't go far astray. In fact, you won't go astray at all. Or how hard my mother tried to teach me when I was a boy. Before you say anything, ask yourself three questions. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? I wish I'd learned that lesson. Too many Christians when it comes to witnessing are too often, like the St. Lawrence River is too often. That's in Canada, you know. The St. Lawrence River in Canada is too often frozen at the mouth. And when it comes to witnessing for Christ, too many Christians are just like that. They can talk about the ball game.
They can talk about the weather. They can talk about a thousand and one other things. But the declaration of their hope is something they scarcely ever give expression to. Let us hold fast. The declaration of our hope. Let's have a ringing certain testimony, and let's let everybody know. That's what. Now how? Let us hold fast the declaration of our hope without wavering. Without wavering. Without being up and down. It was James who said he that wavereth, is like a waver the three, toss two and throw.
Somehow God doesn't find very much pleasure in that. Do you know the word that is used here again is a very interesting word without wavering. It's not the one that James uses. It's the word aclinus and it means not bending. Without bending. I remember a friend of mine who was a missionary in Jamaica saying one day a man, a native, came to the home of one of the Christians, not at the back door, and he said he was very hungry. And he hadn't had anything to eat for days. And so she said to him, thinking he looked well fed anyhow, she said, well, I'm willing to give you a meal.
But she said, I want you to do a few chores at the back first. So she took him out and she showed him a few blocks that needed chopping up and a little bit of tidying up that needed doing here and there. And she left him. She went out after twenty minutes and he was sitting propped up against a tree fast asleep. So she shook him and she waken him up and she said, you haven't done the chores. He looked up into her face and he said, ma'am, empty bag, no stand up. Empty bag, no stand up. So she took him into the kitchen and she fed him. Then she sent him out to do the chores. After twenty minutes she found him out there again, propped up against the same tree and fast asleep.
When she roused him this time he looked up into her face and said, Ma'am, full bag no bend. Full bag no bend. So she couldn't win either way. Sometimes it's not good to be unbending. Other times there's nothing like it. Dear God says, hold fast, let us hold fast the declaration of our hope without bending. Let's make it absolutely unwavering, not bending. Why? Because it says, he is faithful but promised. You've got everything to shout about. You've got everything to be happy about, and you don't have to be afraid of boasting in the Lord because He's going to make it good every boast that you make concerning Him.
Let us draw near, verse twenty-two. Let us hold fast, verse twenty-three, and then let us consider one another, verse twenty-four. Now, isn't that lovely? Let me read a little further. Let us consider one another to provoke. Why we are so skilful at that, aren't we? Some of us are the most provoking Christians, it's possible to find. I remember going to the Welsh border on one occasion with a colleague to hold two weeks special meetings. And it was just a very little assembly, and we were confined to stay with a widow and her daughter. The widow was rather aged, and the daughter wasn't young, and both of them were very slim and very tall and very angular.
and very frugal, by the way, though they didn't need to be. But I remember, and you know, in England, in the winter, you have to crouch around a fire in order to be warm. And they had a few, what we used to call Glebes in the Great, and so I remember the four of us crouching around that little fire, trying to keep warm. And, you know, as the fire died down, my colleague looked at me, and I looked at him, and we wondered whether it wouldn't be warmer in bed, and then suddenly our hostess... And every movement she made was a sort of fast movement. She grabbed the poker and I shrunk a little bit and my colleague shrunk a little bit. But however, she wasn't going to threaten us.
She just plunged into the fire and she stirred up and the few ashes dropped from the bottom and a few little sort of sparks went up in the air. And she said, you know, that's my job in the assembly. I'm the poker. And, you know, I'm absolutely sure that she was right. I don't think God ever gave her the job. Because, you know, when God gives the job of poker to any believer, the job has to be done graciously and kindly and sometimes even with tears. But, boy, she relished the job. And I'm sure she did the stirring up in the assembly like she did the stirring up in the fire. But I'm just assured that God never gave her the job.
Some of us can be very provoking, but not in the right direction. It says here, let us provoke one another unto love and good works. If only we could realize, in fact, sometimes we do when it's too late, that among the things that come not back, along with the sped arrow and so on, and the lost opportunity is the spoken word. The spoken word. And sometimes we can hastily speak a word and wish for the rest of our days we never uttered it. If we can only learn to bite our tongues and think twice and then think a third time before we say a thing, especially if what we are about to say, we are saying because we are stirred up inside, we might be sorry.
We are not to provoke one another except unto love and good work. This is our responsibility, and this is the part of the business of being true, which is the concern of the Spirit of God here in this chapter. Let us draw near, let us hold fast, and let us consider one another. Will you notice three things in this verse twenty-four also? And verse twenty-five, we have to mention that. There is first of all a spiritual attitude. And then there is a spiritual activity. And then there is a spiritual assembly.
Now notice the first. Let us consider one another. Do you know what you've got in the Greek here? You've got the continuous present tense. Let us keep on considering one another. It isn't enough for you to say, well, I considered her last week. Let her consider me this week. No, it says, let us keep on considering one another. Let us make it a practice, day by day, to consider one another. You know, that's what makes for a happy community. Let us keep on considering one another. one another. That's the spiritual attitude. Here is the spiritual activity to provoke unto love and good works.
The Greek word here, and it might sound familiar to you, is paroxysmos. Have you heard of a paroxysm? A paroxysm? The thought is one of stimulation, a paroxysm. and we are to stimulate one another unto love and good works, not only to be considerate, but to be so considerate that we stir up other people to be considerate. Stimulating one another, that's the spiritual activity, and then the spiritual assembly, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Have you noticed that it is becoming fashionable to stay away from meetings and to stay home and have a few neighbors in at home? And do you find that even in some of our own magazines this is being advocated? Now perhaps there is certainly room for us to do a little home evangelism. But let's not do it at the expense of the meetings. Because the Bible says very, very positively, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
I believe that Satan doesn't want us to get together as often as we do. And if we can find excuses that we consider to be legitimate for staying away from the meetings, we give the devil an advantage. The Bible says as iron sharpeneth iron, so the countenance of a man is friends. You need your fellow believers, and they need you, and you need to meet with them, and they need to meet with you, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Here then is the call. Fidelity is the plea, and the call is for a joy near, for a holding fast, and for a provoking unto love and good works.
Now there follows a warning. I'm going to read it to you, and I'm not going to say very much about it. Verse twenty six. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fear for looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye... Shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now, you were to read in chapter six. In fact, we'll turn back to chapter six. In the bracket that we have mentioned, in the parenthesis in chapter six, come these words. Verse four, chapter six. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. Now there are people who find grave difficulty here, for it seems to them as they read these verses in chapter ten and in chapter six, Here is surely warrant for believing that a man can be saved and lost. I want to prove to you that these verses least cannot support that theory. In chapter six we read, and are you listening very carefully, it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted and so on, if they shall fall away to renew them again.
If you want to take these verses as authority for believing that you can be saved and lost, all right. But if this is what you accept, don't you ever look for the experience of being saved a second time. Because it says here it is impossible for them to renew them again. So if you believe you can be saved and lost, and these verses support your theory, then I've used for you. If you can be saved and lost, then I say it reverently, God help you, because you can't be saved again. It is impossible. So, so.
Now, these verses do not support the theory that a man can be saved and lost. Those that are referred to here are apostates who were never saved at all. Now you say, is it really possible for a man to be enlightened, to taste of the heavenly gift, to be made partaker of the Holy Ghost, to taste the good word of God and the powers of the world to come? Is it possible for a man to have this experience and not to be saved? I believe that it is. I believe that it is. I believe that if a man is brought under the operation of the Spirit of God and hearing the Word of God knows it for truth, he's enlightened, the Spirit of God begins to work in his heart and still he turns away, he becomes in that sense a partaker of the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God is actively engaged in working in his heart and in his life.
Tasted the good word of God, brought into contact with those, maybe in his own family, upon whom the Spirit of God has wrought. The word of God has been brought to him, and he's become a taster of heavenly things because the blessings of those things in his friend's lives and in the lives of his family, perhaps, in the lives of those close to him, bring benefit into his own life. But still he is not born again. Now, having been wrought upon by the Spirit of God, been enlightened in this fashion, such a man turns around and begins to oppose those things that he professed perhaps to believe, but never really did, that man becomes an apostate.
Now, it's the apostate that he's referred to in chapter six. It is the apostate that he's referred to in chapter ten. Now, will you please keep that in mind as we go to the warning in verses twenty-six? through thirty-one. Let's read now, let's see, there are four things here, and I'll mention them as I close. Verse twenty-six. Here we have, and you can put it down in your notes, a condition of apostasy. Sinning willfully, now he says, we, this does not necessarily mean to say he is talking to believers. We, he is talking about he and his associates.
If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth. Now you'll notice that there has been a receiving. But you will observe it is not a receiving of the truth. It's a receiving of the knowledge of the truth and there's a vast difference. There has not only been a receiving, there has been a rejection. And this is what makes up apostasy. It says if we sin willfully After that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Now the word sin is in the continuous tense, denoting a condition.
And the word willfully is a word that means deliberate and not upon impulse. This is a condition of apostasy, because here you have a man. who has received the knowledge of the truth, who has deliberately rejected it so that he can continue in his sin. That's the condition of apostasy. Verse twenty-six. And then, secondly, there is a position of jeopardy. You can put that down in your notes. Verse twenty-seven. a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
Will you please notice? Apostasy makes adversaries. When a man becomes an apostate, he becomes an adversary of all that is spiritual. Verse twenty-eight. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorrow punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of God. A position of jeopardy. It goes on to say for him there is no more sacrifice for sin.
He has refused the Jewish sacrifice, having professedly turned to the Christian. And then he has refused the sacrifice of Christ, and he can look for nothing more. For him there is no sacrifice for sin, and there is no escape from wrath. It is here. Verse thirty says, We know him who has said, Vengeance belongeth unto thee. I will recompense. Now again if you look at verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine and thirty, you see after the condition of apostasy in verse twenty-six, and the position of jeopardy in verse twenty-seven, there is an illustration from history in verses twenty-eight, twenty-nine and thirty.
We are given a glimpse of Israel. And those who despised Moses' law, they died without mercy. When we come to verse thirty-one, we have a statement of fact. And you can put that down in your notes. It says, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now although the writer is here speaking about the apostate, He is using it as a means of challenging the people of God. And when he finishes his word of warning by saying it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, he wants to remind the Christian that while unlike the Apostate, he is going to be saved, unlike the Apostate, He is not looking forward to dread judgment yet because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The believer cannot continue in his sin without suffering. Remember those who in their lifetimes, we read about them in First Corinthians, They prostituted the Lord's Supper to their own ends, and we read, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. God will not indefinitely tolerate sin in the lives of his people. Can I repeat that? God will not indefinitely tolerate sin in the lives of his people. There are Christians who die before their time. and they die before their time because they persist in living in sin.
It's a solemn thing and on that note of warning I'm going to close. Shall we pray? Our Father we ask that I would impress upon us the things that we have been pondering this evening. This is the practical portion of the Epistle and very quickly It reaches our hearts with solemn challenges. May we not forget them we pray. And we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Another quiet moment of meditation. And the service will be over. One time you come, one time
you come. As easy as you can I ask you to make a point of inviting someone else for the service tomorrow night. If you will bring in unsafe neighbors or friends, acquaintances. I'm making my business to see that the gospel is introduced into the message with the pictures tomorrow night. We're going to walk where Jesus walks. And I think that through the pictures and what he said, God will speak to the heart of the Lord and form the congregation.
Have we not yet had some of your friends? We've got an ordinary time for business. Thank you.