[0:00] But this morning, we're in Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 19. I'm going to go back and read verse 19, and we'll go through verse 25. If you're physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God in Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 19.
[0:17] The Word of God says, 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 priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[0:44] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
[1:04] Let's pray. Lord, we thank You so much for this day. God, we rejoice in this opportunity we have to come together as a corporate body of believers, to set our hearts and minds upon You, to hear from Your Word.
[1:17] We pray that Your Word would speak to our hearts and minds. Lord, that it would be the motivator of our lives. Lord, that it would be the shaper and the conformer of our image for Your glory. Lord, we ask that there would be no hindrance, no cause for stumbling, no cause for offense in this place.
[1:32] But Lord, that You would speak and we would have ears to listen. And Lord, we would have hands and feet and life longing to live it out for Your glory. And we ask it all in the sweet name of Jesus.
[1:44] Amen. You may be seated. You may remember, and some of you may have written it down, that the first core value which we have looked at, or which we began looking at last week, is that we value the weekly corporate worship of Jesus Christ by the entire body of believers.
[2:02] We value the weekly corporate worship of Jesus Christ by the entire body of believers. We value the worship of our Lord and Savior.
[2:12] We value the worship that God deserves. God created us to worship Him. He created us to have a longing for Him. We find this in the very beginning pages of Scripture.
[2:24] In the book of Genesis, we are commanded, or we are told that the very first command man has given, is that we would worship and obey Him. And we began looking at this last week in this passage of Hebrews chapter 10.
[2:35] And if you remember, the very first point that we looked at last week is that we worship because of a newfound access. Where it says there in verse 19, 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.
[2:54] So we began to look at this worship as a result of a newfound access. That we now have access to the throne room of God. That we have access to the Holy of Holies.
[3:06] That we not only have access to a place inside of a temple, but rather we have access to the throne room of heaven. We have the opportunity through the blood of Jesus Christ to come boldly into the presence of the God who has spoken all into existence.
[3:20] And the reality of that access should be the thriving or the driving force of our worship. That if we fail to worship, we are really failing to acknowledge or failing to understand exactly where it is we get to go.
[3:35] When we walk into His presence, we've seen throughout Scripture that the very first response throughout Scripture when an individual was in His presence was first of all to think, Man, I'm a dead man now.
[3:45] This isn't going to end too well, right? Oh, woe is me, woe is me, because I'm going to die. We saw that throughout Scripture. But then we understood that once the reality of that God's sparing hand rested upon them, they said, Now I can worship.
[4:00] And we know that through the blood of Jesus Christ, through His flesh, we now have access to the throne room of glory. And we get to come boldly, not just timidly, not just kind of hesitantly, but we get to come boldly into the presence of God.
[4:18] And walking into that presence should create within us an attitude and a desire of worship. It should be this welling up inside of us that, Man, I am in the presence of God, and He wants me in His presence.
[4:34] So we began to look last week at this corporate worship of the saints and how the Scripture tells us that where two or more are gathered together, I am there as well. And all of these principles that we are in His presence, so we cannot help but worship.
[4:48] And we move forward. And secondly, I want you to see, as it pertains to this value of worship, I want you to see not only a newfound access, but number two, we have an unwavering assurance.
[5:01] An unwavering assurance. The Word of God tells us in verse 21, And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart, literally means true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[5:21] It says, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. I am convinced that one of the greatest works of Satan, one of the greatest works of the enemy of our soul, the thing which he gives his most time and attention to, not just the causing us to stumble, but causing us to doubt.
[5:42] Because in our stumblings, we are led to doubt. And in our failures, we are led to doubt our own salvation and to doubt our own standing. The reason why Satan loves to hinder us so, the reason why he loves to throw tripping lines and tripping wires in your life, and the reason why he throws those fiery darts at you that the book tells us that we need to have the shield of faith to protect ourselves from, is not so that he can cause us pain in our falling, but so that when we rise, we rise with doubt and not assurance.
[6:14] Because we have found this principle throughout Scripture, that the doubting heart never worships. That the doubting life never sells out. That the doubting individual never is fully committed.
[6:27] You will only be committed to what you are absolutely sure of. There's no other way around it. You will only be fully committed to what you are absolutely certain of.
[6:43] And that goes physically in your life. It goes spiritually in your life. You won't jump out of an airplane unless you're certain that parachute's going to open. I mean, you just won't. You won't jump off of a bridge with a rubber band tied around your feet unless you're 100% certain that that bungee cord is going to pull you back.
[7:01] If you have any reservations, or if you think, well, it might hold me, then you might get back down, right? You possibly will. It will only be what you are confident in that you will give yourself to.
[7:14] And this is why the Bible tells us here that when we come into His presence, we are to come with a sincere heart or a true heart in full assurance. I am convinced that many people do not worship because many people are not certain where they stand with the one they're trying to worship.
[7:30] A failure to rightly understand your standing in His presence will always lead to a reservation in worship.
[7:43] Always. Because if we come before Him hoping He is pleased with us, there is the possibility He may not be pleased with us. If we come before Him, maybe He wants me in His presence, then there's always the possibility that He really doesn't want me in His presence.
[8:00] If we come thinking He could be pleased with me, there is the possibility He might not be pleased with me. And I don't know about you, but I do know about me. I'm not running into the presence of a holy God if I think there's any chance He doesn't want me there.
[8:14] If He who spoke it all into existence, who holds the very breath of my lungs in His hands, the book of Job tells us that if God was to call His Spirit back to Himself, every man would die.
[8:25] That all God has to say is, you know what, breath, that's enough, come back. Everybody would pass away. I'm not running into His presence unless I know I'm allowed to be there. I'm not running into His presence unless I am certain everything's okay.
[8:41] Tony Evans loves to tell a story of a little boy that was on an airplane. And this boy was on an airplane, and he was sitting towards the front of the airplane, and the airplane was flying through the air, and it hit just this terrible amount of turbulence.
[8:53] And the turbulence was kind of shaking the airplane all over the place, and people were kind of panicking. You know, the little buckle-you-seat belt sign came on, and everybody was buckled up, and the turbulence was really getting kind of carried away, and people were getting shaken, and there were grown men who were kind of getting nervous, and they looked up, and this boy's over there just playing with his toys, and he's not having any problems.
[9:12] And somebody finally leaned over and asked the boy, how do you know everything's going to be okay when the plane's shaking so much? He said, that's easy. My daddy's the pilot. He was sure of the one flying the plane more than he was certain of the circumstances affecting the plane.
[9:32] You see the difference in assurance. There are a lot of people who come to church, and they hope that God is pleased with them. They hope that by their activities and their actions, and even by their presence, God may look at them and say, you know what, today I'm happy with you.
[9:47] And there are a lot of people who come into a building hoping that God will welcome them. And then there are those few who come into the building knowing that God has invited them, and knowing that God has said, come up here.
[9:59] And it is those people who walk in, and they can't keep their feet still. It is those people who walk in, and all of a sudden their hands go up, and somebody around them gets uncomfortable. It's those people who are certain of the reality that God wants them there, that they're saying, hey, Father, I'm right here.
[10:14] And all of a sudden, they get carried away in this thing called worship. And the reason they get carried away in worship is because they're not here trying to please Him. They're here because He's pleased with them. That makes a lot of difference, right?
[10:26] And when we can come into His presence with a heart full of assurance, friend, let me tell you something. When you know God loves you, when you know God wants you, then you cannot help but worship Him, even if your worship looks crazy to everyone else around you, even if everybody else thinks that that's offensive, or man, that doesn't seem to make sense.
[10:47] My mind is drawn to David dancing in his loincloth. People thinking, man, the king shouldn't act that way. And the king is saying, so what? I'm a king of the world, but the king of heaven is asking me to come into His presence.
[10:58] Now, I'm not telling you to get up and dance in your loincloth. Let me just go ahead and say that, right? But hey, you do whatever it is the Spirit leads you to do, but we'll go from there, all right? We'll handle it as we get there. I'm okay with that.
[11:09] But listen, friend, listen, it's an assurance of the presence that you're allowed to be in. And you say, well, how can you have that? Pastor, you're just one of those self-confident individuals.
[11:21] You're just one of those who have confidence just oozing from Him. You seem to be so certain of yourself. Well, that's the problem. I'm not certain of myself. That's the problem.
[11:32] I'm not self-confident because look at what the Word of God says here. Assurance doesn't come from self-confidence. You can believe that you can be the best you that you could ever be, but the best you can never get into the presence of the King.
[11:44] Look at what the Word of God says. Let us draw near with a sincere heart, a true heart, and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from what? 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.
[12:00] Assurance stems from your hope. So if you are hoping by your actions to be allowed to come into His presence, your hope is not very good.
[12:13] If you are hoping that you are good enough, that God wants you in His presence, your hope is going to fail you. If you are hoping you have done enough good versus the amount of bad you have done, then that hope will let you down.
[12:25] Your assurance is only based upon your hope. Now there are some things I am certain of. I am certain that I cannot hope in myself.
[12:38] I am certain that I cannot hope in you to get me to heaven. I am certain that I cannot hope in any efforts which I can do. Those things I am sure of. But look at what it says.
[12:48] The steadfastness of the confession of our hope. Here it is. For He who promised is faithful. Where does your hope rest, my friend?
[13:00] Does your hope rest in the efforts which you can put forth? Does your hope rest in the abilities which you possess? Or does your hope rest in the promises which He has offered?
[13:12] The one thing that I have found from people who genuinely, honestly worship Him, there are people who know what God has promised them. And their confidence does not rest in their own abilities.
[13:26] Their confidence does not rest in their own self. But rather their confidence rests in what He has promised. And God has promised that through Jesus Christ I am welcomed into His presence. God has promised that through Jesus Christ the water which has washed me is pure.
[13:41] God has promised that through Jesus Christ my evil heart has been cleansed. God has promised that through Jesus Christ even my conscience which testifies against me can be forgotten about.
[13:53] And see it's no longer based on feelings now it's based on promises. Brother Travis and I coached a baseball team this past year. I love my little five and six year old baseball team. Oh I had this boy on my baseball team you would make him mad if you told him he was small.
[14:07] Now he was the smallest kid on our team but you didn't tell him he was small. I mean he came up to me one time and was kind of crying and said coach they told me I was little and I said buddy you're the littlest one on the team. You are little. It's okay. Somebody's got to be little.
[14:18] But I would pitch to him and he would always come up to me before and he'd be like coach I feel like I'm not going to hit today. And he'd always come up and he's like in the first half of the year he'd always be like I feel like I'm going to strike out.
[14:32] And it finally hit me I said you know what maybe your feelings are wrong. Maybe you need to quit feeling like you're going to strike out. So it got to the point where when he would come up to bat now he was a little fellow his bat's bigger than he was.
[14:43] I'd always walk up to him and I was like man I think you're fixing to get a hit. And he'd look at me and he'd kind of smile. I said I think you're going and you know by the end of the season he was getting more hits than he was getting out. Now his hits weren't going far but for a little man to make contact he was doing it.
[14:56] Why? Because we started overruling his feelings. And we started giving him a little assurance when he was standing there. There's a lot of people walking to church and they feel like they don't belong.
[15:08] Let's go ahead and admit it none of us belong in his presence. They feel like they messed up. Guess what? Every one of us that walked in the door have messed up sometime this week. They feel like God doesn't want them there.
[15:20] Now that's a lie from the pits of hell. Because your feelings may be telling you about circumstances but God's promise tells you about truth. And his promises need to overrule your feelings so that you have an assurance that will lead you to worship.
[15:38] You know why I get excited about worship? It's because I'm certain I got a heavenly father who wants me there. Not because I deserve to be there but because he told me he wants me there.
[15:49] See it is an unwavering assurance. An unwavering assurance. Number three. Not only do we value corporate worship because of the unwavering assurance we value the corporate worship because of the encouraging associations.
[16:05] The encouraging associations. Look at what it says in verse 24. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. I have a question for you.
[16:16] How many people do you associate with throughout the week that are an encouragement to you? I mean not an encouragement for you to do better at your job. Not an encouragement for you to be a better person.
[16:29] Not just an encouragement for you to be a better mother or a better father or a better whatever. How many people around you really encourage you to what the Bible says love and good deeds?
[16:41] We're talking about the weekly corporate worship of the saints. Why is it important to be around the corporate worship of the saints on a regular ongoing basis?
[16:53] Because in case you haven't figured it out this world is a discouraging place. The Bible tells us we're to love our enemies to pray for those who persecute us. If somebody slaps us on the right we're to turn him to left.
[17:05] It says if somebody compels us to walk one mile we should walk two. The Bible tells us that we are to do the unthinkable according to the world's standards. The Bible tells us we are to love our countrymen.
[17:17] We are to love the people who are not like us. We are to love the people who hate us. The Bible tells us that we are to operate in an attitude of love that is not the love of the world that is based upon feelings but rather we are to operate according to the attitude of love of heaven which is the agapeo love which means I'm going to love you even if you hate me.
[17:35] I'm going to love you enough to do something for you. The Bible tells us that we are to love our fellow countrymen that if we are to see them hurting we are to help them. If we are to see them sick we are to raise them up.
[17:45] If we see them thirsty we should give them a drink. If we see them hungry we should feed them. If we see them naked we should clothe them. Friend listen to me you're not going to get that from the world. The world is going to tell you to look out for yourself.
[17:59] You take care of number one. You climb that ladder no matter who you have to step over or not down to get there. The world is going to tell you that you take care of yours and your own and let everybody else take care of themselves.
[18:11] The Bible tells you that you should take care of everybody else around you and let the Lord take care of you. Why do we value the corporate worship of the saints? It's because it's only when we gather together with people of like faith that we can we be encouraged to do the things the Bible commands us to do.
[18:29] We are to encourage one another. The Bible says encouraging one another. Let us consider how to stimulate this word stimulate. Paul uses it over and over in his writings. We don't know who the author of Hebrews is possibly Paul but the word stimulate means to urge or to push or to prod one forward.
[18:48] We are to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds. It ought to be impossible for you to leave the corporate worship of the saints which is called the church. It ought to be impossible for you to walk out on Sunday morning and not love everybody you come in contact with.
[19:08] I didn't say love everybody you left behind. I said love everybody you come in contact with out there because as you gather together in here and as we come together we should stimulate one another to love everybody outside of us and it ought to be impossible for us to leave the corporate gathering of the saints in true worship and not run out those doors looking to do something good.
[19:36] See there's the problem. When we can gather together and have what we call a church service and walk out those doors and no longer love people or do good for people then we really haven't worshipped.
[19:52] It says we ought to be in the attitude of worshipping together stimulating one another to love and to good deeds. You can hang out in the world and they can tell you how to take care of yourself they can tell you how to make your own but they cannot tell you to love the way the Bible commands you to love.
[20:08] They cannot command you to do the good deeds the Bible commands you to do. Oh I don't know if you've noticed it or not but much of what I read in New Testament Christianity is an impossibility without the encouragement of others.
[20:21] You leave me to the New Testament by myself and I will never do the commands given to us just in the New Testament. I'll never do it. Because my own selfish ambitions my own selfish motives my own selfish desires I'll begin to look to myself more than I look to others.
[20:39] But when I come and I worship with the corporate body of believers all of a sudden there's welling up inside of me a love which I did not know. I desire to do the good which I had never sought to do.
[20:53] See we see this desire this this ought to be our chief desires to come together. I cannot wait to worship with the saints so that I can be encouraged and refueled to go back and love the world.
[21:11] It is the association which stimulates and encourages us to live as we should in the world he's placed us in. Says right here and not forsaking our own assembling together.
[21:24] Oh what a tragedy it is. It doesn't say and never miss a Sunday. It doesn't say that right. It doesn't say make this a legalistic matter. Understand that we have some that are on vacation.
[21:38] Praise God for opportunity for rest and for time of fellowship around family with family. Praise God for people to have opportunity to get away and to be renewed. But what it says don't forsake.
[21:49] don't make it a habitual activity of failing to assemble together. Because I promise you if it becomes a habit of failing to assemble then you will not develop the habit of love and good deeds.
[22:06] You will not. This is where we find the association with others which will encourage us to live as the scripture has called us to. I have one more.
[22:18] Not only is it the unwavering assurance which we possess. Not only is it the encouraging associations which are available. Number four and finally why do we value the corporate worship of the saints?
[22:31] Because of the day approaching. Because of the day approaching. Look at how the author of Hebrews closes out this passage about gathering together as the saints.
[22:45] And not forsaking our own assembling together as it is the habit of some but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near.
[22:59] And all the more as you see the day drawing near. What day? All scriptures always look into the day. The day. The day. The day. It's a great Bible study by the way if you ever want to kind of get into it the day of the Lord.
[23:11] It's a great study. You have to go through a number of passages in the Old Testament even in the New Testament but it's one worthy of trailing. You see it in Thessalonians. You see it in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians both.
[23:21] You see it really in the book of Revelations. You see Paul referring to it always in the author of Hebrews and they're always writing towards the day. The day. The day is drawing near. And what is that day? That is the day of the Lord.
[23:32] The day of His appearing. The day when the judgment of the world is passed and those who are consigned to the lake of fire are there and we are gathered around His saints. And He says we are gathered together.
[23:44] Listen if you go and read the book of Revelations and you read of end time events and if you begin to read what's going on in heaven I want to go ahead and kind of pull back the curtains for you.
[23:55] In heaven we see work. Yes everyone's assigned to work. We see houses and dwelling places. We get that. Jesus spoke about that. But we also see this. We see this grand gathering of the saints in worship.
[24:09] We see this coming together of every tribe and every tongue and every language. Of every nationality and of every race and of every individual coming together with their crowns and casting them at His feet.
[24:25] We see this worship of the saints. What I don't find in Scripture is an individual having a one on one worship time with Jesus.
[24:36] because it's too hard to have a one on one worship time when everybody is there. But what I find is the whole church crying out.
[24:49] And why should we gather together weekly? Because every passing day draws us closer to that day. You say well pastor you don't know when that day is coming. No I don't. But I know if some almost 2,000 years ago when the author of Hebrews thought that day was drawing near then it should be drawing a little closer today right?
[25:08] It should be drawing a little closer today anytime we go on a long road trip. You know Hunter, Ethan and Kylie were always really good. They're really good car riders. We did a lot of traveling with them when they were real young.
[25:21] Brayden is a good car rider in that he likes to talk while he rides. And as soon as we get out of the driveway he's the one of our four children who's like so are we there yet? And you know you go like five minutes down the road so are we there yet?
[25:34] And our answer is we're getting closer. That's my answer. I'm closer than I was a minute ago when you asked me now. Now we're not there but we're getting closer right? Friend listen when it comes to that day we're not there yet but I promise you we're getting closer.
[25:48] And for centuries people have been talking about that day and people say are we there yet? Are we there yet? We're getting closer. And we'll know it when we get there. We're getting closer.
[25:59] We're getting closer. The Bible says that we ought to not forsake our assembling together and all the more as we see the day approaching. Why? Because if we're going to do it for all of eternity wouldn't it be befitting of us to practice it here in time and space?
[26:16] Oh I think it's going to be a rude awakening for some. Some that have said I can worship Jesus all of my own and they do that for a number of years and they forsake the church.
[26:27] And all of a sudden they're ushered into eternity and you cannot worship him apart from the church. As a matter of fact you're not eating a meal without the church because the Bible says the table to sit is what? The wedding supper of the lamb which means that's the meal for the bride and the bride is the church.
[26:45] So if we're going to do it for all of eternity we better continue to do it now temporarily. And all the more as we see the day approaching.
[26:55] That's not legalism. That's just when I get there and I'm having to do it all the time I want to be sure I'm doing it right. So I'm going to practice now in your presence before I'm with him physically in his presence right?
[27:08] And maybe in that glorified state I will have worked out the kinks of my corporate worship. And we'll be able to worship him together. But friend listen we value the corporate weekly worship of the saints.
[27:24] And all the more as we see the day approaching. Let's pray together. Lord I thank you so much for this day. God I thank you that you have called us together to come and to worship and adore you.
[27:38] I pray that our hearts and minds have been set upon you and not upon man. Lord I pray that our worship would not be driven by legalism or ought to. or rather it would be motivated by I get to.
[27:51] Lord may our hearts be confident in the promises you have extended. Lord may we know exactly where it is we stand with you. There's one here today who does not have that confidence.
[28:02] They do not have that assurance. May they understand it's because they're trusting in self and not trusting in the blood of the lamb. Lord Jesus I just ask that you would work the only way that you can work.
[28:14] by the power and presence of your spirit that you would search every heart try every mind. Begin with me oh Lord. Help me to understand the hindrance to my worship.
[28:25] Lord so that I may fully give myself to you for your glory. And I ask it all in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.
[28:53] Thank you.
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[35:14] Thank you.