HEBREWS: “A Greater Sanctification (Hebrews 10:1-25)" | 11/5/23
Hebrews 10:1-25 | 11/5/23 | Will DuVal
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Many of us parents got to see our KIDS’ answers on display last week with Halloween.
Ellery went as Leeli Wingfeather, her favorite character from her favorite book series - The Wingfeather Saga - Leeli is smart, brave, kind, creative, and strong; that’s who my daughter wants to be.
Elijah went as an EXCAVATOR, because he wants to demolish stuff when he grows up. And like Ellery, he wants to be powerful too.
And Bo went as a PUPPY, because given how often he eats the dog’s food, drinks out of the dog’s water bowl… last week he started BARKING at the dog - I’m convinced he wants to be a DOG when HE grows up! (...also, we’re cheap and we already had the costume 😌)
When I was little, I remember going as MY DAD for Halloween one year, as a DOCTOR (maybe a PIRATE doctor?), but I wanted to be just like HIM when I grew up. And according to the Bible, that is our HEAVENLY Father’s desire for us as HIS children - God wants us to WANT to be like HIM when we “grow up”. Specifically, he says, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy,” (Lev 19:2).
And this process of becoming more like God, by virtue of our being MADE holy by God, that process is called SANCTIFICATION. The Latin word “sanctus” means “HOLY”, so “sanctification” literally refers to one’s “HOLY-fication”, being made holy. And is God’s UTMOST desire for us, as His people: 1 Thess 4:3 “this is the will of God, your sanctification” - you want to know God’s will for your life? I can’t tell you conclusively whether he wants you to take THIS job or that one, marry THIS guy or not; but one thing you can know with absolute CERTAINTY is that God desires your sanctification. Our HOLINESS.
And as we continue our study of the book of Hebrews this morning in ch10, the overarching point that our anonymous author wants to drive home for us here is that…
BY HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH FOR US, JESUS HAS NOW ACCOMPLISHED A GREATER SANCTIFICATION WITHIN US.
The past 3 chapters / Sundays now have been all about Jesus’ greater WORK on the cross - he is our greater HIGH PRIEST (ch7), who established a greater COVENANT (ch8), through his greater SACRIFICE (ch9, last week)... ALL of which ACCOMPLISHES for us, a greater SANCTIFICATION, a greater ability for us to actually BE made holy, as God is holy. That is the main idea here in ch10.
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And he’s gonna paint it for us now, in 4 scenes; you can think of these as the author’s ANSWERS to the 4 underlying QUESTIONS that you and I ought to have about this whole sanctification business:
Why do we NEED sanctification? (vv1-4)
How does Jesus EFFECTUATE our sanctification? (vv5-14)
What are the BENEFITS of this sanctification? (vv15-21)
What does sanctification LOOK LIKE, lived out? (vv22-25)
Got that? That’s where he’s headed.
I invite you to stand… the word of the Lord:
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
#1 - The first issue he addresses here is our WANT of sanctification (1-4)
Why DO we NEED sanctification so badly? Well, we already saw in the introduction that God CALLS us to be holy; it is HIS greatest desire for us, which should be enough for us. But the author of Hebrews is gonna give us 3 additional reasons now in vv1-4:
For starters, you and I need PERFECTION. V1 says: The sacrificial system that was laid out in the OT LAW - those “same old continual sacrifices, year after year” - could “NEVER… make PERFECT those who would draw near” to God.
Now, we did a DEEP DIVE into the whole concept of sacrifices last Sunday in ch9, so I’m not gonna rehash ALL of it this morning. But I’ll just say this, at a high level:
How many of you WANT to “draw near to God”?
Every hand in the room should be up. Because I don’t care if you’re the most devout ATHEIST in the world; you should still WANT there to be a God. You might think us Christians are all CRAZY; you may think the evidence AGAINST the existence of a God DRASTICALLY outweighs any evidence FOR a God. But I contend that you should still HOPE you’re wrong, that there IS a God, and that there IS, therefore, at least the possibility of life after death, and not just ANY life, but ETERNAL life - HEAVENLY life - WITH God, in whose presence there is FULLNESS of joy, forevermore, enjoyed by those who would “draw NEAR” to Him. You should WANT that. Even if you think it’s the biggest PIPE dream, too-good-to-be-true… you should WANT it to be true.
Okay, so we ALL at least WANT there to be a God, and a heavenly afterlife. But now here’s the follow-up question:
“How do you think you GET there?” TO God, TO heaven; how do you “draw NEAR to him”, and FIND that fullness of joy?
Well, Jesus answers that question for us, very plainly, in Matthew 5:48; he said, “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
GOD is perfect. HEAVEN is perfect. Anyone HERE perfect, this morning? No? Then that means if God let you or ME into heaven, as is, we’d RUIN it, with our imperfection, our SIN - it’d no longer be perfect.
And the author’s basic point here in v1, is that the problem with the LAW, and all its old covenant sacrifices, was that it could NEVER make us PERFECT, therefore we could NEVER “draw near” to God. And that was EVIDENCED by the fact that only ONE guy - the high priest - got to enter once a YEAR - the Day of Atonement - into the one PLACE on earth where God’s presence actually dwelt - the Holy of Holies. And even the picture painted of THAT - high priest, once a year, before the ark - he wasn’t there so much for life-giving FELLOWSHIP with God, as he was there for life-preserving INTERVENTION on behalf of a sinful people; it was a glorified SURVIVAL mission.
The author DOES, by the way, hint at the fact here that it was never God’s intention to bring us into true, lasting relationship with Him through the Law; he says the Law was “but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities”. Commentator Kent Hughes (Hebrews, 247) uses the example of a PHOTOGRAPH. He tells the story of his long-distance engagement to his now wife - years before Facetime or Zoom - how he had her PICTURE framed by his bedside; it was his prized possession. But months later, after taking their vows and moving in together, he writes, “Suddenly I had gone from the possession of a one-dimensional portrait to… the real thing… a real, three-dimensional wife! …And the picture? It remained just as beautiful, but from then on it received relatively scant attention.”
You don’t need the “shadow” when you got the real deal. This is what the author of Hebrews is trying to get across to his church, as they’re being tempted under threat of persecution to FALL AWAY from Christ, and back into their old JUDAISM instead. So Hughes pushes his metaphor further: “Imagine that one day I appear before my wife holding the black-and-white photograph, and I say, “My dear, I’ve missed your picture, and I’m going back to it… Then I passionately kiss the glass protecting the photograph, clutch it to my chest, and exit mumbling my devotion to the picture - “I love you, O photograph of my wife.”... How absurd for anyone, once having the substance, to go back to the shadow.” THAT’s what these Hebrew Christians were doing, a generation after Christ.
But don’t we do the SAME? Except instead of returning to JEWISH roots - at least THEY fell back on a SHADOW of the real thing - WE return to godless PAGANISM! Our society says, “Follow your heart; you are your OWN god”. And sometimes, if we’re honest, don’t we PREFER that kind of worldview… to the BIBLE’S? We PROVE our preference, every time we SIN.
So we’re not perfect, but we NEED to be in order to “draw near” to a holy God. Which means we need, SECONDLY, to be PURIFIED. Second problem with the whole OT system now: it couldn’t make us perfect, cuz it couldn’t truly PURIFY us; v2 asks: If we COULD have been perfected by the sacrifices of the old Law, wouldn’t they have CEASED, STOPPED?
I’ve been sick for a MONTH now; the current iteration is just a COLD, common cold. If there was a CURE for the cold, and I could just take a pill, get a shot, and 24 hours later feel back to 100%, don’t you think I’d DO it? But the fact that my cold REMAINS is PROOF, that no such cure exists. The author’s saying: we’ve been killing millions and millions of animals for thousands and thousands of years now; clearly our SIN problem hasn’t yet been CURED; we haven’t truly been, v2, “CLEANSED”, purified, of even any “consciousness of sin”. We still have guilty consciences. As a matter of fact, that was part of God’s DESIGN, his whole PURPOSE OF the Law; v3: “in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.” So every time a Jew 2,000 years ago took a lamb, or a goat, to the priest, and watched its THROAT get slit, she was supposed to be reminded: “That should be ME. MY throat, MY blood. Because it was my SIN that resulted in this death.”
So our WANT of sanctification is due to our NEED for perfection, resulting from a lack of purification, which, THIRDLY and lastly now under point #1, is due to our need for PURGING.
Under the OT sacrifices we couldn’t be perfected, cuz we weren’t really purified, cuz we weren’t truly PURGED of our sin. V4 says: “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Animal blood could ATONE - kaphar - “cover over”, but it could NEVER “take AWAY” - aphaiREo.
Y’all spill COFFEE on the carpet in here - we can try and arrange the chairs in such a way as to “cover over” the stain. But you spill enough coffee, we start to run out of CHAIRS. And have you READ the Old Testament?! They spilled a LOT of coffee! They were running out of chairs. Have you MET another human being… have you met YOURSELF lately? Have ANY self-awareness, of just how sinful YOU are? Friends: we are professional coffee spillers! So we need more than chairs; we need a professional CARPET CLEANER. Who can actually PURGE the stain of our sin; not just “cover over”, but “TAKE AWAY” sins.
Enter: JESUS. V5: “when Christ came into the world”. What did he accomplish?
#2- The WORK of sanctification (5-14). And the author outlines THREE steps in Christ’s work of sanctification in our lives:
First, Jesus FULFILLED the Law for us (vv8-9). In vv5-7 here he quotes Psalm 40. And IN Psalm 40, King David reminds us of one vitally important caveat, you might say, to this whole OT sacrificial system, that even the ancient Israelites living UNDER the old covenant recognized; namely: that God didn’t actually ENJOY their sacrifices. Any more than a cancer patient ENJOYS her chemo. Grateful for the chemo - “if it saves my LIFE, I’ll take it, over the alternative. But what I’d REALLY love is to not NEED the chemo, cuz I’ve got a healthy body that doesn’t grow tumors.”
God says essentially the same thing, over and over and over again in the OT: “I’m providing sacrifices as a means of spiritual survival for you, IF you should happen to SIN. But what I’d REALLY love, is for y’all to just follow the Law, and NOT sin, NOT welcome this spiritual cancer into your body, and therefore, not even NEED the spiritual chemo!”
1 Sam 15:22 ““Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.”
Micah 6: ““With what shall I come before the Lord…
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
…He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (6-8) Love God and Love neighbor… Obey the Law.
In Hosea 6:6, God says, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Psalm 51:16-17; Isaiah 1:11-13a; Isaiah 66:3-4; Jerermiah 7:21-23; Amos 5:21-24… too many passages to READ, all testifying to the same truth here in Psalm 40:
“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted [O God]… in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God” - Instead of sinning then sacrificing, sinning then sacrificing, sinning then sacrificing… I’m gonna finally BREAK the cycle, by just OBEYING you! “DOING YOUR WILL, God”.
Which is of course ASPIRATIONAL, when it comes from the mouth of King David; that’s a good GOAL; that should be our heart’s desire and prayer and passionate PURSUIT: obedience… holiness.
But was DAVID perfect? Did David “do God’s will” perfectly? Just ask Uriah. NO! David was a well-intentioned SINNER, who himself never got beyond the sacrifices of the OT.
But friends, “when Christ came into the world,” he made it clear that Psalm 40 was actually a MESSIANIC Psalm, pointing us ahead to HIM, to JESUS. The One who WOULD actually “do God’s will” perfectly, live the sinless life that you and I and King David and every other well-intentioned sinner who’s ever existed may have STRIVEN for, but fallen SHORT of. And in so doing, BY living that perfect life of holiness and obedience, Jesus has fulfilled the Law for us. “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh… he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom 8:3-4).
Secondly, Jesus FORGAVE OUR lawlessness - our sin - on the cross. (v10)
V9: Jesus said, “God, I came to do your will.” Which he did NOT ONLY by obeying God’s LAW perfectly, but Isaiah 53 prophesies of Jesus that “it was the will of the Lord to crush him… when his soul makes an offering for guilt” (v10). The cross didn’t SURPRISE God, friends; it was HIS plan, to deal with our SIN problem, by “CRUSHING his own SON, under the weight of OUR guilt”.
And guess what: Jesus was obedient to THAT will of God, as well. ““Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless… [WHAT??] not my will, but yours, be done.”” (Lk 22:42)
“God - if this is your plan, to CRUSH me, in order to SAVE them, then I’M HERE FOR IT. “I have come to do YOUR will.”
And v10 continues: “And BY that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Friends, how can wretched sinners like us be “sanctified”, be made HOLY? Be PURGED of ALL our sin, be PURIFIED of its stain, and be PERFECTED for restored relationship with a holy, perfect God?
Only by the precious, POWERFUL, purging, purifying, perfecting BLOOD of Jesus Christ, our “once for all time”, substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:24)
““For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Pet 3:18)
THAT is how we “draw near” to God; it is ONLY by the blood of His SON, “the Lamb of GOD, who takes AWAY the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29). Jesus said, “NO ONE comes to the Father but through ME” (Jn 14:6).
We must be forgiven our sins, by Christ’s sacrifice in our place, who appeased the righteous WRATH of God against sin, and took the just punishment that WE deserved. That’s how much Jesus loves you, friends: he not only lived the righteous life that you and I should have but FAILED to - fulfilling the Law for us - but he actually DIED the death that we should have too, in our place, to pay the penalty for our sins.
“And by his wounds we are HEALED” (1 Pet 2:24).
Thirdly, Jesus sanctifies us by FULFILLING the law, FORGIVING our sins, and then FINISHING the work all the way to completion.
V11: “every [OT] priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.”
Levites: MANY sacrifices… REPEATEDLY.
Christ: SINGLE sacrifice… for ALL time.
Levites: STANDING… all day, every day - the one piece of furniture we DIDN’T discuss, over the summer when we studied Exodus 25-40 and God’s design for the tent of meeting - it had tables, lamps, basins, altars… you know what they DIDN’T have in the old tabernacle, the old Temple? CHAIRS! There was no TIME for those priests to sit down, cuz it was an ENDLESS job - offering sacrifices for sins - because we SIN ENDLESSLY.
And you don’t sit down until the job is… [what?] FINISHED.
But when Jesus died on that cross, he declared, “It is… FINISHED.” Then he ROSE from the grave to PROVE it, and NOW he is SITTING DOWN at the right hand of God the Father, just to FLAUNT it - his settled VICTORY over Sin and Death. Jesus won the battle SO decisively, he literally took a seat. And NOW, v13, he’s just waiting for the day when his enemies - Sin and Death - will be trampled COMPLETELY underfoot (“be made a footstool for his feet”), when he will return to make all things completely NEW (but of course he TOLD us he’s not coming back until we take the gospel to EVERY ethne, every people-group; until we FINISH the Great Commission that he LEFT us with 2,000 years ago - basically, Jesus is waiting on US, the Church, to finally do OUR job - cuz he is ITCHING to come back and do away with Sin and Death for GOOD… turn them into a nice OTTOMAN).
But what he’s no LONGER waiting to accomplish is his finishing of the word of sanctification in OUR lives. Because v14: “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Brothers and sisters: do you realize that if you have been SAVED by grace through faith in Christ, that from God’s point of view, when God now looks at you, He sees you as if you are already PERFECTED - in God’s eyes, you are as GOOD as perfected - THAT is how assuredly we can TRUST in God’s finishing the work.
“I am SURE of this,” the Bible says, “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to [WHAT??] completion.” -Philippians 1:6
Romans 8 puts it this way: “...those whom [God] called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Glorified means “made holy”. Perfected. Same thing. If God has JUSTIFIED you - saved you; forgiven your sins - then as far as God is concerned, He has ALREADY “glorified” you - past tense.
Speaking of verb tenses, look back at Hebrews 10 now; commentator Richard Phillips invites us to (348): “Follow the verb tenses... We have here the past, the present, and the future. First, there was a past completed action: “When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down…” (10:12)... [Then] Verse 14 tells us the effect of Christ’s work and uses a different tense, the perfect tense: “By a single offering, he has perfected us”. The perfect tense signifies a completed past action that has an ongoing effect into the present and future… Finally, we have a present participle: “Those who are being sanctified”. This signifies a present activity that continues into the future. Putting these verbs together, we have an event that took place in the past, that is finished and completed - the sacrificial death of Christ… [but] has implications that come forward to US - we have been made perfect in his perfection. Finally, there is a present process - we are therefore being made holy. That is to say, we are being transformed into what we have [already] been made.” So Phillips summarizes (349): “In the eyes of God you have been made perfect because you are in Christ; you are a beneficiary of his perfection. Of course, there is [still] a process that is not yet complete, but a Christian’s sanctification is SO certain of achievement that it is now viewed as accomplished: “You have been made perfect”,” God can say.
Now, THIRD big question is: what GOOD does it do you? What is…
#3- The WORTH of sanctification? (15-21) - The benefits; the blessings, the REWARDS? He lists FOUR MASSIVE ones here for us:
1) We now have God’s PRESENCE (vv15-16) - “the Holy Spirit [the third person of the TRINITY, the GOD-head] also bears witness to us”; He is the PROOF of our sanctification. Why? Well, he’s called “Holy” for a reason; you don’t GET the GIFT of the Holy Spirit coming to live INSIDE you unless you’ve been MADE… [HOLY!]
And friends, if you’ve ever wondered just how great of a GIFT the Holy Spirit is, just remember what Jesus told his disciples before He left them: “It’s actually BETTER for you that I go away, back to heaven, so that I can GIVE you this GIFT - my very own SPIRIT, to live WITHIN you,” (Jn 16:7) the very same Spirit YOU AND I now share, brothers and sisters. So if you’ve ever thought to yourself how AWESOME it must have been to walk and talk with JESUS - according to HIM, the only thing better than having Jesus BESIDE you is having His SPIRIT INSIDE you.
THAT is the fulfillment of this prophecy from Jeremiah 31 that he quotes here, where God promised: “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds” - Jesus said, “When the Spirit… comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13).
2) We have God’s PARDON (vv17-18). That’s how Jeremiah’s prophecy ended: with God promising, ““I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.””
“What love could remember NO WRONGS we have done?
Omniscient, ALL-KNOWING… yet He counts NOT their sum”
The Bible says “Love… keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13:5). Be honest: do you love… ANYONE, in that way?! Is there ANYONE in your life, ABOUT whom I could ask you… “How about your SPOUSE? Has he/she ever WRONGED you? Can you remember ANY times…? How about your Mom? Dad? Best friend?” I bet you’ve got a list for ALL of them, don’t you? The best you and I can honestly say is: “Ya know, I really TRY to love you, but I know I fall SO far short...”
But not GOD, friends. If you were in HEAVEN right now, standing there in God’s very presence, you would be OVERWHELMED by two equal and opposite sensations: first, you would be in absolute AWE of God’s HOLINESS, but second, you would experience in utter REMORSE for your SINFULNESS.
And you would CRY out, “God, have MERCY on me, a SINNER!”
And do you know how God would respond? He’d say, “What sin? I don’t see any sin. Not any MORE. As a matter of fact, from where I’M sitting, it looks to ME like you are dressed in all the RIGHTEOUSNESS of MY PERFECT SON.”
And “Where there is forgiveness of [sins],” v18 reminds us, “there is no longer any [NEED for an] offering for sin.” Hallelujah!
3) We now have a PATH to God (vv19-20)
Now, v19 proclaims, we “have confidence to enter the holy places [HEAVEN, God’s PRESENCE] by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh”. Just as Jesus’ death tore the physical veil that once separated us from God - literally, there in the Temple, God RIPPED the curtain outside the Holy of Holies to make it clear: “I don’t LIVE here anymore! You don’t need a PRIEST or a TEMPLE or a SACRIFICE anymore, to be WITH me; now, instead, I’m coming to live… WITH YOU… WITHIN you” - but the only way it was possible, for that BARRIER that stood between us and God to be ripped to shreds, was for Jesus HIMSELF - his FLESH - to be ripped to shreds. And the tearing open of his body now means the tearing open of a new PATH for you and me to get back to God.
Lastly… 4) v21: We have a PRIEST before God (v21).
And since we spent a whole week in ch7, on Jesus’ greater PRIESTHOOD, I’ll simply refer you back to THAT sermon so we save what little time we have remaining for our FINAL big question: “What does it LOOK LIKE to LIVE OUT a truly sanctified LIFE?” A…
#4- WALK of sanctification (22-25)? I am SO tempted to carve out an entire Sunday, part two next week, on just these 4 verses, and the SEVEN practical exhortations he gives us now for sanctified living. We could EASILY spend another 45 minutes, just camped out here.
But I’m just gonna trust that these exhortations are so POWERFUL, that they can stand on their own, with very LIMITED commentary now from me. Let’s make a REAL quick salad, cuz the author’s gonna give us SEVEN “LET US”-es here at the close (get it?):
1) “let us draw near [to God] with a true heart in full assurance of faith” → In other words, because Jesus has now made relationship with God possible for us again, let us… COMMUNE confidently with Him. Let’s BE WITH God - let’s GO to him boldly in prayer, let’s spend time with Him regularly in His word; let’s LIVE unto the Spirit, and not unto our flesh. Let’s PURSUE holiness, and renounce sin. Let’s ABIDE in Christ. And draw near to God.
2) But in ORDER to commune confidently, we must first BE WASHED spiritually. V22 reminds us of the prerequisite for drawing near; we only do so “with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience”). Only those who’ve HAD their hearts - their sin, their guilt - washed CLEAN, who have BEEN purged, purified and perfected, can draw near to God. You gotta be SAVED, friends!
And once you ARE, 3) you need to BE WASHED symbolically too. He says, “with our hearts washed… AND with our bodies washed with pure water”.
He’s talking about BAPTISM. The old priests washed before they entered the tabernacle, as a symbol of their cleanness of HEART. But their hearts weren’t TRULY clean, like OURS are NOW, thanks to Jesus’ BETTER sacrifice; that’s what makes OUR water - the baptistry water - PURE. So don’t forsake it - if you were sprinkled as a baby, get BAPTIZED now as a believer. And…
4) Let’s BELIEVE steadfastly. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” God is FAITHFUL - if ANYONE in your life deserves your undying, unwavering TRUST, your confidence, your FAITH… it’s GOD. He is faithfully holding US fast; let US, therefore, hold fast to HIM.
5) Let’s EDIFY intentionally. “let us consider” - that’s the intentionality part: we don’t even just stir one another up to godliness; we CONSIDER HOW to best do it; we oughta SPEND TIME REFLECTING ON it, PONDERING it.” Do you ever sit there and strategize: “I wonder how I can encourage ____ to love her HUSBAND better this week?” “You know, Meg is really hurting right now. I wanna help, but even more than the good works I could do to support her - the meals I could cook, the prayers I could pray, the loving voicemails I could leave her - even more than that, I want to stir OTHERS up to do the SAME. Then she’d feel exponentially more supported.” Let’s make one another BETTER, holier. And a MAJOR vehicle for that is…
6) We need to WORSHIP corporately… and regularly! He says, “don’t make it HABIT of NEGLECTING to meet together” with God’s people; in other words: we oughta make it a HABIT TO gather for corporate worship.
It should throw your whole WEEK off, when you miss church.
I like the analogy Kent Hughes offers (262): “It’s true that a person does not have to go to church to be a Christian. He does not have to go HOME to be MARRIED either. But in both cases, if he does NOT, he will have a very poor relationship.”
You need to BE here on Sundays. Or SOMEWHERE. Find a church. A gospel-preaching, Bible-believing, God-glorifying, people-loving church. And plug in.
Finally, 7) Let us ENCOURAGE urgently. V25 says we oughta be “encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
A lot of Christians wanna know right now - with everything going ON in the world - is this THE END? Is Jesus on his way BACK? I don’t know, but what I DO know is what you and I are supposed to be DOING as he gets closer and closer: ENCOURAGING one another. Encouraging fellow BELIEVERS to “hold fast” to their HOPE in Christ without WAVERING. And encouraging UNBELIEVERS to FIND hope in Christ… before it’s too LATE.
In CONCLUSION: Brothers and sisters…
We desperately NEEDED sanctification.
Christ graciously ACCOMPLISHED our sanctification.
We now undeservingly reap the REWARDS of sanctification.
So let us faithfully PURSUE sanctification.
Amen? Let’s pray…