[0:00] story again, the series of events which led up to the crucifixion of Christ, and we come to the day in the resurrected Savior. We have not concerned ourselves so much with looking at the other parts of the story.
[0:17] When we saw the Lamb and His surrender, we were not so concerned about the doubts and denials and even the betrayals of His friends. When we saw His surrender, we did not concern ourselves with the works and the efforts of the high priests and the religious leaders.
[0:35] When we looked at the Lamb's suffering, we did not pay much attention with the Roman cohort and the guards or the criminals that were crucified on either side of Him.
[0:47] We did not take time to look at Simon of Cyrene who bore His cross. We did not concern ourselves with the Lamb. We saw the Lamb in His surrender.
[0:57] We saw the Lamb in His suffering. This morning, early, we got to see the Lamb in His success, the fact that the tomb is empty. It was hard to behold the Lamb that early Sunday morning because He couldn't be found.
[1:10] He wasn't where He was supposed to be. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were in the act of obedience going to tell the disciples that they finally got to see the Lamb, the risen Savior, and they grabbed a hold of Him.
[1:25] But now we get to the point where we're beholding the Lamb and we look at ourselves because all that was taking place was done for us, not for His benefit.
[1:36] All that the Lamb did, the surrender, the suffering, and the success was for us. He didn't have to lay aside His glory and take on humanity.
[1:49] He didn't have to surrender and allow Himself to be led away. He didn't have to allow the scheming and plotting and the conniving of mankind, His own created being, have control over Him for just a moment.
[2:03] He didn't have to be silent before His accusers. He did not have to bear in His body the beatings and the chastisements which we deserve.
[2:14] He did not have to suffer for any sins of His own for He knew no sin. He did not have to die. He did not have to be buried. He did not have to do that for His own benefit, but He did it for you and I.
[2:25] So this morning as we bring this series to a conclusion, we see His salvation. We have, in the last few weeks, come very familiar with an Old Testament passage of which I will ask you to call attention to again in Isaiah 53.
[2:42] But we're only going to look at a few verses in Isaiah 53. Our main text this morning, I'll ask you if you'll go ahead and open up to it, is in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10.
[2:54] If you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask you if you'll join with me as we stand together. I'm going to read three verses out of Isaiah 53, verses 10, 11, and 12.
[3:05] And then we'll go to Hebrews chapter 10, reading verses 1 through 25. The Word of God says, and we've gotten very familiar with the first half of Isaiah 53, which speaks of His surrender and His suffering and His pain.
[3:22] But in verse 10 it says, But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, and he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
[3:38] As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
[3:58] Yet he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for transgressors. Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 1. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
[4:21] Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
[4:38] Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure.
[4:49] Then I said, Behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. After saying above, Sacrifices and offerings, in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.
[5:05] Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. And by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.
[5:18] Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet.
[5:36] For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them.
[5:53] He then says, And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[6:25] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to assimilate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
[6:42] And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. God, what a glorious day it is that you've given us. We thank you for the opportunity which we've had to worship and song and to spend time and encouragement and fellowship.
[6:57] But Lord, we pray as we turn again to your word, you would speak to us through your word, and it would be the power and presence of the spirit that would speak to every heart and mind. Lord, would you help us not only to hear it, but help us to have a desire and an ambition to do it for your glory.
[7:10] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We have now come to the very applicable side of the series, Behold the Lamb.
[7:22] We've seen these things that have taken place. We've even been astounded that he who spoke all things into existence would be silent on the very night of his betrayal. We have seen that he had power and authority so much so that when he declared his name, the Roman soldiers fell on their faces and he had to tell them, I am he, I said that I'm he, take me now.
[7:41] He had to give them permission. We have seen that he is the king of kings and lord of lords. We have seen that his own reject him. We have seen that he paid not only for his own sins, but he paid for, he had no sin, he paid for our sin.
[7:52] The Bible says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. That is, he bore our sin. His chastisement is our chastisement. His suffering is our suffering.
[8:04] His death is our death. But now we come to the glorious news of it all, and that is his salvation. Because this is not, as we looked at this morning very quickly, this is not God's response to man's problem.
[8:19] This is not God's, oh, well man's got a problem, we're going to have to redeem him. The Bible calls him the lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world were laid. He is the one from the very beginning.
[8:29] This is what God had intended from the very beginning. This is the great work of the redemption of mankind. This is our salvation, and we stand astounded by it.
[8:40] The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 53, not only will he be silent, not only will he suffer, but he will also be victorious. And in his victory, he will have the plunder to share.
[8:52] That he will be, that God is pleased. Not pleased that he would suffer, but pleased with the sacrifice that is offered. That God is pleased. Now, I love the Old Testament when you get into it, and I know it's a little difficult sometimes, but the Bible says that if he would render himself a guilt offering, that's something you need to understand when you get into the book of Leviticus, and some of you are reading there right now, and you're going through all these sacrifices and all this sacrificial system, there is no more organized sacrificial system than the Jewish sacrificial system.
[9:22] But you get to this guilt offering, and the guilt offering was, well, if I did something that was wrong, and I knew that it was wrong, and I was guilty of my wrong, I needed to right that wrong by offering a guilt offering. So say, I stole something from you, and I took it from you, and you knew I took it from you, and I took your ox, right?
[9:38] And your ox died, I couldn't give you your ox back, so now I have to make recompense for my guilt. The guilt offering is a 120% return on that which was taken.
[9:49] Okay? So I know I have to give you 100% of what I took, but I have to give you another 20% on top of what I took to make restitution for the fact that I did wrong. So let me just bring this down.
[10:00] Why would God say that? It's because the guilt offering is a 120% repayment for the wrong that was done. And the Bible tells us in Isaiah 53, Jesus is the guilt offering.
[10:12] That is, for all the wrong that you have done, all the wrong that I have done in the sight of a holy God, Jesus didn't just pay it all, my friend. And listen, he paid it all and then some. He paid 120% of what I owe to a holy God for all of my wrong and all of my offenses.
[10:28] And not only mine, but also for yours as well. That's why I'm so glad that God set a high standard for a guilt offering because it reminds us that Jesus isn't just enough.
[10:39] He is more than enough. He is abundantly more than enough for all that we owe a holy God. But the Bible tells us now, when we look at his salvation, this salvation that's been extended, when we go into the book of Hebrews, the Bible tells us some things that we need to understand.
[10:57] The first thing you need to understand about the salvation of the Lamb is number one, it is a complete salvation. It is a complete salvation. Now, if you are keeping notes, and I know some of you do, and you were here this morning and you were keeping notes.
[11:12] I did not do this intentionally, but I think it's pretty good that it happens this way. This morning I gave you three C's. Now I'm going to give you four C's. Oh, I just told you. So you have seven C's over the morning, right?
[11:25] Seven is a good complete number. I love that. So you're going to have seven. It's a number of completion and perfection. So you have seven. All right? So you say, well, what were the three this morning? Well, it was the certainty of his death.
[11:36] It was the concern of his doubters. And it was the conquering of his tomb. Okay, so there you go. So now let's get to the fourth one or the first one this morning. The first thing you see is this is a complete salvation. The Bible tells us.
[11:48] Now I almost missed this. As many times as I've read the book of Hebrews, and I've preached through the book of Hebrews a couple of times, I've almost missed this. And I've seen it just kind of on the legalistic side of it, but I have failed to see the applicable side of it in salvation.
[11:59] But look at what it says there in verse one. It says, for the law, and don't kind of read all the commas, everything that's kind of in set there. Let's just read what it says. It says, for the law can never make perfect those who draw near.
[12:11] For the law can never make perfect those who draw near. Here's the reality. In all the legal system, the Jewish legal system, that is Genesis to Malachi, when you read the law, that's all of the Old Testament.
[12:22] For everything they were required to do, everything God asked them to do, from the food they could eat and the food they couldn't eat, for all the festivals that they had to attend, for the three great celebrations every year that every male in his household had to go to Jerusalem, for all the things that God asked his people to do.
[12:37] The reality of the testimony is this. The law can never make perfect those who draw near. No matter how good you try, no matter how much effort you put into it, no matter how much drawing near you do, it can never, ever make you perfect.
[12:53] For the blood of bulls and goats and sheep and grain offerings and all these other things cannot make you perfect. And this is the reality is that the best efforts of man will never make perfect those who draw near.
[13:09] That's a good place to say amen, so I'll amen myself. Amen. So when we see the applicable side of that, listen to me, if the implication is that the law can never make perfect those who draw near, then it implies the reality that true salvation does make perfect those who draw near.
[13:26] Now let's just stop right here for just a moment, kind of let that soak in, okay? Let's just let that soak in. Salvation makes perfect those who draw near. You say, well, pastor, I'm not perfect.
[13:37] Or maybe you think you're perfect. Maybe you're like, well, I'm perfect, but they're not perfect. Those who are redeemed, the Bible says, are made perfect in the presence of a holy God. Now that's a better place to say amen, so I'll amen it there too.
[13:50] But we see here that the reality is that true salvation perfects those who draw near to the side of the Savior. But the law can't do it.
[14:01] So no matter how much you try, no matter how much work you put into it, no matter how much effort, no matter how much drawing near, no matter how many animals you sacrifice, no matter how much you bring, no matter how much you give, you know the testimony of your own conscience is this.
[14:15] It's not enough. Because by the works of the law, no man is made perfect those who draw near. But the good news is that the law was never intended to make you perfect. The law was intended to remind you you can't be perfect.
[14:25] The reason we have the Old Testament is to remind us that our best efforts fall woefully short. We don't have to get very far into the Old Testament before we see man mess up, right?
[14:37] Third chapter. So you got Genesis 1 through 11. I remember it's been a long time since we preached through the book of Genesis, and it's always kind of my practice. When I first came here, the very first Sunday night we did, was open Genesis 1.
[14:49] Genesis 1 through 11 tell us every problem man has. Do you know that? It only takes 11 chapters to tell us every problem man has. Genesis 1 through 11, every problem you saw.
[15:00] Is mine listed in there? Yes. Mine's listed, yours is listed, every problem we have. Listed in 11 chapters. And then in Genesis 12 it says, God chose Abram out of the land of the Urachaldean. So you know what happens in Genesis 12?
[15:12] God is responding to man's problem. So then God takes us from Genesis 12 to the end of the book of Revelations, telling us how he deals with man's problem. And in that, he has to show man he has a problem, and he shows man he has a problem through the law.
[15:24] When you read the Old Testament, and the reason so many of us have such a little affinity for it is because when we go there, all we find is that we did wrong, and we're doing wrong, and we're not deserving it. And you know what? That's why it's there.
[15:35] But we have the glorious opportunity to read the book of Malachi about a forerunner, and we flip a page, or if you have, the Bible has intertestament time, and it kind of tells you the history, you may have to flip a couple of pages, but you get to flip a page and read in Matthew of that forerunner coming.
[15:50] And we read of the reality that the problem that we had in the Old Testament is reconciled in the New Testament because the Bible doesn't stop with the fact that we cannot be perfect through the law. What does it say?
[16:01] It says, but Jesus made this declaration. Now, this is Psalm 40, where he quotes this, and sacrifices and whole burnt offerings, you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. Now, if you're gonna go there, you're gonna open up Psalm 40, and you're gonna read Psalm 40, verse seven.
[16:15] It says, but my ears you have opened. Actually, that's verse six. You're gonna read, and it says, but my ears you have opened. You said, wait a minute. The author of Hebrews misquoted it because he says, a body you have prepared for me. Well, in the Hebrew mentality, to say that my ears were open was the saying of a servant saying, I'm listening.
[16:31] Whatever you tell me to do, I will do. Okay? So the direct application is that by my ears, I'm giving you my body. And that's the way a servant works, right? You tell it, and I'll do it.
[16:42] So he says, you've given me this body. I'm gonna lay it down. And this is the will of the Father. We should go back to surrender. Remember surrender? Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
[16:54] And what does it tell us? Verse 10, by this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Look at this. Once for all.
[17:05] Once for all. And it tells us that after Jesus had offered one sacrifice for sins, for all time, sat down. It says he sat down at the right hand of God.
[17:19] Oh, we rejoice. Friend, listen to me. We ought to glory, hallelujah, the fact that we have a seated high priest. That is, we have a high priest who is no longer daily interceding or daily offering sacrifices, no longer daily working.
[17:35] The priest of that day, there were no seats in the tabernacle, no seats in the temple. There was one. We can go to one seat in a place called Shiloh that had a priest sitting on it. And he was sitting on that seat and he fell off that seat and broke his neck.
[17:47] His name was Eli. That's the only time we ever find a priest seated in scripture because there were no seats for all the furnishing, for everything that was to be built, for all the tables, for all the arcs, for all the golden lampstands.
[17:58] God didn't say anything about building a seat. There was supposed to be no stools or anything because their work was never done. It's just a reminder. Look at what it says. These sacrifices are a reminder of sins, a reminder of sins, a reminder of sins.
[18:11] That is, the priest existed to remind us of our sins. Jesus made one sacrifice and sat down. Why? Because he's got nothing else to do. He's done.
[18:22] The work of our great high priest is done. When he said, it is finished, he meant it is finished. He took a seat at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us on behalf of the work he has already accomplished.
[18:36] When man works and man labors, all they can be reminded of is their sins. You notice this, that these priests minister daily and that this is just a reminder of sins that tells us that the reason they have to be there is because we keep sinning.
[18:48] The reason there is because we keep sinning. The reason we're there is we keep sinning. So the work of man reminds us of our sin but the work of God in Christ Jesus causes sin to be forgotten. Did you catch that? It says that through our efforts we remember that we are sinners but when God declares us forgiven and redeemed in Christ, the Bible says and their sins and their wrongdoings I will remember no more.
[19:11] Oh, isn't that good? It is, friend. Listen to me. It's a complete salvation. He doesn't just partially save. He completely saves and he perfects those who draw near.
[19:23] Now, your sanctification is progressive because if you were to read in this literal verse 14 for by one offering he has perfected for all times those who are who are sanctified.
[19:34] That word sanctified is like in the present active tense so who are being sanctified. You are already perfect even though you're not living like it. In Christ we're already perfect but he's still working on us a little bit so that perfection can rid itself of all this ugliness of our flesh but it's complete.
[19:54] Friend, listen to me. I want you to understand it is a complete complete salvation. Number two. This complete salvation leads to a confident believer. Look at what it says.
[20:05] The reason you need to have such an assurance of salvation. Now, if you've trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you've given your life to him and you say, well, pastor I don't know if I have well then you need to stop and you need to go back there and you need to look at a complete salvation.
[20:18] If you don't understand the reality that the Bible says that in Christ you're perfect that you have been forgiven that you are redeemed that you are being sanctified that you are being set apart that you're not trusting in your works you're not trusting in your efforts that you realize the wonder and the reality that God forgets your sin I mean, think about that.
[20:37] God chooses to forget your sin. He has the power to forget even though we can't. That you're not standing in your own efforts you're not standing in your own abilities. Once we get all that settled and we say, okay, that's complete salvation now we have what we call an assurance of salvation which leads us to the second thing and that it is a confident believer.
[20:53] You need the assurance before you move any further. Because if you don't have the assurance you've got to stop right there. You have no confidence without assurance. But once you have assurance and once you have the reality of this complete salvation look at what it says.
[21:05] Therefore, brethren. Therefore, since we know these things. Therefore, brethren. Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh.
[21:18] So now all of a sudden we have confidence. And the reason we have confidence is because we have been completely saved. We're not just trying to go through the motions. We're not just trying to do the work. We're not just trying to accomplish everything. We have confidence.
[21:29] And the Bible tells us that we have confidence to enter the most holy place. One of the wonders that happened when Christ on the cross is the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The holy of holies was exposed.
[21:42] Well, friend, that was the holy of holies in the temple but that wasn't the holy of holies in all heaven. Right? That was a representation of all that the temple and the tabernacle was according to the manner that was shown them on the mountain.
[21:55] Right? So it was a type of the glories of heaven. So it was a curtain made by man to keep other men out. Jesus did so much more than tear a curtain in two so that other men could get in there.
[22:05] Jesus, by the veil of his flesh, opened up heaven in two so that we can boldly walk into the throne room of God. We can go into the holy of holies. We may not ever be able to walk into the sea, the ark of the covenant and all the cherubim and all the gold plate but we get to go before the throne of God Almighty and we get to enter into his presence.
[22:24] And the Bible says that we are confidently able to do that because we know that we are completely safe. When I open up my Bible, every time I see God given a theophany, that is an appearance of God either in the Old Testament or the New Testament or a Christophany when Christ all of a sudden shows up, I find these wonderful people who are met.
[22:42] I find people like Isaiah or Ezekiel or even John on the island of Patmos. But the one thing that I find is that every time they enter into the presence of God they fall on their faces and they say, woe is me.
[22:54] As Isaiah says, woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. He says, I got problems God and I don't deserve to be here. Everybody's expecting to die because they're in the presence of God.
[23:04] But when we get to the book of Hebrews, they tell us because we know who we are in Christ, we have confidence to walk through the blood of Christ into the presence of the Father.
[23:15] That doesn't mean we go in there with arrogance or boldness or we don't go in there with some kind of puffed up spirit. We go in there washed by the blood. We go in there knowing it's not our own merits or our own efforts but it's the blood of Christ.
[23:27] But we do know we have access. See, we can go in. See, the high priest on that day of atonement has always surprised me and amazed me. He would wear his special clothing. He'd have to go out here and wash his hands in the laver.
[23:39] He'd put on this robe and he'd had this robe that had pomegranate and a bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate, bell, all the way around the hem of it. And I told you this, they would tie a rope around his ankle. See, the reason they'd tie a rope around his ankle is because he was the only one who could go into the temple.
[23:53] He's the only one that could go inside the veil. And he would walk inside there and he'd have a blood, a bowl full of blood. And he was trying to make atonement. That's the day of atonement. And he would put the blood upon the Ark of the Covenant.
[24:04] He would spread it upon the cherubim wings and he wanted to meet with God. And so the bells would tingle as he was going into the veil, right? And everybody would hear it. The reason the rope was there was because if the bells quit tingling, they knew he had died.
[24:19] And they knew God hadn't accepted him into his presence. And since he had died, nobody could go in there and get him and they would pull that rope and yank his body out. Because nobody could go in there.
[24:30] And they had to tie a rope. Listen, friend, we don't tie ropes around our ankles to go into the presence of God. We go through the blood of Jesus Christ. He's welcomed us there. And that's confidence.
[24:42] And the reason it's confidence is because we're not going on our own merits and our own efforts. When I read Scripture, I know who God is, but I also know who I am. And I know the only reason I have for being there is because Jesus Christ paid a full and complete price for my redemption, my salvation, and now I have access.
[24:59] Now, there are three layouts of since we have this confidence, these three things take place. They kind of fall into the next two points, but I'll just kind of highlight them for you so you don't miss them, right, real quick.
[25:10] You have this confidence, so since you have confidence, let us draw near. And since you have confidence, let us hold fast. And since you have confidence, let us consider how to stimulate one another. Right? So three overflows, which means the confidence you have before God now makes you really not only a victorious saint in your own right, but it makes you a grand warrior in the kingdom of heaven for others.
[25:32] Since you have confidence, the reason Satan works so hard to cause there to be a doubt of salvation, the reason so much effort is put into this thing called assurance of salvation, the reason, if we have surrendered our life and given our life to Christ, the reason this is so important is because you cannot do these other three until you have that one settled.
[25:54] There are a lot of people who are still out there begging for mercy and begging for forgiveness and Jesus Christ said, I've already paid it all. Now stay with me. You need to have confidence to go in.
[26:05] And that confidence leads to the third thing, a confessed Savior. Not only do we have complete salvation, a confident believer, a confessed Savior. Look at what it says. Verse 22.
[26:17] Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. That's a good word, right? Full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[26:29] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Here's a confessed Savior. It says, let us hold fast our confession.
[26:40] It is a confession of hope. The word God uses, the word hope, often. And I know we've defined it here accurately according to its original language. Hope is not something the way we would define it.
[26:51] Like, I hope it's sunny today or I hope this day is good or I hope everything goes smooth or I hope everything works out right or I hope this does good, all these things. See, that's a hope that is like, man, maybe these things will happen for the best.
[27:04] That's not the hope Scripture talks about. The hope that we find in Scripture is defined as a confident expectation of things to come. That is, that these things will happen and we have confidence in the reality of them happening.
[27:17] It is not because we hope so, it is because we know so. So what does the word of God tell us? Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. That is, we ought to live with a confident expectation of the things that have been promised to us.
[27:33] We ought to live with a confident expectation of the reality that what has been declared will happen. Why? For he who promised is faithful. The reason we have such a hope is because of the Lamb.
[27:47] Jesus Christ not only predicted his death, he not only predicted his resurrection, he also declared his forgiveness. He declared the price and the penalty of sin. The word of God tells us in Isaiah 53 that he is rendered as a guilt offering.
[28:02] It tells us that he will divide the spoil with those he leads on high. Again, we are reminded over and over and over again. Salvation, my friend, is not dependent upon your efforts or my efforts, but it's dependent upon the Savior whom we confess.
[28:17] And the reason we have such a hope, you do not hold fast to a confession that you are good enough. If you try to confess to me that you do well enough or you do good enough, I promise you if I catch you on the right day, even your own soul will testify to the reality you've fallen short.
[28:32] For so does mine. Each and every day I'm reminded that I am not good enough. But that reminder causes me to come back and say my hope is not found in my own efforts.
[28:42] My hope is not found in my own worthiness. My hope is not found in my own rightness. My hope is found in the Savior. The confession is the confession of the Savior for he who promised is faithful.
[28:55] Listen to me. Jesus has promised it and he will not fail his promises. And when we look at this, we see there's a complete salvation, there's a confident believer and there's a confessed Savior.
[29:06] The only way to live with an enduring, lasting hope is to ensure ourselves that we are confessing a Savior, not confessing our own abilities, not confessing our own efforts, not confessing any of these things.
[29:18] I had someone this morning sharing with me an online presence, not me, someone that they were dealing with online and this individual that they're dealing with online had defined themselves as an enlightened, intelligent, educated man.
[29:32] And I feel sorry for him because I really do because the wisdom of man is foolishness in the sight of God. And his hope and his expectation and his confidence is found in himself.
[29:46] The reality is we see that that hope fails for he who promised is faithful. We are faithless so often that Jesus does not fail his promises.
[29:58] So as we behold the Lamb, we see his salvation. There's three of them, a complete salvation, a confident believer, a confessed Savior. Number four, a consistent practice. There is a consistent practice.
[30:10] Look at what the Word of God is. You say, oh, this is where the preacher is going to start meddling. Well, maybe. But just stay with me. So if we have this confidence, go back to verse 19, therefore, brethren, since we have confidence, we ought to what?
[30:25] Let us draw near. If you have confidence in the promises of Christ, go into the throne room of God, right? Draw near. Let us hold fast the confession of our Savior. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope and look at verse 24.
[30:38] And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is a habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.
[30:49] Jesus is a personal Savior who always unites the person to a corporate body. That is, he saves you individually, but he unites you corporately. I've never read in Scripture anywhere that someone is saved, redeemed, and then they're left forsaken by themselves.
[31:02] We call them Lone Ranger Christians. They're not there. Everywhere we find the promises of God. Friend, I'm going to tell you something. Every promise of God that we find in Scripture is connected to a corporate body somewhere.
[31:14] Even Paul, when he's writing to Timothy or Titus, which are pastoral epistles, he's writing to Timothy and Titus, he's writing to individuals. And there are certain promises that he gives to Timothy and Titus that are individuals, but those promises are always within the realms of the corporate body of the church because they're pastoring the church.
[31:30] Right? Every promise you find in the New Testament, be careful how you name it and claim it because everyone is connected to a corporate body of saints. God redeems individuals. Sure, he's a personal Savior. That word, by the way, personal is never found in Scripture.
[31:42] He's the Savior. But he does save you individually. You call out to him, he is your Savior. He's my Savior. I praise God for that. He is my hope. He is my expectation. He is my confidence.
[31:52] All those things, sure, he's mine. But he's the Savior of the church and he has the bride of Christ. He unites us to a corporate body. Now, this isn't, I'm not saying this to pick on you because I want to show you why this is important.
[32:04] This is so much more important than just making sure you're in church. That's not what it is. This is so much more important than making sure that our habits are always consistent. That's not what it is. The reason we need this consistent behavior is because when God does that, when he saves us and redeems us, he all of a sudden naturally puts an affinity.
[32:20] Jesus says that we will love one another because we know he loves us. Right? That the greatest testimony of the love that we realize in the Savior is the love we will have for one another.
[32:32] By this will all men know that you love me, the love you have for one another. So one of the natural outcomes of true salvation is that God places in the heart of the individual at that time, the individual that he has redeemed, he places a love in that individual for other believers.
[32:47] I'll just be honest with you. Before I came to Christ, I went to church, I attended church and I was there at church and I go through the motions at church, okay? And I thought the church was full of a bunch of weird people.
[32:58] It just really was. There were people that were all up in my business and I could, you know, I could go without that. I was, at that time, I was young enough to think I knew everything and not old enough to know anything.
[33:08] You understand how it is, right? So I was kind of like, you know, just a bunch of weird people over there. If I go through the motions, maybe everything will be okay and I did that a lot. The moment I came to Christ, by the way, nobody was there. It was a very individual encounter.
[33:18] It happened with me. I was in my bedroom. Carrie was asleep. Hunter was asleep. The other kids weren't born yet. So God was working on my heart. Christ was drawing me to himself. That night I surrendered. It couldn't have been more individual.
[33:29] I was the only one in the house awake and it was a 201 Canova Drive, Shelbyville, Tennessee. I can tell you where it was at. I'm one of those that know. It was in the bedroom. If you're looking at the house, there's a bedroom on the right, that window, right there. I was on my knees and that's where I cried out.
[33:41] And all of a sudden, I said, Lord, I'm just going to give you everything. So it was a very personal encounter and I met my Savior that night who had been pursuing me and drawing me and calling me. And I want to tell you something amazing happened.
[33:53] The moment I met my Savior, all of a sudden, I began to love the church. I mean, I couldn't wait to go to church. And it was no longer about going through the motions. I joined the choir. I can't sing.
[34:03] You heard me earlier, right? I can't sing. And I loved being up there with these people that would sing and they were having so much fun. And I began to love the church and I began to love other believers. And I didn't really know why because these weren't my normal friends.
[34:15] These weren't the people I hung out with, right? This wasn't my group. I didn't even have a group anymore. You try being 18 and married and have a kid. You don't have a group anymore, right? Your group's gone.
[34:25] So by this time, I was almost 20. So, you know, we're two years into that and all of a sudden, these people I connected with, right? These people, all of a sudden, man, something mattered and there was something within my heart.
[34:36] And the more you say, well, yeah, because you're a pastor. I was not a pastor. I was not on the road to be a pastor. My wife did not marry a preacher, okay? She didn't. I was an animal science major. I was going to be a vet.
[34:47] I don't care for animals who didn't talk back. And now God called me to shepherd people who always encourage. Anyway, so... So anyway, we were, you know, we were on that road.
[35:00] All of a sudden, I began to love the church and I just didn't know why. And now, the more I understand scripture, the more I know why because that's something supernatural that happens. So when you get confident in your salvation, you are consistent in your behavior because one of the things you do is you consider others.
[35:17] Let us consider one another. You know, the greatest motivator to come to church, and I'm not saying this just because it's Easter. If it wasn't Easter, I'd preach the same message. It's not because you need to be here.
[35:28] It's because there's somebody else that you want to see that's here. There's an affinity for the brethren. It says, let us consider others. Let us consider one another, how we may stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
[35:42] There's someone I need to encourage. There's someone, and someone needs to encourage me. Sure, there were seasons, you know, when I was new in the faith, I needed to be encouraged, but then it became more than that. Not that I needed to be encouraged.
[35:52] I needed to go to encourage someone else because the reality is this. Someone here is having a bad day today. They're just not admitting it, right? Everything's good today. Someone here, you know, is having a pretty rough week. Someone here needs encouragement.
[36:04] Someone here really doesn't want to do anything good or any good deeds and they need to be encouraged. And so, the author of Hebrews is saying, one of the wonderful joys about becoming a true believer and really understanding salvation is now you realize you have the opportunity to be a good influence on other people.
[36:21] Friend, listen, there's enough in this world that can influence us to do bad. There's enough in this world that influences us to choose wrong and to go the way and to not love but to hate and to do everything.
[36:32] But all of a sudden, God has put us together as a body of believers and calls us to consider one another. And then he says, therefore, do not forsake the assembling together.
[36:45] Not just because, hey, you need to be counted. It's because there are people you're connected to that need you there. And there are people there that you need.
[36:56] See, it's so much more than just a legalistic church attendance. It's about this consistent behavior, the reality that Jesus doesn't want us to live in isolation. It's a hard place to live.
[37:10] Proverbs 18, verse 1, I believe it's the New King James translation says, it is a fool who isolates himself. You know how I know that?
[37:20] It's because I had another pastor tell me that while I was pastoring. I was going through hard times and it was just difficult and he looked at me and he said, you know, the book of Proverbs tells me that you're being foolish.
[37:32] And that pastor looked at me and told me I was being foolish. And I needed to hear it because I was. We can't live in isolation. It doesn't work too well. Because one of the outcomes of salvation is a desire for true fellowship.
[37:47] Of encouraging and spurring on one another to love and good deeds. Sometimes I need you to spur me on. Sometimes I need to spur you on. But the only way we can do this is if we don't forsake the coming together one another.
[38:00] And it's not just putting a check mark. It is living a consistent life, having a consistent practice because we have such a faithful Savior. And we find it when we behold the Lamb. We see his salvation.
[38:12] And we're going to have a time of invitation. I don't know what Christ is saying to your heart and what it's saying to your mind. I don't know. We're going to have a time of invitation. We're going to sing this hymn of invitation. And after that, we're going to take the Lord's Supper together.
[38:25] The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, which I'll be reading out of after we pass the cups, is that we ought to consider how we take the Lord's Supper to one another.
[38:36] So the reason I like doing the Lord's Supper, and we can do it this way, we do it at the very end of service, is because a time of invitation is not so much only a response to the message that has been declared, but it's also hopefully an inspection of our personal lives before we take the Lord's Supper together.
[38:53] We shouldn't take it in an unholy manner. And I've done this even as a believer, and I've done this as a pastor. I've had to be reconciled with other brothers and sisters before taking the Lord's Supper.
[39:04] I've had to go ask for forgiveness, or I had to make sure that we were on the right opportunity. So I can promise you that that's what this time is for. It's just a time of response, and okay, Lord, search me, try me, let me know my thoughts, help me to know my ways, because we're going to take that Lord's Supper with one another.
[39:20] It'll be a great celebration, not only just a reminder of his resurrection, but a reminder that that resurrection is only possible because of the certainty of his death, the price that he paid for us.
[39:31] So let's pray, and then we'll sing. Lord, thank you so much for this day. God, thank you for your faithfulness and goodness towards us. I thank you for your word, and I pray, Lord, that you help us to be people of your word.
[39:42] I pray, Lord, as you be with us now during this time of invitation, Lord, that you would lead our hearts and minds, help us to know if there's anything that we must do, Lord, as we move forward in obedience, help us to respond to that faithfully, and we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen.
[40:16] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.