Responding to the New Covenant

Hebrews 10:19-25

     Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 19 to 25, is our text for tonight in our continuing study of Hebrews, and we're fast coming to a conclusion in this book, and what a blessing it's been to be here and to share and to learn what God has for us. 

     When a man hears the gospel, the good news of salvation from sin through Jesus Christ, and when that man understands the gospel, and when that man believes that the gospel is true, and when he, to some extent, commits himself to that understanding, then he will, from that point, either go on to be a true believer or fall back to be an apostate.

     You see, there are only two possible responses to the knowledge of the gospel.  When an individual knows the truth of the gospel, he either goes on to believe, or he falls back into apostasy, and an apostate is one who rejects the truth, having known it.  That's different from somebody who maybe rejects only knowing a portion of it.

     There are only, then, two possible responses to the individual who intellectually understands the truth of the gospel, and that is to go on to faith or to fall back into a state of apostasy, which deserves, as the Bible tells us, the severest kind of punishment.

     Now, tonight, we're going to consider the first of those two possibilities, and that is the positive response to the new covenant, or salvation, the positive response.  A man knows the truth.  He understands the truth.  To a certain measure in his mind, he acquiesces to the truth.  And at that point, if he goes forward and commits his life to Christ, he has taken a positive response to the truth.  If he falls back, it's a negative response.

     Now, next week, or if we don't get done tonight, in two weeks, we will consider the negative response, and we'll study the horrible tragedy, beginning in verse 26, of willful apostasy, and what happens when a man willingly has a negative response to the gospel.  But tonight it's going to be positive.

     Now, as have been studying in the Book of Hebrews, we have been plumbing the depths of this very deep book.  It began, you'll remember, as we were introduced to the absolute superiority and sovereignty and supremacy of Jesus Christ.  We found Him in the very first verses of the first chapter of Hebrews to be the all-sufficient one.

     And then the writer of Hebrews begins to compare Jesus Christ with all of the features of the Old Testament, or the old covenant, because He's writing to Jews, and He wants to show them that Christ is the answer and they can drop everything else.  And so He shows how Christ is better than Moses, and Christ is better than angels, and Christ is better than all the prophets, and Christ is better than Joshua, and implies that Christ is better than David, and Christ is better than Aaron, and Christ is better than all the priests. 

     And Christ offered a better sacrifice than the other ones.  He is a better priest of a better priesthood than the other one.  And He offers a new covenant better than the other one.  And so all the way through chapter 10, clear to verse 18, from 1:1 to 10:18, is a presentation of the superiority of Jesus Christ.  And we've been seeing it all the way through.

     And now, as we come to 19, we find that He asks for a response.  Now, periodically, up through chapter 10, verse 18, He has been giving warnings.  "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" in chapter 2.  Later on in 4, more warnings.  Later on in 5, more warnings.  In 6, more warnings.  "If we know these things and we fall away, it's impossible to be renewed to repentance."  So warning has interspersed these presentations of the superiority of Christ.

     But now He's going to ask for a full response, beginning in verse 19.  And you'll notice that 19 begins, "Having therefore," and the therefores are always there for a good reason.  They always point backwards.  "On the basis of what I've said for 10 chapters and 18 verses, you must respond." 

     If you know the gospel of Jesus Christ, you either then take a positive response and boldly, verse 19, "enter into the holiest, or you take a negative response, verse 26, you sin willfully after you knew the truth, and you fall away, and judgment comes about.  Only two responses.  And that's what He's asking for beginning in chapter 10, verse 19, in response to all of the presentation of Christ up through verse 18 of chapter 10.

     And it's an appeal for men to come to Christ is what it is, on the basis of doctrine.  You see, no Biblical appeal is ever really made apart from a solid foundation in doctrine.  That's true all the way through Scripture.  All solid appeals are based on doctrine.  And so ten chapters of basic doctrine about the identity of Christ, and, finally, He says, "Now here's the opportunity for you to respond."

     And the first, then, is a positive response, and would to God that this would be the response that all men would have, that you tonight who don't know Christ would have even tonight.  The positive response is salvation.  Now, salvation is made up of three features, and these are common in our understanding throughout the Scripture:  faith, hope, and what's the third?  Love.  Faith, hope, love.

     Now, if you'll notice the text, first of all is faith.  "Let us draw near," verse 19.  Secondly is hope, verse 22.  Pardon me, verse 23.  Verse 22 really says, "Let us draw near."  Verse 23, "Let us hold fast."  And then there's love, verse 24, "Let us consider one another." 

     Three statements beginning with "Let us," one having to do with faith, one having to do with hope and one having to do with love.  And they really kind of separate into three features the experience of salvation.  Salvation is drawing near, holding fast and loving each other.  That's the fullness of salvation. 

     Somebody who draws near and falls away, that's not salvation.  Somebody who draws near, sticks around a while but doesn't love his brother falls under the qualifications of I John, in which it says, "If any man say he love God and love not his brother," he's what?  "He's a liar."

     And so salvation could be kind of dissected into faith, hope and love, faith in God, holding fast to our hope and loving each other.  That indicates a true believer.

     And so He's talking about a real response.  "Come on," He says, "draw near, hold fast and love each other."  And what He's really saying, pushed into one statement, is, "Take a positive response to the gospel."

     Now, let's begin with faith.  In verse 19 to 22, the key here, of course, being verse 22, which says, "Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of," what?  "Faith."  All right?  That's the key.  We're going to draw near through faith. 

     But building to this positive response is verse 19 and 20 and 21, so let's begin at verse 19.  On what basis can we draw near?  Here it comes.  "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus."  Now, He begins by saying, "We can enter into God's presence." 

     Now, the holiest has to do with the holy places.  You remember that in the Old Testament, as we've been studying, there was a Tabernacle or a Temple, and inside of the totality of this outer courtyard there was what was called the holy places, the holy place, and inside, separated by a veil, was the Holy of Holies.  And in the Holy of Holies, God dwelt.  And no man could enter into that place except the high priest once a year to offer atonement for the sins of the nation Israel.

     But now He is saying, "You all can enter into God's presence.  The veil has been torn down, and you can all enter in, and you can enter in boldly."  So we have this new entrance, you see, into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.  And, of course, this is a fantastic statement to a Jew, because, to a Jew, entering into the holiest is absolutely forbidden.  And if a Jew ever tried to do that under the old economy, he would've been instantly consumed in the flames of the fire of almighty wrath.  And no Jew would ever conceive of going into the Holy of Holies.

     In fact, it's interesting.  If you go to Jerusalem, you'll find out that there's a certain area of the Temple ground where it is forbidden to Jews to ever walk there, because it may be the area where the Holy of Holies once stood, and no Jew would ever put his foot on the Holy of Holies.  Therefore, there are big signs outside the gates of the Temple that say, "Orthodox Jews have been forbidden by the rabbi to enter in this place lest they step on the Holy of Holies." 

     They have a fear, still today, the Orthodox Jews, of ever going into the presence of God.  But because of the new covenant, He says we can have boldness.  We don't even go in sheepishly, saying, "God, I'm coming, don't step on me," see.  We can enter in boldly.  It's a fantastic concept for the Jewish mind to understand.

     Now, when He uses the term "brethren," just a point of information, when He uses the term "brethren" here as on other occasions in the Book of Hebrews and also in the Book of Romans, He's talking to Jewish brethren, not Christians.  "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" I think has primary reference to the Jews, to the brotherhood of Jews as it is so used elsewhere in Hebrews and, as I said, in Romans.

     On the basis of all that you've learned, therefore, on the basis of everything I've said in chapter 7, 8, 9 and 10 about the openness, about the fact that Jesus made the perfect sacrifice, that Jesus provided access, that Jesus provided entrance, on the fact of all of that, you have boldness to go on in and meet God person to person.

     The blood of Jesus has opened the way.  You see, in the Old Testament there was a lot of blood being shed, but none of it ever opened up the veil, did it?  All of the blood of all of the animals never did it.  It couldn't open the way.  It couldn't do it.  In chapter 9, we'll remember our study, in verse 22 said, "Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission."  No way to forgive sin apart from bloodshed, but the bloodshed of the animals didn't do it.

     Verse 3 in chapter 10 says, "In those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sin."  Not a forgiving, but just to help you to remember sin.  Verse 4 even says, "It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin."  Verse 6 says God doesn't have any pleasure in those things, because they don't do the job.  Verse 8 says the very same thing.

     And so there was no way that the blood of the animals could take away sin.  But the blood of Jesus Christ, there it is in verse 19, "We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus."  His perfect sacrifice, which we've studied in great detail, opened the way.

     If a man was to go into God's presence, or try to go, he couldn't even get there, but if a man was to try to go into God's presence based on his own character or based on his own works or based on his own religious affiliation, he would find no access.  None at all.

     In Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, there are many people who gather around the Lord, and they say, "Lord, we've done many wonderful works in your name and cast out devils and done miracles.  And we want to now come into your kingdom."  And He says to them, "Depart from me. I never knew you."  And He cast them out.

     They had all the right religious affiliations.  They had a lot of the right connections.  They had a lot of the right attitudes in terms of their character and their good works.  But they didn't know Jesus Christ.  Therefore, they were unqualified to enter the presence of God.  That's the only way.  But when we enter by the blood of Jesus Christ, we find access, fear vanishes and God sees us as clean and welcomes us in the blood of Christ. 

     Now, notice, He says we can have boldness.  We don't need to go into God's presence trembling.  We can go in without any fear.  Back in chapter 4, verse 16, this thought was introduced to us, when He said, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain," what?  Mercy.  We can go in boldly, because we know that God is not going to give us justice. 

     If we went in there and He gave us justice, He'd destroy us, because we deserve punishment.  Right?  What did He do with His justice?  He laid it on Jesus Christ and paid for sin, and therefore he can give us mercy, and so we can go boldly, saying, "I'm coming.  Because you've already spent your justice on Christ, your mercy remains for me."  And so we enter boldly.  In fact, we go into His presence, the apostle Paul says, "crying Abba, Father," which means papa.  It's intimate, even. 

     I love the story in Luke 15 of the prodigal son.  There's two stories there of the prodigals, one that went away and one that stayed home, but that's another sermon.  But the prodigal who went away came to himself, realizing he's having...he'd spent all of his means, and he wound up in a pigpen slopping pigs.  "And he said to himself, 'I will arise and go to my father.'"  You say, "Well, that's real good.  Who wouldn't in your situation?"  But that isn't how God sees it.  God takes a man when he comes, whatever his reason.

     "And he arose and he went."  And you find him...when he gets back, and you find him in his father's house.  You don't find him outside the door.  You don't find him peeking through the portholes or the windows or whatever.  He's in the house.  Sovereign grace has given him boldness to enter the house. 

     Why not?  He confessed his sin.  He received the kiss of reconciliation.  The father put on him the best robe, gave him a ring for his finger.  He was fitted to enter the father's house, and that's where you find him, not outside looking in.  Boldness.

     And so in the passage of the prodigal, we are told the prodigal had been, in a sense, perfected.  He had been made fit to enter the father's house.  And so it is in the experience of one who comes to God.  Jesus Christ puts the right robe on, the right ring on his finger, and gives him the right things so that he may enter the Father's house and not be in the wrong place.  He can go in boldly.

     And, of course, those in Judaism were afraid.  This whole concept was so revolutionary to them.  There was no way they were going to understand it in the first...the first time it was indicated.  That's why it's been repeated so many times in the Book of Hebrews. 

     But as faith begins to dawn in the believing heart, faith then begins to perceive that we may come to God, that God is not some cosmic indifference, that God is not some cosmic killjoy who wants to stomp on everybody and crush them in the fire of His wrath, but that God is a loving God who already spent His wrath on Jesus Christ for those who believe and has nothing left but mercy.  And there's no reason to hesitate, only to run into the arms of God. 

     You remember that no sooner had Adam sinned than the door to access to God was slammed shut, as soon as Adam sinned, and Adam no longer had access to God.  And God shot him out of the Garden and put an angel with a flaming sword so he couldn't get back into His presence.  But now you know what?  The blood of Jesus Christ quenched the fiery sword.  And the believing man can enter boldly into the presence of God.  The door has been opened again.

     Verse 20, "By a new and living way."  What?  There's a new way.  Well, the old way didn't get us in anyway, did it?  There better be a new route.  The old didn't make it.  "By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh."  It's not the old way.  The old way was done away.  8:13, "In that He saith a new covenant, He hath made the first old.  Now that which decayeth and growth old is ready to vanish away."  The old covenant fades.

     And, incidentally, the old covenant could only bring a man partially into the presence of God anyway.  It only just barely got him into that relationship, not the fullness of dwelling in the presence of God.  And we know it's a new way not only because it gets you to God and the old way didn't, but we know it's a new way because it's by the blood of Jesus and not the blood of animals anymore, and that's new.  And so the Spirit calls it a new and living way.  What a great statement. 

     I want you to see some things here that are just rich.  The word "new" is a very rare word in the New Testament.  It is not the typical word for "new," neos, kinas, none of those words.  It is this word:  prospheton.  You know what it means?  Freshly slaughtered.  That's the literal meaning.

     What it says is, "We have boldness to enter into the holiness by the blood of Jesus by a freshly slaughtered and living way."  How vivid.  How vivid.  Who was it that was freshly slaughtered that opened the way?  Jesus Christ, a freshly slain road to God.  All the old sacrifices didn't make it. 

     The old road was a dead road.  It wasn't a new and living way.  It was an old dead one.  There wasn't any life there.  The old way was only an index finger pointing to the new road, in Christ.  And I love the fact that it's been at least 30 years since Jesus died when this was written, but it's still fresh.  It's still a freshly slaughtered way.  Isn't that terrific?

     You know, under the old economy, you had to sacrifice an animal all the time, every day, every day, every day, every day, and every year through the Yom Kippur ceremony, all the time, over, and over, and over, and over.  Jesus Christ was slain once, and His slaying is fresh and still just as fresh today, 2,000 years later, as it was the day it happened.

     His sacrifice is effectual for all of time, and thus it is spoken of as fresh.  It's ever fresh because He's really the Lamb slain from before the foundations of the world.  His sacrifice is always fresh.  And for the man who comes to Jesus Christ tonight, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is fresh.  Because the Bible says, through the apostle Paul, that the moment you're saved you die with Christ.  "You are crucified with Christ, nevertheless you live."  And so in a very real sense, Christ's crucifixion is just as fresh as the moment that you experience Him.  It's a fresh way.

     Not only that, it's a living way.  Oh, that's exciting.  And that talks about resurrection.  How can you have a slain and a living sacrifice?  It never worked in the Old Testament.  You had a dead one, and that was it.  None of those animals bounced back to come alive again.  None of those pieces joined back together.  But here it's a living way.  Jesus isn't even a dead sacrifice.  He's alive.  He's risen.  And he's seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us.  And so it's a living way because the sacrifice is alive.

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