The Playbook of Faith

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Fellowship Meal - May 3 at 6pm

Ladies Tea - May 20 at 4pm

Reading: Hebrews 10:19-25

Hebrews 10:19–25 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Pray

The turning point of Hebrews - moving from instruction to application

Let us first consider the two essentials we have, then we’ll explore three ways to execute the playbook of faith.

The Two Prerequisites of Faith

We Have Confidence

Hebrews 10:19–20 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

We Have a Great High Priest

Hebrews 10:21 ESV

21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

The Three “Go-to” Plays of Faith

If Jesus is such a great high priest, and if he has opened the way for us to enter God’s presence with confidence rather than only with fear and trepidation, then we must respond in particular ways. There are three ways that we execute the playbook of faith.

Let Us Enter God’s Presence

Hebrews 10:22 ESV

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

ILL: Admiring the road instead of traveling on it

EXP: Jesus has made the way for us to approach God, so stop admiring the road and get going!

How do we enter?

By having “a true heart in full assurance of faith.” That “full assurance” is an absolute certainty in something, but not just a “blind” certainty. It’s a certainty that has been proven. We’ll see this play out in the next chapter of Hebrews, but faith isn’t blind or lucky or even haphazard. Faith has evidence - biblical faith in fact has tons of evidence that supports putting complete trust in something. God doesn’t call us to a “cross-your-fingers” kind of belief in him. He gives us proof - he reshapes our hearts to be true rather than deceiving (contra. Jer 17:9).

We also enter “with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.” Not only does he make our hearts true, Christ also cleanses us from an evil conscience that leads us astray. Consciences are not necessarily good on their own. The Bible speaks often of the conscience: consciences that are good and bad, seared in sinfulness and clear of guilt, weak or strong. The quality of the conscience depends upon how the person has developed it - the one who has trained it well will find their conscience to be a faithful witness in following God’s will, but the one who has not trained their conscience will not be able to trust its testimonies.

We also enter with “our bodies washed with pure water.” There are numerous passages in Scripture that point to this, but consider two.

Psalm 24:3–6 ESV

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

In Psalm 24, David writes that the ones who are able to come into God’s presence are those who have clean hands and a pure heart (cf. Psalm 24:3-6). This one who has been cleansed seeks God’s face, and finds him. He is able to receive God’s blessings first hand.

Consider also Paul’s words to the Ephesian church. He’s talking about the relationship between a husband and wife, and is exploring how marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church.

Ephesians 5:25–27 ESV

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

The function of a husband is to love his wife just as Christ loves the church. One way Christ demonstrates love is to sanctify his church by washing her in the water of the word. That’s what makes the church presentable in the age to come.

These images of cleansing us from sins are the heart of why we can now enter God’s presence. Our high priest has atoned for our sins and opened the way to the Father. So now we need not shy away from being in God’s presence. We can enter the throne room of God confidently, drawing near to the God with whom we now have peace.

Let Us Possess Our Confession

Hebrews 10:23 ESV

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

There is a permanent commitment in this instruction - we must not only hold it so that it does not slip away, but we must be faithful to adhere to it. And to what do we hold fast? The confession of our hope.

Hebrews 6:19 ESV

19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

We must ensure we do not loosen the chain and abandon our anchor. The anchor, our hope, will hold upon the solid rock. The rock is Christ - he will not fail. Our hope is also solid - it will not fail. But an unattached anchor does no good.

Hebrews 10:23 ESV

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

And we must remain fixed to our confession “without wavering.”

ILL: Flag of steel?

But in the Christian faith, you cannot be a flag. There is no room for the wishy-washy in the Christian faith. If we are to live this life the way God wants us to live, if we are to be fruitful for Christ, we cannot waver in faith. We must have a solid hope in Christ, and we must keep that hope. As I said earlier, we must remain fixed to our anchor!

And we have a good reason to not waver in our faith in Christ.

ILL: Counting the chickens before they hatch

When we put faith in Christ, we do not have that problem. God has given us his promises, and Christ is faithful. We read back in chapter 6 how God made his promise to Abraham. Do you remember what this author told us was God’s way of showing us his promises were guaranteed? Hebrews 6:17-18 tell us that when God wanted us to be absolutely certain of his word, he swore by himself. Just as God promised Abraham and was faithful to fulfill his word, so God has promised us salvation and sanctification and glorification in Christ, and he will be faithful to finish the work he has begun in us (cf. Phil. 1:6).

Let Us Motivate Each Other

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The third way we make the big plays of faith happen is by how we interact with each other. In fact, he tells us here in verse 24 to think. hat seems odd, considering that the other responses are active responses. Drawing near is an action, and holding fast is definitely active! Both involve direct action on our part. But in verse 24, the final “let us” is passive?

Not exactly. The idea of considering in verse 24 is not passive at all. It’s a different kind of active. Do you remember the command in Deuteronomy 6:5? Jesus said it was the greatest commandment: to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength was, according to Christ, the most essential of all the commandments of God. (He’s right, by the way!) We do not just love God by the things we do. We must love him with our logic and reasoning, our motivations, our perspectives, our decision-making, our critical thinking, and everything else our minds engage in.

That’s the focus of this word. One commentator writes that this word means “to direct one’s whole mind to an object” and to immerse oneself in it with the goal of completely understanding it (TDNT IV, 973). What is the focal point for such strenuous mental activity? How to stir up one another to love and to do good works. The NKJV puts it in a great way: it says “let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.”

God commands us to love one another, so much so that we should spend our time thinking about how we can build up one another. Not just “I wonder how she’s feeling today,” or “I haven’t seen them in a while.” It’s good to care about each other. But God calls us to more. How can I serve you, encourage you, build you up, strengthen you, help you fulfill your God-given role in his kingdom? How can I stir you up to faithful service, to unwavering faith, to closer relationship with God?

This kind of thinking seems like it’s obsolete, but our world needs the church to get this right. People feel more isolated now than perhaps ever before. Sure, we have social media, but we are less social. We have our own lives, filled to the brim with activities. And those of you with no one else at home likely struggle with the empty nest as your kids and grandkids hardly have time for you. The church has an opportunity to be a community - to be a family. So we should look for every opportunity. Christ has done so much for us - and one way we honor his work is by the way we love one another.

In order to do this well as a community, however, we cannot stay separated. Some people are not here who need to be. They have gotten into a habit of being isolated. They choose to disengage from other believers. I’ve met several folks in my ministry that have claimed to know what God says and to be good at following him, yet never even enter a church building. They claim to be able to “worship just as good at home as in a church service.” That is a bold-faced lie. You cannot serve God while you’re disengaged from the local body of believers. God works in and through his church. Christ is head of the church, served the church, died for the church, cleanses his church from sins, shapes his church into his own image, and raises his church to eternal life. God’s activities sometimes happen in a single individual, but they are ALWAYS expressed in the local community of faithful believers. To divorce yourself from the local congregation and go at it alone is to be naive at best and deceived at worst.

Instead of neglecting one another, we need to be encouraging one another. Sometimes, that encouragement is a pat on the back. Sometimes, it’s a card in the mail. Sometimes, it’s a quick slap to the back of the head and a reproof! But in all things we are to help one another to serve God - especially as the days are passing on toward eternity.