Bible Study - January 20, 2021

Okay, so today we're going to begin in chapter 10. Let me just draw your attention again as we recap a little bit about what we talked about last week, because we talked a lot about blood last week in contrasting the Old and New Covenants. And we saw that blood was extremely important to the Old Covenant, as the priests that were in the Temple and the people of Israel would bring their offerings, their sacrifices, and literally day after day after day after day, there was the sacrifice of animals.

And that was there to help the people to remember their sins, and as they would approach God and remember that they had to have a relationship with God, they would do that. But as Jesus Christ came, He was the perfect sacrificial lamb, if you will, and He was the sacrifice that His blood was worth more than all the blood of all those animals that were sacrificed in all the decades and centuries that Israel was under the Old Covenant.

And Jesus Christ lived the perfect life. He was the perfect sacrifice, as we said. His life was there to be able to pay the penalty for our sins, and that He took upon Himself the death penalty that we had and paid it for all of us, that we might have the opportunity to have eternal life. And I hope we do. Those are all words that we've heard, even if we weren't in the church, we've heard about Jesus Christ's sacrifice and that He is our Savior.

But I hope as we've gone through the book of Hebrews that we appreciate Jesus Christ's sacrifice even more and see the magnitude of it and see God's plan in it. And you know, when we do see Jesus Christ's sacrifice, when we see Him, and I hope we've seen Him in a more intense and beautiful light, if you will, as we've gone through Hebrews, that we believe in Him more. And our share keeps wanting to fall down on me here.

So we believe in Him more, and that belief should engender in us a desire to grow closer to Him. So with that, and as we move into chapter 10 and the closing chapters here of Hebrews, you know, as we get into the chapter 10, it's going to continue in some of the same day that we talked about last week, repeating some of the things.

We'll be able to go through some of these verses quickly, but there are some new things in here. I shouldn't say new things. Additional things that we haven't talked about before that we're going to talk about. You know, as we've gone through the book of Hebrews, we see doctrine that is interspersed there throughout Hebrews. We've talked about the Sabbath day and how the physical Sabbath day in the Old Testament is, you know, a physical and spiritual Sabbath that we keep today. We saw tithing, you know, in the Old Testament we see tithing today, it's a way of honor God.

We learned between the covenants there was no fault in the law that God gave it. It is the same yesterday, today and forever. He gave mankind from the very beginning the standards and the principles by which we should live. And as we do that, we will have the happiness, the joy, the peace and everything that He had promised us. We just need to do it.

So, you know, we've seen that. And today we're going to see something else in the example of Jesus Christ that we can draw to, especially as we're in a time when we're waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. Well, let's then pick it up in chapter 10. Last week we did read through the first couple verses, so I'll just go through there. So we start from the beginning of the chapter. It says, For the law, and remember there was nothing wrong with the law.

The law in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, is the same as the law that we have today. Even Paul said the law is holy, just and true. God ordained it from the beginning. The law that Israel kept having a shadow of the good things to come.

The principles we live by today will be the principles that are in the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns to earth and sets up His kingdom. For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they, that's the priest of the Old Covenant, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

So they went, they did what God wanted them to do, but it was a physical covenant. They went through the physical process, but we learned about Israel that they simply could not obey God. They could not yield to Him. They didn't have the heart that God has given us with Jesus Christ and His sacrifice that opened the way for us to receive God's Holy Spirit. And we can have the heart, the desire, and the power and love, and sound mind that comes from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit of God that can lead us to what He wants us to be.

But they, all those sacrifices in the Old Covenant, it never made a difference for Israel. They just kept doing the same things, but they didn't become closer and closer to God or more like Him. Verse 2 tells us that, it says, For then, wouldn't they, the ancient Israelites, for then wouldn't they have ceased to be offered? If it was doing any good spiritually for those people, then you'd think you'd have less and less reason for sacrifices.

It's always the same need for the sacrifices year in, decade in, decade out. So, for then, wouldn't they have ceased to be offered? For the worshippers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But they never had that. Now, by contrast, when we repent, when God calls us and we repent and we're baptized, we are conscious of our sins. And we do work, and we do go toward the perfection that God wants us to have. That's part of our calling. It's what God wanted in Israel, but He knew that they weren't going to be able to do it without the Holy Spirit.

You know, it's now in this day, in this age, that we have God's Spirit that we can do and become who He wants us to become. That conscience that we have, that mind of Christ that's in us, is so vitally important, and the only, the only way that we will ever be in the kingdom or receive eternal life is when we yield to it and follow it.

And verse 3 is an important verse, and we can kind of take it into a 2021 basis as well. It says in verse 3, But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. So it was good for Israel because, as they, and it's talking about here every year when they would go through the Day of Atonement and go through the ritual that we read about in Leviticus 16, they were reminded that they were sinful people.

They had to acknowledge they were sinners. Aaron would go through the cleansing ritual for himself and then go through the process for the Israel as well. But there was a reminder, a reminder to them of sin. All those sacrifices wouldn't forgive their sins. Only Jesus Christ could do that. But there was a reminder for them. And you know today, we're in a spiritual covenant because God does give his Holy Spirit today to those who he calls and who repents and who are baptized and goes through the process that he has outlined in the Bible.

But we do still do the physical things. You know, we read in Hebrews 4, there remains therefore a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God. We still do keep the physical Sabbath, but we also keep it spiritually.

We look at it from we are sacrificing and giving that 24-hour period to God, keeping our own desires, our work, our everyday activities at bay, giving that time to God as a sacrifice of our time and honoring him. But we look forward to that rest that the Israelites could never enter into, but you and I can by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and through the blood of Jesus Christ that opened up the way to salvation.

And we talked about tithing as well back in Hebrews 7. And it was a physical thing that they did back then and to the physical high priest. We talked about Abraham tithing through Melchizedek, the one who was without beginning, without end, without mother, without father, the one who we identified as the Jesus Christ before he was born, flesh and blood and became Jesus Christ. And today we have a high priest. And so today we still comply and abide by that principle that God introduced from the very beginning of time. It's still there. There is nothing wrong with it. Today we tithe to our eternal high priest as we honor God with our substance as well as with time.

So there are physical things we do as we get in closer and closer to the spring holy days. There's physical things that we do. We just don't not do them. But as we do those physical things, it's a reminder of the spiritual principles. When we take Passover and we keep the physical ordinances that Jesus Christ himself instituted, that's a reminder of who we are, the commitment that we make. When we put the leavening out of our homes, it's a physical exercise, but the whole while it should remind us that we are constantly, in our lives, putting the sin out of our lives and replacing it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

As we eat and our diet is in that bread of life, Jesus Christ. So we still do the physical things today. They're a reminder of us, of the spiritual things. Just like for Israel, those sacrifices reminded them of sins, but those sacrifices couldn't forgive them, as it says in verse 4 here.

It's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. So it was a reminder to them. They would look to God and know that they needed God, they needed forgiveness, they may not have even fully understood that. I often say when they're resurrected and they understand the plan of God and everything that they did, they're going to have just one huge aha moment as it all fits together as they see the plan of God and how beautifully constructed and how perfect it is. Verse 5, there's that word. Whenever we have the word therefore, we think back.

What have we just talked about? We've been talking about Jesus Christ, we've been talking about his sacrifice, we've been talking about that he was offered once for the sins of many. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offering, you didn't desire.

Now we can pause there for a moment, because it's an interesting thing that he would say. I mean, here we have the Old Covenant, he gave all those physical laws and said, these are the sins, these are the sin offerings, these are the burnt offerings, these are the trespass offerings, these are the peace offerings, and here's all these offerings. But it says sacrifice and offering, you did not desire. Well, he did seem to desire that since he asked them to do that. But he was doing that as a reminder and as a method of having a relationship with them to remind them who their God is or was in that case, and that they should have drawn closer to him, but they didn't.

Let's put our finger there in Hebrews 10. Let's go back to 1 Samuel 15.

Because even Samuel echoed this or voiced this very same sentiment here as Israel had a king, and they were moving from the time of the judges into the time of the kings.

In 1 Samuel 15 and verse 22, the memory verse from many of us, it says, Samuel said, Has the eternal as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Is that what he really wanted? Does he just take delight? I mean, it was good for him to see that the people were actually obeying him. And that's what the real thing is. Will you obey me? They obeyed him when they brought those sacrifices, but he didn't delight in those. He was looking, remember, at the heart. Where is your heart? Are you coming to me? Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? He just wanted them to completely yield to him. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And so we learned that in the New Covenant times. Jesus Christ is our ultimate sacrifice. So we don't have to bring animals to be sacrificed, and we don't have to sprinkle the blood and spread the blood over everything like they did in the Old Covenant. Jesus Christ's blood is there for us, and we recognize that. But with his Holy Spirit, we understand our mission in life, our focus in life, is to obey God completely. To obey him completely and to realize obedience is what God wants. He wants us to sacrifice ourselves, to do, to combat with his Holy Spirit that natural nature, that carnal nature that's in us, that wants to rebel against him, that wants to resist what he says or others tell us, who wants to believe that we can do things a little differently than God says, and he's okay with it. Just a little bit of compromise. And all those attitudes and all those natural things that come into our mind, we have to weed out one by one. We can only do that with God's Holy Spirit, but that's the obedience that God is looking for, and that submission, and that complete surrender to him. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed. Notice that? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed. To listen. You know, how many times we talk about listening carefully and diligently to God, listening and reading and reading and obeying him diligently and carefully. To listen to the warnings he gives, because we are all susceptible to just kind of going off on our own little thing for a while and doing what comes naturally, putting God aside. And, you know, sometimes we have to listen to the words and let God bring us back to him. We have to be close to him until listen, and the heed is better than the fad of rams.

For rebellion, and that doesn't have to be like outright rebellion like Korah, that's the ultimate, you know, but we all have a rebellious nature. We all, you know what, hear things, I don't really want to do it that way, I don't really want to do that. You know, that rebellion has to be brought out of us, weeded out of us by God's Spirit, little by little. Jesus Christ, there was no rebellion in him at all. He sacrifices entire will to God. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. You know, some people really are stubborn. I, you know, who might have had children that, you know, some are just more stubborn than others, and you can talk about it and talk about it and talk about it. And even when they're two and three years old, you kind of marvel how this is just little human being to be so stubborn about something. And something we all have to, we all have to watch in ourselves that we're, that we are learning to yield and we catch ourselves and we recognize the weaknesses that we have because we all have them. And part of growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ is when we catch ourselves, oops, I've got that resistant attitude. Oh, I've got that rebellious attitude. Oh, I've got that stubbornness. I don't want to listen to this, and I don't want to listen to that person. I don't want to hear that. We've got to catch ourselves and say, oh, that's exactly the thing that I need to be overcoming. That's exactly the thing that I need to ask God, help me to have that out of my life so I can become like you and have the mind of Christ so I can be with you forever.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. It's these attitudes, God, what He compares them to. Because you've rejected the Word of the Lord, He also has rejected you, speaking to Saul, from being king. You never want to hear those words. God says to us, I mean, we're in preparation to be kings and priests.

It tells us in Revelation 5 as well. We don't want God one day to say, you know what? You rejected my words. That doesn't mean He's not okay with 90% there. I want all of you. Romans 12, we know what Paul says, is our reasonable sacrifice, our service to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. And when we understand more fully what Jesus Christ did, what God the Father has done, what they have offered us, and the salvation they've given us in the future that's there, I think all of us would have to agree it is our reasonable sacrifice.

We owe it all to Jesus Christ and to God the Father, and it is our reasonable sacrifice to just yield ourselves and our minds to Him. So, let's go back to Hebrews 10. You know, sacrifice, and of course, he is quoting from Psalm 40 verses 6 through 8 here in Hebrews 10, 5 through 7.

Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire, Christ said. That wasn't the purpose of it. I wanted you. I want you to be in the kingdom. I want you to. I want to offer you salvation. Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire, but such a key verse, or part in verse 5. But a body you have prepared for me. Now, we all have bodies. Jesus Christ was, you know, he was flesh and blood like you are.

But there was Jesus Christ who before he was flesh and blood was God the Father, or God the Father, was the Logos who was God. And part of the plan was to prepare a body for him. He was going to, as we often say, empty himself of being God so that he could become flesh and blood, mortal man, fully man, still, you know, the Son of Man and the Son of God. But God was going to prepare a body for him, for the sole purpose that he could come down to earth, live with us, understand us, go through the trials, the temptations of life, and then to have that body tortured and killed.

Prepare the body for me. You know, that's, again, that's awesome when we think about it. Christ didn't do that for himself. Everything he did was for you and me, and for all of mankind. And God the Father, and that was a part of the plan. How do we, you know, how will it be that someone who is God, who has eternally existed, will empty himself of being God and be born into a physical human body, so that these people I'm creating that I want to give the opportunity to reign with Jesus Christ forever, so that they have the opportunity? Because without him doing that, the whole plan is nix.

And he did that. He did that just for you and me, not for himself. He did it for the plan of God to go on with us, as again, as we recognize and believe what Christ did, and the planning that he had to go into that, and the submission to God that we see. I mean, Jesus Christ, he was an example of obedience.

Somewhere along the line, he said, whatever the plan takes, whatever the plan takes, I'll do. I'll do. And he did it. He did it. He did it. And we can all be thankful he did. Verse 6, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, he had no pleasure. And then I said, Behold, I've come. In the volume of the book, it's written of me to do your will, O God. Christ, as he's talking, he says, it's written in the book. It's in the Word of God. It had to happen. It was prophesied.

It was my job to do that. Part of my plan here, or part of the plan, was for me to come to earth to do your will. And that will included everything that happened to Jesus Christ when he was on earth, including his death.

Let's stop there and focus on that. Because again, Jesus Christ is our example. So he who was God, who was the low ghost before he became Jesus Christ, he who was Melchizedek, who appeared to Abraham back then, he came to earth simply to do the will of God and everything that that entailed. Now he says that in Luke 4. Let me look at my notes here. Luke 4. I'm looking at the wrong verse. Luke 4, 17, and 18.

You know, when Jesus Christ has handed that book of Isaiah in these verses that we've read a few times here recently, he was basically saying, look, this is what I came to do. This is what God said that the Son of Man would do. This is what I do. He's handed the book about the prophet Isaiah, the very word of God that was prepared before mankind was on earth. It was the book was written afterwards, but the plan of God was there. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found a place where it was written.

He proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord. And this says he closed the book, he gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and everyone there was just staring at him. And he began to say, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. I'm here. It was God's will. It was prophesied of the Old Testament. If it's in the Bible, it's going to happen. And he was there. He was there to do God's will. And Philippians 2 is just looking at Paul's thing here that he mentioned earlier. Philippians 2, verse 7. I'm going to read it first from the New King James. Then I'm going to read the translation that Paul Dayle gave us from the Message Bible. Verse 7, it says, Jesus Christ made himself of no reputation. Means he emptied himself of being God. He was just a human being. Made himself of no reputation. Taking the form of a bond servant, a slave. Remember, we talked about that. Doulos is the Greek word for that. Taking the form of a slave and coming in the likeness of men. He humbled himself and he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Let me read this from the Message Bible here. This is Philippians 2, 6 through 11. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God, but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status, no matter what.

We have no idea what it's like to be God, but Jesus Christ did. He was willing to give all that up for mankind. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave. He became human. Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim any special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death, and the worst kind of death at that, a crucifixion. Notice how many times the word obedience is in there. Jesus Christ was completely submitted to God's will, and that means he obeyed it in every single step of the plan that God had. If Jesus Christ was willing to do that, and we are so patting our lives after him, then we obey God every step of the way, no matter what twist and turn that we may not foresee. We follow him. We have absolute trust in him, just as Jesus Christ did, that he will lead us to eternal life just as God the Father led Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jesus Christ completely doing God's will and completely submitted to his will every step of the way. In all ways, Jesus Christ was our example, and he doesn't ask us to do anything that he didn't do himself. Okay, let's go back to Hebrews 10. I'm going to read verse 7 again. I, just Jesus Christ, behold, I have come. In the volume of the book it is written of me. It is written of me to do your will, O God. And in verse 8, he repeats it. He says, Previously saying, sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin you didn't desire, nor did you have pleasure in them. But he mentions they are offered according to the law. But that wasn't the end result. God wasn't interested in those sacrifices. He's interested in our sacrifice, just like he was interested in Jesus Christ's sacrifice as our forerunner and as our elder brother and the first of the first fruits. What he did, God is interested in us doing the same thing. Verse 9, then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. You know, Jesus Christ repeats it again. And I know I have a verse written here on God's will. I just don't know where I wrote it. Let me look at my notes here. Oh, that's probably it. I wrote it in my Bible again. John 6. Turn to John 6. John 6 and verse 38. Words that Jesus Christ was saying to the multitude that had gathered. They fed the 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread and five fish, or the opposite of it might be. And then he talked to them about the bread of life. In verse 38, he says this. He says, I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Now there he is. If we just take that verse out of all the other things that he tells us that we read every year as we're reminding ourselves of who we are and who we follow at Passover. He says, I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me.

And so by the same vein, when we commit to God, when we're baptized, when we receive his Holy Spirit, our lives are no longer to do our will, but to do the will of the one of him who called us. The very same thing that Jesus Christ did. He was or is. He's our captain and he is our Savior. Look at Matthew 26 in verse 39. When I was Jesus Christ was being arrested on that Passover night and as he went through the trials that he went through that night during the next day, the crucifixion and everything. He always kept his eyes on God. He never took his eyes off God. It's the only way that he is as human, fully human, but also, remember that he had God's Holy Spirit. God is his Father. It was an example to us as we go through life and whatever trials, whatever storms come our way, we have to remember to keep our eyes on God. If we look to ourselves, if we look to the world, if we look for mercy for mankind, we're not going to find what we're looking for. Jesus Christ relied totally on God. He understood the nature of man and the spirit that was in the people that were there gathered to arrest him, convict him, and then crucify him that day. One of the things we should always remember when we can't forgive someone is what Jesus Christ said. He looked at it. He knew the spirit that had captivated those people.

Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Magnificent words. As we go through whatever happens between now and the return of Jesus Christ, to realize there's a spirit in the world that the world can't resist Satan. You and I can. We can see the difference between the will of God, and we test the spirits, and we understand the spirits, and we follow God. But if we ever take our eyes off of God and begin to rely on people, or institutions, or constitutions, or the law of the land, we will fail. Jesus Christ, if he didn't rely on God, he wouldn't have failed, but he would have failed if he had taken his eyes off God.

Verse 39, just like Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He went a little farther and fell out of space, and he prayed, saying, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He was daunted by what was going to happen to him in the next several hours. Nevertheless, he said, not as I will, but as you will. And we have to remember that as well. If there's another way, Father, it's very human to ask that, but then we have to accept God's answer. God's answer to Jesus Christ was, there's only one way. This is what you have to go through in order for you to be the Savior of mankind. This is what was written. This is what was agreed. This is the plan of God. It's the only way.

And he succeeded. He succeeded because he followed God and kept his eyes on there, and he was full of God's Holy Spirit. The very same thing he allows us to do today as we spend our physical lives after baptism, committing to him, yielding to him, letting him increase that spirit in us.

Increase that spirit in us. That we can be full of that Holy Spirit. That when that time comes, whatever the time or whatever the situation for us individually, he will see us through. Just as he did Jesus Christ, he will give us the strength to do it. We just have to be completely committed and completely obedient to him and learn that obedience. As the Bible tells us, even Jesus Christ learned that obedience.

Even though he was perfect, he learned while he was on earth the perfect example for you and me, the perfect forerunner.

Okay, let's go back to Hebrews 10.

We were in Hebrews 10 verse 9.

He said, Behold, I have come to do your will of God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second.

And so, you know, we have a number of firsts and seconds. The first covenant was done away with its obsolete. We have the second covenant, the new covenant that is here now. It is where the age of the Holy Spirit, the age of the church, the age of Christ, it'll continue.

God will continue to pour out his Spirit on mankind. We can talk about the first body, the physical body. It does away with the physical body. You and I have it. We read in Hebrews 9, 27, it's appointed for all men to die once. The physical body will, is the first body, it will pass away, but then the second body, the spirit body that will will last forever.

He takes away the first that he may establish the second.

Verse 10, by that will, by that will, what will? By that complete submission and commitment to the will of God, by that will, that obedience that Jesus Christ exhibited every step of the way. The same obedience that you and I need to develop in our lives by that will, that same will that Jesus Christ established that he exhibited for us by completely being committed to the will of God, to the Father's will. Not replacing his will or his ideas along the path and saying, we should have thought this out better. This is it. This is the way it is done.

By that will, we have been sanctified. Sanctified means being set apart. We've been set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Now, remember that, you know, for those of us who have been called in this time, God doesn't call everyone in this day and age.

John 6, 44, John 6, just a few minutes ago, says, you know, it's God that calls. Jesus Christ said, no one can come to me except the Father who sent me calls him.

And so we know it's not God's will for every single person on earth to be called today. But he has called some. Right? Many are called. The Bible says you were chosen. You and I are among those who are called and I hope chosen as well. We'll pray that everyone for each other that we are all chosen and our lives and the choices we make in our lives, you know, demonstrate that.

But we're going to be, you know, but we're going to God is He set us apart. He set us apart. You know, the rest of mankind is it's after the millennium that they had their opportunity to know God and at the time he opens their minds or calls them, if you will.

Once for all, you know, refers us right back to Hebrews 9 verse 28, where it tells us a number of times in Hebrews 9 there's one sacrifice for sin. Jesus Christ was offered once and we have one.

When we're called and our minds are open and we begin to walk that walk with God, we have one opportunity. There is no second chance. This is this is your and my opportunity to follow God. And judgment is now on the house of God. So it's incumbent on us to be following Him and learning that obedience, that perfect obedience that we must show God before He will ever allow us to be in His kingdom and have any kind of position or authority because He needs to know thoroughly what's in our hearts and what we're about and the character that we would have that we would always be loyal to Him and follow His kingdom.

And that's what we're going to do. Okay, verse 11. Verse 11. Every priest, this is talking about the priests. Remember, priests, the definition, they do the sacrifices. They were the Old Testament in the in the tabernacle. Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. And there's the word man there. The word man is not in the original transcript. It's this one, or but this, you know, really, there's another way. The translators added that man, but it has the meaning, it's talking of Jesus Christ.

But this, after He, Jesus Christ, had offered one sacrifice for sins forever for all of mankind, one sacrifice forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Now, a couple things we can see and sat down at the right hand of God.

You know, He sat down. When we're done with our job, we may take our seat, you know, we can get up, we can do some things. When we're done with our job, we come in and sit down. Jesus Christ's mission is complete for now. He's got a commission. He's got a mission when God sends Him back down to earth. But now He sits down at the right hand of God, and He prophesied that. And I do want to spend a little bit of time looking at some of the things because the right hand of God is significant.

You know, we see that in the Bible many times on the right hand. We go back to Mark, Mark 16. Mark 16, verse 19. Book of Mark, Gospel of Mark, wraps up with, So then after the Lord has spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and He sat down at the right hand of God. Very same words. He went up to heaven, He sat down at the right hand of God. Now He was going to come and acts and, you know, appear to them again, but He sat down at the right hand of God.

In Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, verse 20, Ephesians 1, verse 20, Ephesians 1, verse 20, Ephesians 1, verse 20, Ephesians 1 suggests that the sentence begins way, way up back in verse 15. It starts with a therefore, which tells us Paul is making a point here. He's not believing even more deeply than we did before, maybe a deeper appreciation for God than we had before we delved into the book of Hebrews in such detail. What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ. Working in us, what He worked in Christ, what He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that wishes to come.

That's Jesus Christ, the only name by which salvation comes and all the earth for all of mankind. And you and I have access to that today because of what Jesus Christ did and the calling that God has given us. Now, I'm going to give you some verses, but let's go back to Psalms because right hand... Boy, there's so many verses in Psalms that talks about right hand.

You can look it up into concordance or look it up on the Internet, but let's just look it up to you. Psalm 16 and verse 11. The significance of being at God's right hand means something.

And there's this position of authority, this position of acceptance, this position of whatever. The meaning of the right hand is something that's noted throughout the Bible. Psalm 16 and verse 10. Verse 10, we see, speaking of Jesus Christ, it says, you will not leave my soul in Sheol.

You know, Jesus Christ was literally dead for three days and three nights. He was in the grave. He had absolute faith in God that He would resurrect Him. You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Jesus Christ's body never, it wasn't dead long enough to decay. Three days and three nights. You will show me the path of life in your presence, His fullness of joy, at your right hand, our pleasure is forevermore.

Now, your right hand, our pleasure is forevermore. Remember our calling, you know, as firstfruits that God the Father has called us to be firstfruits, to be with Jesus Christ, to reign with Him, and indeed to be His bride, to be, you know, for eternity, that. Now, your right hand, our pleasure is forevermore. Psalm 18, just a couple chapters over. Verse 35. You have given me the shield of your salvation. This is the Psalm of David, I'm sure. Yep, the Psalm of David. You have given me the shield of your salvation.

Your right hand has held me up. Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me so my feet did not slip. Your right hand has held me up. Jesus Christ sits at His right hand, whether that's what it's referring to or not. But God's right hand, David says, has held me up. A couple more chapters, Psalm 20. Verse 6. Psalm 20, verse 6. I know that the eternal saves His anointed. He will answer Him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

He will save Him with the saving strength of His right hand. Let's look at Psalm 60. In verse 4. Psalm 60, verse 4. You've given a banner to those who fear you that it may be displayed because of the truth. Say, that your beloved may be delivered. Save with your right hand and hear me. Save with your right hand and hear me. I could go on and on. I've got a few more written here, but I'll give you Psalm 48, 10, Psalm 89, 13.

But like I said, you can go into one of the Bible programs, type in right hand. It'll give you every occasion in the Bible where right hand shows up. It's an interesting study as you do that. Especially as we see that Jesus Christ, He was resurrected. God accepted Him today. He sits at the right hand of God. A very special place to be according to the Scriptures. Maybe more significant than we understand yet today.

So let's go back to Hebrews 10. We were in verse 12. This one, or what this, after Christ has offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time, waiting, verse 13, till His enemies are made His footstool. I think the lesson for today among the many things we'll talk about is in that word, waiting.

Jesus Christ, who is the example for us in everything that we've done, everything that we do and God is going to call us to do, He is at God's right hand today, waiting. Waiting for the time when God says, now's the time. Now is the time for Jesus Christ to be turned to earth and establish His kingdom. Now think about that for a while. Jesus Christ was on earth, you know, almost 2,000 years ago.

He suffered. He said, you know, He's won the victory over the world. He has the victory over death. He submitted to God's will. He told us while He was a human being, today He still submitted to God's will completely. The Bible tells us that He doesn't know the day or the hour that He'll be sent back. He's sitting there waiting. He's waiting for when God says, I don't think Jesus Christ is up there, you know, tugging at God or saying, can it be today?

Can it be today? How much longer? How much longer? He is learning to simply wait because He knows that God has the plan and that when He says it's time, it will be time. It is a lesson for us of that. You know, I think back to King David. And King David had a similar experience in his life. He was anointed King of Israel at a very young age. So when he was sitting in Saul's court, he knew he had already been anointed King. But David simply waited. He waited until the time that God gave him the kingdom.

He wasn't impatient. He didn't run around telling people, I'm King, I'm King. He was completely submitted to King Saul, even though King Saul was an evil king. Didn't do God's will. He waited for God. He completely and patiently waited for God. Just like Jesus Christ is completely waiting for God today. Whatever God says, now's the time. That's it. So for 2,000 years, almost, Jesus Christ has been waiting to return to earth and establish His kingdom.

We read in the book of Revelation, you know, in the symbolic prayers that come up, how much longer, Father? How much longer until our death is avenged for us? You know, mankind is eager to get things done. But there is a lesson in waiting that we all learn. You know, some of us have entered the church all our lives, decades, that know the truth for, you know, 30, 40, 50, 60 years or more.

But we still wait. We still wait for Jesus Christ to return. And there's a value in that. You know, there's so much that we learn by doing this. Think about how much David learned as the time he patiently waited for the time when God would install him. He was told he was going to be king.

He was anointed in his king. But before God actually installed him as king, he learned to have complete faith in God. He didn't waver. He didn't doubt. You never see David thinking, well, maybe, maybe, maybe Samuel didn't know what he was doing. He said, you know, I'll just go off and do my own things or I'll take matters into my own hands or whatever it is. He completely waited. And through that time he waited. Just look what God taught him. Look at the things as you read through the book of Psalms and you look at the Psalms that he wrote while he was in the wilderness and while he was waiting for the time that Saul, you know, that God would depose Saul and install David as king.

He learned a lot of things. Think what you and I are learning as we wait for God. This time is valuable. This time God has ordained for us to wait for him and to learn the obedience, the commitment, the submission, the trust, the reliance to weed out the things of the world, to weed out all of the wrong attitudes and the things that we do and for and to build that complete reliance in God that we get closer and closer to God.

That we get closer and closer and more reliant and dependent and committed to him as time goes on. If Jesus Christ had ascended into heaven and then 10 years later came back, what would the apostles, what would the people of the early New Testament church, what would they have learned? They wouldn't have learned a whole lot. They wouldn't have learned the character. We need the time to have the character to build the character of God. Part of that is in waiting for God. Let's look at Philippians.

Philippians 3. Philippians 3 and verse 20. Our citizenship is in heaven. As we watch, we have a transfer of power in the United States. We live here in the United States. We've lived here all of our lives. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where we look today. Our king is in heaven. Our leader, our guide, our Savior is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where our mind should be coming out of the world, coming out of the reliance on the world, putting away the little gods of the world, and committing more and more to God as time goes on, not slinking back into the world.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait, eagerly wait, for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We wait. Part of God's calling is we wait. We read that in Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2. I think even last week we talked about waiting for God. In 1 Thessalonians, just a few books over, in 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 9, picking up at the beginning of the sentence, Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

They had to do the same thing we do. They turned from the idols of Artemis, Ishtar, all those, all those. We have to turn from the idols of this world to the living God. They had to turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Part of our calling is to wait. How well do we wait?

You know, many of us know many people who just didn't wait. There is strength of character that is built in waiting. There's the dangers of drifting away while we wait, getting too close to the world, but we wait, Jesus Christ Himself said, endure to the end. Wait for me. Don't go off. Don't get slack. Don't become complacent. Don't try to take matters into your own hands. Wait for me. Endure the end. Luke 12. Luke 12. In verse 36. Pick it up in verse 35 where the sentence begins.

If time speeds up and then slows down, we don't lose heart. We don't think what's going on, that we are constantly growing in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ, that when He returns, whenever that may be, that we're ready. Now we can open to Him immediately. Not like the virgins. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I didn't encounter it right now. I wasn't waiting very well. Part of our job of waiting is making sure we are ready. So when Jesus Christ returns, we are immediately ready to receive Him. And He's immediately ready to receive us because He sees where our hearts have been and how we've been yielding to Him through time, that we're ready to be made Spirit beings. Okay. Let's go back to Hebrews then. You know, we learned these things as we look at the example of Jesus Christ. Everything that that we're being asked to do as part of our calling, He's done as well and is still doing. We were in Hebrews 10, we were in verse 13. From that time, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. Well, I'm going to give you a few verses on footstool that you can look at there. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 25 talks about God making Christ's enemies His footstool. Luke 20 verse 43. The reference is in Hebrews 1, 13, and 2, 8 as well. So I think we understand that. You know, God says in Acts 2 that the earth is His footstool. You know, as He's in heaven, the earth is His footstool. Jesus Christ is looking to the time when He comes down and His enemies are made His footstool. Verse 14, for by one offering, for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Well, we know sanctified is the, you know, those of us who are set apart, the first fruits. For by one offering His sacrifice, His offering was so important. By one offering He sanctified, set apart those those who are being set apart forever. You know, we now have as a result of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, we have the opportunity of His Holy Spirit, and we have the opportunity to become, you know, perfected, can be blameless, it can be spiritually mature, that we continually grow, that our hearts become more and more like Jesus Christ. Our minds think more and more like Jesus Christ, that He by one sacrifice, that He by one sacrifice has perfected forever. Well, He's done His job. He perfectly completed, you know, His role in our salvation, but we still have our, you know, role, and that is, you know, found in the word 14, though, those who are being sanctified, those who the whole process of life, where we become more and more like God, you know, following more closely His will, not making excuses, not creating reasons that we can't do it, not being like those people who were invited to the wedding supper, and they had every excuse under the book, another group of people that God said, follow me, they let me do this, I'll do this later, and what about this, and what about that? Simply following God, by one offering He has perfected forever, those who are being sanctified. And that's the state you and I are in right now. We're being set apart.

But we have to be working the work. We have to be learning that complete obedience and surrender to God the Father, that Jesus Christ so perfectly demonstrated and set the example for us while He was on earth.

Verse 15, but the Holy Spirit witnesses to us, for after He had said before, this is the covenant, that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I'll write them.

And we read that from back in Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34, that after the Old Covenant, He would put His Spirit into us and to people who are in the first, in the millennium will have God's Holy Spirit, that He will put His mind, He will put His Spirit in people, we will have the opportunity.

When we receive God's Holy Spirit, we become complete people. Every man that lives has the Spirit in man, but we are not complete people. We are not complete for salvation and the purpose for which God has created us until we have God's Holy Spirit, it tells us in 1 Corinthians 2.

We become complete at that point. Every man must accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice, must believe in Jesus Christ's sacrifice, must receive God's Spirit, and they must act and be led by that Spirit and learn that through however many years God gives them to do that.

That's Jeremiah 31 that we talked about in verse 17, but it says, after this, after He says, I'm going to put my laws into their minds, into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. Remember, He never did that with ancient Israel. Part of the Old Covenant was not that He gave them the law and tablets, physical tablets, but He never wrote His laws on their minds and hearts.

That's a New Covenant thing that's only there for us. But He adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

That's a direct quote from Jeremiah 31 verse 34. But very important for us to realize when God calls us and when we genuinely and sincerely repent and we're baptized and we receive the Holy Spirit and go through that physical process that God wants us to, that really is a reflection of the spiritual process that we are going through. And God sees that we have genuinely and sincerely repented and He puts His Holy Spirit in us.

We are completely washed. The sins that we had before are completely forgiven. They are obliterated from His mind. He sees us as a brand new child.

He's not holding us accountable for that anymore. Jesus Christ has paid the price for that for us. It's a marvelous thing. Ancient Israel, all the people before Jesus Christ, all the people in the world who aren't called today, they don't have that today.

You and I do, but every man, woman, and child who ever lived will have the same opportunity that you and I have today. The sins, the death penalty, the things that we did completely gone by that one sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we just have to kind of stop and meditate and wrap our minds about what He did and to realize we really were dead people. We really had no future. We really had the death penalty hanging over our heads.

Jesus Christ paid the price. How much do we owe Him? Romans 12.1.2, we owe Him everything because there's no life without Him.

But all those sins are gone and we are a brand new creation. You can write down Romans 6 verse 4 that tells us that as well.

1 Corinthians 5, 7 or 5, 17 tells us the same thing. In God's eyes we're a new creation. He's now writing His script on us as we allow Him to do that.

Verse 18, where there's a remission of these, where we've been forgiven, never happened through the Old Testament animal sacrifices, but with Jesus Christ's sacrifice, where there's remission of these sins and these lawless deeds, there is no longer an offering for sin.

God's forgiven us. He's forgiven us. Jesus Christ paid the price. So we don't have to do those physical animal sacrifices anymore, but we do need to offer sacrifices to God.

Our lives are to be a living sacrifice to Him. Later on in Hebrews 13, as we get into applying the principles of Hebrews into our lives, we read there in verse 15.

Therefore, by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, thanking Him, reminding Him, giving Him thanks daily, as Paul says, by everything in supplication before Him, giving thanks all the time.

Therefore, by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Verse 16, and don't forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Jesus Christ sacrificed everything for us. He's looking for us to become people who are concerned and looking out for others as well who have that agape that Jesus Christ so perfectly demonstrated for us.

Okay. So, Jesus Christ died once and for all. We're going to see later on, right, that we're not going to get probably to the end of chapter 10 today, that again, we have to be committed and we have to keep our eyes on God and we have to keep marching forward and not allow ourselves to drift back in because there is no second sacrifice for sins. We need to keep our eyes and our focus on going forward to the kingdom. Okay, verse 19, Hebrews 10. Okay, there's a word, therefore. Okay, looking at everything that we've done, look what Jesus Christ has done. He's sitting at God's right hand. We've learned about waiting, what an important part of our calling it is, as God perfects that character in us as we do it the way He commissions us to do it. Verse 19, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh. Well, let's look. You know, often we use that word bold. I know when I anoint people, I'll mention to God that we come boldly before His throne, but we accept His will and we are thankful for the opportunity to come before His throne, that Jesus Christ has sacrificed Himself for us, that He has opened up the way for us to have access into that holiest of all that it talks about there in verse 19. In Old Covenant times, it was only the high priest and only one day a year that had access to the Holy of Holies, and that was just a physical place in a building in the tabernacle. You and I have access to God's throne whenever we want because of what Jesus Christ had. Access to the throne of God whenever we want, another thing to just spend some time and contemplate. Any time we want, we can go before God the Father, the God of the entire universe.

That word boldness there. We can go with it with boldness. Now, I don't know what we think of boldness, but let me give you what the Greek meaning of the word translated boldness is there so that we understand what it is that we have.

Boldness comes from the Greek 3954. It literally means outspokenness, frankness, bluntness, to be able to freely, openly, and plainly speak.

Now, that means that when we come before God's throne, of course we are respectful, always remembering who God is. He is God the Father, the God of the universe. We are always respectful, and we never count Him common, equal, always with respect, always praying in the model of prayer, giving thanks to God and recognizing Him. But He says when we come before Him, we can tell Him anything we need to. We can be open and frank with Him. We can tell Him our innermost thoughts, our innermost feelings.

We can talk about the things we did and how, you know, how we repent that we, you know, we need help. We need to understand how to overcome this sin that does so easily beset us, as we'll read in Hebrews 12. How do we do that? Teach us. We can ask God, I know I want to do Your will, but I don't even know that I understand Your will at this time. Can You teach me what that is? We don't have to be coy with God. We don't have to act like we know it all.

He's here to guide us and direct us. He wants us to be part of His kingdom, and we need that instruction. Now, we get the instruction, you know, through the Word of God. We get it when we come to church. There's a place for the body of Christ and the instruction that He gives, and that's why we need to know Him.

We need to be consistent listening and healing to Him, but we can do that in prayers, too. God will lead us into what we need to do if we talk to Him. We don't have to hide the truth from Him. We don't have to act like, you know, what our...we just need to be open and frank with Him. He knows, He already knows, but we need to know what we need from Him. We need to acknowledge to Him who we are. We need to acknowledge the fact that we just can't seem to shake this.

I've been battling this attitude for 30 years. I just can't. I think I have it nailed, and then all of a sudden, something comes up, and I'm back in that same scenario again. It's okay to be open with God, but do it with the intent, and do it with your heart and the proper motivation that I want to overcome. I need your help. I know I need your help.

I can't be reliant on this anymore. I can't always, when this happens, run back to this idol or this God or this thing. I have to learn to trust you. I have to become who you want me to become. How do I do that? Teach me how to trust you. Teach me how to do that. I'll be prepared, because when we ask God those things, there will be trials come. There will be opportunities that he gives us to learn how to trust him and to rely on him and obey him. But if our heart is in it, we'll do that. But you know, we can ask God, and when Christ says here, and the author here of Hebrews tells us, come to him with boldness.

Just be frank. Don't be disrespectful. Don't have him accountable, because it's our job. It's our job to ask. Jesus Christ said, whatever you ask in my name, when we're living our lives the way we've been called to do, whatever you ask in my name, I will give you. He also says in that verse in Luke, whoever, I will give him the Holy Spirit freely. But God needs to see that that's what our will is, and that's where our focus is. So we can come into that Holy of Holies, into God's chamber where Jesus Christ is there in his right hand, our intercessor, our mediator, and can say, yeah, you know, whatever whatever he does as mediator, because his interest is, he came to die for us.

He came that we might be in that kingdom. He came that we might be reconciled fully to God. And so, you know, we can do that. Use that opportunity to pray to God. Don't neglect that everything else, because God's given us the way to his salvation, the way to eternity.

It has to be done his way. It's not just as some people think just God and me, you know, it is God and you. We work on our own salvation, but we do it in the context of what he gave us to do. And we'll see here for a moment that Jesus Christ, in verse 21 of Hebrews 10, he's high priest over the house of God. He's high priest over at the church. He's our high priest today. We don't have Aaron, we don't have Eliazar, and we don't have all the other physical high priests.

We have Jesus Christ, who's the head of the church. He's the high priest, and that's where he wants us to be. And that's where we grow. So when we read boldness, yes, come and be open to God. Don't disrespect him and never act like he owes us anything. We owe him everything. Ask him in respect, and he will give when our will is the same as his, that we want to do his will and become like him.

If we look at verse 20 there in Hebrews 10, read verse 19, therefore, brethren, having boldness, having the frankness, having the excess, having being able to openly, plainly, and freely to speak to God, to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's how it happened. No other way, except by Jesus Christ's sacrifice, that that happened by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us. And there's the words for us. He did it for you and me, for all of mankind. He did it for us. Totally selfless. Nothing about him, all for us, and everything he went through.

Now, the word new there, the only time this Greek word that's translated new there is used in the New Testament. It really should be more appropriately translated as recent, by a recent. Now, remember when this book was originally authored? It was around in the early 60s AD, so 30 years after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven 30 years after the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was first given to the Church of God by a recent and living way.

So he's drawing to, you know, again, remember the book was originally penned for the Jews of the Jews who had become Christians. It was a new way. It was a recent way. This has only happened as part of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant is done away with. That was part of the past, part of God's plan. The fault with the Old Covenant was the people, as we read in Hebrews 8, verse 8. It wasn't with the law of God. That continues. But now there's a new, a recent, a new way, a living way, a way that leads to eternal life, which Christ consecrated for us.

He did it for us. He showed us the way. He said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Here's the way in New Covenant times, the New Covenant with the Spirit of God, that Jesus Christ opened up for us. Here's the way to eternal life. And our job and our mission is to follow that, learn it, apply it, and live it more and more and more perfectly as time goes on. Verse 20, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh.

Now again, you know, I mean, it's such a dramatic thing when you look at the death of Jesus Christ, I mean, His physical body died. And at the time His physical body, that body that God prepared for Him, for us, that our sins could be forgiven, the death penalty could be paid, that that body would be sacrificed, that we might have salvation. At that very moment, the physical veil in the physical temple was torn in two.

No longer only the Holy of Holies in the physical temple, but now with Christ's death, physical veil is gone, physical temple, meaning of it is gone. Now we have access to the holiest of all right up to God's throne. Physical life of Jesus Christ ended, physical temple was gone. Now we have access to God. And now we have an eternal high priest after the order of Melchizedek, as we talked about back in chapters 5 and 7. Verse 21, and having a high priest over the house of God. Everyone asks who our high priest is? Jesus Christ. Who's the head of the church? Jesus Christ. He's our high priest. He's the one we honor. He's the one we follow. Knowing all that, it says in verse 22.

Knowing all those things that we've talked about, there's so much about Jesus Christ that the book of Hebrews reminds us of. And along the way, we learn of the doctrine, how to live, that God intersperses in there for us. The Sabbath, the tithing, the waiting, the commitment, the complete sacrifice that we need to do. All the things that we've talked about in Hebrews.

Knowing all that, and that we have a high priest who's here, who's watching over us, who's working with us in our spiritual temples individually and collectively. Knowing all that, let's draw near. Let's draw near. Get closer to him. Let's draw near with a true heart.

Not a heart that's double-minded, as we read back when we were going through the book of James, but a heart that is singularly focused on God. Not one foot in the world and one foot in the church or with God, but with both feet, and our minds, and focused completely on God. And he's building up in verse 24 and 25, to the ultimate return of Jesus Christ, to the return that even Jesus Christ is waiting for. When will God's Father say that day is? And again, as we look at the attitudes and as we look at everything around us today, as I say, make no mistake, that day is approaching. That day is approaching in a way that we have not seen before in our lifetimes. But anyway, verse 22. Knowing all this, let's draw near with a true heart. The true heart that God has given us, writing his principles and his laws on our hearts and in our minds. Let's draw near with that heart in full assurance of faith. Completely believing him. Back in Hebrews 4, we talked about the faith of Abraham, how Abraham completely believed. He didn't doubt. He didn't waver. He made some mistakes along the way, like you and I do. But, you know, we have to have that faith. Always looking to God, never wavering, never doubting, never allowing fear to come in and interrupt or to, I guess, lay aside our faith or putting our faith in the world or man or government or whatever else it might be. Our faith has to be with God. It's the only way. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. As he prepares us, as we go into chapter 11 here next time, and in the faith chapter, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from its evil conscience. You know, when we were baptized, that evil conscience was supposed to... it doesn't totally disappear at the time of baptism, but now we have the Holy Spirit that over the course of the rest of our lives, we begin to see who we are, how we think.

And we should begin to see, oh, there's these changes that are there make. We don't think the same way we did before. Peter talks about that in 1 Peter 4. You don't think the way you used to before. The things I used to find so fun and exciting and whatever that I didn't think I could ever live without, I can live without.

They don't have the same appeal. You know, there are people who... one of the things that I find is absolutely amazing that is only of God, people who have a problem with smoking. You know, we have some that among us, you know, today in the church who had a hard time, but when they gave it to God, one day, you know, they said the taste was just gone. God took it away. He took away that taste from them, and so they no longer have that. They had complete faith in God, and He took that temptation away from Him.

But He can change the way we think, the way we are, and our thinking becomes different. Okay. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience... Now we have a good conscience, or should have the conscience, the mind of Christ as we have the Holy Spirit in us, and our bodies washed with pure water.

You know, we're baptized, and then we're completely clean in God's sight when we begin that walk with Him. And then we have annual reminders of that at Passover, that as we walk with God, our feet get dirty, and we need to be repenting, and we need to be washed constantly, constantly, as we see that, and as we become more and more perfect.

And we read that a lot. Hold fast. When you find the truth, hold fast to it. Hold fast the confession of our hope, without wavering. Don't let go of it. Wait patiently for God. Know that He's in control. He is returning, no matter how long it takes. And in a way, to be thankful to Him that we have the time to be drawing near to Him, to becoming more like Him, to be overcoming our sins, so that when He returns, we can immediately receive Him. And not think, oh wow, I waited too long. I'm not who God wants me to be. I've wasted my time.

I've let my light go out. I don't have enough oil in my lamp. You know, I haven't served the stranger. I haven't visited the sick. I haven't clothed the needy and fed them, and all the things that God wants to see us doing.

Let's hold fast the confession of our hope. You know, back in Hebrews, one chapter back here. Ah, yeah, chapter 7. In verse 19, he talks about that hope. Again, all these things that are here in Hebrews that we read about, and then it comes back again. Faith, hope, obedience, law, commandments, heart, conscience, waiting. For the law made nothing perfect, he says. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. Let us draw near. Let us draw near through that better hope that Jesus Christ opened up for us, with through which we draw near to God.

Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13. He said, there's faith, hope, and love. There's faith, hope, and charity, and gape. Those three. But the greatest of these is charity, but faith and hope. Faith and hope are key components to our continually walking with God. Let's hold fast, the time we have here. Let's hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, without doubt.

You're not going back and forth, but let's continually come out of the world. Let's continually commit to God and become more and more what he wants us to become. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Jesus Christ, he already proved. He resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus Christ had complete faith in God that he would resurrect him. Do we have complete faith in God that no matter what happens, if we die prematurely, if we die trusting in God, do we have doubts?

Do we ever doubt God's will? Let's have our faith in God and not waver back and forth and thinking the world might have a better idea here and whatever. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Verse 24 and verse 25, and I'll stop after verse 25 and we'll pick it up here. And let's draw near, recognize what we've done. Let's hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.

You know, we are here to help one another, to stay on the path to encourage one another, to pat each other on the back when we see someone who might be having a problem being there, helping them, encouraging them, stick with it. Don't let Satan trample over you. Don't fall prey to those wiles of the devil. Don't let depression get you down. Don't let doubt get you down. Don't let the cares of this world weigh you down. Don't let, you know, situations where families can overwhelm you and you have no, you just feel smothered.

You know, the freedom comes from Jesus Christ. Help ask him, go before him. How do I do it? How do I do this? How can I become like you? Open the door for me or let me show the path and I will walk through it. Let's consider one another. It's part of agape love.

We pray for each other that each other will be in the kingdom, just like Jesus Christ gave his life for us, that we would have salvation. He expects that we pray for each other and that we are there for each other because we want to see everyone that God calls in receive the salvation that he's offered to us.

Consider one another. Don't forget them. Don't think it's all about you. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Can't do that by ourselves. Can only do that when we're part of a body. Can only do that when we're seeing each other regularly and we get to know each other and we kind of read each other. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. I might add that as we got into verse 23 here, some doctrine ended and now for the rest of the book we're going to be reading some application into our lives of how we do these things.

Here in verse 24 we find one. Let's consider one another. Let's be with one another. Let's know one another. This part of applying what God has said to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the matter of some, but exhorting, there's that immediacy, there's that urgency that's in that word exhorting, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

You know, we can say, you know, as you see the day approaching, let us be drawing nearer to God with a true heart and full assurance of faith. As we see the day approaching, let's examine ourselves and let's be holding fast the confession of our hope without wavering. As we see the day approaching, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. As we see the approaching, don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

This is our high priest talking to us, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. Let's stop there three minutes early. Three minutes early and we'll finish up. The rest of the chapter talks about what happens if we fall back, if we drift away, if we give up the calling that God has given us.

And we'll talk about that not next week, but in two weeks when we get back together again and we'll get into Chapter 11 as well. We'll be able to move pretty quickly through Chapter 11. I'm wanting to get through Hebrews here so that we can be doing some things in preparation for Passover as we get into the month of February.

So anyway, let me pause there. If there's any questions, comments, observations, I will be more than happy to... You can talk among yourselves or I'll be happy to answer as...