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The River ChurchSermons

The New Way

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 16 August 2026 · 1:00:34 · 10,057 words

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The sermon explores Hebrews 10:19‑23, showing that the Old Testament sacrificial system was a shadow pointing to Christ, the perfect high priest and final sacrifice. It argues that Jesus is better than angels, Moses, the law, the temple and the priests, and that God alone forgives sin. The speaker urges listeners to hold the course, avoid drifting into error, and turn to Christ in repentance and faith, trusting in his faithfulness. The message calls for a wholehearted commitment to the gospel.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

priest 52 shadow 26 temple 31 drift 17 hebrew 34 high 27 knot 10 presence 23 veil 14 near 24 need 69 holiest 7

Topics

Sin 10 Atonement & Sacrifice 6 Prayer 4 Faith 3 Freedom 2 Justification 1 Abraham 1 Grace 1 Righteousness 1 Israel 1

Scripture referenced 21

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Hebrews 10 1:38 Hebrews 10 3:18 Hebrews 10:19 3:18 Hebrews 10 3:25 Hebrews 10 3:47 Hebrews 10:19 3:47 Hebrews 10 5:53 Hebrews 10 6:01 Hebrews 10 11:24 Hebrews 10 14:43 Leviticus 16:1 21:01 Isaiah 53 36:01 Isaiah 53:21 36:23 Isaiah 53:21 36:28 Hebrews 8 37:02 Hebrews 8 37:19 Hebrews 8 37:42 James 4:8 42:38 Matthew 5:8 43:45 Psalms 51 49:45 Hebrews 2 54:40

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Josh, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Well, good morning. Good to be together with you this morning.

Good to see all of you.

Good to be together with those of you who are eking out the last bits of summer online as well.

Glad to have you join us.

You might have seen the table and the banner as you came in this morning for Join the Team.

This morning and next Sunday is our Join the Team Sundays.

And so there are many.

There are many areas across the river that you can get involved to help.

And it takes a lot of people volunteering to be able to do what we're doing.

And so you can be a part of that.

Zach's going to come up after the message today, after our gathering is near the end there, and he's going to talk about it.

So I pray you'll sign up to serve in some way.

Okay, I pray that you will pray about that.

Well, this morning we begin our fall series into the.

Book of Hebrews.

So if you've got a Bible, Hebrews chapter 10 is where I'm going to have you turn there this morning.

We will be in Hebrews for the next seven weeks.

And then after that, we're going to go into a series we have called the majors, where we are going to look at nine major doctrines of the Christian faith that will take us those nine doctrines that will take us all the way up to prepare yourself.

Okay, I'm sorry.

I had to say it just letting you know where we're going.

I know, I know.

So sorry for even mentioning it, but just so you know where we're going.

But today and for the next seven Sundays, we turned the wonderful book of Hebrews.

I love this book.

Obviously, if you know anything about the book of Hebrews, you know, we cannot thoroughly cover the book of Hebrews in seven weeks.

That is impossible.

We would need to start at the very beginning.

It would take two years.

In fact, the last time I taught Hebrews, it did take two years.

But that said, we're going to concentrate our focus our attention on a common phrase that is found in the book of Hebrews.

It's the two-word phrase.

Let us not lettuce.

Nobody wants that.

You know what I mean?

Right?

Not like a salad, you know, let us is actually a it's like, you know, let's together do these things that we are going to read and talk about.

So the words let us are used 13 times.

13 times in 12 verses in the book of Hebrews.

So that means it is really it's a major theme of the book.

And so we are going to see that.

So take a look chapter 10 will begin in verse 19 in just a moment.

You say, well, why are we starting in chapter 10?

Did I miss nine weeks of Hebrews?

No, Hebrews is really a two-part book.

So the first 10 chapters 10 ish.

Are really doctrine.

They are doctrine and theology and they are some of the richest doctrine in all of the Bible.

Such an important book, but beginning in verse chapter 10 verse 19, the book switches from doctrine to do this right to let us that's what happens.

And so it's like a lot of the New Testament books, which I don't know if you've noticed this pattern, but a lot of the New Testament books are patterned in the same way.

It's like here is who God is.

Here is what he's done.

Here's how.

How good he has been now respond to that.

They don't begin with hate do a bunch of stuff.

They begin with this is who God is.

This is how good he is now respond to God's goodness.

And so Hebrews is set up the same way.

So Pastor Kent Hughes says it this way said.

So we come here to the great turning point in the book of Hebrews where the writer turns from explanation of the superiority of the person and work of Jesus Christ to the application of it in.

So we come here to the great turning point in the book of Hebrews where the writer turns from explanation of the superiority of the person and work of Jesus Christ to the application of it in.

The lives of the storm-tossed Church.

It shifts from doctrine to duty pre to conduct precept to practice instruction to exhortation.

He says all of which means one thing the writer becomes very explicit regarding how we as Christians should live.

So before we jump in, why don't we go to the Lord and let's pray.

Let's ask him to speak today.

And before you do that, do you need the Lord to speak to you?

Do you need him to speak to you this morning?

If you do just ask him he will let's pray.

Thank you Lord.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for your word.

We do pray Lord that you would speak to us today or that you would help us to hear you that all the distractions of life would be set aside for a few moments as we look to you and to your word.

I pray Lord that you would help us to hear your heart to see what you've done or to change us.

We thank you Lord for being together today.

We thank you that you are here and we look to you now.

It's in Jesus name.

All right before we can really look at what Hebrews 10 says we need to back up just a little bit and give some background on this book.

Otherwise what we talk about in chapter 10 is not going to make really any sense.

Okay.

So first thing that you need to know about the book of Hebrews and if you have read Hebrews and studied it, you will know this.

But the first thing you need to know is that Hebrews was written to the Jewish community.

It was written.

Not to Western American culture.

It was written to Jewish people who had been in the religion known as Judaism.

Okay, and the simplest way to think of Judaism is that it was sort of the precursor or we would say it this way.

Maybe the shadow of Christianity and by that I mean it was a shadow of what was to come right?

If you see a shadow, you know that the shadow is not the thing.

Something is casting the shadow.

The main thing is casting that shadow.

And if you follow the shadow, you end up at the main thing.

And so that was what Judaism really was.

It was the shadow that if followed would lead you to the main thing, which is Jesus Christ.

So the the Old Testament scriptures, they were shadow Moses and the commandments the prophets the temple.

And sacrifices all of it was just a shadow that if you followed it, it was the point was to bring you to Jesus Christ to what he did to his sacrifice to his work.

Okay, does this make sense?

So this is what Hebrews is trying to show you.

Now, let me give you an example of this right?

So the Ten Commandments the Ten Commandments are not the main thing.

They are not the rule to live by in life as some people might think they are just the shadow of the rule.

Of the reality of this.

If you try to live by the Ten Commandments, you're going to fail, right?

The Ten Commandments prove that we as people can't even live faithfully by just ten commands.

Every person in this room has broken the Ten Commandments.

And if you think you haven't you just lied.

And so now you broke one of the Ten Commandments again.

You just did it again.

You just proved your own point.

Okay.

So the point of the Ten Commandments is to show you that you can't and that you need a Savior shadow to substance of substances.

You need a Savior.

Moses for instance, right?

He in their mind was the deliverer.

He was, you know, the the one no Moses was just a shadow.

He was a man used by God.

But when you really look at Moses's life, he was not the deliverer because he was not perfect and he could not even deliver himself.

Moses needed to be saved.

So he can't save you.

Moses is just a shadow.

In fact, so interesting.

If you look at Moses's life, Moses couldn't even bring them into the Promised Land.

Because of his angry outburst because of his sin.

He couldn't bring you in bring them into the Promised Land.

Now Moses, right?

The shadow to Jesus.

Jesus brings us into the Promised Land, which is heaven through his perfection.

I was just beautiful, right?

All of the scriptures.

So you look at Abraham.

They looked at Abraham as being the man, right?

He's like almost God in their mind.

Abraham had the same issues.

David same issues.

Same thing with all the prophets all just a shadow.

Everything in the Old Testament is designed to look forward to Jesus Christ.

Everything in the New Testament points back to Jesus Christ and what he did.

It's very important.

You understand what's happening there.

So we need to talk about for a moment.

The temple because the temple is a big deal in Judaism.

In fact, it was by far the most important thing in the Jewish mind.

The Jewish temple was so important because it was literally.

The way that they maintained their Jewish Ness by going to the temple by

observing the practices and the sacrifices and the rights and things at

They were continuing in their heritage in their nationality in there in

you know, being the people of God through what they did at the temple.

And so for them, I mean the temple was a massive thing and every year

people would travel to the temple to be there.

You know for this massive day of atonement, you know, the you know,

the we'll talk about it in a moment, but the offering for their sins and

so just absolutely more than just a building.

It was not just a building.

It was more than just a place to see the people that you knew the temple

was so important because it was how they stayed Jewish in their minds to

abandon the temple was to abandon their heritage, but also it was how the

people dealt with sin and that's what Hebrews really talks about, you know,

before Jesus.

Christ and his sacrifice on on that cross for our sins.

If you wanted to deal with your sin, if you felt the guilt of it, you had

to go to the temple.

You had to get to go to a priest.

You had to go and offer a prayer and a sacrifice for your sin.

It went like this and you need to know the details because Hebrews 10

begins with those details.

If you felt your sin against God and the weight of that you would select

an animal from your herd.

If you didn't if you couldn't afford that.

You'd pick two small birds and you bring this animal to the temple.

You'd walk this animal to the temple.

You'd present it to the priest and then the priest would take his hand and

he would lay his hand on you and then lay his hand on this animal and he

would pray for you and catch this right sin would symbolically not actually

but symbolically transfer from you the guilty to this animal that was

innocent symbolically.

As the priest prayed for you your sin transferred from you the guilty to

the lamb the innocent.

Now, let me just say this to you.

The priest had no power to actually do this.

No priest has ever had any power ever to deal with your sin.

Not today.

Not then not ever the priest can do nothing to forgive your sin.

There are people today who think they need to go to a building.

They need to go to a priest.

They need to go to a pastor.

They need to have some offering some some ceremony something to deal

with their sin Hebrews absolutely destroys all of that.

You go directly to God.

You do not need a building.

You do not need a sacrifice.

There is one sacrifice God alone forgives sins God alone.

Now this symbolic transfer was accepted by God because God told them to

do this.

It was a picture.

But really it was the person's heart.

If you were standing there in a way where you didn't really care about

your sin and you were just going through a ceremony.

It was nothing but when you came before God and you were broken before

God, it was this picture of your repentance and then this thing happened

and God blessed this and he told them this is what I want you to do.

And so once the prayer was done, let me tell you what happened.

It's very important.

The priest would take out his knife so important and he would now hand

it to you and now it was your responsibility.

As the guilty person to take that knife and to put it under that animal's

throat and slit that animal's throat and kill right?

And the reason for this is you the guilty your hand put to the innocent

one the innocent died for the guilty.

This is so important because it was a shadow.

It was a shadow that if you followed it, it led to Jesus Christ the Lamb

of God.

The Bible says who takes away the sin of the world.

He was killed by us for us is my hand on the knife.

It was your hand on the knife the innocent dying for the guilty him for

me and that is what that shadow ultimately pointed to.

Well, of course once the animal is killed the priest would collect some

of the blood and then there were times and again, you need to know it

because of what Hebrews 10 will say there were times where the priest

would take a hyssop branch and dip it into that blood and he would

sprinkle it over the people.

And the blood would would essentially was another picture.

It was the innocent blood being applied to the guilty person and now sin

being covered.

And so this was the thing that happened in terms of dealing with your

Now the next thing that you need to know about the book of Hebrews and

this will help you.

I would encourage you to read the book of Hebrews.

How many of you you've read through the book of Hebrews?

How many of you when you read through it thought what in the world is this

talking about anybody?

It's fine.

You can lift your handbag up.

It's fine.

Listen, I'm going to make Hebrews really really simple.

The first 10 chapters of Hebrews is really one question.

Who's better?

What's better?

That's really the question.

It's a very simple question.

It's is Jesus and what he did is he better than everything else and

That's the question and Hebrews spends 10 chapters answering this and

the answer is of course.

Yes, Jesus is better.

Than angels angels cannot help you with your sin cannot help you with

your access to God.

Jesus is better than angels.

Jesus is better than Moses now for you and I we don't look at Moses like

he's godlike but in the Jewish mind they very often did but is Jesus

better than Moses?

He absolutely is and Hebrews goes to lengths to show you this is he better

than the law?

Is he better than the prophets?

Is he better than the temple?

Is he better than the high priest?

Is he better than the sacrifice?

Is in the answer in every instance is yes.

Jesus is better than all of those things.

His sacrifice actually worked the sacrifice the shadow sacrifice.

If you will only covered Jesus remove sin forever.

It's as though you never sinned in the first place.

That's how thorough his forgiveness actually is.

Okay, so with that background we can now go into chapter 10 here.

Look at verse 19.

It says therefore.

Brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

So that therefore is 10 chapters, right?

We've just concluded.

It's everything.

We've said all the doctrine all the theology all the argument about Jesus

being better than everything and everyone else and everything.

He did being better and the main thing that every other thing was pointing

to so therefore it's like saying because of all of this now look what it says.

We we we have boldness to enter the holiest watch this by the blood not of animals.

Watch this by the blood of Jesus.

So what does it mean to enter the holiest?

Well within the temple there were layers, right?

So each layer had different access, right?

So in the center of the the the entire temple complex was the temple building itself.

And then within that temple in the back of that.

Temple in the back of that building was a single room that room was called

the holiest or the holy place now that room that that was where God said

one time a year just once one time a year on the Day of Atonement God

would come and he would manifest his presence there now in that room was

the the Ark the actual Ark sat in that room with its golden lid and it's

angels covering their eyes and their wings facing facing inward and right

there between the two.

Angels once the sacrifice was made applied and and they prayed God would manifest his

presence between those two angels for a moment and it said that the sacrifice that was

made for the sins of the entire nation was accepted by God, but it was one time a year.

That's it and one person went in one time a year and that was the high priest.

That's it.

You could not just go into the presence of God.

It did not work.

So there were layers to the to the temple.

And so the outer layer was this it was called the court of the Gentiles.

And if you as a non-Jewish person wanted to get to the temple that was as far

as you could go you could be in the court of the Gentiles.

It was the furthest court out one layer in would be the court of the Jewish

So the Jewish women they could get a little bit closer, but they could go no

further than the court of the Jewish women.

A further step in would be the court of the men and so if you were a Jewish man,

you could get a little bit closer.

You still weren't in the building.

You're still on the outside.

The only people who are allowed actually in the building were the priests and that

was called the court of the priests.

But then there was that one room and that one room is what I was saying.

It's the holy place.

It's the Holy of Holies the Ark of the Covenant in there.

God manifesting his presence now that room was separated by a very large curtain.

You cannot get this curtain at Target or Ikea.

Okay.

It's a very large.

It was 60 feet tall.

It was 30 feet wide and it was four inches thick.

Tradition says it took 300 priests to hang it.

Okay on rings.

Now this curtain clearly Kate separated the holy place from everything else that

curtain said don't come in.

It said stay out.

That's what it said.

And the reason it said stay out was because of the holiness of God person could

not just go.

You know what?

I want to go into God's presence.

I'm going to go.

And I'm going to push that curtain aside.

I'm going to go back there and and be in God's presence because I want to

spend some time with the Lord.

You could not do that according to Leviticus chapter 16 verse 1.

If you went into God's presence like that you would die and the reason you

would die is because you are sinful and God is perfectly holy.

His Holiness would kill you.

This is a very serious thing.

And so the reason for all of that right?

There's a temple or I mean a veil.

Excuse me put in place in the temple there and now all.

All of this is a shadow the shadow pointed to the reality that God is holy and

that you and I are not and you got to hear this.

It told us you cannot just go into God's presence on your own.

If you are not born again here today, if you have not come to Jesus Christ for

the forgiveness of your sins, please hear this.

You cannot go into God's presence on your own.

It will not happen.

Your church attendance won't do it.

Your righteousness will not do it.

You're not righteous enough.

In fact, God says that our own righteousness our good stuff that we

think we've done is like filthy rags to him.

It's not holy enough.

And if you try to go into God's presence through your righteousness,

you are going to die.

That's the shadow pointing to the reality again.

Your sin must be removed and God has made a way for that.

We're going to talk about it this morning.

But look at verse 19 again when it says having boldness to enter the

holiness or the holiest.

That's sacred room.

That was really God's presence.

And so that's what this is referring to now in those days.

No priest ever had boldness going into that room.

The word boldness there means freedom.

No priest could just say, you know what?

I'm just going to go in that room.

I'm going to go right into God's presence because I want to know priest

had that freedom.

No one had that freedom.

But here we're told you and I as his people.

We can have boldness freedom to go to God anytime we want.

We don't.

Anything nothing in the way.

Listen, please hear this.

You don't need a church building.

You don't need a pastor.

You don't need a priest.

You don't need a sacrifice.

You don't need an offering.

You don't need those things.

You can go straight to Jesus Christ directly to him to deal with your

sin to deal with what you need.

And so you are to have freedom now.

No priest had that they only went once a year the high priest and always

with the blood of an animal for their own sin and then for the sins of the

people, but you and I were told we have this freedom to enter his presence.

How look what it says verse 19 having boldness or freedom to enter the

holiest God's presence.

Look look by the blood of Jesus.

So as we live this life you and I can enter his presence now anytime we

want and then we will enter heaven one day when we die.

We will enter heaven not because somebody made a sacrifice for us right

not not because you know, we got some things right or we.

Did some stuff for our church attendance was really good but because God

shed his own blood and died for us the innocent lamb of God died for me

the guilty and for you blood reminds us that the only way for our sins to

be removed and this might surprise you the only way for our sins to be

removed was for him to die.

Please hear this forgiveness could only come through death.

Why well because God said death is the price.

For sin, there's no way around.

It doesn't matter whether we agree with it or not death is the price that

is required for our sin.

Our sin could not just be forgiven or excused a judge who just dismissed

something that was done wrong.

You know, somebody killed somebody and the judge is like, you know what?

I'm feeling pretty good today woke up on the wrong, you know, right side

of the bed things are good happy about life.

You know, I'm just going to let you go.

I'm going to dismiss it.

I'm going to let you go.

I'm just going to excuse it.

Just be better do better.

You'd say no something's wrong with that.

That's not right.

That's not justice.

Justice must be served.

God could not just excuse your sin.

He can just say Chuck.

You know what?

I know.

I know you meant well go, you know, just don't even worry about it.

Everything's fine.

He couldn't do that.

Justice is required.

The payment is death.

It's either him or it's me.

That's the end the end of the entire Bible.

It's either him or you that's it his sacrifice or your that's it the end, but this is why

Jesus came to die for us.

He became the guilty lamb of God and he died the death that I deserve.

He died the death you deserve.

And so now as verse 19 says we enter heaven not by the blood of animals or anything else

but by the blood the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Does this make sense?

God died to save us and that is what was required.

Nothing else would have done it.

And so verse.

20 goes on it talks about the new veil right that new curtain.

Look what it says in verse 20.

It's by a new now we enter God's presence by a new and living way, which he consecrated

for us through the veil.

That is his flesh.

So let's break this down just a little bit.

God says there's a new way now to approach him to go into God's presence and ultimately

to enter heaven.

There's a new way and here it is ready simply come to him.

That's the new way come directly to the Lord.

Lord in your need to him not to a priest not to a church to God himself.

That's the new way a person no longer needs to come to the temple or a church or a priest

to make a sacrifice for sin.

They don't need to do that.

The new way of coming to God is just to come to him in repentance of sin first John chapter

1 verse 9 says it if we will confess our sin watch this he is faithful and just to

forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It's no priest.

There's no pastor.

There's no offering made.

He himself will forgive us our sins and cleanse us himself from all unrighteousness.

Can I say this to you?

You need one priest one pastor and it's Jesus.

You need one sacrifice.

It's his you need one offering and it is his offering for our sin.

Now listen, don't don't make the mistake.

He does not die every time you sin.

He died once his sacrifice was enough to forgive all of us one time.

The Bible says he died once for sins and so one offering now when we read the word

new we think well this new way how new is it?

Well for us.

It's not really that new right because it's been like 2,000 years since this new way

began but right 2,000 years ago.

That's when it began when Jesus died on the cross that began the new way to approach God,

but prior to that there were 4,000 years of.

Human history that dealt with the old way right, which was through sacrifice and through

offering and through the temple and all these other things, but on the day that Jesus died,

there's a detail that is easy to miss something happened to the curtain the veil.

Do you remember it's a really small detail.

It's easy to miss in the whole story, but it is so important many things happen that day.

But this detail I just love it.

It's something that happened to the veil in the temple immediately after Jesus died.

Three of the Gospels.

Tell us what happened Matthew says it this way then behold.

So this is after Jesus died.

Behold the veil of the temple was torn.

Watch this in two from top to bottom is very specific.

This was the beginning of the new way and it was as though remember what I said 60 feet

tall 30 feet wide 4 inches thick.

It's as though God grabbed the top of that that veil and he just tore it in half.

From top to bottom into two pieces and it hung open and for the first time you could see

into the temple and into the to the Ark and into God's presence and what was happening here.

All of this was a shadow for the Lord to say come to me directly you come to me.

You need to be forgiven of your sin come to me.

You need to be saved come to me.

You need to make things right come to me.

You're hurting come to me.

You need counsel come to me.

This is what God was saying.

The way is open the invite.

Is to all people you say well, was it just to the Jewish people?

No, the entire city was full of Nations that it's you know, swelled the city into 2.5 3 million people in the city Gentiles everywhere.

Everyone's looking into the very presence of God.

You say well, did they did they learn from that today?

Did they all go?

Well, awesome.

Let's just pull this veil down and and no, no, they didn't they sewed it back up as quick as they could and guess what there are places today that call themselves churches.

That have it sewed back up and you stay back and you have to come to other people instead of coming to him and the whole thing.

The whole thing is still thriving today, but God split the thing he tore it in half.

He said the way is open for you to come to me directly.

You don't need anyone else.

You don't need a building.

You don't need an altar.

You don't need steps.

You don't need a church.

You don't need a priest.

You don't need a confession box.

You don't need anything.

You need him.

He's the high priest.

He's the Savior.

He's the pastor.

He's the Shepherd and only he can deal with sin and they've stitched the veil back up and they tell people they must come to others.

What an offense to God.

What blasphemy to God to stitch that back up.

Jesus paid for our sin on the cross so that now the guilty ones you and I we are clean.

We are forgiven.

We are able now to freely enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is a new way.

Watch this, but it is also a living way and that word living there means continual.

And so what that means is is that you can come to God at any time.

You want any time you want if you are an unsaved person here today, you must come to God for the forgiveness of your sins.

Don't come to God asking him to pay your bills.

Don't come God asking come to God asking him to fix you.

You cannot deny him your entire life and then ask him like he's a genie in a bottle to do stuff for you.

That is not what God wants to hear from you.

He wants to hear your need.

If your need is to be saved, you want to make him Lord and Savior come to him.

He will hear you at any time.

You don't need this building.

You don't need a person.

You don't need a sacrifice.

You need his you need to go to him directly and you can at any moment freely.

It's a living way.

It's a it's a continual way.

No longer one person coming to God one time a year.

The way is completely open now interesting in in Jewish culture and I just you need to think about.

Think about this for a second.

Most Jewish people would have never gone into God's presence.

Never most of the Jewish people were not Levites and it was required that would it was a Levite.

And even if you were a Levite, it was required that you were a male Levite.

And then if you were a male Levite,

it was required that you were selected to be the high priest that year.

And if you were not the high priest that year,

you would never go into the odds of you going into God's presence were next to none.

And you think about how few people actually went into God's.

God's presence and yet you and I are invited in all day every single day of our lives.

You can go to the Lord at any time.

You want with freedom with confidence that he wants to hear from you beautiful.

The way is continually open to anyone who would come to him as Lord and King and Savior.

This is a new and continual way.

Now, this is not something man came up with look what it says verse 20,

which he consecrated for us.

So he made the way we didn't come up with this.

This is his doing.

And so he himself invites you again.

You don't need anyone else.

You can go to him.

The Bible says there is one mediator between God and man and it is not a pastor a priest a church anything else.

It is the Lord Jesus.

That's it.

No religion can do anything for you in regards to your sin.

Nothing not ever you going to a person and confessing what you done does nothing nothing for your sin you taking communion.

Does nothing for your sin you being baptized does nothing for your sin nothing.

If any of those things could have done anything Jesus did not need to come and die God alone forgives sins.

You must come to him and this is a new and continual way,

which he made for us.

Now notice how we enter God's presence.

It's not through a four-inch thick veil says their verse 20 through the veil.

That is his flesh.

Now, this does not mean that we pass through Jesus's body in some way or whatever to get.

Get into heaven.

It's telling us that that original veil was another shadow.

So the idea is that veil pointed to the Lord Jesus in this way when the veil was torn says was granted when Jesus was torn.

This was granted right Isaiah chapter 53 says by his stripes.

We are healed.

He's being beaten and whipped but then we're being healed right something was happening here.

And so the idea is his flesh was torn but it made access his death.

He opened access to God forever because he paid for sin.

So verse 21 turns the attention to the most important person in the Jewish mind in the temple.

And that was the high priest verse 21 and having a high priest over the house of God within Judaism.

The high priest was the most important person because he was the bridge if you will between you and God you needed the high priest.

So the high priest he he symbolically.

Between you and God.

If you wanted to go to God you had to come to the high priest.

You didn't just go right to God you went to the high priest.

The whole point of Hebrews is to show you you don't need him.

You have a real high priest.

In fact Hebrews chapter 8 specifically goes to great lengths to show that every high priest was just a man.

Every high priest was only a shadow of the true high priest.

Every high priest needed to be saved themselves.

They could do nothing to save you the true high priest according to Hebrews 8 is the Lord Jesus himself.

He's the bridge between you and God and Jesus is the high priest that you need.

He's always available.

You can text him anytime you want.

He's always available.

He's always ministering on your behalf.

That's what chapter 8 says.

He's always praying for you.

I would love to say I'm always praying for you that cannot possibly happen, right?

He is always praying for you.

It goes to lengths to say he doesn't even need to stop to eat or to sleep or he doesn't need to take a break.

He doesn't need to rest.

He is constantly interceding.

Eating on your behalf and they understood that as the Jewish person.

They understood a high priest that is constantly ministering for me means the way is open for me.

Nothing is is closed between me and God.

Here is Jesus keeping the way completely open for you to come to God yourself without anybody in between.

What a beautiful thing.

This is the point of verse 21 is to remind you and I who know and love him that we can have confidence.

In coming directly to God.

He is your true high priest.

It says he's over the house of God.

He's not just over the temple.

He's literally over God's house and he is inviting you in cement to give you confidence that God wants you to come to him again.

If you don't know the Lord, please hear this.

He he does not hate you.

He loves you.

He wants you to come to him to be saved.

He is inviting you if you will come he will save you.

But again, you cannot just go to him like he's some genie you cannot say I deny.

I you as God I deny your your sacrifice, but you know, help me with my bills.

You can't do that.

You come to God.

You have to first deal with him being Lord and Savior.

You have to deal with the fact that you are a sinner and in desperate need and once you come to him, please hear this.

If you know and love the Lord, you should have boldness.

You should have confidence that God loves you and wants you to come to him point of verse 21 is to tell you.

He is not only King and Savior and Lord of Glory.

He is also your.

Pastor is your Shepherd is your true High Priest.

We come to our first let us statement and it says this right because of all of this because of who he is verse 22.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

I love the words draw near because it means come here.

Can I say this to you this morning?

If you know the Lord draw near this is what he's doing.

He's inviting you come close.

Why are you out?

Why are you walking so far?

Why are you out here?

Right?

It's a word of invitation.

It says come to me come here.

This is an invitation from the Lord for you to come close to him.

That's what he wants.

What an amazing thing that God doesn't just want you to serve him does not just want you to give he wants you to be relationally close to him you near him.

This is really practical because practically speaking to draw near means you're going to talk to him and you're going to look to him and you're going to think about him and you're going to learn of.

Him and you're going to you're going to depend on him.

Can I ask you a question?

How close are you to the Lord?

Let's flip it around.

How close would God say you are to him?

What would he say?

You know, some people they get real theological and they're like pastor.

You don't understand.

You can't be any closer.

Every Christians already as close as they can be to the Lord because they're in the Lord, you know, don't be dumb.

Okay, we're not talking about your position in Christ.

We're talking about your relationship with him.

That's like saying pastor every married person can't be more married than a person that's already married.

I don't even know what that means, right?

That's stupid.

Yeah, of course, you can't be more married than you're already married, but we're not talking about that.

We're talking about your marriage can look very differently based on relationship.

Are you close to the Lord?

Don't tell me about your theological position.

Do you talk to him?

Do you listen to him?

Do you depend on him?

Do you love him?

Do you worship him?

Do you thank him?

Are you close to him?

That is what it is.

Relationship is all about drawing near to God.

Are you regularly growing closer to the Lord?

Or do you walk at a distance?

Something to notice here is the word draw near is both active and passive.

And what it means is it's a passive invitation from God to you to come near, but it has to be an active decision on our part to draw near.

God says come to me, but it's a question.

Will you the active part is me saying yes, I will draw near to you.

The Bible says of course in James 4:8 draw near to God and what will he do?

He will draw near to you.

You say man.

I feel so far from the Lord.

If that's how you feel today, feel so far from the Lord draw near to God.

He hasn't moved.

If you feel far from him where who moved it's not him.

Now notice how you should come to him draw near with a true heart.

This means in reality.

This means no faking it.

No fake religious nonsense.

Don't do it.

God hates religion.

Don't just draw near to God with your mouth.

Don't be religious.

Don't pretend that you are near God when you're not.

Because I went to camp or I went to a men's retreat or whatever, right?

Like these things and it's not reality.

Oh, I go to church on Sundays.

That is not what this is.

That is not what relationship is.

I'm married, but I talked to my wife once a week.

That is not a marriage.

The Lord said through Isaiah the Prophet in Matthew 5:8.

He said these people he was he was upset with this.

He says these people they draw near to me with their mouths, but their hearts are full.

They're far from me.

And that is the tendency that we can we can we can do as people.

We can be far from the Lord and act like we are not.

God is saying draw near to me in reality with a with a true heart.

It's real because of what he has done.

Look what it says.

We can come to him in verse 22 full assurance.

And I love this word because this word it means that we do not need to be nervous to come to God.

Let me back up.

If you don't know the Lord, you should be afraid of the Lord.

Say what?

Yeah, you should fear God.

You don't think about him rightly.

You think he's small.

You think he's nothing.

You think he's little you should be terrified of who God actually is.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

You think correctly about him.

It should terrify you but you should run to him for salvation.

And once you do then he is your father and now he accepts you and receives you and it's a different relationship.

You know, my kids they they come to me in full assurance.

They do not come to me in a professional way.

When I'm studying.

They don't knock on the door.

Pardon me dear dear male paternal figure in my life.

I beseech thee to provide for my daily sustenance, you know, they don't do that, right?

They run in right?

I need a sandwich, you know, look at this dumb little video.

I just found you know, it's like oh my gosh.

I you just derailed me as I'm studying for like the next half hour because I just watched some weird cat video, you know, but it's like they come to me in full confidence.

Why because I'm their dad.

They know I love them.

They have full assurance.

They come in that kind of confidence that I want to hear them that I love them that I will receive them that I'm not going to smack them or push them away from me.

Some of you don't have that you think you can't come to God.

You have no confidence coming to him because you think he's going to smack you.

He's going to push you away.

He's going to ignore you.

That's because you still think it's about what you have done.

You think it's about your faithfulness.

It's about your faithfulness.

Of course makes no sense.

We don't ever be able to come to God, but it's his faithfulness.

We come to him full assurance that he will receive us that he loves us because of who he is and because of what he's done.

He wants you to hold nothing back.

Listen, you might be here today.

He doesn't hate you.

He's not mad at you.

He's not tired of you sure people would be of course.

He is not and it's not because of anything you've done.

It's because of everything he has done and verse 22 says it you must come to him with this kind of confidence and it is only of faith, which means.

Right very simple.

It means we can come to him only by believing that these things are true and this makes sense, right?

You either believe that he loves you and wants to hear from you.

And so you go to him because you believe that to be true or you don't believe it.

And so you don't go to him because you think he's annoyed with you.

He doesn't want to hear from you.

He's too busy or whatever.

So you don't go to him, which is it for you?

Like why only really go to the Lord if I kind of get it right all week, you are living in a works-based righteousness that the

Bible says you should be terrified of because you are actually saying that the work of Jesus Christ is not enough for you.

That's what you're saying God.

I know that you'll let me in if I get it right.

That's a works-based righteousness.

The Bible says you should be terrified of that's terrible.

We all do it.

It's terrible what he did the sacrifice for our sins.

You're just throwing that to the side by saying God you don't want me to come near you now.

Listen, it's all of faith and this is the only way you

and I could ever be sure of this is if salvation was only by faith, right?

If access to God was by any other means if it was by you being good this week,

how would you ever know if you'd done enough?

I would never know if God says you can come to me if you've been really good this week.

I'd like oh man.

I'm never going to be able to come to God.

You know what a loser I am.

When will I ever know?

No, no, it's of faith.

It's not based on what we've done.

It's based on what he has said.

He is good.

He invites us you say I don't deserve it.

He goes I know it's called grace.

Come to me anytime.

The way is open.

You're my child.

Would you let me ask you a question?

Would you treat your child the way that you treat God?

Would you want your child to think about you the way you think about him?

Oh dad, I I messed up.

I can't talk to you today.

You must hate me because I left that stuff out.

That's what we do.

We wouldn't do that to our kids, but we act like God does that to us.

Now, the only way we can be sure is by believing what he has said believing that he wants me to draw near to him believing that he loves me believing

that he has already done all that's needed for me to come near.

Look what it says verse 22 having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

So this is what we said at the beginning.

This is total forgiveness of sin.

The sprinkling of the blood meant that the innocent blood was covering the guilt of the guilty.

David talked about that in Psalm 51.

He said purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

David was saying wash me completely just get get rid of this.

There's no sacrifice that can fix this.

I need you to completely.

Remove all of my sin.

This is what he has done for us.

He doesn't just cover he removes it completely.

This is what true forgiveness is not just trying our best to forget about what's done and move on.

It's true forgiveness from God for what has been done.

It's being right with God.

Can I ask you a question?

Can you say confidently I am right with God or are you living with this guilty conscience?

The answer is not to try to forgive yourself.

You can't do that.

Only God can.

It's not just to try to forget and move on.

It's to come to Jesus Christ today for true forgiveness.

It is to wash these things away.

The water was symbolic of removing all filth.

And so verse 22 is telling you and I this listen.

Here's the application when you really know what he's done for you.

When you really understand how forgiving you are when you really know there's nothing in the way you're like man,

but I blew it on my kids this morning.

God's got to be mad about that.

He doesn't want me to come.

Near him.

No, you don't understand.

There really is nothing in the way all has been forgiven.

The way is continually open because the high priest is continually ministering for you.

So you come in God.

I know I have not done right today,

but you love me and I'm here to deal with it and I confess it to you God and I'm asking for your help and I'm asking for you to change me.

When you know this you approach God because you understand his grace because of what he's done the last let us today is right.

There in verse 23.

It's our last verse this morning.

It says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

I love the word hold fast.

It was a nautical term for tying a boat to the dock so that it didn't drift away.

It was literally the the hold fast was a knot keep that boat in place.

It was also a term for a captain steering a ship and and putting it on its right bearing so that it didn't drift off course.

That was the the hold fast.

Here in this passage.

So it says for you and I to hold fast to our confession.

What is our confession?

It's literally what we believe what we have said.

We believe can I ask you a question?

Do you believe that Jesus is God?

Do you believe that what he did was he died for your sin?

Do you believe he is the only way for a person to enter heaven?

Can I please ask you high your life to that truth bind your life like a knot to the gospel.

Don't drink.

Drift off into other things.

Verse 23 is telling you and I to be careful to hold the course to be careful to not let our lives drift off course to not let the knot untie and we drift away.

I'm just going to be honest with you.

One of the most difficult things I maybe is the most difficult thing about being a pastor is watching people's knots untie and people drift off into error.

It is so hard watching it.

You watch.

People who at one time were sure of what God has done for them.

You watch their lives.

You watch the fruit of that truth.

You watch the freedom that happens in their lives and then something happens and the knot starts to loosen and they start to drift away and then they they spin off into such error and destruction and everybody in their life pays for it.

Can I ask you is your knot tied tightly to what Jesus did for you?

To the gospel or is it slipping you're off into other things you're fading from your confidence in him and what he did.

Is that where you're at?

Let me tell you if you start to buy into what this world says to you the messaging of this world.

You are going to drift.

You are going to drift.

It will happen.

You're not strong enough to hold it back.

You start buying into what this world says what their priorities are what their way is what their life is you are going to drift is your compass.

Pointed in the right direction or you already off course in sin in error.

Are you just drifting off?

This is what Hebrews 2 warns us about.

It tells us we have to pay more careful attention to the things that we are hearing less.

That's the warning.

It literally is just the knot got loose and we just sort of faded off to ask a tough question.

Will that be you in a few months?

Will you make it on some prayer list?

Because now we're praying for you because the knot got loosened.

And you're drifted off into something crazy.

I hope not but I've been doing this a long time and statistically some of you that that will be the case.

You won't be here in a year and I don't mean at this church.

I mean didn't you used to be a follower of Christ?

Oh, yeah that we did that for a while.

It's not really our thing anymore.

I'm over that now.

I can tell you what happened.

You didn't tie the knot.

You didn't keep tying it.

It's the gospel.

It's him.

It's his work.

It's his faithfulness.

You got to keep steering that ship on the right heading.

It's him.

It's Jesus.

It's his faithfulness.

It's his work.

Stop looking at people.

Stop looking at things.

Stop looking at circumstances.

Put your eyes on Jesus Christ.

Lock your direction on him.

You will not stave off that sway.

It will not happen.

You're not strong enough people better than me and you have strayed off into error lock on to him.

He will be faithful to you all the way.

But man, I'm telling you, look at verse 23.

He who promised is faithful.

If you have drifted, I want you to hear this.

If you have drifted, he hasn't drifted from you.

If you don't love him anymore, he loves you.

If you haven't worshipped him and and been faithful to him in a long time.

I want you to hear something.

He is continued to be faithful to you.

I could tell you as a pastor.

I could say, hey, get it together, fix it, figure it out, make it happen.

But I'm telling you right now, you won't do it.

Maybe for a minute.

I always say, I think I can motivate people, maybe to the back door.

You won't do it.

That's not how we changes people.

If I look at you and say, get it together, that won't do it.

The only thing I have ever seen that turns people around.

You want to know what it is?

The grace of God.

It's the only thing when he has been good to me when I have not been good.

That is the only thing that is I have ever seen that has turned someone around when I know I don't deserve it.

I don't deserve it and God pours out grace on me.

That's the only thing I've ever seen change someone's course the steady faithfulness of God.

He's continued to love you through all those things.

You've said and done and been a part of he's continued to be faithful to you.

He loves you.

How many times have you realized he's right there?

How many times have we seen people come back and say man?

I was running in God was right there.

We went through Jonah Jonah ran from God in the whole way.

God was right there and you go man.

Lord, I don't deserve this kindness from you.

I don't deserve for you to be that good to me.

We don't deserve it.

He loves us.

If you have drifted if you've wandered if you've strayed if the knot has loosened.

Here this turn to him this morning in repentance of sin because he has been good to you turn

to the high priest.

Let him repair your wayward heart hard heart.

Let him fix it.

Nothing else is going to do it.

If you don't know the Lord turn to him today.

He loves you.

He's inviting you if it's your need.

All you have to do is come to him.

He will rescue.

Let's pray together.

We love you.

We thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you for how good you are.

Thank you for Grace your goodness towards us.

We do.

Not deserve it.

The Lord you've been so good Lord.

I pray for anybody here today or watching that doesn't know you that they would turn

to you now and know that they can turn to you in repentance of sin and an admission

of need turn to the Lord ask him to save and Lord for every person that knows you.

I pray they would know how loved they are and the invitation.

They would turn to you as high priest and truly Lord drawn near to you today.

We thank you Lord that you love us give this morning to you.

It's in Jesus.

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