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Join us as we look at the three areas of the temple in the Old Testament and how they relate to spiritual maturity.
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Join us as we look at the three areas of the temple in the Old Testament and how they relate to spiritual maturity.
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Join us as we look at the three areas of the temple in the Old Testament and how they relate to spiritual maturity.
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The speaker is giving a sermon on the book of Hebrews, specifically chapter 10. They discuss the stages of spiritual maturity, starting with the outer court, representing a focus on personal sin and the need for forgiveness. They then move on to the holy place, where believers have closer access to God and a position of service. The speaker emphasizes the importance of drawing near to God with faith and full assurance, and highlights the complete work of Christ in washing away sin. They also discuss the responsibility of believers to serve rather than be served. open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter ten. The title tonight is entering in this is a fourth part of our series, a call to spiritual maturity. I actually have one more part in this series will be a five part series and we will talk about the just bring into perspective all that Christ has done for us regarding salvation that we can't earn it whatsoever, but they're definitely verses in Scripture that call us to action and lay upon us the responsibility to do certain things and to persevere to endure and we're going to look at those verses the next time that I I speak on that, and then that'll be the end of the series tonight. This entering in. I'm going to start in these verses Hebrews chapter ten verse nineteen to twenty two, and we're going to look at the stages of spiritual maturity as we have been. This will not include per se, the first stage, which is me, not Christ, but we will do me and Christ Christ and me, not me, but Christ, and then you'll get the you'll get to see how that plays out in these verses. Hebrews chapter ten verse nineteen is therefore brother 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 and having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let's pray. Father, we love you and we praise you. We surrender, Lord God, everything to you. We submit ourselves to you. We submit everything that we have to you, for you are the source of everything. Your word says that in you we live and move and have our being. We would not exist, Lord God, if it wasn't for you. Therefore our lives must be lived only through your power, only through your grace, and only for your purpose. We praise you, Father. Fill our hearts with that certainty, Lord God, and the assurance of what you have done for us. Teach us tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. So I have some things underlined here that he's brought us in. So boldness means confidence to enter the holiest, a new and living way. So he's given us a completely new way to live, and that's not a living a life where when we come to church we're in God's presence, but when we go out from church then his presence kind of goes with us, because he says he'll never leave us nor forsake us, but we really don't live with the awareness that his presence is always with us and that we are always and forever able to be at his very throne, no matter where we are, no matter what we're doing. He's given us a new and a living way, and in order to do that, I'll touch on this a little later, he consecrated that through the veil that is his flesh. It gives us this instruction to draw near. Now we had talked the past couple times about James, about faith and works. Faith without works is dead. Our works are the proof of our faith, that our justification is shown, not earned by our works, but our justification is shown through our works, which is the proof of our faith. It's not just saying, I believe, but it's having the corresponding actions to go with what we believe. And so we are instructed here to draw near, and it says in full assurance of faith, not in full confidence of our mind, not even in drawing near as long as we feel like it, or as long as we get the goose bumps, or as long as the right song is sung, or as long as the right words are prayed. It's draw near with faith, a full assurance of faith, the certainty of faith, the not doubting. And it says, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed. Hebrews chapter seven, verse twenty-five says, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him. Unlike the old law, which Hebrews talks about, that it was never able, never able, to make the one who came to God through sacrifice, to make him clean as pertaining to his conscience. It was able to wash away the outer sin, the water, of course, cleansing, but it says, having not only our bodies washed with water, but also our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. It's a complete work that Christ does in us. It's a complete work that has come through his blood and through his body. And so as we look at these different stages of spiritual maturity, I want to look at them through the example of how the temple was set up in the Old Testament. We will see that I in Christ is represented by the outer court. Christ and I is represented by the holy place. We'll look at what the veil represents, and then not I, but Christ is represented by the holy of holies. So the first section, I in Christ. The outer court was the place where the sacrifice was made. It was where Israelites were allowed to go. I realize I didn't come up with a reference for that part, but you can look it up in the Old Testament, the layout of the temple. We all kind of know what's going on there, but the outer court anybody could go to. They could watch the sacrifice being done. They could see the priest slaughtering the animals. They could see the blood being poured on the altar. They could see the acrobat sacrifice being burned. They could see an experience because they had taken their sacrifice to the temple. They could experience what was being done on their behalf, and they knew from that place that forgiveness was being granted to them. They could see where the holy place was. They could see beyond the outer court to the door of the holy place where the priest would go in, but they themselves could not go in there. And so this outer court represents the I in Christ because it focuses on the sacrifice. It focuses on what I have done in order to come and to receive forgiveness, but the focus really still is on my sin, on my failures, on I still need a sacrifice to be forgiven. I still need to, and we can look at it in our lives today, whenever we do sin we go to God and we beg and we plead and we pray over and over and over again. God forgive me as if he wouldn't. As if we have to convince him to forgive us. Scripture says that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, the sins we've committed in the past, the sins humanity committed in the past, the sins humanity commits in the present, and the sins that humanity will commit in the future. He has died for all of it. So when we come to the Father, we don't say, Oh God, please forgive me for this. Please, please, please. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, 1 John says, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is faithful to do it if we simply confess it. God, I sin. I thank you that your forgiveness is available to me. I receive your forgiveness. I accept your forgiveness. By the power of your Holy Spirit, I endeavor to live a holy life and to not fail in that again. But you see, we don't have to put Christ on the altar over and over and over again, because he already did it once and for all. What happens in worship for those who are in this stage of I am Christ, this outer court place, is that they come to the worship service, they come to the church service, and praise God more for the opportunity to be in his presence, rather than actually entering in his presence. They praise God for the idea of it, rather than entering into it. An example that I can think of just comes to mind right now is that we know a person who earlier in life was very fearful, but the fear that they had was of being afraid. They were afraid of being afraid. So it wasn't that the fear was something that came to them, and like that, that was scary, that's fearful. It was just the very idea that something could spark fear in them, that that's what they were afraid of. It's like anticipating this to happen. Now, this is a negative example of what I'm trying to express, but it's the anticipation of something else. So the immature believer finds themselves in the place of worship, anticipating what God will do for them, praising God for the fact that he could do something for them, but they're stuck in the outer court. Instead of realizing that through Christ our identity is not as the general people of God, but that we all have been called a nation of priests, so we have access to the holy place. First Peter 2.9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, who he called out of darkness into his marvelous light, to show forth his marvelous light, to be that example of his marvelous light. You see, the priests as they were ministering in the holy place, they were ministering to God, burning incense on the altar in the holy place, but they were there on behalf of the people. They were serving the people, and they were serving God. Those that stay in the outer court stay there as those who are being served. And certainly we find that maturity level within the body of Christ, where there are those who are content to be served, are content to receive from the pastoral leadership, to rely on their brothers and sisters to carry their burdens, and they sit there and they complain, why isn't somebody calling me? Why isn't this? Why isn't that? And they have not matured to the place of understanding that we are called to serve. We are not called to be served, but to serve. Of course, Jesus modeled this same posture when it says, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So in the holy place, this place of Christ and I, the priests had closer access to God, a closer experience with the blood of cleansing, and a position of service. The blood was applied to them. When they went into the holy place, they had this understanding of why they were there in the holy place. So we, as in our lives with Christ, we get to this maturity of Christ and I, that we know that we can't even be close to God if it wasn't for Christ, that we understand the greatness and the magnitude of what he has done for us. We understand the necessity to serve, yet they're still not in the holiest place. They stand yet on this side of the veil that is hung. They stand with still attention placed upon our failures and our weaknesses, rather than the reception of what Christ has fully done, that in spite of my failures and weaknesses, I still have access to this side of the veil. And I cannot only come into this side of the veil, I can live in this side of the veil. You see, whenever we, whenever we think about the fact that God is always with us, a lot of times it is portrayed in this manner. Don't forget, God is always with you, so when you go to do that thing, just know that you're taking Christ into whatever it is you're about to do. It's more of a warning. It's more of a don't dirty Christ with your sinful activity. There's still such a focus on the sin. There's such a focus on the failure. There's such a focus on we are not perfect beings. We're not. We're going to fail. But our failure is not what keeps us from God's presence. In fact, God says, when you fail, come closer. Come near. And so even in this level of maturity of Christ and I, we see it, we're growing and we should be growing, but we need to grow past the place of being stuck in the holy place, which is still just outside of the fullness of what Christ has done for us and the unhindered access that we have to God the Father. You see, in that there was a veil between the holy place and the holiest place, what did that veil represent? Well, obviously it represented separation. Obviously it represented a barrier between God's presence. Obviously there were strict rules about who could go in, when they could go in, how long they could go in, and when their work in there was done, they had to get out. Don't spend a moment longer than you're supposed to in this place. Get back on the other side of the veil. You see, the veil, as thick as it was, as heavy as it was hung in the temple, was a representation of man's sinful nature. This veil was what separated us from God as humanity. It wasn't just a curtain, it wasn't just a rule, it was, this is your sin, and because of your sin you cannot come into my presence. In fact, when God called Moses and the whole assembly to the base of the mountain, he told them, don't touch the base of the mountain, don't let an animal come close to the base of the mountain, for if you do, you will surely die. God made such a separation between our sin and his holiness. Now that doesn't mean that he just welcomes our sin into his holiness, as if we can keep on sinning and he'll receive us and he accepts us, in spite of the fact that we willfully continue to sin. That's a different part of, that's actually lower down in chapter ten of Hebrews. If we sin willfully there remains no more sacrifice. That's not what it's about. What it's about is that because of the sacrifice of Christ, as it says in Hebrews ten, as it says the verse that we read, by a new and living way which he consecrated us through the veil, his flesh. You see, there's still a veil there, but the veil that is there is the flesh of Christ. The veil that is there is his broken body that was sacrificed on the cross. The veil that was there is one that swings freely open. It's not this thick barrier. He tore down the thick barrier between us and him and hung up the flesh of Christ so that through his body he has given us a new and living way. A new way to live and a living way which means it never grows old, it never grows stagnant, and it never grows powerless. Isn't that amazing? You see, there's a verse in Hebrews that says that his blood not only cleanses our conscience, but it removes from us the consciousness of sin. Chew on that one for a while. What does that mean? That he removed from us the consciousness of sin. This one, I'm serious, you're going to have to ponder this and meditate on it, because it not only removes from us the consciousness of sin, but it removes from the presence of God the very appearance of sin. What did Jesus say when he was on the cross? He yelled out to God, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? You see, as he took upon himself all of that sin, the Father couldn't look upon him because God cannot look upon the sin. What does that mean for us? I mean, we still sin every day. But you see, Christ not only removed from us the consciousness of the sin that we have been forgiven from, which means a life free from regret. What an amazing life. I can't believe ten, twenty years ago I sinned in this way. God's not thinking about it. It's already forgiven. Don't worry about it. Don't regret it. I speak from experience. A life free of regret is so liberating. So liberating. But you see, it not only liberated us from it, he cleansed it out of the view of God, so that when God looks at you and he looks at me, he looks at us through the veil or the lens that is the flesh of Christ, and he doesn't see our sin. He sees the righteousness that he has placed upon us. Yes, we need to pursue holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. We need to live righteously. We need to put off concerning the flesh the deeds thereof and put on Christ. But you see, our access into the holy of holies is without delay, is without hindrance, because Christ has removed from us and removed from the view of God, sin. So that all he sees is the sacrifice that Christ made, so that when we sin, when we have failed, John puts it as, if we sin, which I think is amazing, because that means you can actually go through the day and not sin. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So when that happens, it's not that we have to go to the priest, give him our sacrifice. They have to burn the sacrifice on the altar. They have to apply the blood to the horns of the altar. They have to then take that into the holy place to burn the incense. Then the high priest has to take all of that into the holy of holies, where he can be only one moment a year, and then he's got to leave again. That whole process was done once and for all through Christ. So the mature believer not only comes to the outer court and says, praise God, I'm forgiven. Praise God, I'm set free. Praise God, the sacrifice was sufficient. It was the right sacrifice. I didn't come up short. I didn't give a faulty sacrifice. It was the perfect sacrifice for my sins. And oh, by the way, I'm just going to keep walking and I'm going to come in here into the holy place. And I'm not only going to serve God and praise God here in the holy place, but I'm going to make myself available to others to serve them because I'm not only supposed to serve God, I'm supposed to serve my brothers and sisters. And while I'm here in the holy place, I ran out of room while I'm here in the holy place. I'm just going to keep right on walking and realize that no matter where I am, no matter what moment of the day, no matter what is going on, I am in the very presence of God. He never leaves me nor forsakes me, and he never kicks me out of his presence. And he never tells me, get clean before you come back here, you dirty, filthy sinner. He says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. He welcomes us with open arms, even as the father of the prodigal didn't send his son to get bathed first, but he welcomed him. I remember hearing a story of this, this preacher that went to another country to do a crusade, and this guy, I mean, he had the latest suits. He was dressed very fine, his shoes very expensive, his suits very expensive. He was just, that's the type of person he was. And in the middle of this crusade, this guy comes walking in, his hair all ratted, ratty and tattered, and like out to here, and stinking like you can't even imagine. Clothes torn, and he came up to the front and he said, I want to give my life to God. And God said to that preacher, go give him a hug. He's like, no. I'll pray for him from here. God, that man stinks. And the Holy Spirit said, yes. I believe I have the last word. Go give him a hug. And he ministered to everybody he could at that altar, except that man, trying to delay the inevitable. And finally he went and he wrapped his arms around him, and he put his hand on the back of the guy's head, and bugs came flying out. I mean, this dude was nasty. Not only did that guy get saved, but the preacher got changed. You know, we can be dressed up in the nicest appearance whatsoever, and still have a heart that's just as filthy as that guy on the outside. But he came with a repentant heart, and God said, I have received him. You have no right to reject him. That man was living in the outer court. He wasn't even in the holy place. And he was a minister. You see, it doesn't matter what stage of life we're in. We can fluctuate through all three of these phases. I was listening to a sermon this morning of a guy who is considered one of the foremost teachers in the church, and he made this statement. He said, I'm teaching you about this topic because I understand a lot about it. I have learned a lot about it. He said, you may understand more than me about another topic, and that's OK. This guy had a ministry that is one of the largest worldwide ministries. And he says to Joe Blow and his congregation, there might be something you understand better than I do. What humility. What humility. But it's the truth. Because we can find ourselves, sometimes we're in the outer court, sometimes we're in the holy place. But we must endeavor to get into the holiest place and stay there. Because from there emanates everything else in our life. From there is the power to live a life of holiness. From there is the life to live, the power to live a life of generosity. From there, there is the power to live a life of joy. It all comes from there. So the writer of Hebrews says to us, this being so, let us draw near with full assurance of faith. With full assurance of faith. Not doubting that he'll receive us. Not doubting that there's power there. Not doubting that we will find our help that we need when we get into the holiest. Not doubting that his immense, incredible love says to us, come, I receive you. I'm not looking at your failures. I'm not looking at your sin. I'm not looking at your very ugly pride, because we all have it. All I see is the righteousness of God in Christ around you. That's what I'm focused on. We need to get into his presence. I'm reminded of the Psalms. There is a grouping of Psalms called the Psalms of Ascent. And the Israelites would sing these songs on the way to the temple. The temple was built on a mountain. There were stairs going up to the temple. Some of the songs were written that each verse of the song, or each phrase of the song, was sung on a specific step going up to the temple. All of it was singing about God. It was like, yay, we're going to the temple. Yay, we're going to God's presence. But then staying out there on the stairs forever. Look how close we are to the temple. Look how close we are to God's presence. Let's just sing about how wonderful that is. OK, it's wonderful, but quit staying on the stairs and go on in. Go in. Draw near. He will receive you. He has received you. And guess what? We don't have to leave. We don't ever have to leave. You wake up in the morning, you wake up in God's presence. You leave your house for work, you leave your house in God's presence. You're at work, you're still in God's presence. Now there is a greater awareness of God's presence that can come. There is a heavier weight of his glory when he decides to reveal it to us and to give us that experience. But that doesn't mean that he's not with us in any other way, or at any other time. We can live in the very presence of God twenty-four seven. That is what is encompassed by the phrase, the just shall live by faith. Out of time, let's stand. Let's stand together. As the worship team comes up. You know, when you come to church, what do you come expecting? Do you value coming to church? Or do you value it in that this is just a way of life? Or do you value it because when you come here, you know you're going to receive something. You're going to be in God's presence with other believers. You see, you will receive from the church service what you come expecting to receive. And if you come in an expectation of a mediocre service, that's the experience you have. But if you come with the grand intention and desire to be in his presence, to enjoy his presence to the fullness, then that's the experience you will have. And you see the person that you're standing by can have an absolutely different experience than you, because it's all based on your expectation. Your steps of faith. Your belief of being in God's presence. Whether Lindsay plays the song well, whether Richard messes up the chords or not, whether Adriana misses a note doesn't matter. It's not about that. It's about your heart being available to his. Because his heart's available to you. Let's pray. Father, we glorify you and we deliver us from mediocrity. Deliver us from mediocrity. Father, Paul said. My desire for the world and its desire for me has passed away. May that be true in each one of us. May our desire for your presence be greater than our desire for anything else. Father, thank you that we have access through the veil of Christ's flesh. Forgive us, Father, for praising you from outside of that. Though it's from a sincere heart, God, but may we may we have boldness. As Hebrews says, therefore, having boldness to enter in, let us draw near. May we draw near. Live in your presence. Live in the fullness of your grace. And father attain that ever elusive place for we shall never be fully mature until we are with you in glory in eternity. There's always more to grow in. There's always more to learn. So father, may we continue to pursue you, knowing, Lord God, that you have promised that when we do, we will find you. We will receive from you. Lord, we bless your name in Jesus name. Amen.
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