Communion

For the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, once purged, should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every single year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Wherefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. You have had no pleasure." Then I said, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God." Above, when He said, "Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, an offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hast Thou pleasure therein," which are offered by the law, then said He, "Lo, I come, to do Thy will, O God."

He takes away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering has He perfected forever them that are sanctified.

Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us. For after that He had said before, "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 will I write them. And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, and having 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. Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.

Let us consider one another to provoke unto 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 we see the day approaching.

Father, the truth revealed in this passage is awesome. The fact that the old covenant, the system of sacrifice outlined in Exodus, in Leviticus, and in Deuteronomy, was insufficient. And yet, Jesus, You are sufficient. You're not just essential; You are sufficient. The work that You did for our atonement is enough. That's why You could cry, "Tetelestai," it is finished. Once for all, and now You've sat down in a position of rest because the work is completed. Not because You're overwhelmed by it, not because You're tired by it, but because it's done.

So we can boldly come before Your throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. We have access to come before the Father God through the work that You did, Jesus, and cry out to Him, "Abba, Father." Father, You have brought us near by the blood of this perfect covenant, the new covenant. You made the way open.

So, Lord, teach us to draw near with full assurance of faith. Lord, encourage us in whatever trial or tribulation that we go through, that we have hope that does not need to waver because You have given a promise that You will maintain faithfulness to.

And Lord, stir us up to love and good deeds, both within the household of faith, within the church, and also outside to those who don't know You. God, would You speak to us by Your Word? Would You transform our way of thinking, which would also overflow into our daily lives? We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

The book of Hebrews is an awesome book. I'm sure that many of you have read through it before, and it's so grounded in the first covenant, the old covenant. It establishes so much of the truth of the new covenant for us by showing us that the old covenant wasn't enough. It was written to Christians who came out of a Hebrew background and to a group of people who were being tempted to go back to their religious tradition of the old covenant.

The author of the book of Hebrews, and there is speculation about who the author may have been because it's not clearly presented, writes to these people who are being tempted to return to their old way of life, their old system of religion, which was an awesome system. When you consider it, the system of religion in Judaism was created by God. He is the one who instituted it; it's not the creation of man. Every other religion in the world is the creation of man, besides that religious system in Judaism.

When we come into Christianity, the new covenant, that was established by God as well. However, it's not as much a religious system as it is an established relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The religious system of Judaism was established by God for a very specific purpose. It was never intended to make man holy. The old covenant was given to show that man was sinful. It was given to continually reinforce the realization that there is no possible way, in our own effort, that we can make ourselves right before God.

We see this summarized in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 through 25. It really encapsulates the reality that the old covenant system was insufficient, but it brings us back.

All the time, we are reminded of the fact that we don't measure up to the perfect standard, which is the holiness of God. The law shows us just how awesome and holy God is, and it reveals the standard that we need to live up to in order to seek to attain that, but we never do.

How many of you came out of a religious system where you were doing certain things to try and appease your own conscience or, in some way, make God happy? Did you recognize all the time that you were just not fulfilling it? Many of you have come out of that. Now, all of us have come out of some form of spirituality, some form of religion, or something that sometimes we created for ourselves. A lot of times, it looks like good works versus bad works, which is traditionally what every religion falls under. We think, "I do more good works than I do bad works, so I'm going to be okay." We hope to stand before God someday and have Him recognize that we did a lot of good things.

But Paul tells us that whatever is not from faith is sin. Whatever is not the result of our life in Christ by faith is sin. Isaiah chapter 64, verse 6, says that even our good works are as filthy rags before God. So, even the good works that man does apart from faith are just not enough. They will never atone for sin. There are a lot of people trying to deal with their own sin, and I am so thankful that Christ dealt with my sin there on the cross. All that has been done in the past and all that will be done in the future—His blood is enough. He has sprinkled us with that atoning sacrifice, and His blood has removed our sin as far as the east is from the west. It doesn't merely cover it, like sweeping it under the rug; it is complete remission of sins, the removal of sins.

In Hebrews chapter 9, we learn that without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. Therefore, Jesus had to die; He had to lay down His life. The first five chapters of the book of Hebrews establish very clearly that Jesus is greater than all the Old Testament prophets, greater than all the patriarchs of Judaism, greater than angels, greater than the law, greater than the temple, and greater than sacrifices. Jesus is greater than all those things. The first five chapters deal with that.

Then, when you come to the end of Hebrews chapter 5 and into Hebrews chapter 6, the author of the book of Hebrews is saying...

Okay, now that we've established the fact that Jesus is greater than all these things, let's move away from that and move on to maturity in Christ. The author takes a parenthetical break from Hebrews chapter 6 until Hebrews chapter 10, indicating that we can't quite move on to maturity yet because there are a few more things to address. However, when we reach Hebrews chapter 10, he begins to say, "Alright, let's leave all that behind—religion—and move on to maturity in Christ." He sums it up in this chapter and then explains his summary in the following three chapters.

This is a brief outline of the book of Hebrews. The first five chapters establish that Jesus is greater than all religion, while chapters 6 through 10 serve as a parenthetical break where he explains more about Jesus being greater. His whole point, though, is that he wants to move on to maturity. He aims to take us beyond just a religious lifestyle to maturity in Christ, living in an active, vibrant relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in communion and fellowship with God, the God of the universe, and therefore in fellowship and community with the body of Christ.

Chapter 10 is a turning point in all of this, and chapters 11, 12, and 13 explain it further. I want to take a moment tonight to look at what he says here. There are some key words that the author of the book of Hebrews uses to tell us where we're going. The phrase "let us" is key to this passage; it appears about 13 times in the book of Hebrews. The author repeatedly says, "Let us do this. Let us do that." In chapter 6, he says, "Let us move on to maturity. Let us move on to perfection." He pauses there and then returns to this theme in chapter 10.

In chapter 10, he summarizes everything in the first 19 or so verses, establishing once again that the Old Testament sacrifices could not make you holy. However, Jesus came and offered a sacrifice that was sufficient enough to remove sin as far as the east is from the west. We then come down to verse 19, which is where we will focus, specifically verses 19 through 25.

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Notice the word "therefore" in verse 19. This is an inference; it directs us.

Back to what was previously stated, he says in the first 18 verses that the sacrifice Jesus offered on the cross deals with our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Now that we've been cleansed, he says, "Okay, therefore, because of that, brethren, with boldness let us enter in." Jesus has dealt with all our sin, and now we can boldly come before Him at any time, not needing to offer a new sacrifice, not needing to pray a certain way, or connect with a certain saint. We can come to Him at any time because our sin is dealt with. Therefore, brethren, let's have boldness to enter into the holiest.

Under the old covenant, there was only one individual, one man, who at one time a year could go into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, which is generally in our month of September. The high priest, on that one day a year, would bring a sacrifice before God in the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat on the altar over the top of the Ark of the Covenant. This one sacrifice was offered for the nation of Israel, for all the sin of the people. Every single year, he had to do this; it wasn't a one-time thing. It had to happen year after year after year, and every time that happened, there was this recognition of how sinful we are.

This realization served as a conscious reminder that we are sinners and God is holy, and there was only one person who could come before God at one time of the year to offer this sacrifice to cover our sin for a time. But now, in Christ, the new covenant has completely done away with that. The veil between the Holy of Holies and man has been torn from top to bottom. Now we have boldness to come into the holiest, but we come in not by the blood of bulls and goats, not by our own efforts, because the sacrifices of bulls, lambs, rams, and goats are all the efforts of man. No, now he says we come in by the blood of Jesus. Notice he says in verse 20 that it is by a new and living way. There doesn't need to be...

To be a new offering, a new death, we must remember that a sacrifice means death. Every time there was a sacrifice given, something died. There was a profound recognition of our own sinfulness when something had to die in our place. But now, we can come in at any time to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He, Jesus, has consecrated for us—not by our own efforts, but through the veil. He has opened the way through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. He gave His flesh for us, opening the way so that we could come in, having a high priest over the house of God.

Let us do this. There are two key words: let us do this. Now that Jesus has made the way and He is our perfect high priest, what should we do? We already saw back in verse 19 that we are to enter in by that new and living way. In verse 22, it says, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." Since Jesus has done this, we, by faith, should draw near to God. We should draw near, come close to Him, and enter into fellowship with Him by faith.

I want you to circle the word "faith" in verse 22 because this word is one of the key aspects of Christian maturity. It involves living in fresh and vital daily faith, walking with God. Because of the work that Jesus has done, we have the ability to walk with God in the same way that Enoch did back in the book of Genesis. The author of the book of Hebrews will recognize this in the very next chapter, Hebrews chapter 11. Enoch was able to walk with God, who is spirit. He didn't see Him, but he was able to walk with Him in spirit, and he did this by faith.

Now, because of the work that Jesus has done for our sins—removing our sins as far as the east is from the west, completely atoning for them, not just covering them—we can daily walk in a close, living relationship with the God of all things, the God who created everything seen and unseen. The author of the book of Hebrews says, "Alright, as a result of what..."

Jesus did let us draw near to God. An awesome thing the apostle James tells us is that when we draw near to God, He draws near to us. As an added benefit, the enemy flees from us. He doesn't flee from us because we're so powerful, but because we've come in contact with or come close to the presence of God.

We should be perpetually drawing near to God in full assurance of faith, nothing doubting. We should not doubt whether or not we have the authority to approach Him. The authority we have to approach Him is not based upon our merit but upon what Jesus has done. It is not based upon anything we have done.

There is a way in which we rebuild religion. Just like the Hebrew Christians this letter was written to, we have a tendency to rebuild religion. We say things like, "I can't draw near to God because I sinned this morning." We might think, "I can't draw near to God because I haven't read my Bible yet today," or "I can't draw near to God because I haven't partaken of the sacraments." We have all kinds of reasons why we can't draw near to God.

But what the Scriptures say is that we can draw near because Jesus dealt with all of our sin, and He has made the way wide open. We can draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

In verse 22, the word "sprinkled" is only used four times in the Greek New Testament. The Greek word that is translated as "sprinkled" appears in the book of Hebrews, with the first three occurrences found in chapter 9. They all deal with the sprinkling of the blood by the high priest upon the altar, relating to the sacrifice for atonement.

Jeremiah tells us in chapter 17, verse 9, that our hearts are desperately wicked. Yet, the blood of Jesus Christ has been sprinkled upon our hearts.

The exact same word conveys the same concept of what would take place in the Holy of Holies on the day of Yom Kippur. On that day, the high priest would enter and take the blood of the sacrifice that was just offered for the nation's sins. He would sprinkle it on the mercy seat, seeking mercy for the nation from God. Jesus is our high priest; He shed His blood and has sprinkled His blood upon us. Therefore, our sin is atoned for.

What is the result of this? Well, now that our hearts have been sprinkled with His atoning blood, our evil conscience is dealt with. What hinders us from drawing near to God in full assurance of faith? It is our conscience that keeps us back. When we want to draw near, we might say, "God, I want to come into Your throne room and pray, seek You, and ask for mercy and grace," but then our conscience holds us back. We think, "But I haven't done this," or "I've done that." I haven't spent time in the Word, or I sinned this morning. Our conscience often gets in the way.

I believe the enemy loves to capitalize on that as well, constantly feeding us thoughts like, "You can't come before God. Look at what you did. Look at the way you talked to your spouse. Look at how you dealt with your children. Remember what you did on the 15 freeway the other day? You can't come before God; you're such a sinful person." Yes, absolutely. But the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled upon our wicked, unclean, evil hearts, and it has atoned for our sin. When we, by faith, grab hold of that, we can enter in at any time because it's not according to our merit. It's not based on what we've done or haven't done. Our conscience can be dealt with if we will hold on to this truth.

Not only has our heart been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, but this also relates to imputed righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says that He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ. He took our sin upon Himself and has placed His righteousness upon us. He has imputed His righteousness to us. The idea, the word...

Imputed is an accounting term, and the idea is as if you owed a debt. Many of you may do. Let's say you owe a debt to a creditor, and that creditor has a book. Now, it's some electronic document on a computer system somewhere at a bank. In past times, there was an accounting ledger. If someone came in, they could pay your debt, and their funds would be imputed to your account. Debt cleared. Paid for.

He who knew no sin took our sin upon Himself. He dealt with our sin on the cross and took His righteousness and imputed it to us. That's what it means when our hearts have been sprinkled, and so now we have a clear conscience in approaching God. Our sins have been dealt with.

However, although our sin has been dealt with, do we still sin? We do. You don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you transgressed this week or even today? I think probably all of us, maybe several times. In many ways, it was sins of omission. We didn't even realize that we did it, but we did. So, we all sin. We all fall short of God's glory.

When you become a Christian, you don't just automatically become perfect. Now, your heart is right before God. He's imputed His righteousness to you. It's called justification—just as if you'd never sinned. He's taken our sin as far as the east is from the west. But we still have a problem: we still sin.

In our lives as Christians, God is refining us. He is sanctifying us. He is cleansing us. He's pruning out those old dead branches that don't bear fruit so that we might bear fruit to God, an abundance of fruit. Notice what the end of verse 22 says: not only has He sprinkled our hearts, but our bodies are washed with pure water. This is the ongoing work of sanctification, which happens in our lives as we are drawing near to God in full assurance of faith.

As we are drawing near to God and walking in the light, what happens? Well, turn over in your Bibles to 1 John, to the right, 1 John chapter 1. In John, the Gospel of John...

In chapter 3, you may remember a man named Nicodemus who comes to Jesus by night. As Jesus speaks to him, He shares that epic verse, which has become the most translated verse of the Bible: John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

Jesus goes on to say, "Light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light." Why? Because their deeds are evil. A wicked man does not want to come to the light; he hates the light because he is afraid that his wicked deeds will be exposed. They will be manifested, and so he wants to hide in darkness. He does not want anyone to see his wicked sin. Therefore, he is afraid to approach God because He is light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. The fear is that if he comes near that light, he will be exposed for what he really is.

However, when we come into Christ, the closer we draw near to Him, the more His light shines upon us. There is a problem: our sin is exposed. But notice what we read in 1 John 1:7: "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."

Our fear, or the fear of our flesh, is that if we approach God, if we get close to Him, we will be exposed. The reality is that as we draw near to God, His light shows us our sin, which He already knew was there, revealing it to us. We find that, yes, our sin is there, but there is something greater than our sin: His blood, which cleanses us from all sin. His blood made the way open for us to come into Christ, and it continues to cleanse us from all sin once we have come into Him.

Here’s what happens: non-believers, people who do not know God, hide in darkness because their deeds are evil. They do not want to be exposed; they do not want their sins to be reproved or rebuked. So, they try to stay away from the light. The enemy, our adversary, the devil, does a great job of convincing men not to come to the light.

But when a person comes into Christ, they are now walking in the light as God is in the light. They have fellowship with every single other person who is in the light. As they draw closer to God, their sins are revealed, but something greater than their sin is also present.

Revealed is His blood, which cleanses us from all sins. So, what happens to allow that cleansing to take place? Well, look at 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, our sin has been exposed. Wow, I am seen to be a person that has covetousness, or I am seen to be a person that has anger. Whatever sort of sin it is, it's exposed by the light. And there it is, out in the open for everybody to see. Oh my goodness, I have a problem with covetousness. Well, there it is, out in the open; God's light has revealed it.

What do we do? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our sins are exposed by the light of Christ, and we confess them. That word "confess" is a compound Greek word, homologeo. It means to say the same thing as or to agree with. What it is, is you are coming into agreement with God that what you did, what you said, and what you thought is wrong. You are coming to a place where you are saying, "This way of thinking, God, it's wrong before You. It's sinful." God says, "Yes, it is."

Okay, would you take it away? "Yes, I will forgive you." That's imputed righteousness. I've placed My righteousness already upon it, and now I'm going to cleanse you. That's imparted righteousness as we are being sanctified. He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. We cannot cleanse ourselves, but He cleanses us. This is the sanctifying process as He is imparting to us His righteousness, where there is an actual righteousness in our life, and we begin to look more and more like Him.

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled with imputed righteousness. He has justified us from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. This is a work that God does by His Spirit, and God also uses His Word. In Ephesians 5:25-26, we are told that God, Jesus, washes us by the washing of the water of His Word.

As we spend time with the Lord in prayer and in His Word, walking in the light, He exposes our sin. "God, we confess it to You. Would You remove it?" "Yes, I'll remove it as far as the east is from the west." He washes us by the washing of the water of His Word. This is the sanctifying process that every single one of us, if we are believers, are in right now. If you are bothered by your sin and you are bringing it to God...

Confession and asking Him to cleanse you means you are being sanctified. That's a good thing. If you're walking around saying, "I don't have any sin; I'm just fine," that would be more of a problem. John addresses this in 1 John 1. Right after he says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us, he states, "If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us."

We want to abide in His Word and have His Word abide in us. As His Word abides in us, it reveals to us that we don't measure up. If we deceive ourselves into thinking, "Well, I'm doing pretty good," that's a dangerous place to be in. God has sprinkled our hearts; He has dealt with our sin. He is washing our bodies with pure water, the water of His Word.

In verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 10, He gives us the second "let us" in this passage. The first was "let us draw near in full assurance of faith," with "faith" being the keyword. Now, in verse 23, we read, "Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful that promised."

In the King James Version, the word "faith" is used instead of "hope" here in verse 23. The King James Version states, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering." However, the Greek word used is "elpis," which is always translated as "hope" in the New Testament. It appears 54 times, and 53 of those times, it is translated as "hope." This is the only instance where the translators chose to use "faith." I don't know why they made that choice, but they did.

If your Bible says "faith," you would have no problem crossing it out and writing "hope" next to it. You might think, "There's no way I could ever do that in the Bible." Listen, I did it in mine, and I have no problem with it. Why? Because 53 other times in the Bible, it is translated as "hope."

So, in verse 22, we are told to "let us draw near in full assurance of faith." Now, in verse 23, we are encouraged to "let us hold fast our hope without wavering." What hope? In verse 22, the author of Hebrews talked about it.

About justification, our hearts have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, which atones for our sin. We are justified before God; we are righteous before Him. We still have issues of sin in our lives, and God is washing our bodies, our daily life, if you will, by the washing of the water of His Word and by the work of His Spirit. He is sanctifying us.

So, we have justification and sanctification, issues of faith. We are justified by grace through faith, and we are sanctified by grace through faith. We have hope for glorification. We have been justified and are being sanctified. We have hope that we will be with Him when we die. He is going to bring us into heaven. We don't have to do anything to measure up to try and get into heaven. His work of redemption brings us to Himself when we die.

Jesus said in John chapter 14, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. Were it not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, know that I will return and bring you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

So, we are looking forward to this day when Jesus is going to bring us to Himself. Each one of us will have our own personal rapture, or the whole church will experience this as a whole. One way or the other, Jesus has promised that He will bring us to Himself because of the work that He did on the cross. His death, burial, and resurrection deal with the justification of our sins. He is currently, by that work, sanctifying us, cleansing us from our daily sins and our shortcomings. He will bring us to Himself in glorification.

In verses 22 and 23 of Hebrews chapter 10, we have this perfectly established for us: justification, sanctification, glorification. This is what salvation is. This is why, in the New Testament, when we read about salvation, there are passages where we read in the past tense, "We have been saved." There are also passages that say, "We are being saved." But there are also passages that say, "We shall be saved." You see, salvation is on all three levels. We have been saved.

We have been justified by the work that Jesus did on the cross. We are being saved and sanctified right now from our sin, and we shall be saved. One day, we will be glorified. This is the hope that we have, and it is not a kind of blind hope. If you ask people on the street, just the average person walking through the mall or down by the movie theater, "If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?" they are probably going to say, "Well, I hope so."

What are they saying when they say, "I hope so"? They don't know. They don't have full assurance, do they? It's just like, "Oh man, I really hope I get in. I don't know if I'm going to. I don't really have assurance." But we, who are in Christ, have absolute assurance. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying here in verse 23: "Let us hold fast."

The phrase "hold fast" has a concept in Greek that evokes the image of being on a boat in the midst of a storm. Things are being wiped off the deck of the boat, or they are casting things over the side to try and ease its ballast in the water. Yet, there is something so prized and treasured on the boat that you hold it fast. You bind it to the mast of the ship because you want nothing to sweep it off the deck. You are holding on to this because it is of supreme value.

So, he says, "Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering." What is our hope? It is life with Christ. "Christ in you, the hope of glory," says Paul in the book of Colossians. We are hoping for that day when we will be glorified with Him. But our hope is not a mere wish; it is an absolute assurance that it will come to pass.

How can we have such a sure hope? Well, he tells us where it comes from at the end of verse 23: "For he is faithful that promised." There it is again. Our hope, our steadfast assurance that is not swept off the deck in the storms of this life or in our own toils of shame and sin, does not waver because it has nothing to do with our merit or our work. It has to do with His sure promise.

And His faithfulness. He is faithful that promised.

Now, how many of you have recognized in your life as a Christian following Jesus that you sometimes waffle in your faithfulness? I'm not talking about waffling in your faith or your belief, because sometimes there are things that hit us and we are challenged. Sometimes you see someone struggling with something that doesn't measure up to your understanding of God. You don't understand why people are suffering when tsunamis happen in Japan or earthquakes happen in Haiti, and you're shaken in your faith. I'm not talking about that, where you're just having a hard time comprehending God. Let me tell you, God is hard to comprehend. I'm talking about your faithfulness to God, your adherence to what He has called us to, being pleasing to Him. We all have fallen short in our faithfulness to God.

If our salvation was dependent upon our faithfulness, that would be terrible. That would be a dreadful existence, wouldn't it? That would be no different than Islam. It would be no different than Mormonism or those who follow the Jehovah's Witness faith. They don't have assurance. They don't know from one minute to the next if they're going to be with God in eternity because it's dependent upon them and their faithfulness. Our hope is not dependent upon us.

Why do we have steadfast hope without wavering? Because He, Jesus, is faithful who made the promise: "I go to prepare a place for you, and I will return to receive you to Myself." This is awesome to me.

In verse 22, we are to draw near to God in full assurance of faith. In verse 23, we are to hold fast our hope. What do you think is going to come in verse 24? If we had faith and then hope, what do you think? Look at verse 24: "Let us," those key words again, third time, "let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good deeds." Since Jesus has justified us, and since He is in the process of sanctifying us, and since He has promised...

To one day glorify us, what ought we to do? Should we now just sit back and say, "Well, He's done it all, He'll do it all; we don't need to do anything"? Is that our existence? Is that our lifestyle?

Listen, let me tell you, there are some within the body of Christ who say that's what we're to do. We don't need to do anything else. Jesus did it all. Absolutely. He paid for our salvation. He promised to redeem us to Himself and bring us to Himself. He will take care of it. That's done. So should we just check out now and maybe have a cool kumbaya moment and just wait until He does it? No. He says, "Let us consider one another." Let us consider how we might stir up one another, provoke one another. The idea of provoke here is like going to a fire that's starting to go out, where there are just coals and embers, and taking a stick to stir it up and breathe upon it.

Let us provoke one another, stir one another up to what? To love. A love that works. To love and good deeds, good works. Now, we're going through 1 Corinthians chapter 13 on Sundays right now. It just started this last week. This weekend, we're going to go into verses 4 and 7, where the virtues of Christian love are explained and defined. The characteristics of love are given for us: love suffers long and is kind, does not envy, does not boast.

Since we have been justified, are being sanctified, and will be glorified, we, in the body of Christ, in the fellowship of believers, should consider one another and stir each other up to live in a way that fulfills the virtues of Christian love. This works both within the household of faith and outside. We should challenge one another and exhort one another to live in this way.

So, since that's the action, that's what we should be doing—considering each other and stirring one another up—not forsaking, or I'm sorry, to love and good deeds. What manner, how ought we to do this? Well, verse 25 tells us we should not neglect.

Gathering together as the body of Christ is essential. We've been justified, we are being sanctified, and we will be glorified. This is an individual thing that God does. If God does this in my life, it's not certain that it will happen in my children's lives. My salvation is individual; there is no universal salvation or corporate salvation. Once I have been saved, God brings us individually into the body and desires that we function in Christian love, fulfilling the good works that He prepared beforehand for us to walk in. We are called to do this within the context of the body because He is glorified more greatly in that.

We should not forsake the gathering together, the assembling together, or the churching together, if you will. The word "church," ekklesia in Greek, means the gathering. We shouldn't neglect that. Some people say, "My relationship with God is my relationship with God. I was saved individually; I don't need the church." This is wrong. God says, "I build my church." He saves you individually, but He places you into the church. He wants you to function within that body, to love one another, to love Him, and to love those who are outside. We are called to do good works, not to inherit salvation, but because we have inherited salvation. Because you are saved, you should do these good works and challenge each other to do that. Exhort one another to do that.

Therefore, do not neglect the gathering together, the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, as the author of the book of Hebrews states. Some people say, "I don't need the church." They are wrong and should not neglect the body of Christ. People do this out of arrogance or ignorance; they do not understand the full context of the body of Christ. They do not want to function within the body. While there are people who do this, they shouldn't. We must not neglect the gathering together, but rather exhort one another. The middle part of verse 25 encourages us to exhort one another. The word "exhort" in Greek is parakaleo.

It means to come alongside with the call. It's like what a coach does, or your weight trainer, if you have one, who comes along and says, "You can do it. One more rep. Let's go. We can do it." If you're running in a race and you're falling by the wayside, someone comes alongside you and says, "Come on, let's do this. I'll run with you." That's someone coming alongside with the call. Parakaleo—exhort one another—and so much more as you see the day approaching.

What day is approaching? Well, the end. The day when Jesus comes for us. That day, that finish line, is coming. Therefore, challenge each other, exhort one another, and stir one another up to love and good deeds, because that day is coming. The body of Christ is vital to our Christian life. It is vital to the expression of God's glory here upon the earth that we function within the body.

We have fellowship with Him individually, each of us, because of what He did on the cross. He has justified us. He is sanctifying each of us individually. He will glorify us individually. But now, He has taken us, who are in fellowship with Him, and brought us into community with one another. He says, within the context of the body, to challenge one another, stir one another up, and encourage one another to love one another and do good works that express God's love in this world.

This is the turning point. These six or so verses of the book of Hebrews are significant. Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of faith. Hebrews chapter 12 expresses our confidence of hope. Hebrews chapter 13 calls us to brotherly love. So, Hebrews 11, 12, and 13 explain this summary: faith, hope, and love.

This is what it means to live in Christian maturity—to come into a place where we have a vibrant faith that God has justified us and is sanctifying us. We have a hope that is steadfast, knowing that He will one day glorify us. Out of that faith and hope comes a love for God, for the body, and for this world, expressed in good works. This is what Christian maturity is all about: faith, hope, and love. And, of course, as we're going to see...

In 1 Corinthians 13:13, the greatest of these is love. The greatest thing for us here on earth, having been saved by grace through faith and knowing that we have hope—absolute assurance that we're going to be with God for eternity—is to live in love for God and for one another in this world today. The greatest of these is love.

In Revelation chapter 2, I believe it's the church at Ephesus that was challenged because they had lost their expression of faith, hope, and love. In contrast, the church at Thessalonica, as mentioned in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, received great words of affirmation from Paul because of their faith, hope, and love.

Let me read it to you quickly. In 1 Thessalonians 1:2, Paul says, "We give thanks to God always for you all. We are praying for you, church at Thessalonica. We give thanks to God for you, making mention of you in our prayers. We continually thank God for you." Why? "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God, our Father." We thank God for your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope.

At the end of the letter, Paul challenges and exhorts them in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, saying, "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation." He expresses that he is blessed by their faith, hope, and love, but he encourages them to maintain these virtues.

It is amazing to me, as I read through the New Testament, to constantly stumble upon the reality of faith, hope, and love. This is what Christian maturity is all about: faith, hope, and love. However, the greatest of these for us here in existence upon the earth right now is love—love for God, love for one another, and love expressed in good works to the outside world.

So, church, consider one another to stir each other up to love and good deeds. Because we have been justified, we are, by the work of Jesus Christ.

Being sanctified, we shall be glorified. God, that's a done deal. That's a non-negotiable. So we should focus on love. Amen?

I'm going to ask Christian to come up, and we're going to finish the service tonight in worship, in response to what we've seen from the Word, Lord. Hopefully, we can direct what the Lord has spoken to us back to Him in response to worship. Amen?

Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You have saved us and called us, setting us apart for Your glory. Glorify Yourself in and through our lives, we pray. Be magnified, God, in our expression of love for You as we now sing these songs of adoration and praise.

Be magnified in this expression of love. Be glorified as we express our love one toward another, and, Lord, be magnified in this world as we express our love to those who are outside. Work this out in our lives, Lord, we pray. We thank You.