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Hebrews 10:22-25
FCC | September 6th, 2015

Introduction:
Please take a moment and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. This morning we’ll be considering the “Implications of Grace” as seen in verses 22-25. Last week we were reminded of three methods of grace, or three means that God used to pour out His grace; The Blood of Christ, the Body of Christ, and the Priesthood of Christ. This morning we’re going to be considering three implications of this Grace that God has granted His children; the Implication of Direction, the Implication of Confession, and the Implication of Agitation.

The Blood of Christ is the means by which we have been granted access into this New Covenant of Grace. The Blood atones for the sins of all those who repent and believe––that is; all those who refuse to love anything or anyone more than Jesus; and who trust Jesus alone for their eternal safety and joy. Christ died to be the sacrifice for our sins. Christ shed His precious God/Man blood so that we who deserve the wrath of the Father might have atonement and forgiveness––pardon. The Body of Christ, broken for us, is at a minimum symbolic of the substitutionary righteousness that Christ won for us. He fulfilled in His body all those things that we were supposed to do, He fulfilled all earthly righteousness on our behalf so that when the Father looks at us He doesn’t merely see a man or woman who is neutral in the light of heaven. The Father sees, because of Christ’s righteousness, the meritorious works of Christ as if we had done them. And the Priesthood of Christ expresses Christ’s work as a mediator bridging the gap between God and man.

If you might be in this room this morning and you’ve never heard, or maybe you’ve never understood until now the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice, let me implore you to see that, all we like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned his own way, but the Lord has played upon Christ, the iniquity of us all. If you will turn away from all the vain things that you lust over and look to Christ for your greatest joy and satisfaction; If you will trust that Jesus, the God of the Bible, has provided for you that escape in His death and resurrection; then you too can escape the punishment of the Father’s wrath and be safe forever and be declared righteous because of the love that Christ has shown.

If you do understand, and if you are one who is grateful and rejoices and has believed and trusting in that work done for you, this grace granted to sinners, then there are certain implications that the Book of Hebrews reveals. Now, the implications of Grace that the entire Bible unpacks are boundless, but our text highlights three particular ones. These three are the ones that we’ll be focusing in on this morning. Hopefully by this time you have made your way to Hebrews 10. Let’s go ahead and read from verse 19-25.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 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. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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.

Structure:
There’s an obvious structure to these verses. We see three statements and each has several things in common, lets take just a minute and catalog those similarities. There is an obvious opening statement for each line that not only links them together but also sets them apart. The “Let us…” is statement clearly makes this passage feel very unified doesn’t it. When you read it you can see that the author had these three points in mind and he wanted us to see them as three points as well. So they are clearly connected. But because they are linked like this, we can inherently see that they are all different statements. Many time in Scripture we see the use of poetry when an author, like Solomon for instance in the proverbs, will write things like this and the two to three things are either opposites or the same concept repeated several times for effect. Proverbs 7:12 Solomon gives his son a wise warning concerning the deceit of the adulteress. He says these are the kinds of things she says;

Come, let us take our fill of love till morning / let us delight ourselves with love.
For my husband is not at home / he has gone on a long journey;

Did you hear the sort of repetition there? He’s repeating himself in this poetic instruction to his son. Well although Hebrews uses a clear repeating structure He’s not at all saying the same thing over and over again. instead Hebrews is using this structure to build one implication upon another.

Verse 22 is the implication of direction. What I mean by this should be held back a little for the sake of keeping you in suspense, but I’ve never been good at that sort of pageantry. What I mean is that because of the Grace of God our aim ought to be on Christ. Our goal ought to be knowing and therefore loving Christ more because of the wonderful thing He’s done for us. The next implication is that of confession. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope…” This is clearly not a repetition, but rather a building block. The foundation of our relationship with the world, the action that we are called to have concerning our place in this country, state, county, and city, is not based upon what we believe or what we think, but rather upon the Grace of God that has caused us to dig into––knowing Christ more. The implication of Agitation, or the implication of how we treat and real with our fellow Christians is again not based upon some duty that we feel but as before; it’s based upon the Grace of God––that in turn has caused us to learn more about God, and then has caused us to be wiling to stand up for that truth we’ve come to know in our world. When we understand the structure of this passage and the point of using those “Let us…” statements as building blocks, we begin to see what all of life is about, and how all of life is supposed to be lived.

The thing we see in these three similarly structured statements are verbs. If you’ve undergone any schooling you’ll recognize that verbs are what’s known as “action words”. These words mean that the subject of a sentence is to be––doing something. The Christian life is about taking those things God has clearly taught and balancing them, not blindly picking one and letting that alone rule our lives. God is in control of every molecule friends. Every drop of rain that falls from the the sky has had its corse set by the Father’s perfect sovereign hand from before the foundations of the world. Every sin you’ve ever committed and every good that you’ve ever done has been ordained by God’s perfect sinless hand. However, you and I are still responsible, to do. These are action words that have been issued as clear and understood implications of God’s sovereign grace. These do not seem to me to be commands, but rather like tests of wether we actually understand grace.

If we get it. That is, if we understand what the Blood of Christ has secured; If we understand that Christ has satisfied all righteousness and has given that to you and I; If we have come to truly understand that Christ has mediated a peace treaty with the Father on our behalf; Then we’ll be––doing these things.

These statements are building blocks. These statements are implications of action on our part. The structure also indicates that these implications are to be done in a certain way. When God is silent, there is liberty. When God speaks, there is conformity. What I mean by that is this; if God has not given us clear and pointed direction on how to do what He wants us to do, then we have liberty to do those things the ways that seem most biblical in our eyes. For example, no where in the Bible does it say that we have to sing, then preach, and then pray and then have the Lord’s supper in that order. So if we decided to, let’s say, celebrate the Lord’s supper at the beginning of our time together, we have great freedom to do that, as we have. The Scriptures do, however, tell us that when we gather together to worship the Lord, there are elements that must be present, such as the preaching of the Word. So, when the Bible is silent we have liberty and when it speaks we are commanded then to conform.

As it relates to our text this morning, each of these implication not only include an action, they also express the way we are to approach and execute those actions. So because the Bible, that is God, has spoken, let us then understand that God desires we do these things His way.

The Implication of Direction:
Alright, all that was somewhat of introduction, now let’s get into the actual implications of Grace. Read again verse 22 with me. “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.” The first and foundational implication of Grace is that we ought to draw near. Because of the Grace of God shown to us, the “natural response” or the response that is characteristic of a true Christian is that of drawing near. We ought to draw near, we should draw near, this is something that should be a clear cut characteristic of a true Christian. Drawing near in the Greek is one word made up of two root words. The first root word is a preposition that expresses direction or aim forward. The second root word is a verb to appear, to bring, to come, or to enter. This term that we translate as to “draw near” has a clear forward direction and has a closeness implied. There is also a hint of continuation. That is, that this drawing near is be continuously done. The Darby Bible Translation puts it this way: “let us approach with a true heart…” But my favorite translation of this phrase comes from the New Living Translation: “let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him.”

This is an entrance into the presence of God. This drawing near is a deep learning of who He is. This drawing near is a looking into the face of God so as to learn His features and know every dimple on His beautiful face. We do this through the study of God’s Word. This drawing near however is more than merely learning things about God, but actually learning Him so as to rightly worship Him. This is where, the way in which we draw near comes to mean so much. We are called to go right into the presence of God with a true heart. The term true means something that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name. in other words it is genuine. Real drawing near doesn’t actually happen unless we are genuinely desiring to know Him more and therefore worship Him for what we learn. And this true heart is described as having a full assurance of faith. Assurance is nothing more than confidence and faith is trust. The genuine heart is the heart that confidently trusts that no matter what they find to be true of God it is good.

We see that this genuine heart is not something that we have crafted for ourselves. It is rather, if you look at verse 22 again with me, “…sprinkled clean from an evil conscience…”. God is the one who creates that heart that desires to search Him out by sprinkling it clean. Not only is our heart cleansed by God so as to seek Him out and worship Him, our whole, “…bodies have been washed with pure water.” So that not merely our drawing near is done the way God desires, but so that those things that follow will also be done in a pure and God-satisfying manner as well.

The Implication of Confession:
It’s that point that then directs us further down the passage to the Implication of Confession. Once we have a full assurance or confidence in this God that we have come to know intimately, we then, because of the Grace of God, we are expected to be hold fast. Let’s read verse 23, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” The “confession” of our hope, is a noun. That is, it’s the subject of our holding fast. There is no question of whether we have a confession here. If we have been given the Grace of God, if we are continuously seeking the face of God and worshipping Him, then we have a confession. The question is wether we are “holding fast” to it. The implication of Grace here is that being a person who knows and has experienced that grace, we are expected to stand upon it firmly without wavering. But what does it mean to stand upon the confession of our hope?

Well let’s take just a moment and break that down. What is the “Confession of our hope”? At the risk of being controversial, is the “confession of our hope” that homosexuals are not to be married? Is that our confession of hope? No––it’s not. Is our “Confession of hope” a standard of morality that is to be imposed upon our culture? No it’s not. In the first century Jesus could have stood on many social injustice soap boxes but refused to do so. Slavery friends is evil. Tell me where Jesus took a stance against the social ill of slavery? He didn’t. Why? Because slavery was not societies problem. Does Jesus speak in the sermon on the mount against homosexuals? Dose He or does Paul write a public letter of outcry because of the isle of Lesbos where the term lesbianism was created? No. What does the Bible call us to stand, unwaveringly upon? It calls us to stand upon the confession of our hope, the Gospel of God’s Grace, and the gospel alone. The Gospel is what i will die for. The gospel is that which I will go to jail for. The gospel is that which we are to cling to, it is what we are to give up everything for.

We ought to speak out against injustice. We ought to speak out against immorality. But what we speak out is not to convert our culture to our morals but rather we speak out the gospel. The lack of the gospel is the problem with our culture, not homosexuality, not racial relations, not anything that the world tells us the problems are. If the Gospel will go forth from our lips, that is what will cause a change in our nation and in our world. We are to hold fast to the gospel. It is the only life-line. Listen morality kills millions of people every year. Morality sends well meaning little old ladies to hell. The Gospel is what rescues souls. So it is the gospel that we cling to, it is the gospel that we hold fast to.

Implication of Agitation:
If the Grace of God has changed our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh then we will be drawing near to the one who has granted that grace. If we’ve experienced Grace and are drawing near to God, then we will have the gospel as our hope and it is the confession then of our lips. If we stand firmly then upon the gospel, we will as verse 24 and 25 says, “…consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” The “considering” that’s done in this verse, is the that of thinking up new ways to show love one to another. The implication of agitation is seen in the meaning of the concept “stir up”. The term literally translated means to incite a riot. If you are a Christian, that is, if you have been granted this matchless grace, then the implication of your life is that you will be thinking of ways to incite a riot of love within the brothers.

Now this term can surely make it seem that we all ought to be outspoken and extroverts. We could assume that this term implies that we all loose our minds for the sake of loving each-other. But remember the structure of this passage. Grace is the foundation, drawing near to God is the first floor, standing firm on the gospel, is the second floor and inciting a riot of love within the brotherhood is the roof-top. Without a firm stance upon the gospel there can be no consideration of how love is to be shown in the church. Without having a clear mind and firm and growing grasp of who God is, we can have no great fellowship like this. For it is upon these things that we have undergirding this sort of relationship with each-other.

Richard Wurmbrand was a pastor in Romania before WWII. The Russians were coming down hard on the pastors of that day demanding that they only preach state sponsored doctrines. Wurmbrand was imprisoned many, many times. He was beaten and tortured for years on end. In his auto-biography, specifically chapter 3, he goes into deadly detail of the level of torture that he endured. Chapter three of his book Tortured for Christ was actually a part of the manuscript of the testimony he gave to the United State Senate in the 60’s. In that book, he tells the story of a group of underground Christians that met in secret. One Sunday as they met together for worship masked men barged into the room where they met. They carries AK-47s and cried out in Russian, if you want to survive, leave the room. If you want to die for your Jesus, stay. Throngs of people ran from the room and when the bustling had all stopped the men took off their masks and sat down to start the time of worship. They told Wurmbrand that they wanted to separate the fake believers from the true.

The gospel of Jesus is Christ is where we find our truest fellowship. It is upon the foundation of our confession of hope that we can come together and actually be able to stir-up one another to love and good works. Without that, there is no chance of actually abiding by this third and final implication of grace.

Conclusion:
If we are in Christ, if we have received the grace of God then we will be in the habit of drawing nearer and nearer to God. If we have truly been shown mercy from the Father, we will give our very lives, we will hold fast to the true confession of our hope without wavering for He who has promised is faithful. And if God’s grace has been granted to us then our natural inclination when it comes to fellowshipping with the saints will be not to neglect the gathering of ourselves together, for this is our truest family. And we will be inciting our loved ones to a riot of love and good works.

Let’s take a moment now in silent prayer to consider these truths for ourselves and to ask the Father to grant us this Grace, to work within us this love for knowing Him, to ask for the boldness to stand firm, to hold fast to the real confession of our hope, and to teach us how we might incite our church to a riot of love and good works. Let’s pray…

Benediction:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)