Putting Doctrine Into Practice

Transcript

GR 1704
10/20/2013
Putting Doctrine into Practice
Hebrews 10:19-25
Gil Rugh

We're back in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10, and we come to a major transition in the book of Hebrews when we come to Hebrews 10:19. From Hebrews 5;1 through Hebrews 10:18 we have had one major theme being developed, the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. He has shown the superiority of Christ both in His person as high priest and the sacrifice which He offered, His own body, far superior to the priestly ministry under the Mosaic covenant and the sacrifices offered there. Now he is going to transition from that great doctrinal emphasis to the exhortation to the conduct that should and must flow out of the reality of what Christ has accomplished.

We sometimes divide these sections into the doctrinal and the practical sections of the book, which is somewhat misleading. I remember in the early years of my ministry here people would say, we spend so much time on doctrine, I'd like something more practical. But as God has put together our Scriptures, He has done it in the way that we must understand. So often in the evangelical church today there is almost a complete emphasis on what we would call the practice—what we are to do, how we are to do. And many sermons on the how-tos. And even believers get accustomed to this kind of emphasis. We think this seems helpful to me, this is more practical, as though God wasted much of His time and much of the revelation He has given to us on those things we really don't need to be occupied with. We just stop and think for a moment what a serious charge against God that is. I daresay that most Christians in evangelical churches, if they are familiar at all with the book of Hebrews, it would be with these closing chapters that are focusing on what we are to do and how we are to live in light of the high priestly ministry of Christ. You understand if you don't understand the foundation, the doctrinal truth, doctrine is just a translation of the Greek word teaching, the teaching that God has given to us regarding the high priestly ministry of Christ, we're just putting into practice things that we don't have a solid foundation for. This is why Christians can be moved from this methodology to this methodology, and churches go from this to this to this. We're going from being a seeker church to an emerging church to a deep church. And it goes on and on. Really, God lays out His Word in a process, He establishes clearly the foundation, what we would call doctrinal truth, then He tells us here is what we must do.

You'll note verse 19 begins with the word therefore. Therefore in light of the truths that we have just gone through in such detail from Hebrews 5:1 to this point, on that basis here is what we must do in our conduct and practice. And without that foundation in Christ we're just doing what we think we ought to do and the Scripture tells us to do, but we lack the foundation. Without that foundation we easily get moved around. This is the condition for these Hebrew Christians. They are in danger of being moved away from the foundation that is found only in Christ and His finished work. So He has to go back and lay that foundation. It wouldn't be enough just to pick up in Hebrews 10:19 and tell them how to conduct themselves. They must be firmly established with a clear understanding of the person and work of Christ. And on that basis realize here is what is required by God of us in our conduct.

This is the pattern that we are familiar with in Paul's epistles. Just back up to Ephesians as one example, and I just use this because it is a familiar book to many of you. And the example, the first three chapters of Ephesians focus on doctrine. We had that presented beautifully in song and our choosing Him because He first chose us. And so Ephesians 1 starts out talking in verse 4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption as sons. All this done to the praise of the glory of His grace, verse 6, all He has done in Christ. You see laying that doctrinal foundation, having to grapple with things of serious nature—the electing work of God before the foundation of the world, His purpose in that work of election and choosing. The work of the Spirit given to us as God's down payment and guarantee to bring to completion what He has determined and established before He began creation. We have that down in verses 13-14.

So the first three verses work through the seriousness of these doctrinal truths. And then you come to Ephesians 4 and it says, therefore, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, that calling that he has laid out in detail in the first three chapters. So often people want to spend their time in just the walk. I'm not saying we have to always begin at verse 1 and can't look in chapter 4. But God laid out the Word the way He did for a purpose. There are times when we'll come and do a study out of Ephesians 5 on wives and husbands. But the foundation of our approach to Scripture ought to be to consider it the way God gave it. That's why we began in Hebrews 1:1, and we'll work through. God had a purpose in guiding the writing of that book as He did. So we want to have a grasp of these truths. That's what brings stability to our lives and keeps us grounded. It's not just, well, I was told I should do this. We want to understand. God tells me to do this because of this.

Come back to Hebrews 10. Verses 19-25 transition out of the section on the high priestly ministry of Christ and will transition into the exhortations. And particularly Hebrews 11 is perhaps the most familiar chapter, we call it the heroes of the faith and it draws to our attention those from the Old Testament who manifested their faith in the promises of God by the lives they lived.

So verses 19-25 are a transition out of the focus on the high priestly ministry of Christ to the walk of the people of God. It is very similar, come back to Hebrews 4:14-16, these verses transitioned into that discussion on Christ's high priestly ministry. Now let me read verses 14-16 and then when we work through the verses before us in Hebrews 10 you'll see they are very similar in content. Hebrews 4:14, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. That connection, we have a high priest, therefore we must hold fast our confession. We're going to have that hold fast in our section in Hebrews 10. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near. We're going to have that emphasis, really an emphasis let us continually draw near, let us continually hold fast. Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So those verses really led us into the discussion in detail of Christ's high priestly ministry.

Now you come over to Hebrews 10:19, “therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Christ.” And so on. He'll transition us out of that emphasis and into exhortations to our conduct.

There is an order here, we're going to look at verses 19-25, and you have two provisions of Christ's high priestly ministry mentioned, and then three exhortations based upon those provisions. The provisions are found in verse 19, the first one—“since we have confidence.” If you mark your Bible you can highlight it, underline it, circle it. That's the first provision—having confidence. Or as we have it translated, since we have confidence. The second one is in verse 21—“since we have a great high priest,” or since we have a great priest, having a great priest. He pulls together the truths concerning Christ's ministry and the blessings and provision for us in that ministry that he has talked about in Hebrews 5:1 through Hebrews 10 to this point.
Then there are three exhortations based on that. The first one is in verse 22—“let us draw near,” or let us continually draw near. Verse 23 is the second—“let us hold fast” or continually hold fast. And verse 24—“let us consider,” continually consider. So the reminder of the provisions Christ has made for us as our high priest, and then the exhortations in light of that. Here is what we are to be doing as God's people.

So we pick up with verse 19, therefore. We mentioned this pulls together what he has said from Hebrews 5:1 on to this point, what he led into this with in Hebrews 4, as just read, verses 14-16. Brethren. He's writing to them as believers and he joins himself with them. Brethren, since we, including himself. So he's writing to them as brethren.

Back in Hebrews 3:1, “therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.” They are holy brethren. He writes to them as believers. There are warnings, we're going to come to another one of those later in Hebrews 10 about the danger of stopping short of being a true believer in Christ. But for the most part he is writing to challenge them, to instruct them and then exhort them as true believers in Christ. He tells them in Hebrews 3:12, take care, brethren. These are fellow members of the body of Christ, the family of God.

Come back to Hebrews 10:19, “therefore, brethren.” And here is the first provision made for us in Christ. “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.” We have confidence, that settled assurance that is ours in Christ.

Back to Hebrews 3. We're going to periodically be jumping back and forth because he is picking up points earlier in the letter. Hebrews 3 again, verse 6, “but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” These concepts will be woven through the section we are in now in Hebrews. The confidence we have, we have confidence. And we are to hold fast our confidence. The danger these Hebrew Christians have is they are loosening their grip on these truths. That's why he spent so much time going through the details of Christ as high priest and the sacrifice He offered. I mean, you've lost your focus when you begin to lose your firm grip, which gives you your confidence. We are unshaken because we know who Jesus is, that He is our high priest, that His sacrifice accomplished for us what no one and no thing can do. He did. We hold fast to that assurance. In Hebrews 4:16 we read a few moments ago, “therefore, let us draw near with confidence,” That assurance that comes from the understanding of who He is and what He has done.

Come back to Hebrews 10:19, “therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Christ.” This has been the instruction that he has given up to this point. This is remarkable. The Jews under the old covenant, hard to grasp such a privilege. We have confidence to enter the holy place, I mean, into the very presence of God. And not just that earthly tabernacle with that physical mercy seat where God manifested something of the glory of His presence under the old covenant. As we have seen earlier in Hebrews, Christ has provided access into the true holy of holies in heaven itself. That's what he was saying in Hebrews 4, the verses we were just in. “We have confidence to come before a throne of grace, to come before the very throne of God in heaven.” We have confidence to do that. Under the old covenant what did people have to do? They had to come with a high priest who alone could enter the holy place. They were kept out. He would pass through the veil and into the presence of God once a year on behalf of the nation, but the people could never. The high priest himself could only come one day a year.

Now Christ our high priest, as he has worked through the details, has offered a sacrifice and brought it into the very presence of God in heaven, the true tabernacle, and opened the way for us to come into the very presence of God. It's not that Christ Himself entered the presence of God and we are kept out, His sacrifice is so great and so complete that it opened the way to the very presence of God in heaven for us

So you'll note what he says in verse 20,”by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh.” We have a new and living way. Under the old covenant the old way was the high priest had to pass through the veil once a year. With Christ as high priest we have a new, living way He inaugurated and opened for us through the veil, His flesh. In other words the comparison is that Old Testament high priest passed through the veil into the presence of God. It was through the sacrifice of Christ's own body. Remember in Hebrews 10:5, He comes into the world and says, “sacrifice and offering you have not desired but a body you have prepared for Me.” The end of verse 19, “we have come into the holy place by the blood of Christ, His sacrifice.” So the comparison is to the veil and as the Old Testament high priest passed through the veil once a year into the presence of the Father, Christ by the sacrifice of His own body has made it possible for us to pass, on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ, into the very presence of God ourselves. A privilege and honor that the Old Testament saint at best could catch glimpses of in the revelation God gave, but you think about it, we are coming with confidence, the assurance that He accepts us.

You know in our down times even as believers, we fail. We all stumble in many ways and sometimes we feel overwhelmed and unworthy to come into the presence of God and our own sense of failure even as a child of God. And we despair sometimes. You know I have to come back and say, I have confidence, not on the basis of my worthiness but on the basis of His sacrifice. And sometimes I have to come and say, Lord, you know again I have been unfaithful, I have failed when I should not have. And there is no excuse. But I can come with confidence because Christ is my high priest and He has offered the sacrifice. Sometimes we forget this, and that's why the doctrine and the teaching is so crucial. And we drift around in despair and self-pity and we're trying to build up the remorse. I can't do anything about the failure I have had, the sin I have done, but I can be thankful that Christ offered a sacrifice that enables me to come and be accepted before God. We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Christ.

It's a sad thing, people trying by their works to be acceptable to God, doing good things to be acceptable. It's by the blood of Christ. We've talked about the Roman system and it has this whole system of earthly priests modeled on the Levitical system, which is a denial of what Christ has done. We come by the blood of Christ, it's a new and living way opened for us to come with confidence into the very presence of God.

So that's the first provision, the first blessing. We can come with assurance, not fear—will God accept me? Will He reject me? We come with confidence and assurance. Not arrogance because I recognize it's not my worthiness that enables me to come, it's His sacrifice.

The second provision He has made—He is our high priest, that ongoing ministry in representing us in the presence of God. He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him. Hebrews 7:25, “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for us.” We have a great high priest over the house of God. Having a great priest, He is our high priest. That's been the doctrine. He is over the house of God. That's not just something He did in the past, He presently serves as our representative. He is over the house of God.

Come back to Hebrews 3. Contrast with Moses under the old covenant serving over God's people, Israel, God's house. And Christ, verse 6, “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are.” We're talking about we are God's people now, the church, believers in Jesus Christ. “If we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end”. The mark of a true member of God's family is we stay the course, we hold fast to that confidence we have in Him as our high priest, in the sufficiency of the work He has done for us. That's one of the provisions He has made. We have a high priest. That's my confidence. When I lose that focus even as a believer, I begin to get wobbly, and then I begin to get disoriented.

I've shared with you sometimes with the Meniere's I have. I will start to lose perspective and I start to get dizzy and things start to move around. The thing that helps me, especially if I catch it early is to lock onto a fixed point and just stay focused on that until things seem to start to settle again. I think of that as the picture here, especially when I stumble and I say, I shouldn't have. What was I thinking? Wait a minute, the more I get turned on me, the more I get disoriented. You know, introspection to a degree has a place. That's one of my problems with reading the Puritans, I appreciate the Puritans but sometimes they are so introspective, I lose focus. I want to keep my focus on Christ, and that's what helps me. I have failed but He has not; I have not been faithful when I should have been faithful but He is. And I am accepted on the basis of what He has done, and my faith is in Him. And that's what brings stability to my life. Even as a believer, and we have believers who lose perspective and they are being tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine as Ephesians 4 says. I need to get anchored. We have a great priest and He represents me today. And that is the assurance I will some day be glorified in His presence.

Hebrews 4:14-16, verse 14, “we have a great high priest that has passed through the heavens; therefore, let us hold fast our profession.” We do not have this kind of high priest, but we have this kind in verse 15. Therefore, verse 16, “let us draw near with confidence.” See he keeps drawing us back, focus on Christ what He has done. I do when I stumble, when I sin, when I fail. I have to recognize Lord, I can only go on, I can only claim your mercy. I don't want to minimize sin but I can't mire down, I can't undo what I did yesterday. I can only be thankful that God's grace is sufficient, the provision in Christ is sufficient. And that causes me to rejoice in the greatness of my high priest and the finality of what He has done. That's why these Hebrew Christians are in danger of drifting away, of losing their grasp, of not holding fast. He has to call them back to Christ. Here is His provision. You have access into the very presence of the Father. He is your high priest today. It is not He offered a sacrifice 2,000 years ago and now we are on our own and don't mess it up. He is the high priest. “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Come back to Hebrews 10. So, on the basis of that brief summary of what he has in detail unfolded, he gives three exhortations. We've noted them: verse 22, “let us draw near;” verse 23, “let us hold fast;” verse 24, “let us consider.” Some of you are taking Greek, these are present subjunctives, sometimes called continuous subjunctives because they denote something continuous. So we note here, let us continually draw near; verse 23, let us continually hold fast. This has become the characteristic of our lives now, what we continually do. First verse 22, let us continually “draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” This is remarkable. Once a year under the old covenant the high priest could go into the presence of God in the holy of holies on behalf of the people, but the people waited outside. Now I am told to continually draw near.

Isn't it amazing how much we struggle and fret and look for answers and solutions here, and worry and puzzle. Then we come and say, Lord, I know you are busy. But He tells me to continually come near. Sometimes we come apologetically. That's why he said in verse 19 we “have confidence.” Well, I don't like to bother the Lord with the little things. What kind of little God do you have? Someone wrote a book a number of years ago, “Your God is too Small.” I mean, that's often the God we have—I don't bother the Lord with the little things, the little daily things I handle but if something big comes up then I take it to the Lord. He tells me to continually come. Do you know what? I'm going to be here every day, in fact I'm going to be here most of the day. Can you imagine the Old Testament saint being told, you can come into the presence of God every day, any time of day, fifty times a day if you like. I mean, here is our privilege, our responsibility. We are exhorted to do this. Let us continually draw near, take advantage of what Christ has done for us. That's why the Father sent Him, that's why He sacrificed Himself. Now let's continually, it's us, let us continually draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. It's a true heart, it has the assurance, the settled conviction and confidence that genuine faith gives. I don't turn this around—I come with confidence because I am worthy. It's not all about me. It's all about Him and what He has done. That focus. We have so psychologized Christianity that it becomes all about us. It's all about Him. And what is about me is what about me that is now in Him. I have a sincere heart. I have the full assurance that comes from genuine faith in His finished work. I don't have to come apologetic—Lord, I'm not worthy, I don't deserve to come and I hope you will hear me one more time. Lord, I come because I'm your child. I don't come because I am worthy. I come because the One who represents me is worthy. I don't come because I could atone and pay for my sin. I come because He has done it. I come with a genuine heart, a true heart in full assurance of faith.

Follow this up, the last part of verse 22, “having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”. These are perfect tense, denotes something that has been done, been completed. So those who can come with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith are those who have been cleansed within and without is the point. I've had invitations a number of times here from evangelical churches and non-evangelical churches—we're all going to get together for prayer to pray for our city. I cannot go to that. The only people who can come before the throne of God are those who have been cleansed. It's not a matter of saying, I'm not as bad as you are or I'm better than you are. That's not the point. I have a high priest who has paid my penalty and represents me in the presence of God and you don't. That's the dividing line. But you can because at one time I didn't either.

So we come with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith because we have had our hearts sprinkled, our bodies washed. In other words we have been cleansed within and without from the defilement of sin. This is part of the promise under the new covenant. We won't turn back there but we've talked about the new covenant, Hebrews 8 unfolded it in extensive quote from Jeremiah 31. Ezekiel 36 gives this promise in the context of the new covenant. Verses 25-26, “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” It goes on to say “I will put My Spirit within you.” I mean, this is what He does. The sacrifice of Christ and its effect has been applied to me to cleanse me, to wash me clean. “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.” He'll cleanse me. To know I am clean before God, sinful me, hell-deserving me, the one who was dead in his trespasses and sins and without hope in the world, cut off from all the promises of God. And by God's grace I have come to believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God indeed with His death on the cross paid it all, paid in full. I have been cleansed. I can come into the very presence of God. But God forbid that I should imply that people who have not come on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ and having Him as high priest could intrude into the presence of God.

Remember what Proverbs says, for “those who reject the Word of God, even their prayer is an abomination to Him.” Christians get fuzzy and think, we don't want them to think that we think we are better than they are. We're not. We're all sinners, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But there are two kinds of sinners—the unredeemed and the redeemed. The beauty is God has made a provision. We don't become nice and loving and thoughtful by implying well, the difference is not that great. The difference is of eternal importance, the difference is heaven and hell. You either have this One as your high priest and His sacrifice credited to you, or you don't. And if you don't you have no way to come to God. Even when you try to pray to Him, you offend Him; even when you try to please Him by doing religious things, you offend Him. You bow before Him and acknowledge I am a sinner guilty and unworthy. I can only claim mercy, what I don't deserve. But I'm going to grab onto it because He says it is free. Why would I choose to go to hell? Why would I choose to remain the enemy of God?

So we draw near, but the ‘we’ are those who have had their hearts cleansed, their bodies cleansed. I am in God's sight, in Christ, clean, white as snow.

The second exhortation on the basis of the provision, we are not only to continually draw near, we are to continually hold fast. “Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” This exhortation to hold fast, hold fast, hold fast.

Come back to Hebrews 3:6, the middle of the verse, “if we hold fast our confidence, the boast of our hope.” Verse 14, “we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” Hebrews 4:14, the end of the verse, “let us hold fast our confession.”

Now we are back in Hebrews 10, “let us hold fast,” or continually hold fast “the confession of our hope.” This is what we claim to believe, the hope of salvation in Christ, present and future. That's the package of salvation. I mean, we're letting go. Did I ever really understand and believe? Remember 1 John? “They went out from us because they were not really of us, they weren't part of us. For if they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us.” By God's grace one of the marks of a true believer is they hold fast, they remain true. That doesn't mean we don't stumble, doesn't mean we don't sin. Sometimes grievously, but I'm never letting go of the hope and promises I have in Christ. My darkest hours and greatest failures, Lord, you know what a miserable wretch I am but I'm holding on to Christ, undeserving as I am. You didn't save me on the basis of my deserving, and you're not continually cleansing me because I am worthy. You are doing it because He is my high priest. We keep that fixed in our mind.

Believers get overwhelmed in their discouragements and depressions. We fix our eyes on Him. Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. You know that instability, unsure, not knowing what to do. When I claimed Christ by God's grace, He stabilized my unstable life. I'm not being driven about because something doesn't change. It's not me. Some days I am more faithful than other days but He is always faithful. And do you know what I am holding onto? I'm not wavering. Why? Well, you've grown beyond that. No, for “He who promised is faithful.” God cannot lie. Paul started out in his letter to Titus in Titus 1:2 by reminding him, the God who cannot lie.

Come back to Hebrews 4:1, “ let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest some of you fall short of the promise.” God's promise is secure, hold it without wavering. Now if you stop short of taking hold of the promise by faith, you are in serious trouble. But we have the promise. He is the One who has promised us in Christ full forgiveness, future glory. Hebrews 6:11, “we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.” Then he talks about imitating those who inherit the promises. Verse 13, “God made promise to Abraham,” and on it goes. Come down to verse 17, “in the same way God desiring to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose.” We are heirs of the promise, God has an unchangeable purpose and I am in Christ by His grace through faith in the person and work of Christ. God's promises to me won't change. Even when I am unfaithful, He remains faithful. You lose focus of that, pretty soon we have the ups and downs and confusion and wondering. God has promised, I'm not going to waver. I may stumble but I'm not going to waver. I know how unreliable I can be, but my hope is not in me, my confidence is not in me. I may stumble tomorrow, but He will be faithful; I may be unfaithful, He'll remain faithful. We hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He promised.

Come to Hebrews 8. At the end of Hebrews 6, “we have an anchor of the soul.” It keeps the ship from blowing away. An anchor for our soul, God has promised. Hebrews 8:6, “but now He has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as He is the mediator of a better covenant,” talking about Christ, “which has been enacted on better promises.” They are mine. God has promised me. You think, you're arrogant. No, my confidence isn't in me, it's in Him. He promised. Hebrews 9:15, the end of the verse. It's the provision of Christ, the mediator of a new covenant. The end of verse 15, “those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” You see the promise I have in Him, that's eternity connected with it. I have an eternal inheritance. “The One who has begun a good work in you,” in me, in you as Paul wrote to the Philippians, “will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus.” Can it get any better than that? It doesn't. Without wavering, hold on.

Come back, we have to move along. We are to continually draw near because we are those who have been cleansed within and without. We are to continually be holding fast without wavering because He is faithful. And Hebrews 10:24, “we are to be continually considering how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” Let us consider, a word that means to focus your mind, it's the word to think with intensity added to it. It's made a compound word, to focus our minds on how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. That word to stimulate can be used in a negative context where you provoke someone. We say, they provoked me, made me angry. But here it is used in a good sense. We oughtn't to be provoking one another in the negative sense as God's people. We are to be provoking one another in the positive sense, stirring up one another. How to provoke one another to love and good deeds and true biblical agape love produced by the Spirit as we encourage that in one another and stir it up in one another. That results in the kind of conduct that manifests love. So love and the good deeds that will flow out of love.

They had done this in the past. We'll get to this later in Hebrews 10, but just look over in verse 32. “But remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulation, partly become sharers with those who were so treated. You showed sympathy to the prisoners” and so on. They had done this but somehow they have lost their focus and the pressures and the difficulties and the persecutions, they began to think, ”I have to rescue myself, get out from under the pressure.” God's intention for us is to live under the pressure. One of the words for patience—to live under, abide under the pressure, the difficulty. Doesn't always take it away, but He provides the grace to endure.

“Stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” You know that's a ministry we have to one another. We get together as God's people, we serve together, we function together. And there is a negative side to this—not forsaking our own assembling together. This is a contrast to what he said in verse 24 of stimulating one another, provoking one another to love and good deeds. Sometimes people say, I'm not going to church, I can study the Word and I have the Spirit and I can do that on my own. You can at times do that on your own, but that's not God's plan for the pattern of your life. I mean, when He saved us, He placed us into the body of Christ. And the body and its parts function in concert with one another. It is so important. Not forsaking, a strong word, abandoning our own assembling together. If we are not together with other believers, how are we going to provoke them and stir them up to love and good deeds?

The sad thing is we are “not to be forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some.” Already this local church has experienced some loss. Some people have left, not because they thought the Lord was leading them to another fellowship of believers. They have just pulled out of the body. That is not God's plan. “Not abandoning 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.” I take it the day is when we will see Christ, when He will come. There will be a judgment of division exercised. He'll get into this when we get into the warning passage in verses 26-31 next time.

We live in light of the coming of Christ. You see everything is to draw our attention to Christ and what God has done in Him. We don't get together because it's convenient and we felt like getting up, and instead of reading the paper and having a cup of coffee and staying home. And we can read our Bible and we have the Holy Spirit in us. We realize in light of what Christ has done in His high priestly ministry, He has brought us together as His family, His house.

Remember 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul said,” I write so you'll know how to conduct yourself in the church which is the household of God,” God's family. That's why we are gathered together, that's why we meet together at other times, why we minister together in a variety of ways. That encourages each one, and as each is exercising their gift we as a body grow and mature and develop greater stability, greater maturity to give greater glory to the God who by His grace has provided His Son to be the Savior. So the doctrine is foundational and you can't just begin to practice. You build your practice on your doctrine, the true doctrine that is really taken into the heart and mind through faith in Christ. It must manifest itself in biblical conduct. The two are inseparable but we have to have them in proper order.

We have great privilege, we belong to God. We come with confidence before His throne continually. What grace has been given to us. To know that Jesus Christ offered the sacrifice 2,000 years ago, but He continues as our high priest in the presence of God today so that we can come with confidence before the throne. We hold on firmly to the truths that God has been made known in Him and the hope we have in Him. And we fellowship and function together as God's people so that we might grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your grace. How amazing it is that we, undeserving, hell-deserving sinners, selfish and self-centered, rebels against you, but Lord by your grace the provision you made in Christ. You gave us the gift of salvation when we believed in Him. You cleansed us within and without, You made us new, You gave us a new heart, You placed your Spirit within us. Now, Lord, we are privileged to live for You, privileged to come before Your throne which for us is a throne of grace where we find additional grace and help when we need it. Lord, may we be those holding fast to all the promises we have in Christ, being careful to be fellowshipping together, to encourage one another, to stimulate one another to love and the good deeds that go with love, so that our lives will be a reflection of that grace that has brought Your salvation to our hearts. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.