The practice of Christianity, as detailed in Hebrews 10, calls believers to fidelity through drawing near to God, holding fast to their hope, and considering one another. This section of Hebrews emphasizes that with Christ's sacrifice, believers have boldness to enter the holiest place, a new and living way opened for them. The sermon highlights the importance of a sincere approach to God, maintaining a strong testimony without wavering, and actively provoking one another to love and good works through assembly and mutual encouragement. Ultimately, the message stresses that consistent engagement in these practices is essential for spiritual growth and reflects a genuine love for Christ.
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Thank you. Let's turn again to the Epistle to the Hebrews, shall we? The Epistle to the Hebrews, and tonight we're going to turn to Chapter Ten, and where our second section begins, the one that we have called the practice of Christianity. We have been looking at the nine and a half chapters. only we only got to the end of chapter seven we're going to continue with the Lord will with chapter eight on Sunday but you remember as we were coming to a close and we had been speaking of the Lord Jesus as a high priest before God we noted four thinly veiled references to the things that are better that have to do with that priesthood, that better priesthood.
Do you remember them? A better covenant, a better sanctuary, and a better sacrifice along with that better priesthood. Now incidentally, as we begin on the practical section, we have the same presentation of those four things. Now we have remarked earlier on, and we all of us knew ahead of time, that better is the key word of this epistle. Interestingly enough, there are four words that are translated better in the New Testament. But the writer to the Hebrews only uses one of them.
And it is a word that has the connotation of a special strength. and I don't think it's coincidental, but that is the particular word that he chooses throughout his epistle that's translated better. Now here we have the four things, verse nineteen. You'll remember that the portion closes, there is no more offering for sin. Having brought before us the person of the Lord Jesus, In all of his adequacy and sufficiency, having looked at the wonder of his work, this is how that portion dealing with the person of Christ ends, there is no more offering for sin.
But then the portion that deals with the practice of Christianity begins, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest. Now there is the new sanctuary. By the blood of Jesus, there is the new sacrifice. By a new and living way, that is the new covenant, 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.
Let us. Now that phrase, let us, occurs and re-occurs throughout this epistle. We've been looking at some of them in the morning. Let us do this, let us do that, let us do the other. But now we are being launched into a final, three-and-a-half chapter-long exhortation, which is saying in effect to us, Now that you have looked for such a long time at the Lord Jesus, your life has got to be brought into tune. Your life has got to feel the effect, and it has got to show the evidence of that long looking at the person of the Lord Jesus.
And three important things are brought before us in verses twenty-two and twenty-three. and of course twenty-four. Now the practice of Christianity in the last three and a half chapters is concerned with three things. And the first is, and here we have it, it goes on further down the chapter two, a call for fidelity. And that means it's a call to believers to be true. If ever there was a day when sincerity was needed, if ever there was a day when reality was called for, if ever there was a day when we ought to turn our back upon that, which is phony and unreal, it is this day in which we are living.
And so the writer says, I want to plead with you to be true. And I want to show you how to do it. A plea for fidelity. And that takes us through the rest of chapter ten. When we come to chapter eleven, we have a panorama of faith, and everybody knows God's Hall of Fame. It's very interesting to see how the names that follow one after the other bring before us a beautiful progression. I don't know whether this week I have gotten across to you the order, the beautiful order that there is in this epistle to the Hebrews.
Now that same order is found in God's Hall of Fame in Hebrews chapter eleven, the panorama of faith. The writer ends with a path to follow in the last chapter, and he leaves us with the very real sense that if we do not find that path and follow that path, we have missed our whole reason for living. Let's look then at the plea for fidelity. Let us draw near.
Verse twenty-two. Let us hold fast. verse twenty-three. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works 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. Now there is a lovely message with which to bring bring to a close eight weeks of conference. If we have time, we'll go a little beyond it, because this plea for fidelity is constituted by both a call that we've just read and a warning which immediately follows beginning, for if we sin willfully.
However, we may not get there. And that's going to be a sad thing for some of you because there is so much that is controversial in that part of Hebrews, and you're going to say it was a cop-out, he stopped short of it. You weren't at the session this morning when we talked about chapter six, and that, of course, is allied to chapter ten, and I believe it refers undoubtedly to to the apostate and therefore is really no problem at all. I understand from Brother Grant that Dr.
McGee doesn't agree with me. Well, that's not the first time he's been wrong, I'm sure. But it is a lovely way to finish our conference and perhaps we'll go no further than this, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. and so much the more as we see the day approaching. You know, it's been very, very special and precious to notice the appreciation of the congregation down through these eight weeks as speaker after speaker has brought before us the person of the Lord Jesus.
And it is... It says much for such a congregation that their faces light up when they hear about him, their heads nod when words of exaltation are spoken about him, and when at the end of the service, because they've been listening to what the Word of God has to say about the Son of God, very sincerely they say, that was so wonderful. We're very fortunate. to have a congregation like that. But you know, to love the Lord Jesus is to love one another.
And to love the Lord Jesus is to love his presence. And to love the Lord Jesus is to love the opportunity of making him known to others. Let's look at the first of these three lettuces. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance. Now I read to you, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest. Did that sound familiar to you? We read that word boldness a little earlier on.
At the end of chapter four, you remember, where the Lord Jesus was introduced to us as the high priest, it said, let us come boldly. Now these two are linked. It said in chapter four, the Lord Jesus has gone into the heavens and provided for us a place to which we can come, then let us come and let us do it boldly. But here it says, We have not only to be bold in our praying, but we are to enter into the place that Jesus entered before us.
He has opened for us a new and living way. I've reminded you not once, but probably a number of times this week, that it was a solemn thing for the high priest to go into the holiest of all. and so solemn that I think he must have trembled on the day of atonement when that big responsibility was his. And yet to us is given that liberty at any time, in any place, under any circumstance, any circumstances, and for any reason.
And not only is the opportunity and privilege of ours to come into the holiest of all, but to do it boldly. To do it boldly. I said to you on that occasion, when we talked about chapter four, it does not mean to do it with familiarity. But our entrance is a bold one, and that in contrast to the entrance of the high priest into this self-same holy place. Now the word that is used in our verse here, to enter into the holiest is actually the holy place.
Now you'll remember that the tabernacle was divided into two parts. There was a square part into which only the high priest could go, once a year, and then there was a larger section into which the priest went every day. The square section was called the holiest of all. where God would take his place over the mercy seat, and into which the high priest would go tremblingly. The other part was called the holy place, into which the high priest went to carry out their duties. But the word here, although translated into, in our translation here, the holiest, is really the holy place.
But you know why? because the holy place became the holiest, and the holiest of all became the holy place when the veil in the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. I often wonder how those priests felt, who knew they had no place in the holiest of all, but were in the tabernacle or in the temple at that time when the veil of the temple was rent in twain. Was it accompanied by a great sound? I don't know. But my, I believe, every one of those priests in the holy place shook with terror at suddenly finding themselves looking into the holiest of all, and indeed, their place becoming actually part of.
We are New Testament priests. We've talked about that too. We minister in the holy place, but it has become the holiest of all. And so our entrance is into that very, very hallowed place. And our entrance is a bold one. Our way is a living one. Now this way, of course, is Christ. The Lord Jesus said, I am the way. the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. The living way. It also is called a new and living way.
I found out an interesting thing about this word new, because it's a word that in the Greek, down through the many, many years changed its meaning. And here it means the new, the fresh, living way. But originally that word meant freshly slain. Now isn't that significant? Speaking of the way that the Lord Jesus is a freshly slain yet living way. Now that is the way we draw near.
Our entrance is a bold one. Our way is a new and living one. It cannot age. It's based upon the Lord Jesus. In fact, it is the Lord Jesus. But our approach must be a sincere one. It says we have to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. and our bodies washed with pure water. I think you can see the picture there. If we are going to come into this place, this hallowed place of solemn association, the holy place, the holiest of all, you can call it which of those you choose, how can we dare to come into such a place with bad consciences and being unclean.
There are times when we come into the presence of God, into that holy place, and we are unclean because we've sinned, but we are coming with tears in our eyes and a broken heart, coming that way to God in order to get cleansing and forgiveness. is what God wants when we're in that situation. But you know, we ought never to casually come into God's presence. We ought always to examine ourselves and make sure we'll never be fit to come into God's presence.
But we ought to make sure that we are not doing it casually. And we must remember that word which says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And it's sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water. The picture of cleanliness. That's part of the plea. Let us draw near. Now you see where it begins. It begins with our coming to God and coming to God in the right attitude, and coming to God recognizing the privilege that it is, and through whom we come.
All of that is here and more in these two or three verses. If we don't draw near, our lives... are going to draw away. That's the way things go. You know, as believers, we don't stand still. We cannot stand still. If we do not go forward, we shall go back. And in our praying, if we do not pray and pray constantly, we shall find ourselves praying less and less and less. I can understand why as he comes into this practical section the writer says, let us draw near.
But I think you ought to know that there the word means let us keep on drawing near. It's not a once and for all business. It's not even an intermittent business. It's an attitude of seeking out and living in the presence of God that is really involved here. Let us keep on drawing near. And that's a good place to start. It's the only place to start. Then it says, Let us hold fast. Let me read verse twenty-three to you. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.
Now in spite of the fact that this is a King James Version that you have in your hand, of which some man said, it was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it's good enough for me, it doesn't quite fill the bill here. What is actually said here is this, when it says, let us hold fast, and we might ask, What is it that I'm to hold fast? The verse says, the profession of our faith. But you know what the word actually is? It's the confession of our hope. That's actually what it means here. Let us hold fast the declaration or confession of our hope.
You know what that is? That's our testimony. How jealous are you of your testimony for God? When you do something, or you prepare to do something, or you start in a given direction, do you ask yourself, how will this affect my testimony? I know that most often you do. There are things that you don't practice in your life, and legally, I suppose you could. But you say, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to go to that place. I'm not going to meet with those people because it will put my testimony in jeopardy.
It won't be holding fast to the declaration or confession of my hope. Our testimonies are precious things, but they're fragile things, and they can be hurt. They can even be destroyed. Let us hold fast. Having found out what it is we are to hold fast, how are we to hold it fast? We are told, without wavering. Without wavering. Now the word that you see is not used anywhere else in the New Testament, and it means not bending.
I remember hearing from one of our missionaries, a story about a man in the Caribbean Islands who approached a woman one day at the door of her home and begged for something to eat. He said he hadn't eaten for a couple of days, and so she said to him, Well, you can do some work on my property, and then I'll feed you. So out he went. with the necessary tools, and when she looked out of the window, just a very short time afterwards, he was sitting with his back propped up against a tree.
And so she went to the door and she called him and she said, You're not working. He said to her, Ma'am, empty bag, no stand-up. So she took him into the kitchen, and she fed him and fed him well. And then out he went, forty-five, seized the tools, and started to work. For a few minutes she looked out again, and he was trapped up against the same tree. And when she called him again, he said this time, full bag, no bend. So she couldn't win.
But you know bending is something that in this sense Christians ought never to do. Not wavering. If we are going to have a testimony that is a good testimony, then we are going to have to avoid certain things, shun certain things, not because we cannot do them, but because they'll hurt our testimony. But you know if we want to have an effective testimony, as well as a good one, we've got to make sure that there is no vacillating in our lives, being up and being down. Because I can imperil my testimony by having a short fuse.
I can imperil my testimony by making a little excuse here and there for something that doesn't seem to be quite on the up and up. We've got to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, not bending. Absolutely straight up and down. Why? That's the next question. We know now what it is we have to hold. and we know how it is that we have to hold it. Our verse ends for He is faithful that promised. God is faithful.
That's why. And there is no excuse for our not holding and not holding without wavering that confession of our hope. God has placed at our disposal all that we need to have a good testimony and to have a good effective testimony. And all we have to do is tap the source, open up the spigot, and allow the power to flow into our lives, and then we won't have to worry about dying with a shattered testimony. Let us hold fast. Now look at verse twenty-four.
And let us consider one another. to provoke unto love and good works, 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. Now again there are three things that I see here. There's a spiritual attitude, and there's a spiritual activity, and there's a spiritual assembly. And these things are all part of this call to or plea for fidelity. If we are going to be true, which is the burden of the writer's heart, then we've got to make sure we have a clear passage to God with nothing between.
We've got to draw near. We've got to make sure that our indebtedness to those with whom we come into contact on the outside is being discharged. We've got to hold fast our profession of hope. And then we've got to consider one another. I'm such a selfish person. And from time to time I have to pull up myself short and say, But you ought to, because there's a need there.
I know you go through the same thing. How far shall I go? When shall I say no? Now there comes a time, you know, when you have to say no, or you'll kill yourself. Sometimes demands made upon us are just too many and too great. And we have to turn around eventually and use the negative. I can remember for many years how that I would come home from busy campaigns, maybe two weeks, maybe three weeks, maybe even a month. And I would come home dog-tired and look forward to a couple of quiet days.
And I would get a call from some place in New Jersey or New York or Connecticut, our preacher can't come tomorrow night. Could you come? And I would wearily drag myself out of that nice armchair in which I was thoroughly ensconced and off I'd go. Not able to say no. But you know there came a time in my life when considering my wife and my children and my own health, the only thing I could do was commit myself to a night at home here on my calendar, here on my calendar, and there on my calendar.
And when the inevitable call came, I would say I'm sorry, but I'm committed for that evening. I'm not sure whether that was getting out of things, but however, it was just something I had to do. But we all of us get to the point, you know, when suddenly, and maybe we're ensconced in an easy chair, there comes a need, there comes a call. And we attempted to say, oh, I don't think I'll go, or I don't think I can do it. I think maybe it'll be all right to do it tomorrow. And then we take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and say, That need has to be met tonight. You've had that experience. You've had that experience.
I know you have, because I know most of you so well. It's considering one another. We may drag ourselves back again, as some of you have done, as I have done, when there's been a need at the hospital, three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning, and drop into bed. But you look back on it, exacting and demanding as it was, and said, I wouldn't have missed it. It was such a joy to see that look of relief and thanksgiving on the face of that person. Consider one another. To do that, that does mean that we're going to have to pay a price on account of each other.
It does mean that we're going to have to put ourselves out because of each other. It even means we may have to cancel some of our arrangements and change them because of the need of somebody else. Maybe there's a little spot into which nobody can fill on that occasion but you, but you already have plans and you may have to cancel them. These things are involved in considering one another because it just doesn't mean to think nice thoughts about one another. It doesn't just mean to carry those thoughts onto our knees and pray for each other.
It means that in times of need we've got to be prepared to put ourselves out for one another. Consider one another. To provoke one another. No, it doesn't say that. It says to provoke unto love and good works. I've told you about that lady who lived on the Welsh border, where a colleague and I went to have some special meetings. We were shown, we were taken to the home we were to stay, our train was met, someone met us by car, took us to the home, and there we were introduced to our hostess, who was quite an old lady, but she was upright.
She was very bright, her eyes had a sort of glint in them, she was thin, she had rather angular features, and she had a maiden daughter just like her. And I remember that very first night, it was in the middle of the winter, we were received into the home, and we sat with the hostess and her daughter around a very small fire. we were to find that she was very frugal also. And in England, you know, where you have no central heating, the fire is the all-important thing. But she was not going to spend too much money.
I remember she took us out one day to give out tracts at a country fair. And we had a small lunch, and because neither my colleague or I finished our buns, She picked up what was left and took it home. She was very frugal. But I remember that very first night. She was determined that we should know her. And it was probably a good thing that we were warned in advance. We talked about a lot of things as we sat huddled around those few bleeds. Now there's a good English word for you. And then suddenly, for all her actions, were like that.
She reached out and she picked up the poacher. That's an all present, always present implement beside the fire grate in a British home. And then she poked it into the fire and my heart dropped a foot and a half because there wasn't enough there to poke. I could see the sparks going down and I imagined that we were going to freeze to death. But you know, she poked. for a little while and then she pulled the poker out and she raised it up and she said, you know, that's what I am in the assembly. I'm the poker. And I believed her. But I don't think God ever gave her the job.
You know, when God wants to make a poker of you, he gives you a tender heart and he gives you a ready tear. And he gives to you a very warm and special kind of personality. If you haven't got that kind of personality, please don't poke. It's not your job. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. We sometimes provoke one another in other ways. But you know, that word, the word for which we get our word... paroxysm. It means what it says to stir each other up, to love and good works.
Now you're not going to provoke somebody to love and good works by criticizing them in a harsh and destructive fashion. You may have some justifiable criticism of them, but you're not going to stir up love and good works if you do it harshly. Maybe you should leave it to somebody else. You're not going to stir up to love and good works if all that you're concerned about is your own immediate sphere of influence. Like the man who considered he was very pious because he never ate a meal without saying grace.
But this was his grace. Lord bless me and my wife, our George, and his wife, us for no more. We've got to make sure that we are not partisan in our provoking to love and good works. We've got to have a general ministry spread among each other of constantly uplifting each other to love and good works. We can do it by just a look, you know. We really can. A kind, a tender, a sweet, a special kind of look. We can certainly do it with a kind and nice word.
We are so human. We don't hesitate when somebody needs to be lambasted to make sure that they get a good helping of it. But you know, there are people that we need sometimes to pat on the back. There are people... You don't come short here because you have nice kind things to say to me from time to time. I hope you say them to each other. I really do. That's one way to provoke unto love and good works. Oh, I know that somebody said, a little boy should have a pat on the back as long as it's low enough and hard enough and often enough.
Now, sometimes that's necessary, but more often. What's necessary is that little kindly word of encouragement, that little kindly word of praise, that little expression of gratitude for something you saw done to somebody else. That's provoking unto love and good works. Now I believe that we have, and I've been in a lot of them, one of the choicest assemblies that you'll find on this continent. There's a warm feeling. There's a family feeling. There is a care for each other. But you know, there's always room for improvement.
So it says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. Not assembling, not forsaking. Boy, I nearly changed it there, didn't I? Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Aren't you glad that my time has gone? I don't think there's anybody here tonight who comes to the breaking of bread and doesn't come to any other meeting. You know what Alf Gibbs used to call those kind of people? He used to call them Smoes. Now, isn't that unkind? No, it isn't. Just their initials. Sunday morning only. I was so thrilled.
I was really thrilled to see the support that you gave the choir on the night of the concert. We probably had the biggest Saturday night gathering of the conference. And it was because the local folk determined they were going to be here and encourage the choir. And the visitors, they all came too. I don't think you were disappointed. I know you weren't. But you know, just the fact that you gave us such support was such a blessing. That's a way, again, to encourage one another and to provoke to love and good works.
Make sure that you're in your place. Now, if I was preaching this in some other place, boy, I'd labor that point. I would lay it on thick and heavy because, well, you know, I go back to New Jersey where the assembly is about a hundred and seventy-five in fellowship. Sunday morning, you can scarcely find a seat. Now the folks from Valley, close your ears. The last time I was there for the prayer meeting, I think there were about forty-five there. Now I didn't think that was a very good proportion. I shouldn't have told you where it was. You'll forget that I said it was Valley Bible Chapel, won't you? But I look around when all the visitors are gone, in the middle of the heat of summer, and sometimes I say to the local folk, our numbers are thin tonight.
But I've already counted them, and there are sixty people there. Now, if a thin night is sixty, that says something for the assembly, and we certainly appreciate it. There is a spiritual attitude, because the word here is, let us keep on considering one another. Same thing, the continuous present tense. Let's keep on doing it. So you are doing it. Keep on doing it. and improve the way you're doing it, because there's always room for improvement. The spiritual activity we've mentioned, to provoke unto love and good works, stimulating each other to love and to good works, and then there's that spiritual assembly.
And the verse tells us, God expects it, the believers need it, and the circumstances demand it. There's never a time when we needed each other More than we need each other today. There has never been a time when we needed more to be in the assembly gatherings together than today. You know, one of my joys, and I'm going on a long time tonight, this is a last night, see. So you can't stay away tomorrow night and punish me. I'm joking. I visited a number of mission fields and missionaries on the field.
in some out of the way places. And the other thing that is most heartbreak for them, not being able to gather with the Lord's people. Now you never miss the water till the well runs dry. Let's appreciate each other. Let's make sure that we stand shoulder to shoulder with each other. Let's stimulate each other to love and good works. And then, though we have a good assembly now, or you have a good assembly where you come from, If you get busy this way, you'll have a better one. Shall we pray? Our Father, once again, we give thee thanks that we have the opportunity of being together.
We thank thee, Lord, for what we get out of just being together. We thank thee for the magic word fellowship, because we know what it is. We enjoy it.