Thank you, my friend. Thank you, my friend. That was awesome. Thank you, my friend. Thank you, my friend. That was awesome. Thank you, my friend. That was awesome.
We're on. I got a green light. I got a green light. All right. Good morning, friends. You know, Psalm 122, verse 1 says, "I was glad when they said, 'Let's go to the house of the Lord.'" And I trust you're glad this morning. Are you glad?
Yes, we want to be glad and worship God. I don't know about you, but I was so blessed by the music this morning. Would you do me a favor? Would you just thank God for them and give them a hand for leading us in worship? Sam, thank you, team, wherever you guys are at now. We love you guys for that.
Hey, a couple of quick things that are just coming up this week. Wednesday night, we're going to be having a movie right here. Seth Guber, many of you know him. He was just on again with Pastor Tom. He's preached here numerous times in the past, but he's done this project in 1916. This is when the whole abortion movement started here in the United States. It was an illegal action, and it has demonic roots that you need to know and understand.
And so I'm going to encourage you, come Wednesday night, grab some family, friends. They're going to be shocked. I mean, you know, it's sold to us that this is, you know, a health issue. It's a health issue. Babies die. And the post-traumatic syndrome that comes from having an abortion and so forth, I'm just telling you, it's significant. So I want to encourage you, come grab some family, friends. I think you'll be blessed and maybe stirred in a way you haven't in times past.
Also, next week is Ballot Day. And again, we're one of those designated places. You can bring ballots. I don't know if you've ever heard about ballots disappearing in places like mail and stuff like that. Anyway, so we're one of those designated places. I want to encourage you, bring your ballots. We're going to pray for our country. We're going to pray for the furtherance of the gospel here, that we would be salt and do something to turn this country around. So plan on doing that next week. If you've already voted, that's fine. But let's just do this together and let's see what God does.
Well, my name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors here. And there are three things, if you're new, maybe you're just joining us online or you're out in the courtyard. This is your first Sunday here. Maybe you've been coming for a couple of weeks. There are three things I want you to know that we love.
Number one is we love following Jesus. Can I get an amen on that? We love following Jesus. Why? Because he's radically transformed our life. So wherever you're at in your spiritual journey, know this: this church is about one thing, passionately pursuing Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "Go and make disciples." What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we're on. We're on this journey. It starts at regeneration when we have salvation. The Holy Spirit is given to us. We have the word of God. We have this book, the Bible, to give us direction. We have one another to encourage one another. But where are we going? We are following Jesus. Whatever the world may do, whatever the world may think, you know, just follow Jesus. Just may it be known we're committed to passionately following Jesus.
There's a second thing I want you to know, and that is this month is Pastor Appreciation Month, and we've got an amazing group of pastors and directors and volunteers and people that we just love. And so I just want to encourage you, when you go out those doors, find different people wherever they're serving, whether it's up here and they're singing and leading or whether they're in the back and they've got those volunteer guest recipient badges on. I mean, just shower people that are serving here with love, those who are in children's ministry, et cetera. We are so thankful. We are so blessed as a church. Can someone say amen? We're blessed as a church. Friends, we are blessed as a church with an amazing staff, an amazing group of people serving the Lord Jesus.
So that's the second thing I want you to know. And then thirdly, we love this valley. And this valley is hub to this whole county. And we think about all of Southern California. And I just want you to know we are committed. We're committed. We've always been committed. This church has always been committed to advancing the cause of the gospel. And I want you to be praying with me. I want you to be thinking strategically. How do we get the gospel to every single household? Now, what they do with the gospel, that's between them and Jesus, right? I can't make you believe. You can't make me believe in Jesus. You can't make me follow, but we can deliver the message. And what I want you to be praying, I want you to be thinking between now and the first of the year as our leaders meet, as we talk, as we plan, as we strategize.
There are things we need to do. We need to pay off this facility. We need to do the parking lot. Pastor Tom wanted and shared with me about an amphitheater out there in the corner. I mean, it's just different things that we need to do, but the bottom line is this. We want to get the gospel to every single household, and if we do that, friends, then we're honoring Jesus as we should, right? Because followers of Jesus have one message to the world, and that is that Jesus Christ is the Lord God and Savior, and if you believe in him, he'll give you the gift of everlasting life. He is preparing a place for his people. Have you got a place in heaven? Have you been redeemed? And so you pray with me to that end, would you?
Well, we're going to pray. We're going to pray for three things quickly before we jump into our passage in Hebrews chapter 10, and the first thing I want us to pray for is Israel. We've been praying that God would confuse the enemies of Israel, and I don't know if you saw it this week, but the Iranian leaders, because of the things that have happened over this last year, are now saying, "Those Jews, they're using genies." Did you see that? They're using genies. It's magic to make all this happen, and if you remember, 2 Kings chapter 6 and verse 12, the king of Aram was having the same experience, and he gets all of his generals together and says, "Guys, what's going on? These Jews know what's happening in our bedrooms, for heaven's sakes." And it's like, and the king is like, "Aram is like, which one of you all are snitching?" And they're like, "No, no, no, it's this prophet." I mean, it's this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And so, I just, I was laughing so hard. I mean, talk about total confusion. This couldn't happen except magic, and that's what the enemies are saying today. So we're going to pray for Israel. We're going to pray for America. Friends, you and I are to be salt and light in this generation at this time. God's got you here, not by chance. You know, I used to always say, "I wish I was born 100 years ago." Really? Are you crazy? You know the beds they slept on 100 years ago? I mean, I could go on and on, but the reality is, is God has you here at this time, in this place, in history, to make a difference for his name.
And so we're going to pray for America. Listen, we need to be salt and light in these last days. Pastor John did an amazing job last week. You remember that? Five reasons God destroys nations. America is not exempt, and we are on a trajectory where God is turning us over to evil rather than to righteousness, and so we need to pray. We need to be the salt and light. We need to share the gospel. We need to be the people that preserve, for God's glory, America as best we possibly can.
And then thirdly, I just want us to pray for us, that we would reach this valley, every single household, and then from this valley, Moreno Valley, and all of the surrounding communities, Sun City, et cetera, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to be that intentional. God, would you let us have this as a portion in these days to honor the Lord Jesus? Would you pray with me right now? Would you pray with me?
Father, we just humble ourselves in your presence, and God, we ask that you would continue to confuse the enemies of Israel. Lord, you have a plan for Israel. You've made a covenant with Israel. You've made a covenant with Israel. You've made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you will surely bring it about. God, we trust you to do that. And God, we pray between now and then that we would deliver the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles.
And so, Lord, as we look and anticipate this next year, how we here at 412 may have missional opportunity in the land of Israel, we just pray that you would open those doors, show yourself strong on our behalf. God, we're thankful for America. We're thankful that you've allowed us to live at this time and this generation with the people that are around us so that we might show them how to follow the Lord Jesus, so we might communicate the gospel to them.
God, we pray for this election. We pray that, Lord, we know that trajectories are two different ends. And Lord, we pray that righteousness would prevail. We pray that goodness would prevail. We pray that sanity would prevail and that you would confuse again those who plot and plan to do wicked things. God, I just pray that you would use every person in this room to be a preserving grace in this valley and here in Southern California.
Father, we pray that you would continue to open doors for the gospel. Lord, we love to get the gospel to people because we know it's only that Jesus is the only one that can change them. So God, use us, we pray, to get the gospel to every single household. And now, God, we ask that the Spirit of God would help us understand Hebrews 10. It's such a powerful passage. It's a life-changing passage. Make us more like Jesus at the end, we pray in his name.
Amen.
Well, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. It's a life-changing passage. I was about maybe eight or nine years old. My grandfather was a little, my grandparents here in the valley. And during the summer, as soon as I got out of school, we would go to British Columbia and we would go and stay with friends up there and we would go fishing and can salmon and do different things. And I don't know, I must have been eight or nine. And I remember out fishing one day with my grandfather and with his friend, Carl Ziegler. And I just wanted to drive the boat. I mean, have you been this, like a little kid, you know, you just want to drive the boat. He said, "We live in a desert. We don't have boats." Okay. You just wanted to drive the four-wheeler or whatever. Okay.
And so I just wanted to drive the boat so bad. I mean, we had caught some fish and different things. And so finally, Carl says, "Okay, Mark, you can drive the boat." And so he gives me the helm of the boat. And I'm like, oh, I'm like, you know, I'm like the captain on Gilligan's Island, right? This is awesome. I'm a few pounds lighter, but you know what I'm talking about. And so I was so excited. And he's just like, he just said, "Just stay the course and go straight."
The problem was, is there was current, right? And there were waves and those waves are crashing against the boat and the current. And then he had the wind on top of that. And then there were these kelp beds and he had to kind of maneuver through all of them. And he's telling me, "Just stay the course." And you know, and I'm like, over-correcting, over-correcting. And as I'm over-correcting, I'm getting myself in trouble. And Carl's yelling at me and my grandfather's yelling at me. And I'm a little kid getting yelled at on both sides. And I'm trying to steer the thing. And finally, I just remember Carl saying, "Just see that lighthouse over there. Just head for that lighthouse."
But yet again, the waves would push. And so you'd correct and you'd over-correct and back and forth. Listen, in the spiritual life, there's lots of current. There's the waves, the waves of media, the waves of family, friends, pushing us to get off course with God. There's the current. There's the underlying current within our own souls. Listen, if you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, but right now you still fight with sin. The good news is we're going to heaven, right? That's going to end someday.
All right. People say, "Why do you look forward to getting to heaven?" Because I don't have to fight sin in myself anymore. And I don't have to fight with other people's sin, like my wife's or my kids or you, right? And that's true for all of us. All right. So we're looking forward to this, right? But between now and then we've got this current and it's just a constant fight. And so we've got external things. We've got internal things. And the bottom line is this. Hebrews throughout the book is saying this: stay the course.
Why should we stay the course with God? Because Jesus is better. What else are you going to go to? There isn't anything better than Jesus. So the whole book of Hebrews is this: stay the course. Jesus is better.
Now look with me in chapter 10 in verse 19. This is the transition passage where it moves from the theological declaration that Jesus is better to how we should respond. And we'll pull all this together here in just a moment. But follow along there as I read. It says this, starting there in verse 19. Notice by what? Now circle the word "let us." How many of you are going to have a salad for lunch? How many of you should have a salad for lunch? I mean, come on. You came onto the campus. First thing you did was went over and got a donut, right? You need to have a lettuce.
Well, there's three lettuces in this passage. I thought about putting three heads of lettuce up here. All right. Notice this is the first one. "Let us," so there's the first one. "Let us draw near with a true heart, full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
"Let us," there's a second one. "Let us hold on to our confession of hope without wavering. For he who promised is what? Faithful."
Verse 24. "Let us consider how to stimulate one another into love and good works, not neglecting meeting together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near."
Lord, help us to stay the course. Now, I just want you to think with me really quick. You've got this same tension that these early Christians had. So here's why this book is being written. There's a group of people who had heard of the gospel, who were Jewish people, and they had trusted Christ as their Lord, God, and Savior. Now, you've got to remember, they grew up going to synagogue. They grew up going to the temple. They grew up with the sacrifices. They would have known about taking the lambs and their family. When there was sin in their family, they would have taken lambs. They would have attended the services at Yom Kippur. They would have celebrated Yom Kippur at different times during Jerusalem in October when the high priest would make a sacrifice and he would go into the Holy.
If you remember, the temple in Jerusalem had some outer courts. You had the Gentile court, and then you had the woman's court, and then you had the Jewish men's court, and then you had the priestly court and the holy place, and then there was a curtain and the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was, where the presence of God abided on earth was only approached once a year by the high priest. So they had done this their whole lives. I mean, this was what they grew up with.
But then someone came and shared that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the one that all of the sacrifices pointed to, and they had believed Christ. And you know what Hebrews chapter 10 says? It says that they suffered greatly for having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that they willfully accepted the taking of their property. In other words, they lost their wealth. They lost their property. What did it cost you to believe in Jesus? Imagine your family saying, "We're kicking you off the property. You're losing your inheritance." They were beating them. They would say, "You are dead to us, son. You are dead to us. We don't know you anymore."
And so that level of being ostracized. There were also some of them that had been thrown in prison. Think about it, right? The apostles ended up, most of them ended up suffering at the hands of the Jews because they were still preaching Jesus through the book of Acts. So these early Jewish Christians who had believed in Christ had left Judaism, had left the rabbinic practices, had left the Old Testament for something that was better, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now time had gone on. Twenty years had gone by. Remember when you were a kid and someone would say, "Oh, 20 years ago," and you sit there and think, "Oh, they are so old." Do you remember that? And now some of you say, "Well, 40 years ago" or "50 years ago." So time has a way of racing by. Well, time had raced by. But as time had raced by, they were starting to lose confidence in Jesus.
You see, their friends were pulling them back to the old way. "Do you remember how the good old days?" Have you ever had someone say, "Well, the good old days, you should have been there for the good old days?" Friends, the good old days were not all that good. I'm just telling you, if you really knew the truth, we have a way of forgetting how bad the old days were. I mean, it's just the way we are.
And so there's this pull back to Judaism. And the question is, will they go back? Will they leave Jesus and will they go back to the ceremony and practice of the Old Testament? Will they go back and practice of the book of Leviticus? Will they go back and turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ? And that's what the whole book of Hebrews is about. Don't go back. Jesus is better. Stay the course. Stick with him.
Friends, you and I feel that same tension. I mean, how many of us have a friend, a neighbor, a relative, an acquaintance, and they made this great profession of faith in Christ? They said, "I'm going to follow Jesus. I love Jesus. I'm leaving the old way." And then time goes on. And maybe they start serving the Lord in different capacities, but they go back and they turn away. Man, I've got lists of people. And I weep over those lists.
I remember we had started a college and we had a hundred students. And after six months, I ended up setting up the college and ended up leaving and going and doing other ministries. But I had met with all the student body. And they were so zealous for Jesus. Many of them were new converts. You know, they were in 18, 19, 20. Some of them were like really old, like 26. And they were all there in this room. It was kind of an auditorium like this. And I'm like, "Listen, you guys got to stick with Jesus."
Yes, stick with Jesus. And I had a list in front of my Bible with all their names. And I said, "You know, I held it up. The reality is, is that in five years, there's going to be a bunch of casualties on this list. In 10 years, there's going to be, in 20 years, there's just going to be a handful of you that have stuck it out with Jesus because the current is so, so strong, because the wind is so strong. I'm just telling you, there are few that make it. Be one of those few."
One of those young guys, God had done an amazing work in his life. I mean, he was, well, if you were his teacher, you would say he was the child from Hades, okay? And Jesus had saved this kid, did an amazing work in his life. And he was praying for people and leading people to Christ. And it was his first year in Bible college. And so he was about 18, 19 years old. And I remember him sharing with me about his family and his upbringing, you know, broken home, didn't have a dad, didn't know who his dad was. Like many of us have these sorts of stories, but Jesus had radically changed his life.
We were praying for his mom. She worked in an abortion clinic. You know, she didn't have her, she didn't complete her nursing degrees. And so she really couldn't get a job as a nurse, but she could work in these abortion clinics and they paid her so much more money. And she would come home at night and she would be crying, but she couldn't quit the clinics because they paid her so much more and she wouldn't be able to care for him and their family when they were little. And so she'd bear all this guilt. And so we would pray for her and stuff.
You know what's so sad? Three years after that, he finished his Bible college three years later, and he's turning away from the Lord. And you know what? He's no longer following Jesus right now. It's a heartbreak. And so what I want to say to you is just know Satan is doing everything he can. The wind, the current, the struggle within your own souls. He's doing everything he can to keep you off course, to get you off course, and to shipwreck you. And the book of Hebrews is screaming. It's screaming this: stay the course. Stay the course. Jesus is better.
Jesus is better than the drugs. Jesus is better than going around and living with people. Jesus is better than the immorality. Jesus is better than the money. Jesus is better. Friends, Jesus is better. Turn to someone and just say, "Hey, Jesus is better." You online, Jesus is better.
Well, Jesus is better. And that's what we see in this book. Now, how does he describe Jesus is better? Because I mean, he's dealing with a Jewish audience. So in chapters one and two, he says, "Hey, stay the course. Jesus is better than the angels." Now, if you read through the scriptures to the Old Testament, you know that God used the angels in great ways. He used the angels in the delivering of the law. He used angels in protecting his people. He used angels in delivering messages to Daniel. He Daniel was sick for 21 days and Gabriel finally was able to get to him with the message from God.
And so they knew that angels as ministers of God were significant. And there were people then and there are people now who are worshiping angels. Some people today coming out of the New Age movement, they're worshiping angels and various deities. It's true. We saw it in Colossians chapter two. Pastor John, I think, preached on that passage. And it's true. It's true. It's true. It's true here. And they wanted them to know that, look, angels are servants of God sent out to care for God's people. That's chapter one, verse 17. But remember this, Jesus is better.
And then he moves to Moses. I mean, think about personalities. Oh, I just love this person. I mean, I just love this person on TV. I just love this. Listen, in a Jewish mindset, there's no one greater than Moses. I mean, he's the giver of the law. He's the one that records everything about Father Abraham in the book of Genesis. So Moses is, you know, in fact, if you remember, even as Jesus was debating with the Pharisees and Sadducees, they were saying, "We follow Moses." And he's going, "Hey, Moses was submitting to someone else. And you know who he's submitting to? Jesus is who we're going to find out."
And so Jesus is better than angels. Jesus is better than Moses. By the way, if you read Moses, you would know that he said, "After me will come a prophet who's greater than me." Do you remember that? John the Baptist. They came to him and said, "Are you the Messiah? Are you the Savior?" "No, no. There's one who's coming after me that's greater than me. One who I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals." Do you remember that?
So, okay, so Jesus is better. He's better than the angels. He's better than Moses. He's also better than Joshua. Now you remember in the book of Joshua, Joshua was the one that led the people of Israel into the land of Canaan, the land of promise. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. You remember he was the one that stood up with Caleb and said, "We must go in" when everyone else was saying, "No, we're not going to go in." They were drifting, and he was telling people, "Stay on course." He was the one that had wandered through the wilderness, watched that older generation perish, and the younger generation that was to receive God's blessing.
Listen, friends, if you and I don't stay the course, there will be consequences to our sin, and God will give those blessings and opportunities to another generation. That's exactly what happened. And you remember Joshua leads them into the promised land. He's looking at Jericho, and he's worried. He's got to fight a walled city. This is not a good scenario, okay? And you got to remember they don't have the power to fight a walled city. They don't have the power to fight a walled city. They're just trying to get into the promised land. They're not rooted in the promised land yet.
And so this was a very dangerous moment as a leader, and he knew it. And you remember, the angel of the Lord showed up. Now, the angel of the Lord, the word angel can be used in a technical sense in reference to angels, like it's used up there in Hebrews 1. But sometimes angel is used of different individuals, even the Lord Jesus, as a title just meaning a messenger. And so the messenger of Yahweh shows up. And you remember, he's got a sword in his hand and Joshua's down on his knees. And he says, "Are you for us or against us?" And he goes, "My friend, I'm in charge," right?
So what Joshua found out that there was someone greater than him. And they offered rest to the people of Israel. But in Hebrews chapter four, there's a rest that God has for us. And the rest is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is even better than Joshua.
And then he moved to priesthood. In chapter five and chapter seven. And now you got to remember, when you grow up in a liturgical system and you've got these priests, you can ask a Jewish person, "Who's your favorite priest?" "Oh, Eliezer. He is such a nice priest." You know, and they would go on and they would tell you about the priest. So they grew up with all these priests. They had local priests because the priests were spread out through the land of Israel. And they all would have assignments and they'd go to Jerusalem and they would see their favorite priests. And the priests would make offerings for them and all those sorts of things.
And they would help care for the priests and the priests would care for them. And so they had this tremendous relationship. And of course, they had a high priest. And the high priest would once a year go on behalf of the whole nation, offer a sacrifice for his sin and for the sin of the people. And he would go into the Holy of Holies to meet God. So he describes here, the Holy Spirit describes in chapter five, chapter seven, stay the course. Why? Jesus is better than the whole priesthood of the past.
See, the priesthood of Aaron was temporary. Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek who doesn't have a beginning. He is the one that transcends. He's the one who's the eternal God. And so he makes this comparison. He says, "You want to go with these guys or you want to go with Jesus?" And the conclusion is Jesus has a better priesthood. Friends, there is no better spiritual leader than Jesus. That's the point. It's not Aaron. It's not Moses. It's not any of the priests that came along afterwards. It's Jesus. Jesus is better.
And then we see covenantalism. Covenant. And we could say, "Oh, the Old Testament covenant." You know, there are many Christians today that are being seduced to leave Jesus in the New Testament to go back to the Old Covenant. Just remember this: Jesus came to what? To fulfill the law.
Now, if you're a business guy, you know you have a contract with somebody. And then there's a date and there's a plan and there's a strategy. And at some point, there's a fulfillment of that contract. When that contract is fulfilled, it's done. It's set aside. And now you have to have, if you're going to have another relationship, you've got to have another contract, right?
So Jesus fulfills the law. He fulfills the contract of the Old Testament because he's the Son of God and he's completely holy and he pays the penalty for sins and he inaugurates a new covenant. And the new covenant is greater than the old covenant. You remember when we have communion, we make reference to this. This cup is the new covenant in his blood. As often as you drink it, do so in remembrance of me. We're talking about a new covenant.
So he's like, "You've got a new covenant. You've got a new covenant in Jesus who is a better high priest and now he's got a better covenant, which means a promise. Why in the world would you go back to that? Why would you go? It's kind of like, it's kind of like, why would you return to that which is broken?
I mean, how many of you have something around your house that's broken? How many of you have something around your house that's broken that you know you should get rid of? How many of you have something in your house that's broken that you know you should get rid of and you've already bought something to replace it, but you're just afraid of getting rid of it? Right? I don't know about you. I'm kind of, you know, I just, I tend to be like a little bit of a junk collector because you never know. You might need to pirate things off of it or whatever.
It's like, no, no. The old is done away. We've got something new. We've got a new promise from God, and it's all tied up in Jesus. We've got a new covenant. Don't go back to the old covenant. Stay the course. Jesus is better. He's got a better covenant. Someone say amen.
Amen. All right. Then we get to chapter 10. Excuse me. Chapter 10, and we've got sacrifice. Jesus has a better sacrifice. Now, if we had time, we don't have time, but in chapter 10, he lists down there. He says, "Look, Aaron had all of these, the blood of bulls and goats, and it says it could never take away sin. All it did was cover it. It was waiting for the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world."
And so he goes, "Why would you go back to this old sacrifice? Because here, if they left Jesus and they went back to Judaism, they went back to the old way, they were going to go back to the old priesthood, back to the old covenant, and back to the whole sacrificial system. And why would you go do that?" Because, and he goes on in chapter 10, he says in verse 14, the one sacrifice for Jesus for all time has wiped away our sins and sanctified for people for himself.
All of the bloods, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of animals could never pay the penalty for one sin, but the death of the Lord Jesus Christ pays the penalty for all of the sins of all of those people for all time. So that people today, right now in this valley today, if you're watching, wherever you are in the world, if you're out in the pavilion area, listen, wherever you're at, when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, his death is totally sufficient to wipe away your sins.
Why would you go back to the old sacrifices? That's crazy. Stay the course. Are you with me? So what's the point of the book? Stay the course. Jesus is better. Turn to someone. Jesus is better. Go ahead, tell them. Jesus is better. That's why you and I should stay the course.
Now, I want you to notice how he makes these statements that Jesus is better. And now in chapter 10, verse 19, he tells us to do something. He starts to tell us, how do we do this? How do we draw near to God and honor him as we should? So notice there in verse 19, it says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place."
Now see, the Jewish people could never enter the holy place. Remember, remember those courts, the Gentiles, if you're a Gentile, you couldn't even come into the temple secured Mount area. And if you were a Jewish woman, there was another level of closeness to God. And if you were a Jewish man, you get a little closer. If you were a Levite, you could get a little closer because you could be in the court of the priests and so forth and help them. But you couldn't enter the holy place and you couldn't enter the holy of holies. Only the high priest could do that.
What I want you to see is because of all of those things about Jesus, you can approach God. Now you go, you as a follower of Jesus, because of the priesthood of the believer, you can go right into the holy of holies. Notice here why we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he opened for us through the curtain, through the veil. Just remember that; we'll come back to that. That is through his flesh.
And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, so you and I, because of those things that we just saw, Jesus is better than Moses. He's better than Aaron. He's better than the angels. He's got a better covenant, better sacrifice. Therefore, you and I have confidence.
Now this is really important because there's a bunch of people running around today saying, "You should just be telling God what to do." Friends, you and I don't tell God what to do. We have confidence to approach God. We should have confidence to approach God. Why? Because Jesus, who is better, who is our high priest, and because of his sacrifice, gives us access to God. But it doesn't mean you walk in and say, "God, listen to the way some people pray."
And they start praying and they start telling God what to do. Friends, you and I should be humble and contrite before the living, all-powerful God. But we should approach him with confidence because our God cares. God has provided us. God has provided. God says, "Come to me, cast all your cares upon me because I care for you." And so we approach him with confidence.
Notice again, why? The blood of Christ, not the blood of bulls, not the blood of goats, not the ceremony of the past. And notice because he's our high priest over the household of God. So that's the summary statement. Jesus is better. Jesus is better. Jesus is better.
Okay. Therefore, we got confidence. Why? Because of his blood and his priesthood. And so we're going to approach God. Now notice the three things of how we do that. The first one there is that first, "let us," let us draw near with a true heart. So because Jesus is better, Jesus is better. And we're tempted to stay off. We're tempted to go off course. We're tempted to leave him, and again, it may vary a little bit for all of us, but the temptation will always be to stray off the course to get shipwrecked.
First thing you and I need to do is you and I need to get close, not close like this. I know there's someone in the room you'd like to meet and marry, okay, you can get close to that person a little bit. He said, "Get close," right? I mean, no, get close to God. Look here. Therefore, let us draw near with what? A true heart.
Notice that God cares about genuineness. God cares about the sincerity of our souls. God cares about whether or not we've confessed sin and whether we're seeking him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. No, it says draw near to God with a true heart. Don't be disingenuous. Don't have an adulterous heart. Don't be a heart that's wandering from God, but a heart that is seeking to draw near to God.
Now, again, these are very Hebraic sort of terminology, sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. Again, the priests, and again, they would have grown up seeing this. They would see them sprinkling the water over top of different utensils and so forth and cleansing them. You would see their bodies washed with pure water. When you go on the southern steps of the Temple Mount, even to this day, you can see all the baptismal tanks. And when people would come to the Temple Mount, they would walk down through the baptismal tanks, and it was a way of showing purification. And they'd go down through and come up the other side, and then they'd go up the southern steps, singing the Psalms of Ascent, and then entering into the Temple Mount area.
So it's a very Hebraic sort of way of expressing that you and I should come with hearts that are clean and consecrated to God, seeking him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. James chapter 4 says exactly the same thing. "Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil." Listen, this is important. When you submit to God, who are you resisting? The devil, right? The devil's trying to tempt us and lead us astray and get us off course, but we submit to God. We follow what God says. We're not following you, devil. We're following God. And so we submit to God, and it says he will eventually flee from us. And then it says draw near to God.
So again, this concept of if you and I are going to stay the course, friends, you and I have to constantly be drawing near to God. Now, I often have people say to me things like, "Mark, I feel like God is so far away." Friends, remember this. God is not the one who's drifted. It's you and I that's drifted. God is a rock, the rock of our salvation. And so you and I have to draw near to him. We've got to lean that direction. We've got to fight the waves. We've got to fight the storm. We got to draw near to him. It's very, very intentional.
Notice how do you do it? It says, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded." Again, it comes back to how you and I relate to sin. 1 John talks about this. Again, he uses different terminology, but the outcome is the same. If we say we have fellowship with him, with God, and we walk in darkness. So I say, "I'm near to God, and I love God, and I'm following God," and we're living, we're walking in darkness, sin. We lie and do not practice the truth.
Let's face it. Some people have gone to church today somewhere in this valley. I know it's not you. I know it's not you in the courtyard. I know it's you online. But, you know, we say, "Oh, I love God. I'm drawing near to God. I just want," and we're living in rebellion towards God. We're deceiving, according to that passage. We lie and we're not practicing the truth. Practicing the truth means that I'm confessing sin. I'm confessing sin. I'm confessing sin. I'm confessing sin. I'm confessing sin. And I'm drawing near to him, I'm honoring God.
When something comes to my mind that the Spirit of God convicts me about, I'm confessing that, and I'm repenting of that and turning away from that. Why? Because Jesus is my Savior. Second element there, if we say we have no sin, I would never. Have you ever heard someone say, "I would never do that?" Hello? Yes, you would. Why? Because you're just as bad as I am.
It says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us." Friends, it's only by the grace of God that you and I have not done more wicked things than what we've done already. And so we need to thank God for that. And we need to be very humble before God. And we need to know that temptation is real. And when people say, "I would never do that," I always just say, "You know what? You're asking the devil to come throw that right at you in a bucket." Because that's pride. And pride is the mother of sins, right? And so we need to be humble again before God.
And then it says in verse 10, "If we say we have not sinned," so now we're talking about specific sin and someone points it out and whatever the case might be. And we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar, right? If I say, if I say living with my girlfriend is not sin, what have I just done? I called God a liar. Or if I say, you know, sexual aspirations that you have are equal to or greater than the revelation of God. You men are men, you women are women. And if I say otherwise, I'm calling who a liar.
Is it a safe thing to call God a liar? No, it's not a safe thing. We call him a liar and his word is not in us. So again, the bottom line is to draw near to God, to get close to God. I so love Psalm 91. It says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say, the Lord is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust." And then as you read down through that, that Psalm 91, it talks about how we find refuge under his wings. Friends, listen, the storm is real out there. The current is real. Satan wants you shipwrecked. Find refuge under his wings. Amen? Draw near to God. Let us draw near.
Let us draw close to him. There's a second thing, and that is this. We need to stay the course. How do we do that? Well, we're going to hold fast. We're going to hold fast. Notice what it says. "The confession of our hope without wavering for he who has promised is faithful." Now think through what that's saying. We're going to hold fast. We're going to cling to something. The confession of our hope. Remember what it says in Ephesians chapter two, Jesus is our what? Hope.
All of the hope of God is tied up in Jesus, who is better than everything else you could turn to. And so, if you're going to hold on to the confession, you're holding on to Jesus. You're holding on to the hope of everlasting life, the hope of heaven, the hope of all of God's blessings. Listen, every spiritual blessing is tied up in Jesus. Why in the world would you leave him? Hold on to him. Cling to Jesus and don't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
You know, I can just tell you stories, and they break my heart, of people who have surrendered the confession of God and turned away to their own passions, their own desires, the temptations of the world, and they've given up on Jesus. I'm like, "What are you thinking? Hold on to Jesus. Draw near to God and hold on to the promises that are tied up in Jesus."
Notice it goes on there. Why not hold on? I mean, after all, look at the last part of the verse. "For he who has promised is faithful." Is there any promise that God has made that he's not going to keep? No. Every promise that God makes. There's a wonderful passage in the book of Numbers, Numbers 23, 19. It says, "God is not man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should change his mind. He has said, and he will do it. He has spoken, and he will fulfill it." We can trust God.
Don't be tossed to and fro like children by every wind of doctrine that comes along. Friends, that's why God has given us pastors. That's why we go through books of the Bible together. That's why we study, because Pastor John or Pastor Nate, like last week, or Pastor Ty, or myself, what we try. We dig into the Bible, so we draw closer to God, and we honor him as we should. We're clinging on to those promises not being tossed to and fro again by every wind of doctrine.
Hold on. Cling to the Lord Jesus. I don't know if you've ever done any rock climbing, but the first time I did that, I'm not really a rock climber. It's like, why would you try and be a human fly? But I remember the first time I did it, we got all strapped in the gear, you know, you got these harnesses and stuff you're on, you got the rope, and then you start climbing. And as you start to climb, you look down and you say, "On belay." And that's weird language, but it means that there's someone there holding the rope because it's only a matter of time until you fall.
And as you continue to call and you start to make the next move, "On belay." Yeah, I'm set. And he'll yell back, "On belay." And if you don't hear that, you just stop and hold on because that means there's no one there to stop you when you slip. Listen, the spiritual life is very much like that pursuit of climbing that rock and honoring God. And listen, Satan's doing everything he can to knock you off. But remember this: Jesus is holding the rope. Jesus is on belay. You can trust him. He's faithful. He's going to deliver us safely to his heavenly kingdom in spite of any difficulty, any hardship.
There's this last one here. Notice what it is. So we got, "Let us," we should get close. "Let us get close." "Let us hold on to the confession." And here we need to think it moves from what we do, right? If it's like, "Mark, draw near. Okay, that's what I need to do." Well, "Mark, you need to hold fast." Okay. But now I want you to see this third one. If we're going to stay the course, it has to start thinking about other people, not just yourself.
It's not just about your spiritual well-being; it's about other people's well-being. It's not just about your family or your immediate family; it's about others, others who are followers of Jesus. Think about our church family. It says, "Therefore, let us consider, let us think how to stimulate one another into love and good works."
How do we stir each other up? The other day, my wife had our little grandson. He's like almost two years old, and she decided to make cookies with him. And so they get out all the ingredients, and she's got the mixer there, right? You got to have the mixer. And then she does all the mixing with them, and he's watching the little bowl go around and all of that. And then he's waiting for the moment when you take the little thing off and you get to lick the dough. Amen? Right?
But you got to get stirred up before he can have that great meal. And then he's waiting for the moment when you take the little thing off and you get to lick the dough. Amen? Right? But you got to get stirred up before he can have that great meal.
And so we need to be constantly thinking, how do I encourage people to love God, love one another? What does love look like? It's the opposite of thinking of yourself. It's not keeping records of wrongs. Think about it. People leave churches. Why? Because, "You know what those people did to me?"
Yeah, friends, we're a bunch of sinners at this point, but we're going to heaven. We may not be perfect right now; we got a perfect Savior. So we focus on him and we love him, and then we care for one another the best we can. And so love is kind, love is patient. We cultivate these things in one another, encouraging, stirring one another up unto good works.
Listen, friends, this is so important. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved unto good works. "For by grace have you been saved through faith, that none of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Verse 10, "For we are his workmanship, God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God prepared beforehand." In other words, laid out beforehand that we should do them.
And through the work of God, in other words, laid out beforehand that we should do them. Here's what Jesus said next verse 16. You remember what it says in 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16? It says, "The word of God is inspired and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God, the woman of God might be adequately equipped for every good work."
So we're not saved by good works, but if you've been saved by the grace of God, you had better do some good works. James chapter 2, he talks about the good works that Abraham did. He talks about the good works that Rahab did and how it showed that they were true followers of the living God. We should think about that.
And then it goes on from there and says, "And to meet together." In other words, to gather. Why? Because some have got bad habits. Have you ever had a bad habit? Is it hard to get rid of a bad habit? So I always tell myself, "Mark, don't get any bad habits because then you have to stop the bad habit." And so if you just don't start a bad habit, then you don't have to worry about it.
So I was like a little kid, and I remember all these people drinking coffee, and they would say, "Oh, I shouldn't drink coffee." And I remember as a little kid, "Well, if you shouldn't drink coffee, why don't you stop?" Well, it's just too good. I can't get up in the morning. I can't get going. Okay. All right.
So I remember as a little kid just thinking, "Don't drink coffee because then you're just going to have to be wishing you'd stop later." So it's just easier not to start. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's kind of like going on a diet. If I just don't eat the junk food, then I don't have to go on a diet. Why? Because I'm not eating the junk food. So don't go on the diet because you didn't eat the junk food. Does that make sense?
Yeah. So don't get into a bad habit. Meet together. Notice it says, "Encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching." Listen, friends, we all need encouragement. Listen, if we're going to stay the course because Jesus is better, I need you encouraging me, and you've got to, I've got to encourage you. And our church, we have to encourage one another.
We have, it's like being a cheerleader. Okay. Now I know, don't think of me like in a cheerleader outfit, please. Okay. But think about it. But whenever you are faced with a decision and you make a good decision to love your spouse, to love your children, love your church, whatever the good work is, you and I need to be the cheerleaders in cheering one another on.
Way to go. Keep it up. Don't stop now. Man, I'm telling you, it's easy to give up. It's easy to give up and turn back to the old way. Like a dog returning to his vomit, as the scripture says. Friends, don't return. Don't return to the vomit. Stay the course with Jesus. Jesus is better. Draw close to God. Hold on to the confession. Consider how you can encourage, stimulate one another in love and good works.
Why? Because the day is approaching. Listen, we are a fraction away from the end of time. Don't give up now. We are in the last quarter. We are in the last minutes of this game. Don't give up. Stay the course. Stay the course. Stay the course. Stay the course.
Do me a favor. Stand up. Turn to someone. Say, "Hey, Jesus is better. Stay the course." Tell them.
Father, it's easy. It's easy to read this passage. It's even easy to talk about this passage. It's more difficult to do the passage. The current is real. Friends, be honest for just a moment. You feeling the current? You feeling the wind? You feeling the trajectory to always push you off course to shipwreck you?
Right now, will you purpose in your heart, "God, give me the grace to stay the course. I know Jesus is better." Listen, some of us are shipwrecked right now. You're watching online. Maybe you're in the courtyard. Maybe you're here in this room and you're shipwrecked. You need to confess that right now.
We're going to sing a couple of songs. There's going to be a prayer team up here. Listen, some of us are really broken and messed up. We're taking on water. And you just need to come pray with someone. You need to do this while we sing these songs.
God, help us to walk humbly and contritely before you. Help us to remember that Jesus is better. What would we go back to? Jesus is better. God, we love you. Thank you for sending Jesus for us. It's in his name that we pray.
Amen.
Thank you. He will hold me close. Don't go astray. Why? Because Jesus is better. Listen, if you haven't trusted Jesus Christ, there's a prayer team up here. They're going to be here after I get done praying. And as you're leaving, if you need to trust Christ or you need prayer in other areas of life, listen, they're here for you.
God, we are just so thankful to be together today to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, to remember his greatness, remember his majesty, remember that he is better. God, help us to walk the course. Help us to follow you with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Help us to draw near to you. Help us to hold on to confession. Help us to encourage one another as we leave today. We pray it in Jesus' name.
And all God's people said, Amen. Lord bless you all. God's grace. God bless you.
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on Oct 24, 2024
