All Sermons

Given at the Sovereign Grace Family Conference Newcastle NSW

Watch the Video File on Vimeo  This series was also given at North-West Bible Conference June long weekend 1995 at Tamworth NSW.

The Healthy Church Part 2 By Julian Bull

particular illness or problem are multiplied. And they're everywhere. And many, many people
are being affected. And this is the reason for the title that I've given the message
because if you're not aware of it by now, you should be, that everywhere on every hand,
Christians, Orthodox and Bible-bleeding Christians are being pressured to compromise. And churches
are feeling that pressure. And I've chosen a passage out of the book to the Hebrews.
And we need to understand the background to this book very briefly so that we can appreciate
the context these verses come to us in. I put in your outline a quote from a man called
P.E. Hughes who wrote an excellent commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. And you see
the quote there and you see what he says. He says, concerning this group of Christians
to whom this letter was written, he says that apparently a situation has arisen in which
a particular community of Christians is contemplating a compromise of disastrous consequences.
It would mean in effect, he says, the abandonment of the Gospel. We know that the Hebrews were
facing persecution. They were being tempted to cave in under that persecution. We know
that they were being enticed by false teaching. They were offered quick relief by believing
that perhaps Moses was superior to Jesus. That perhaps angels were superior to Jesus.
That the Levitical, the old Levitical priesthood and system of sacrifice could save them just
as well as Jesus could save them and avoid an awful lot of difficulty in persecution.
And so here is this group of people and they're being tempted and they're being pressured
and here is God inspiring his word, causing it to be written to them and sending it to
them. And the question is what does he say? The question is then to such a people of God
we can draw parallels, we can see similarities, we feel pressure to compromise. We know every
one of us of churches and brothers and sisters who profess faith in Christ, who we believe
in our hearts are compromising in crucial areas. I'm sure we can think of situations
like that. We feel that ourselves, we can draw the similarities and the question is
this, what is God's prescription? What is God's prescription then for such a church
or for churches? If God's intention is that such churches maintain good health and throughout
this epidemic of whatever it is they preserve good health, if that's God's goal, if
that's God's desire and plan for the church, then what's his prescription? What is it?
What is he going to say to such a group of God's people? And it's for that reason
that we're looking at this passage of scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 from verses 19 to 25.
And I want to divide this passage of scripture under two simple headings. Remembering the
question, keeping the question in mind, what is God's prescription? What is God saying
to these churches, to our churches today and to the church, to the assembly of God's
people then? Well, the first thing he does, and you'll see the point, the first point
in your outline, the first thing he does is he tells them that they need to consider again
the accomplished realities of Christ's death. Because that's what verses 19, 20 and 21
come out to. You see that the word occurs twice, the word since. And if the word since
means anything at all in the English language, it means to refer you back to something. It
means to make you think back to something and look upon something which is an accomplished
fact. And because this is the case, because this has taken place, since this has taken
place, since we are this. And this is what he's doing in the first place. This is the
first part of his prescription. He says, now consider the accomplished realities of Christ's
death. And this is the way he puts it. He says, since therefore, brethren, we have confidence
to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. And you must the use of the word since and
its implications. You see, what God is doing is referring them back to historical, real
accomplishments. Christ's death. God sent his son into the world. He lived, he died,
he suffered on that cross, and he suffered as an atoning sacrifice. This is not the figment
of the imagination. This is accomplished fact. This is real and historical. But you'll notice
in these verses 19 to 21 that God is in fact even going further. And what he says in effect
is that these things which are accomplished facts historically, they must be possessed
personally. They must be possessed personally. They must be appropriated by us, each one
of us. And this is what he's saying. He's blending these two things together. And he's
saying, since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the
blood of Jesus. We have confidence by the blood of Jesus. So what's in focus in the
first part of this prescription is Christ's work for us and Christ's work in us. And it
must be understood that it is real. Christ came and died. He accomplished redemption
for his people. But it must be personally real. Not that it's just real out there or
it's just real in there. It must be personally real. It mustn't be that I just walk around
it and I look at it and I say, yes, that's a marvelous and a wonderful thing that God
has done. But I have to come to the place of Galatians 2.20 and say, the Son of God
loved me and gave himself for me. And as he writes to them, he's giving them the benefit
of the doubt. And he says, we. And he expects they've done this. He expects that they appreciate
this as an accomplished fact and they have personally appropriated it. He says, since
therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.
The question is this, am I a Christian? Am I a Christian? And the question is this, is
the membership of my church a Christian membership? Is the membership of my church guarded and
fenced? Do we take seriously that the church is to be composed of people who belong to
Jesus Christ, who have personally appropriated the accomplished realities of Christ's redemption?
These are the things that are in focus. And these, of course, are absolutely crucial to
the health of the church. Absolutely crucial. Am I a Christian? Is the membership of my
church a membership made up of converted people? But please notice that the central event in
view in these first three verses of this little passage is Christ's atoning sacrifice. And
perhaps if you're familiar with the Old Testament and you read this passage, it reminds you
of another passage in the Old Testament. Perhaps it reminds you of the description in Leviticus
of the Day of Atonement. Because if you were to compare these two passages, and I'd encourage
you to do that in your own time, to go back and read Leviticus 16 and the description
of the Day of Atonement, and you would see that what he's doing is he's borrowing language
and he's borrowing images directly out of Leviticus 16, where it describes the Day of
Atonement, and he's applying them, I beg your pardon, he's applying them in a Christian
context. He's applying them in a New Testament context. But of course, they're Hebrews. And
this will be ringing lots of bells for them when they hear it. The words that he's using,
entering the holy place, entering the holy place by blood, going through the veil, having
a great high priest over the house of God. Then he goes on and talks about sprinkling
and so on and so forth. And so there are these clear parallels and
similarities between Leviticus 16 and this passage in Hebrews 10, and images and language
are shared. Only what he's doing now is he's applying this to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he's getting to the heart of the Christian gospel. What he's drawing their attention
to is this, that what actually has to be personally possessed, what actually has to be personally
appropriated by faith, is a belief in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for sin.
And I would say this, that when God describes this in the Word of God, he doesn't spare
you. And he doesn't spare me. He doesn't gloss over the facts of Christ's death. He doesn't
sanitize it in any way. He doesn't skirt around it and say, well, look, it's too gory. We'll
spare you the gory details. We all know what we mean. We'll just say that Christ died.
And what you have to do is just believe in that. And you'll notice time and again in
the New Testament that that isn't the way, that in fact, all the gory details are mentioned.
The blood is mentioned. The blood is deliberately mentioned. And here it is again. And here
there is, I think, one of the most graphic descriptions of the death of Christ. How was
this, how was this redemption accomplished? He says that we have confidence by the blood
of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus. Now, people who you may have witnessed an accident, you
may have witnessed a road, a motor accident or some other kind of accident. And you hear
people say, well, I could cope with it until I saw the blood. You know, I can't stand the
sight of blood. You know, I can do this. I can do that. I perhaps could help someone.
But the blood, it was the blood. Now, God doesn't spare us. He emphasizes the blood.
This is crucial to the accomplishment of redemption. But here he does more. He actually draws a
connection between the veil that separated the holy place from the inner court, that
veil, that curtain and the and the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you know that
the veil was rent. You know that the curtain was torn and the detail tells us it was torn
from the top to the bottom. It was torn from God's end downward. That's very significant.
And here in Hebrews, this parallel, this is drawn between the veil and Christ's flesh.
He says we have a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us. Through the veil, that
is his flesh. And what he means is that the veil was torn. And what he means is that Christ's
body was torn. It was torn. It was torn open. It was torn apart. It was broken for you.
Every time we have the Lord's Supper, we say these words. This is the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ broken, broken, torn for you. And so what he's suggesting actually is that
your faith is in this, that your personal faith is in the sacrifice of Christ without
sparing any of the details. It's your faith is in. You have agreed with God that the only
thing that would deal with your sin was the the bloody immolation of his son. And it's
as if he would walk you up to the foot of the cross and make you look at it as it's
preached to you in the gospel and make you look at it and spell it out to you that man's
sin is so sinful and so wicked that this actually is the only thing that would deal with it.
Do you believe this? He says. Do you believe this? Do you believe? Do you state your life
on this? That this and this alone will take your sin away. This and this alone will deal
with your sin. Nothing else. Not sanitizing it. Not thinking of the Lord Jesus tucked
up in nice white sheets or dying of old age or being nursed by his friends and relatives
in his home and dying in dignity and dying in comfort. No, not that. The cross, the cross.
It's your response to the cross. This is what's crucial. And this is what he means when he
talks about personally believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his death, the accomplished
realities of Christ's death. This is the heart of Christian conversion. And my personal response
to that. And this is what he's bringing to the focus of these Hebrews in the midst of
compromise. Let's be clear about the basics. Let's go right back to the basics. Let's go
right back to the basics. And let's rehearse again the wonders of God's grace and the mighty
and accomplished facts of redemption. Now, are they mine? Do I believe those things?
Am I in fact a Christian? Well, then in the second place, he then begins to build on this
and he then begins to speak in a different way. And having used the word since twice
in three verses, verses 19, 20 and 21, then in the next few verses of this little passage,
he uses another phrase. And it's these two phrases which really unlock the passage, I
think. And this other phrase is this. It's the phrase, let us, let us. In the NIV version,
that phrase occurs five times. In the New American Standard version, which I'm using,
it occurs three times. It may be different in other versions. But it is a key to understanding
the passage. And so what he's doing now, he's talked about since, now looking back, considering
these things, making sure they're personally true and personally real. Now, as a consequence,
as a consequence of these past and personal realities, he now says, I'm going to appeal
for present and future practical Christian living. And that's what the uses of the little
phrase let us are doing. They're appeals. He's appealing. He's appealing for them to
behave as Christians, to live as Christians, and he's focusing on certain areas. But please
notice the order. And please make sure you don't reverse the order. Please make sure
that you're not responding to the appeals without having first responded to the accomplished
realities of redemption. You see, it's no good jumping in at the beginning of where
he starts to say, let us. It's no good doing Christian things if you're not a Christian.
And so the order is important. The appeals are a consequence of these other things being
true and real. And don't put the cart before the horse. If the sins is not a personal reality,
if you cannot, in fact, look back and say, yes, the Son of God loved me and gave himself
for me, then get that right before you begin to think about these appeals or begin to pretend
with a response to the let us appeals. The appeals focus on three areas. This is very
helpful because in the midst of temptation to compromise, in the midst of persecution
and pressure, perhaps you would think that God would come up with a hundred or a hundred
and one things that they should be doing. But he doesn't. He focuses on three areas.
And you'll notice the three areas. Each of them is introduced with the use of this phrase,
let us. And the first is right there in verse twenty-two. In verse twenty-two, he says,
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. It's one of those
New Testament verses which is, it doesn't read that well. It seems to be overfull of
too many concepts and too many things all in one verse. And you can sort of see that
there are four distinct verses all jammed into the one verse, four distinct things jammed
into the one verse. There is an appeal to draw near with a sincere heart, to have our
hearts sprinkled clean, to have our bodies washed with pure water, to have full assurance
of faith. It's all sandwiched, all pushed into one verse. But what does it all mean?
What does it all amount to? Well, I think what it amounts to is this. I think it amounts
to an appeal for Christian people in the face of compromise, in the face of pressure and
persecution, to make sure that they preserve sincerity and authenticity in worship. Because
I think the context of this is all to do with worship, especially making the connection
with Leviticus sixteen. Now so often what happens is we come to Hebrews ten and we come
to this passage and we begin to apply it and we begin to interpret it in terms of our quiet
time. Yes, we draw near to God, we draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of
faith and so on and so forth. But I think the context, if you really think it through,
the context will lead you to the conclusion that this is referring to both private and
public worship, corporate worship, as well as individual and secret worship in our quiet
times. And what he's appealing for and what it all amounts to is this, that there must
be sincerity and authenticity in worship, whether it's private or whether it's public
and corporate worship. This is his prescription. You've got the basics right, what do you do
with your life as a Christian? What did God save you for? There you are, you're perhaps
saved when you're twenty-five or twenty or thirty, you may have another forty years left.
What does God want you to do with those forty years? What is the will of your life, not
in the particulars, but in the general things? What has he saved you for? The answer to the
New Testament is he saved you to worship. And here is an appeal for reality in worship.
Reality in worship. A true heart, he says. Drawing near, coming through Christ into the
holiest place with a true heart. Reality in worship. In other words, a genuine singleness
of purpose and dedication. That's the way P.E. Hughes describes it in his commentary.
A genuine singleness of purpose and dedication. A full assurance of faith, he says in this
verse. A firm, unwavering trust. How can I worship God in the difficult places of life?
You can, and you must. Job found it difficult, I'm sure, but he did it. And his response
remember to some of the enormous tragedies that God sent his way, was worship. Worship.
And to worship in the difficult places, and to worship in response to the dark providences
that God sends, it requires a firm and unwavering trust. Full assurance of faith. But God, if
this is happening to me, do you really love me? Full assurance of faith. Has the Lord
Jesus not forsaken me? Full assurance of faith. So he also mentions, you'll notice, hearts
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. A true heart, a clean heart, a regenerate person,
a genuine relationship. This is reality in worship. Bodies washed with pure water. Perhaps
an allusion to baptism, depending on who you read and who you speak to. But definitely
a reference to a practically holy life. Our bodies washed with pure water. So here it
is. Here is his prescription. What do we do in the face of this epidemic of compromise?
We make sure we preserve reality in worship, authenticity in worship, sincerity in worship.
We don't stop worshiping. We don't sell out our worship. But we preserve reality in worship.
But then you'll notice there's another thing that he draws our attention to, and this is
in verse 23. There's another let us, there's another appeal. And this appeal is put this
way. He says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised
is faithful. Now I know the NIV reads rather differently and the NIV has the word I think
unswervingly. What's this appeal about? Is this is a consequence of personally knowing
Christ's redemption? No, no. What is this appeal for? What is he appealing for me to
do? I put it this way. He's appealing for a persevering witness through all of life,
including trials and persecutions. And I emphasize that it is through all of life, through all
of life, through the trials, through the persecutions. And the word through means that you go in
one side and you come out the other side. That's what the word through means. And it's
not just that we witness in the easy places of life or in the comfortable places of life.
And then when we strike the difficulties and the trials and the afflictions, we can opt
out of witnessing for that period of time, but we'll come back to it when things are
different. No, we know that perhaps the most telling witness is the witness given by the
person who is witnessing through their suffering. And this is what he's appealing for here.
A persevering witness through all of life, including trials and persecutions. Because
he puts it this way, hold fast the confession of our hope, knowing what the Hebrews are
facing. Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Now I've used the word witness because the word confession, as it's used in the New Testament,
a sooner or later ends up referring to something which is made with our mouth. You go to Romans
10 verse 10, for example. You remember how Romans 10 verse 10 speaks? That with the heart
man believes, resulting in righteousness. With the mouth he confesses. With the mouth
he confesses, resulting in salvation. And here it is. Hold fast the confession of our
hope. And confession is made with the mouth. You have said something. Hebrew Christians,
you've said something before this time. You've said something somewhere to somebody about you
being a Christian. People know you're a Christian. You've said that. You said it with your mouth.
Now hold fast. And he's virtually saying that Christian hope cannot remain dumb. It must not
remain dumb. It must not remain dumb. It's a witness. Remember how Peter puts it in First
Peter 3.15? Be always ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you. Be always
ready to give a reason. You have to articulate it. You have to verbalise it. You have to
confess Christ. And sooner or later you have to do it with your mouth. And he is appealing
for a persevering witness. Because he says hold fast. Do it without wavering. Do it without
swerving. That's the word the NIV uses. Do it without, as it were, weaving down the road.
Weaving down the road. You know your Christian life is a life of dodging from one imaginary
thing out of the path of another imaginary thing. Weaving, swerving, here this way and
then that way. Rather like when we first came to live in Coonabarabran and people told us
about the kangaroos at night. And you saw kangaroos everywhere. And of course they weren't
there. But you thought you saw them every time you went on a dark road. You found yourself
driving almost in the middle of the road. No, he's saying, not this, not swerving, not
going through the Christian life, fearful of these imaginary things that may jump out
at you. And now this way and now that way and now the other way. But the NASB, the New
American Standard Bible, has translated it without wavering and I think it's a much better
translation. I think it's a much better translation because the Greek word is a very interesting
word. And the Greek word actually means not to slant or slope, not to incline, not to
recline, not to bow down and not to lean. And that is what he's saying with regard to
our confession. I could illustrate it like this if you have ever helped somebody pull
down an old paling fence and you've turned up on the appointed day at the appointed time
to help them with the fence and the fence is an old fence, bits of palings have fallen
off it and it has a lean on it. And there you are, you get your shovels out and your
crowbar and you dig around the foot of some of the big posts and you shake it and you
push it and it's hard work, it's not moving and then someone has the bright idea that
because it's on a lean, perhaps they can climb up on top of it and jump on it. And they do
that. And they climb up on top of it and they jump on it and the job's done. You'd have
been there for hours with your shovel, but the job's done. The fence was on a lean. The
person was able to climb up on that fence and exert downward pressure. And because it
was already on a lean, the downward pressure was very effective. I'd suggest this is exactly
what happens or what his warning might happen in the Christian life. You get a lean up on
your witness. You get a lean on your Christian life. You are giving the devil an unfair opportunity.
You are giving the pressures an opportunity to exert a downward force, which would be
much more difficult if you were erect and straight and vertical. And he's suggesting
you maintain a vertical, erect and straight posture in your Christian witness and your
Christian life. Don't get a lean up. Don't incline, don't recline, don't bow down, don't
slant, don't slope. Don't come out of the Christian life like this or leaning this way
or leaning that way. Hold fast without wavering. A persevering witness. Why should we do it?
Well, you'll notice how he gives the reason why we should do it. He says, because he who
promised is faithful. And you know, so often what happens in the New Testament is when
we're being exhorted to do a particular thing as Christians, then the writer of the letter
holds up a motive and a model. And in nearly every case, the motive and the model is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And here it is again. He says, hold fast the confession of hope without
wavering. Why? Because he who promised is faithful. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is faithful.
God is faithful. And here is the model. And you know, it's a very telling motive as well.
And what it amounts to is this. If there is not enough in Christ or in God to motivate
you, then you are in very serious trouble. If you're a professing Christian and there
is not enough in the example of Christ or in the Word of God to motivate you to live
like a Christian, my dear friend, you're in very serious trouble in your Christian life.
Time and again what the apostle does is he's dealing with a particular problem. It's a
pastoral problem. He exposes it. He expounds on it. And then he holds up Christ. And he
expects the holding up of Christ will have an effect on the Christians. And if it doesn't,
if there's not enough in Christ to motivate us, we're in real trouble. Well, there's a
third let us. And this is the final one. This is the last part of this prescription. And
it's found in these last couple of verses of this little passage. Verses 24 and 25.
And he says, Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds, not
forsaking our assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another
and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now unravel it all, unpack it all. What
does it all mean? What does it all add up to? It adds up to an appeal. An appeal to
Christians to have an increasing commitment to service and fellowship within the local
church. That's the way I've put it. To have an increasing commitment to service and fellowship
within the local church. Can you remember how 1 Corinthians 13 ends, that wonderful
chapter about love? It ends in this way. Faith, hope and love. And you can see the parallels
with this passage. Faith, hope and love. These are the three things that are mentioned in
this passage and spoken about. We could think that earlier on in this epistle, he has told
us to consider Jesus. Chapter 3 and verse 1. Now he says, Consider your brethren. These
are two essentials of the Christian life. Consider Jesus and consider your brethren.
But I want you to notice what the most telling and convicting thing about this last appeal
is. It's this. That he is not appealing to Christians to have a sustained commitment
to fellowship and to assembling together. He's not simply coming to Christians and saying,
whatever you do, maintain what you've got now. Don't go backwards in terms of your gathering
together. What he's actually appealing for is an increased commitment. You notice what
he says. He says, Don't forsake the assembling. Encourage one another and all the more as
you see the day drawing near. Is he serious? All the more isn't life busy enough now? Is
he really serious that I'm to make more room in my life for fellowship? More room in my
life for the assembling of God's people? More room in my life for worship? Yes, he's serious.
He's serious. What he's arguing is, as the days are bad, as the days get worse, your
commitment to the fellowship of God's people should intensify in proportion to the evil
of the days. There's a very radical way to speak and it's foreign concept to most Christians
to think this way, but it's the way the Bible speaks. This is what he's appealing for. Not
just sustaining commitment, but increasing commitment. Not just resisting the trends
of this generation of Christians. And this generation of Christians is the Christians
with a once a week mentality. Once a week will do me. I'll assemble with the people
of God once a week. That's enough for me. No, he's saying no, not just resisting the
trends, but actually increasing your commitment. Increasing your commitment. What a challenge.
You know the world of course is streets ahead of us in this. Of course it is. Your work
a day world, your boss at work, he has no qualms about demanding extra from you. Over
time, overtime, the boss asks us to do it, the employer asks us to do it, how many times
do we look him in the face and say, no way. The church asks for it. The people of God
asks for it. The Lord Jesus asks for it. What is our response? That's what he's asking
for. He's asking for overtime in the church. Consider it. Well, what he's arguing is this.
He's saying God's verdict is that you need this. You need fellowship. You need the encouragement.
God's verdict is your brothers and sisters need you. They need your fellowship. They
need your encouragement. This is God's verdict. This is God's prescription. Gather together
not just to receive but to give. Consider how to stimulate another brother to love and
good deeds. Be creative in stimulating a brother to love and good deeds. Assemble together.
God says you need it. God says your brothers and sisters need you. You need them. Now are
you really suggesting that by your practice you are going to turn around and say, God,
you don't know what I need. I know what I need. I am wiser than you. I believe I need
less of the assembling of God's people. I believe I need less of a real commitment among
the fellowship of God's people. And I know what I want you to know. We're not surely
suggesting that. We would be foolish to suggest such a thing. To suggest God doesn't know
what we need in difficult days and God says we need God's people. That's God's verdict.
You can't escape it wherever you turn in this Bible. The church is central. You can't escape
it. You can't escape it. What does all this add up to for God's prescription for maintaining
good health as a church in the face of perhaps an epidemic of compromise? The prescription
is this. A certain possession of a real relationship with God through Christ. It's absolutely fundamental.
And then building on that in three areas. Sincerity and reality in worship. Personal
and private and public and corporate. A persevering witness through all of life. Afflictions,
trials and difficulties included. And an increasing commitment to the assembly and the assembling
of God's people. I'm afraid that there is no more. There's not another ten things. There's
not another forty things. There are these three things which are highlighted in this
passage. Simple things, straightforward things, basic things. But things which will make all
the difference to the people of God. And we ask God give us the grace that we can invest
our lives in the pursuit of these things for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.