When I survey the wondrous cross  
On which the Prince of Glory died,  
My richest gain I count but loss  
And poor contempt on all my pride.  

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,  
Save in the death of Christ my God  
All the vain things that charm me most.  
I sacrifice them to His blood.  

See from His head, His hands, His feet,  
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.  
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet  
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?  

Were the whole realm of nature mine,  
That were a present far too small.  
Love so amazing, so divine,  
Demands my soul, my life, my all.  

Love so amazing, so divine,  
Demands my soul, my life, my all.  

Thank you, Grace, for that good song. It's so good to have you here and your family with us. We're going to miss you so much. You've been here ever since I've been here, I know that. 

Well, good morning to everyone. Good to have you all with us here this morning. Glad you're here. 

We're in the middle of a study of the book of Hebrews and we've been many months going verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the book and we've come to chapter 10. We're kind of reiterating things as we go through these chapters about Jesus' priesthood about his sacrifice and how it's better. The author's been teaching an amazing amount of doctrine about these things, and this morning, we're going to see if he calls on them to respond to that doctrine in this text. 

Last week, we studied the first 14 verses in the 10th chapter of the book of Hebrews, and the last verse of our study is the key to what the author's been teaching for the last couple of chapters. If you look at chapter 10, verse 14 with me, it says, "For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." 

Jesus' death on the cross is a full payment for the sins of men. It was a one-time, all-sufficient sacrifice. It was the perfect sacrifice that the old covenant pictured, pointed to, or foretold in all those sacrifices in the tabernacle. In the old covenant, the priesthood ministering daily offering continually the same sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats, which the author said could never take away sins, but Jesus offered himself once, accomplishing salvation and satisfying the wrath of God. 

This is the message that the author's been trying to get across to these Hebrews. They needed to understand that the entire old covenant system was only a shadow. It was only a picture of the fullness and the completeness that would come in Christ. Now that the new had come, that the perfect sacrifice by the perfect high priest of God had been fulfilled, the old was obsolete and it was ready to vanish away. 

And this truth, these doctrines that the author's been laboring to expound, my friends, now calls for action on the part of the hearers. And that's what our text is about this morning, a call to action, an exhortation, a spurring on to respond in faith to the truth that he has so clearly laid out concerning the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

When a man is presented with the truth of the gospel, when he is confronted with his sin and his need and is given the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior, the only Savior from sin and the wrath of God, that man must make a choice. And that's really what the rest of this chapter is about, making a choice, choosing to believe or to reject Jesus Christ. 

What we see is that some do believe, some make the right choice, and they hold fast to Jesus Christ. But others, having known and understood the gospel, even having given an intellectual assent to the truth concerning Christ, choose to turn away from him and back to their own self-righteousness or religion. And that is why we see such an amazing, terrifying warning at the end of the chapter, beginning in verse 26, and we're going to look at that next time. 

But today, we see an opportunity. We see a call to draw near to God, to come into the holy of holies in heaven through the mediating work of the high priest of the new and living way, Jesus, to hold fast to him and to consider one another. My friends, our text today is an invitation. It's an opportunity, the greatest opportunity that was ever offered, to come to faith, to receive salvation for today and forever through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

Let's look at our text together, beginning. I'll read verse 14 as well. Hebrews 10, 14, "For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after he had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with you, I will make with them after those days," says the Lord, "I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds, I will write them." Then he adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more." Now, where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. 

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. 

Well, I have three points for you this morning. First, let us draw near. Second, let us hold fast. And third, let us consider one another. 

The author goes back to the new covenant promise from Jeremiah, the prophet of Israel. He quotes as he did in chapter eight from Jeremiah 31. It's interesting to note that in verse 15, it says, "The Holy Spirit says," this affirms the inspiration of the Old Testament as the word of God. The Holy Spirit said, Jeremiah was the instrument through which he spoke. 

You know, there's some debate concerning the author of the book of Hebrews, but what we can say with confidence is that the Holy Spirit wrote this book. All scripture is God-breathed. No scripture is of any private interpretation, but the holy men of God were carried along by the Holy Spirit. It's important that we understand that these are the words of God. It's the only book He ever wrote. 

I had a most interesting encounter with a man yesterday, actually Friday, right up the road here in Presque Isle. He came to the farm market there and he began to talk to me, and he found out I was a Christian. Then he began to tell me his story of how the Lord had called him 31 years ago. He went on with long stories of how God gives him visions to go places and to speak to certain people. He's traveled all over Canada, the United States, and Mexico for 31 years delivering these messages. 

He even told me to people like Bill Gates and Donald Trump. He told me he never leaves his house unless God instructs him where to go through a vision on his prayer couch. So I witnessed to him, I confronted him on some of these things, and he became very agitated, especially concerning the issue of the Virgin Mary and her contribution to our salvation. 

I left that market in Presque Isle and then in the evening we had another market in Ironwood. Much to my surprise, this man showed up at that market looking for me. He came and told me that he'd had a vision about me and that he couldn't get me off his mind. What made my wife a little nervous. He told me that God had sent him to tell me to not be afraid to give myself to Mary because even Jesus gave himself to Mary. 

I bring this up, my friends, to illustrate the author's point here. He says, referring to Jeremiah 31, "The Holy Spirit witnesses to us." When this man came to me, he came with his own ideas, his own words. He said it was from God, but he only received this message, wherever it came from, only he got it, only he received it. He claimed additional revelation from God added to this book. And on top of this, what he said was contrary to this book. 

You remember the very first words of our study of Hebrews. Turn back to chapter one with me, please, and look at Hebrews 1.1. The very beginning of the book, the author says, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." 

God spoke through the prophets, visions, all kinds of ways in the past in the Old Testament books. But in these last days, He's spoken to us by His Son. God does not speak in visions. He does not communicate His word and His will to individuals in addition to this book. The revelation is complete; the canon is closed. And now we are to search the scriptures daily to see if what men say is true. 

Paul said the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the scriptures daily to see if what he said was true. I think we do well to search the scriptures today to see if what men say is true. The Holy Spirit said through Jeremiah, all scripture, this book is given by inspiration. It's God breathed. An important truth for us to understand. 

But what did God say through Jeremiah? We get to verse 16 of our text. "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds. I will write them." And he adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more." This speaks of the new covenant, just as he taught in chapter eight. 

Clearly we see here that the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 are applied to the church in what I call a pre-fulfillment. These promises will ultimately be fulfilled in Israel as God does keep His word. But we see that in the institution of the new covenant in His blood, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. 

These promises are now in effect today for us in the church. And the chief promise that's emphasized here in verse 17 is this: "Their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more." What a promise. This is the promise fulfilled in Jesus in the new covenant sacrifice to end all sacrifices. 

That's why he says in verse 18, "Now, where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin." You see, in that old covenant with all those animal sacrifices, there was a reminder of sins continually. With every bloody immolation of a bull or a goat, there was a graphic visceral reminder of the penalty of sin, which is death. 

But in the new covenant with the sacrifice of Christ through faith in him alone, there is completion. There is perfection. There's an internal cleansing of the conscience, a right standing with God, a dealing with the indwelling sin problem, and in this, there is no remembrance of sin. This is an amazing, incredible promise, and it drives home the salient point of the author that the old covenant sacrifices have ended. There is no longer an offering for sin. It is complete, has been atoned, it's dealt with and defeated, and for those who believe Jesus, they experience these promises. 

They have died to and been freed from the penalty and the controlling power of sin in their lives, and thus it is complete, and they are complete in Christ, and there are no more sacrifices, no more old covenant, but the new and living way is all that remains. This is the doctrine. This is what the author has been teaching, trying to get across to these Hebrews and to us, and now he will follow the doctrine with exhortation, as we see consistently throughout the Bible, with an invitation into the fullness of salvation in Jesus Christ. 

Let's look at verse 19. He says, "Therefore, brethren, therefore, based on all this truth, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." 

Therefore, he writes, pointing us back to all that he's taught us really in these first ten chapters. Therefore, since Jesus is better, better than the prophets, better than the angels that gave the law, better than Moses, better than Aaron, better than all that the Old Covenant offered and was, because he has accomplished salvation in his one-time final propitiatory sacrifice for sins forever and has sat down at the right hand of God where he lives to make intercession for us as our great and perfect high priest, because of all these things, because he offers full salvation where there is no remembrance of sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, let us draw near. 

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. What an invitation, what an exhortation to these Jews. The old way was a dead-end road. I just remembered when I was in India and Sharon was translating for me and I was preaching, and I said, "It's a dead-end street." She stopped and looked. "What?" It’s a dead-end... they didn’t have that euphemism, so she had no understanding of what I was talking about, but that Old Covenant was a dead-end road. 

It was leading nowhere, it was over, it was only a picture, a shadow, it could never make those who approach perfect, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. No man could ever approach God, could go boldly behind the veil in the Old Covenant system. But in this new covenant, through Jesus, He has made a new and living way. Literally in the Greek it says, "a freshly slain road." 

Our brothers and sisters, can you imagine what this must have done to the minds of these Hebrew people? We can enter boldly the very presence of God in the holiest in heaven, behind the veil, we can come in through our High Priest by His blood, we can draw near to God. 

It is through His flesh, the veil, He calls it. You see, as long as Jesus lived, there was no completion, there was no accomplishment of salvation, He did not save us by His life here on this earth. But when His flesh was rent on the cross, by His death He opened the veil, He gave us access to God. And this access is directly to God. That was something the Hebrews could hardly have imagined. 

But through Christ, they and we have access to God; He's our Abba Father, we can come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of need, to our Papa. And now, because of what Jesus has accomplished, because of the fact that God remembers our sins and our lawless deeds no more, because of the blood of Christ on our behalf, we can come boldly to the very throne room, the house of God. 

And we can come with a true, with a sincere heart full of assurance because of our faith in Jesus. That's what matters; that's what it's all about; that's what gives us access. Not Mary, not sacraments or rituals or works of righteousness, which we have done, no visions from God, simply by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ and His full and complete sacrifice. 

Only in this way, only by the new and living way, the freshly slain way, can I come boldly to God. And it's a full salvation. 

Look at the words at the end of verse 22: "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." This speaks of the completeness, the fullness of the salvation that Jesus brings. We've been cleansed inside and out, we've been regenerated, we've been given a new heart and a new spirit, made alive in the Holy Spirit Himself. 

Jesus Christ has come to live in us and dwell us, to sanctify us and conform us to His likeness as He lives His life in and through us as we abide in Him by faith. This is the greatness, this is the good news of the new covenant in His blood. And the author pleads with his readers to draw near, to come to God in simple faith. 

So we see the exhortation to come to God through Christ by faith, to draw near. Next, we see the encouragement then to hold fast. 

Let us hold fast, verse 23: "let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." The verse speaks directly to the main intent of this whole epistle. As we highlighted in chapter 8, the author affirmed, this is the main point of the things we are saying, he wrote. Jesus is better. He brought a better covenant built on better promises. 

And the main exhortation built on this truth is to hold fast to Him, to believe Him, to go on to faith, perfection in Him, and having drawn near, having believed, to hold fast. Notice the word wavering in verse 23. You see, this was the reality in this community. The legalistic Jews were putting an immense amount of pressure on these Hebrews, the believers and the ones who had only made a profession of faith. 

But remember, they were all in the church, they all had left the temple, they'd even suffered persecution due to their association with Christ, with the believers, with the gospel. And now the danger, the inclination, the leaning, was to go back to the temple. Go back to their families and loved ones and communities and be accepted by forsaking Christ and adopting again the old covenant system. They were wavering. 

And those who had come up to the point of faith in Christ were in danger of turning back. The author here exhorts them, hold fast. Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. God will keep His promises in Christ. Jesus is the new and living way. We must hold fast to Him. 

And this, my friends, has great application for us as well, for those who have believed Jesus, because that's what our life is about every day. There's often a tendency for us to wander, to waver, to look to the world and its wisdom, or trust our feelings, emotions, to succumb to the pressures of culture, our communities, what is normal and accepted in the world. 

But what we must do is hold fast to Jesus. We must look to Him, we must believe Him and trust His promises, because He who promised is faithful. 

Jesus captures this truth in His explanation of the New Covenant Christian life in John 15. What does it mean to hold fast? It is to abide in Christ, to remain, to stick with Him. 

I've told you this story before, but it's so vivid in my mind and illustrates so well what it means to abide. When I was in India, Sharon, Augustine's daughter, took us shopping one day and we went to this massive six-story department store, and they had different products on every level, and about ten men in suits that would wait on you and help you, and we were shopping for some silk scarves for our wives. 

But on our way, we walked down the busy streets of that city of ten million, Chennai, and we came to this massive intersection, many lanes of traffic coming from all directions, and there's no lights, there's no signs, yet hundreds of cars, trucks, buses, carts, bullocks, motorcycles, mopeds with whole families on them, riding, saris slacking in the spokes of the wheels as they go by. 

They were all buzzing around, merging, changing lanes, and I thought to myself, there's no way we could ever cross this street and make it alive. And Guy, you know, he was kind of wandering around, taking it all in. Sharon kept saying, "Come here, stay with me." She grabbed my arm and pulled me next to her, and as she watched this spectacle in front of her, and she said, "Stay with me, stay with me, now go." 

And we ran with her, stride for stride, remaining with her, staying with her, and we safely crossed about 12 lanes of traffic to make it to the department store on the other side. You may say, "Well, you made that a little dramatic, crossing the street," but let me tell you, you haven't been to India. It was a death-defying act, no kidding. And the only reason we made it across was because we remained, we abided, we stayed right with Sharon, who knew how to make it across, who knew the way. 

This is what the author's saying. Jesus is the way. Only by him, only as we remain with him, focused on him, abiding in him, can we make it to the Father, can we have abundance of life today and fruit for the glory of God and peace and assurance through all the turmoil and ups and downs and struggles of this life. 

Abide in me, and I in you, and you will bear much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Hold fast, my friend, hold fast to Jesus and the confession of our hope without wavering, because he who promised is faithful. This is what these Hebrews needed to hear and to heed, and it's the same for us today, every day. 

So we see the exhortation based on the doctrine, let us draw near, and we see our desperate need to hold fast to Jesus one day at a time, one moment at a time. And finally this morning we see our great need to consider one another. 

Let us consider one another, verse 24: "and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching." 

The word consider speaks of continuous, attentive care concerning the welfare of our spiritual state. We are to care for one another in the body of believers, to pay attention to the needs of others, to minister to them, encourage them for the purpose of stirring them up to love and good works. 

The word stir up means to spur on or incite; in its negative connotation, it means an irritation, but here it means to provoke in a positive sense. And we see in the last verse of our text that this requires an assembling together of ourselves. We cannot pay close attention to one another, to look for ways to encourage, to provoke unto love and good works if we're not spending time in worship and the word and fellowship together. 

We need to be in church, we need to be in Bible studies, in times of fellowship for our individual spiritual health and growth, but we also need these things for the health of the body. And when we are isolated, when we are continually absent, it has a detrimental effect on us individually but also on the whole body. 

In Ephesians 4, you know that passage, God gave gifts, you know, pastors and teachers, verse 11, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, and he talks about being built up and coming to unity in the faith, that we should no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and then he says we should speak the truth in love and grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 

Turn over to 1st Corinthians 12, let's look at what Paul says here about the body. 1st Corinthians 12, 20: "But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the hand to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor." 

"In our unpresentable parts we have greater modesty, but our presentable parts we have no need. But God composed the body, having given great honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it. For if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually." 

What was happening in this fellowship of Hebrews was that the pressure from the legalistic Jews was beginning to weigh on some, and they were doubting their confession of faith in Christ. And as a result, some had quit coming to church, quit participating in the fellowship. The author says, "Do not forsake the gathering together of ourselves, as is the manner of some, but rather exhort one another, and so much more as we see the day approaching." 

We should be continually pointing one another back to Christ and exhorting one another to focus on Him and the things above, not on the things on the earth, to remember what really matters and why we're here. It's so easy for us to get distracted, to get too busy, to be caught up in the things of the world, the cares and troubles of this life. And when we get off track, and we've lost our focus, our holding fast to Christ, we need a brother or a sister to come alongside us, to exhort us to look to Jesus, to recognize that He has promised to come back and take us to be with Him forever, and that that day is approaching. 

Colossians 3 says, "Since you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind, focus your full attention on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." 

Philippians 3.20: "For our citizenship is in heaven." I told Bobby the other day, "I'm not a citizen, I'm a citizen of heaven, from which I eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." 

We see again and again in the Scriptures the exhortation to focus on Christ, to stir up love and good works in one another, tied to the coming of Christ, the great day, the promise. If you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow, how would it change your life? How would you live the next 24 hours? The author of Hebrews says that in these last days, we need to focus on fellowship, on the Word, on our confession, our faith, our hope on Jesus, because the time of His coming is at hand. 

There's an urgency, or there should be an urgency to this Christian life, my friends, because we do not know when Jesus will come, and we also do not know when we will die, or when our neighbor will die, or our co-worker, or our loved one. Today is the day of salvation, and we are here, John 17, we are here so that the world may know to bring the gospel to men who are perishing that they might believe and be saved. 

The way that we're stirred up to love, the self-sacrificial agape love and good works is by exhortation based in truth, based in focus on Jesus and His promise to return. This last point, to consider one another, is really just another expression of the need of these Hebrews to stay with Christ, to hold fast to Him, to look to Him and believe Him, and not abandon the gathering with the believers in the church. 

The appeal of our text to this group of Hebrews is the same as we've seen throughout the book, to draw near to God through faith in Jesus, to hold fast to Christ in our confession of faith in Him, and to love one another. My friends, these are the commands of the New Covenant. 

Listen to 1 John 3, 23: "This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave His commandment." Now next time, we're going to consider a negative response to Christ, what is in store for the man who chooses willfully to reject Jesus and His gospel and turn back. 

I just pray this morning that if you're here, or you're hearing my voice on a computer, that if you do not know Jesus, that you would respond rightly, that you would make the right choice to believe Him, to draw near in faith, to hold fast, and then to see His love manifest out through your life for His glory, and for everyone who believes. We have eternal life, and we need to just hold fast to Him, remain with Him, abide in Him one day at a time, as He lives His life through us. He who promised is faithful. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for this day, for everyone You brought here. We thank You for Your faithfulness that You promised, and You will do it. Thank You for Jesus and the salvation that He provides, and thank You for this good news of the New Covenant through faith in Him. Amen.