Turn with me to the 10th chapter of the book of Hebrews, beginning in verse 19 and reading through verse 25. I want to do an exposition and application of these verses, this paragraph, that begins the third and final major section of the book of Hebrews. Dr. Patterson, did not tell you this morning that the reason I'm here and he's not here is because he himself is under the weather. He's feeling rather ill. You do need to pray for him because of that. Otherwise he would fill in and preach today in the absence of our speaker, our preacher. And so he didn't tell you, but you do need to be aware of that. Just lift him up. If he looks a little peaking to you today, it's because he's not feeling well. In fact, I think he probably has the high dinky plumas is what he has. But you'll just need to pray for him and pray that the Lord will heal him. But nevertheless, I'm grateful that he He felt like that had the confidence to ask me to step in at the last minute about three hours ago So I'm happy to do that. So here we go Hebrews chapter 10 beginning in verse 19 and working our way through verse 25 therefore brethren Since we have boldness confidence to enter the holy place through the blood of Jesus He has inaugurated for us a new and a living way through the curtain, through the veil, that is, through His flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart in full confidence of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and having had our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold firmly, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." And let us consider, let us watch out for one another, how we may stir up, how we may provoke one another to love and good works, not neglecting to gather ourselves together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other and all the more, as you see the day, drawing near. On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you locate yourself this morning in terms of your spiritual maturity? 1 being very poor, 10 being somewhere north of the Apostle Paul. Where would you place yourself? Are you a 3? Are you a 5? Are you a 7? Would you dare say, I'm a 9? Where are you on the level of spiritual maturity? In many ways, the purpose of the writing of the book of Hebrews is to challenge and encourage Christians to press on towards spiritual maturity. We see it clearly in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1. Therefore, laying aside the everything, the ABCs of the gospel, let us press on to maturity." That's one of the major purposes, probably the major purpose of the book of Hebrews. Well, then the question arises, how do I do that? How can I press towards spiritual maturity? If the key word in the Christian life is not perfection, but rather progression, if one day I will be perfect in heaven when I reach glorification, but now I am working toward that goal, I am making progress, I am progressing, then how do I go about progressing in spiritual maturity? And when the author of Hebrews comes to this paragraph, the third and beginning of the third and final section of the book of Hebrews, he tells you three things to do. In fact, if I can get you this morning to do these three things that the author tells us, I will guarantee you cannot help but grow spiritually. If you will draw near, hold fast, and stir one another up to love and good deeds, you cannot help but grow toward spiritual maturity." So notice how the author begins in these first three verses. It's a bit of a little introduction to these three commands. And in this little introduction, he tells you that you need to know two things are true in order for you to grow to spiritual maturity, in order for you to fulfill this divine mandate, these three divine commands, draw near, hold fast, and stir one another up to love and good deeds. The first thing you need to know is found in verses 19 and 20, and it is the fact that you now have an avenue of access to God with an attitude of confidence. Look at what he says, therefore, he's building now on everything he's taught in the previous doctrinal section, therefore brothers, and it means brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place through the blood of Jesus. I want you to notice that the author is here using Old Testament imagery. You're very familiar with that, having taken the intro to Old Testament, and you know a little bit about the Old Testament tabernacle and the temple. And you know that there was an outer court, and then there was the holy place, and then you know that the holy place was separated from the holy of holies by a veil. And you know that behind that veil was the Ark of the Covenant and the helosterion, the mercy seat, the golden slab on that ark, where once a year on the Day of Atonement The high priest would enter behind that veil. He and he alone could enter, and only on the Day of Atonement could he enter. And he would go behind that veil and place the blood of the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement right there on that altar, that golden slab. And that's the imagery that the author is putting in our minds when he says, since we have confidence to enter the holy place through the blood of Jesus. You see, only the high priest could enter, and then only once a year. No one else could enter. If you were a Jew during those days and you said, hey, Mr. High Priest, may I have a tour of the Holy of Holies? The high priest would say, no, son, I'm sorry. Can't take you back there. No admittance. No entrance. In fact, not only can you not go, I can't go except once a year, and then only if I bring the blood, no one goes behind that veil. No admittance, no access. You see, God was teaching His people in that day that He is holy, He is separate. And they are to respect His holiness. And they are to recognize His holiness. And He was teaching them about the necessity of atonement through the shed blood. And later, of course, you know that becomes a type of the blood of Christ as He becomes the Lamb of God who dies for our sins. But here the author says, we now have confidence as believers because of the death of Christ. We've got confidence to enter that holy place. through the blood of Christ. There's only one way you ever get to God, it's through the blood of Jesus. No one ever comes to the Father except they come through the Son, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice the author's description. He says, we have boldness to enter this holy place through the blood. And then he says, this is a new way and a living way and an inaugurated through the veil which is his flesh kind of a way. There are three things the author uses or states to describe this entrance that we have, this attitude of entrance and avenue of entrance. And the first is Jesus has inaugurated the way to God for us. He, by his death on the cross, tears the veil from top to bottom. And we are therefore brought into the presence of God. The no-admittance sign is removed. And now there's a new way as opposed to the old way. It's the new covenant, the New Testament, not the old Mosaic covenant, which was never intended to bring men to God permanently in the first place. That's through the blood of Christ. It's a new way. It's a living way, he says, not a dead way. The dead bodies of those, the carcasses of those animals strewn in the courtyard. of the tabernacle and the temple as day by day. People brought their sacrifices, and the priest would take them into the presence of God in worship. That was the dead way, a lifeless way. Bodies, carcasses scattered everywhere. But now we have a living way, living through the virtue of the fact that our great high priest and our sacrifice Jesus, yes, he died, but three days later, he rose again. And it is a living way. And the author says it's a way through the veil, that is, through the flesh of Jesus. The author is symbolically saying that when Jesus died on the cross, His body was broken. And just as the gospel writers tell us that when Jesus died on the cross, what happened to the veil in the temple in Jerusalem? Well, from top to bottom, it was what? Torn in half by the finger of God, illustrating the fact that you and I now have access. God is saying that through the death of my son, Jesus, I'm now willing to accept anyone into my presence and forgive them of their sin on the basis and the ground of the shed blood of Christ and His atonement. And so that veil was torn, and so the body of Christ, His death on the cross was given for us, His body given, broken for us. And thus, now you have access. God accepts you. Not because of who you are, but because of who Jesus is. Not because of anything you've done, but because of what Christ has done. Because you are robed in His righteousness by virtue of your salvation. And now, therefore, you can enter into His presence. And the author says, therefore, we have confidence. to enter His presence. Wonderful word in the Greek New Testament, parousia, it means boldness. Here it's probably best translated confidence. We have confidence to enter the presence of God. Listen, you ought to be coming 24-7 into the presence of God with confidence. Now, are you afraid of God? I fear some Christians are actually fearful of God, and they're afraid to come to Him in prayer, come to Him in worship, because they have this attitude that somehow God is up there, and He's always mad with you. And if you come into His presence and ask something in prayer, He's going to fuss at you and whack you on the head with His big celestial mallet. And I'm just fearful. When I think about this, I think about how we are to approach God with confidence and not fear. My mind goes back to when I was a child and I used to watch the movie The Wizard of Oz. It used to come on on Sunday nights and I'd get there halfway through it because we would never be allowed to skip church in my house. Parents wouldn't allow that. And so I'd get home and my favorite scene in that movie is when Dorothy and her three friends, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, are making their way down that long corridor that leads to those huge doors behind which is the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. And so the music begins to crescendo and they're walking toward that door and they're scared to death. And then the doors begin to open and there on the other side of the doors, there is the smoke and the fire and the great wizard of Oz. And my favorite part is when the wizard says to the Tin Man, step forward Tin Man. And he begins to walk, and he's just shaking. He's rattling everywhere. And the wizard says to him, do you dare to come to me to ask for a heart, you clinking, clanking, clattering collection of collegious junk? I don't know if you remember that part, but it's in there. That's not how you come before God. No, you don't come before God fearful. No, this is the God who has invited you on the basis of the fact that you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ through the shed blood of Christ. What does He invite you to do? He invites you to come into His presence with confidence, with boldness. He says the same thing in chapter 4 and verse 16 that we are to come boldly before the throne of judgment. No. Before the throne of grace. You see, now because of Christ and His shed blood for us, God's throne is not a throne of judgment anymore. It's a rainbow-girt throne of grace. And the first reason that we can fulfill these commands of drawing near, holding fast, and stirring one another up to love and good deeds is we have an avenue of access with an attitude of confidence. to enter His presence. But now there's a second ground or reason for it, and it's found in verse 21. Notice the and, here comes the second reason, verse 21, and seeing we have a great priest over the house of God. And, of course, that's a reference to Jesus, our High Priest. And we, who are the church today, we are referred to as the House of God. That's Old Testament language to describe the people of God. And we are the people of God, so we have a great priest over the House of God. All believers have one priest. We don't go to a priest today. We have one priest, and his name is Jesus. And because he is the one who was both priest and sacrificed, he's the one who paid the penalty for our sins, but then he rose again, and he ever lives, Hebrews 7, 25 says, to intercede on our behalf. He is the one who is the go-between, the mediator. Paul said there's one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He's your mediator. He is your great priest. And because we have Christ, because of what He's done and who He is and what He continues to do in His intercessory ministry for you, praying for you now in heaven, because those two things are true, You can now do three things. In fact, you are now commanded to do three things. Look at them. Number one, let us draw near, verse 22. Let us draw near. Seven times in the book of Hebrews you will find that word, that term translated, draw near. It is the single most important Old Testament word in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It is the key word that describes worship. in the Old Testament. It's what every Jewish family would do when they would bring their little sacrifice to the temple of the tabernacle, and later the temple, and the priest would meet them there, and they would slay the sacrifice, and then the body that would be carved up, the body of the sacrifice placed on the altar burnt offering, and the priest would take that little family by the hand and lead them, the Old Testament says, lead them to draw near. And they would draw near to God. Notice the tense of these verbs here. Let us draw near, present tense, 24-7, constantly, regularly. Notice that it is an imperatival concept. This is what we are commanded as Christians to do. We have the opportunity to do it, and God says you need to do it. It's a must. Let us draw near. And notice that there are four attendant circumstances that go along with drawing near. two of which God has already done, and two of which are your responsibility to do every time you come before God 24-7 in personal or private worship. The first two are subjective. The latter two are objective. The first two are what you do. The latter two are what God has already done. So, look at them. Let us draw near, number one, with a sincere heart, with a true heart. The word means sincere, genuine, unhypocritical, no play-acting with God. Hey, why are you here today? I mean, are you here today for the right reasons, or are you here today because you had to swipe a card? You had to be here. Let us draw near. And furthermore, are you here today right now, are you engaged with the Word of God, listening to the voice of God through His Word? The apex, by the way, of every worship service is the preaching of the Word and the listening of the Word preached. And so, are you engaged? What's the condition of your heart? Are you coming today with sincerity or are you play-acting with God? Oh, you can fool Dr. Patterson, that's pretty easy. Oh, you can fool me, you can fool your professors, you can fool your spouse, you can fool your friends, but you can't fool God. No, you come before Him with a sincere heart. Not only that, number two, we come before Him in full confidence of faith. Full confidence which faith in Christ produces. This is the point of that little phrase. Full confidence of faith means the confidence that you have that your faith in Christ produces. Faith in Christ gives you confidence to draw near. It gives you the access, the opportunity, and the attitude with which you come, one of confidence based on faith. The author of Hebrews talks a whole lot about faith. In fact, in the very next chapter, he's going to give a hall of fame of faith, of great men and women of God in the Old Testament, and he's going to talk about how we stand on their shoulders, and therefore we come with full confidence of faith. Those are the two attitudes you must have. That's how you approach God. But then notice the latter two, and they're a bit odd, and they read differently, and we read this, and we say, what in the world is the author talking about when he says we are to draw near, having had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water? What? What do you mean having my heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience? What in the world does that mean? Well, again, it's Old Testament imagery because all of the pieces of furniture in the tabernacle and all of the utensils that were used by the priest in the service of the Lord, how were they dedicated? How were they consecrated according to Exodus and Leviticus? By the sprinkling of blood. You see, not only was the blood applied in terms of the atonement for the sins of the people, but all of the accoutrements of the tabernacle and later the temple were to be cleansed by the sprinkling of blood. You see, blood is the key. The atonement is the key. And so the author is saying symbolically, look, by virtue of our salvation, God has applied the blood of Christ to you and me. And not literally in the sense of, let's go into the surgery here, room in the hospital, and let's have the medical saw and the doctor open up your breastbone there and pull that over, and then we sprinkle some blood on your heart there. No, that's crazy. He's not talking literally. Obviously, he's speaking spiritually. You and I, and the tense is very clear, we have already had our hearts sprinkled clean by the blood of Christ. because we are saved, and thus we are cleansed from an evil conscience." You see, God deals not only with your sin, but He also deals with your guilt. And salvation is a matter of your sin debt being paid, and your sin being covered, and the legal aspects of that, but also the spiritual aspects of our guilt is taken away, so we no longer have a bad conscience, an evil conscience, now we have a good conscience toward God. Having had our, look at that, having had our conscience and our bodies, our conscience cleansed, but then he says, also having had our bodies washed with pure water. In the days of the Old Testament, the priest would come to do their daily duties, and the first thing they would do would be to come to the brazen laver, that bronze bowl full of water, and they would symbolically wash themselves. And then having symbolically cleansed themselves, then they would go about and do their duty. This is not a passage about baptism. Alright, a lot of people say, well this is talking about baptism. No, don't think so. This is just a symbolic picture from the Old Testament about how we are now cleansed in the presence of God. Paul talked about it in Ephesians 5. We talked about we've been washed with the water of the Word. And that's the symbolism that's here. And so all of this is true. Now, here we go. Because all of this is true, guess what? Now you can draw near. Now you can regularly, 24-7, come into the presence of God and walk with Him and stay close to Him. And this is the first key to spiritual maturity. It's daily, regularly walking with God and drawing near. So now the question comes, how close to Jesus are you right now? That's the question. How close to Jesus are you right now? Would it surprise you if I were to tell you that I know exactly, I know the answer to that question for every one of you in this room? Oh, yeah, I do, every one of you. Dean Nichols, I know exactly how close to Jesus you are right now. Dr. Seberhagen, I know exactly how close to Jesus you are right now. Dr. Idle? I know exactly how close to Jesus you are. All of you in this side over here, I know exactly how close to Jesus you are right now. Everybody in this section, I know exactly how close to Jesus you are right now. All of you in the back, back there, all of you in the sound booth, I know exactly how close to Jesus you are right now. All of you over here, I know exactly how close to Jesus you are right now. You say, well, I'd like to know, smarty pants. How you think you know how close to Jesus I am? Well, I'll be happy to tell you. You see, the fact of the matter is you are just as close to Jesus right now as you want to be. If you wanted to be closer to Him, you would. If you wanted to be walking in His presence in fellowship with Him, you would. There would be no distance between you and Him in your Christian life if you didn't want that distance to be there. Let us draw near. How close to Jesus are you right now? In Leviticus chapter 6, five times God told the priest to keep the fire on the altar burnt offering burning 24-7. And I wanna take my analogy and say, by the way, that fire was given by God himself, and then he said, keep that fire burning. And I wanna say to you, the same is true in your Christian life. You need to keep the fire of your devotion to Jesus burning brightly. And there's only one way to do it, and it's to do this right here, regularly, daily, 24-7, you're constantly drawing near. And the two primary ways you do that are the Word of God and prayer. It's not rocket science. You want to be the man or the woman God wants you to be? You want to walk in fellowship and closeness with Him? You want to walk in holiness with Him? Do you want to fulfill this passage? Do you want to grow to spiritual maturity? Then maintain a daily walk with God. Walk with God. Keep yourself close in His presence and recognize that the flame of your devotion to Christ needs to burn brightly. And the way to do that is to feed that flame with the wood of the Word of God and fan that flame with the breath of your prayer. What's the one tendency of all fire? Left alone, what's the one tendency of all fire? It's to go out. The spiritual autobiography of some of you today, you're here in seminary, and yet your spiritual autobiography could be entitled in two words, Once Ablaze. Once ablaze for God, once on fire for Him, but now somehow as time has elapsed, you're just not where you used to be. You're not as excited about the things of God. You're not as in love with Jesus as you once were. There's something missing. A man who was known for his close walk with Jesus was asked by a member of his church, he said, I don't get it. There's something different about you. What is it? And the inquisitor asked the man, where did you go to college? The man said, well, I went to Mary's college. And the questioner said, Mary's college? I don't believe I'm familiar with that. Do you mind telling me where that's located? And he said, not at all. It's located in the 39th verse of the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, where the Bible says, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to Him. You know the wonderful thing about Mary's College? Anyone can matriculate. It doesn't matter who you are. All you have to do is be saved. And anyone can go to Mary's College. And so whether you're here at the college at Southwestern, the Southwestern Seminary, any degree program you're in, I don't care what it is, and I don't care how many degrees you get, if they're as long as your arm, if you don't attend Mary's College, It doesn't matter what you know. At that point, something will be drastically missing in your Christian life. Let us draw near. Keep the fires of devotion burning brightly for God, for Christ, in your love and devotion to Him. It's so vital. It's so crucial. And the word and prayer are the two critical things. Do you know what I regret about my time at Southwestern Seminary? Do you know what I wish I could change? I would change my personal devotional life because it was not non-existent, it was existent, but it was nowhere where it should have been when I was a student here at Southwestern from 1978 to 1981. Because, you see, I believe that I'm studying the Bible here, and I'm taking Introduction to the Old Testament, Introduction to the New Testament, Systematic Theology, and all of this. And I love all of this, and I love reading all those textbooks. In fact, Dr. Patterson will attest to this. When I arrived here from Crystal College, where he was president, arrived here, I already had more than 1,500 books in my personal library. I had about 5,000 at that time. And I love to read, and I love to study, and all of that. But I want you to know, that if you're not careful, you can spend all of that time in doing your classwork and studying and writing papers and you can presume that that can take the place of your personal daily devotional walk with God. It cannot. Don't make that mistake. You know, I don't know anyone who later in life looks back on their seminary days and says, you know, I prayed too much when I was at Southwestern. I spent too much time in prayer." No. All of the things will come and distract you if you're not careful. And you will drift. In fact, the opposite of drawing near in Hebrews 10, contextually in the book of Hebrews, is drifting away. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. We better pay close attention to the things you've heard, lest we drift. How shall we escape if we neglect? Doesn't say reject. He's not writing to lost people. The book of Hebrews is written to save people. How shall we escape God's discipline in our lives as believers if we neglect such a great salvation? Neglect. What causes drifting? It's neglect. Neglect of the things of God. What keeps you from drawing near? It's neglect. And so, you got to stay close. You got to stay close. I get to travel a lot, fly a lot, preach in lots of different places. One of my favorite things to do when I do that is to, on the airplane when they're taxiing away from the jetway, going out to take off, I love when the flight attendants give us all of the safety information about the plane. And so, you know, they come on and they say, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard American Airlines flight 1532 to Atlanta, Georgia. We're glad to have you on board. Please keep your seatbelt fastened at all times. To fasten your seatbelt, insert the metal lip into the buckle. Lift up on the buckle. The lip will come off. Please keep your seatbelt fastened at all times. In the unlikely event of loss of cabin pressure, oxygen mask will appear. If you are traveling with an infant or small child, please place the mask over your face and then over that of your child. The mask may not inflate, but oxygen is flowing. In the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat bottom cushion can be used as a flotation device. Now, it's right there that I always want to stand up and say, time out. Did you hear what you just said in the unlikely event of a water landing? I mean, it's sort of like the pilot, Fred, looks over to the co-pilot, Ralph, and says, hey, Ralph, let's do it differently today. Instead of landing on that runway, let's land in that lake over there. Folks, if that plane lands in water, that's not called a landing, that's called a crash, is what that is. It's unbelievable, a water landing. Oh my goodness gracious. And so I watch what people are doing. All of these safety features are being given to us and I'm looking around the plane. I do this every time I travel. And there are two old boys over here, and they're just talking. They're paying no attention. And there are two ladies up there, and they're talking. They're paying no attention. There's an old boy here who's got his ball cap down over his eyes, and he's already asleep. And somebody over here, they're reading Sports Illustrated. And somebody else, I see her. She's reading People Magazine. And everybody around me within eyesight, you know what? They're not paying one iota of attention, not one bit of attention to what's being said. You know why? Two reasons. They've heard it all before. And number two, they don't consider the danger serious enough to warrant their attention. And thus, they neglect. And the same is true in your Christian life. You know why students skip chapel? Because they've heard it all before. You know why you call a revival at your church as the pastor and you plead with your people to pray and come and let's seek God and then only a fourth of them show up? You know why? It's because they're drifting. It's because they are neglect. They're neglecting the things of God. Neglect. Don't do that. Don't do that here at Southwestern. Don't ever do it in your Christian life. Fulfill the passage. Let us draw near. All right, quickly, number two. Look at verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful. You see, once you get your relationship with God right, then you can fulfill this command, holding fast. And only you can hold yourself fast. You can't do that by proxy through anyone else. The only way that you are going to maintain commitment that you've made to Christ when you were saved and your public profession of faith was your baptism and you said, I love Christ and I'll live for him and I'll never deny him, the only way that'll stay true is if you draw near regularly and then you have the ability to hold fast that confession of your hope. Look at that. Your confession is your hope. Christ is your hope. He is the confession you've made, commitment to him, and this confession of our hope, we are to hold fast. The word in Greek means to grip it and never let it go. It means to white knuckle it. Hold it fast. Hold it tightly. Hold fast. The confession of your hope. Look at this little word without wavering. without wavering. Two words in English, one word in Greek. It's the word aklone in Greek. Interesting little word. When you're not feeling well, Dr. Patterson's not feeling well today, and so yesterday he went over to the clinic. When you're not feeling well, where do you go? You go to the clinic. And the doc says at the clinic, come over here, Dr. Patterson, you're not feeling very well today, let me check you out. And then he says, lie down here, lie down here on the couch. Because you see, in Greek in the first century, the word klinē was the Greek word for couch. We just take that word and bring it over into our English language, a clinic. And so what is a clinic? It's the couch place. It's the place where you go to lie down when you're not feeling well. And the way you negate a word in Greek, you put a little alpha privative on it and it negates it. And so literally, just etymologically now, wait a minute, look, I've read Carson's Exegetical Fallacies. Don't pull that on me. I use that as a textbook sometimes. I'm not making the etymological fallacy. I'm illustrating by analogy. Okay? So don't jump on me on that. I don't want my homiletic students fussing at me about that. I know the difference. Okay? I'm not doing a word fallacy. But the word is no couch, literally. No couch. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is this. Look, you need to hold fast your confession as a Christian without lying down on the job. That's what you need to do. When I was a pastor of my two churches for 21 years, I'd come in on Sunday morning, and I'd see my people come in, a few of them, they'd come in, and they would just walk over to their pew, and they'd just lie down on the pew. Pew potatoes is what they were, and they'd lie there. And they'd say to the choir, entertain me, choir, if you can. And they'd say to the preacher, keep me awake, preacher, if you can. They were just pew-potatoes. They would come in. They were not holding fast to the confession of their hope. They weren't involved. They weren't doing anything. Just come in, come out. They were pew-potatoes. You're not supposed to be that way in your Christian life. You've got to hold fast. What would it take for you to relinquish your grip on Christ and your Christian faith? Would it take a little trouble in your life? How about a little financial reversal? How about if you got news from the doctor that you've got a terminal illness? What would it take for you to say, oh, it's just too hard? The people of the book of Hebrews in their day, in the decade of the 60s, in the turbulent vortex of the Jewish war from AD 66 to AD 70, the Roman army impinging. If you were a Jewish believer like these people, you were hated by everybody. Your own people hated you because you were a Christian. And the Romans hated you because you're a Christian. And so everybody was out to get you. And the author of Hebrews says, look, you're facing tough times. Hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering. Why? Look at the reason why. For He who promised is faithful. There's why you hold fast. There's why we can be faithful because He is faithful. Let me ask you, has Jesus ever let you down? I mean really, has He ever let you down? Of course He hasn't. No. Let us hold fast. without wavering for He who promised is faithful." And then quickly, number three, let us stir one another up to love and good deeds. Consider how to stir one another up to love and good deeds. Interesting there, consider, bear your mind down on other people in the local churches so that you are focused on their needs and not yours. Boy, there's an interesting concept. Church is not about you. Consider others, consider others how you may, look at this, the old King James Version says how you may provoke. And then other translations soften that a little bit, stir up the new, the Christian Standard Bible, the new translation there, they reinsert the old King James Version and I like it. Provoke, consider how you may provoke one another to love and good deeds. That word in Greek is a word that was used to describe in the first century, it's something of a medical term. in the first century, and it was used to describe a high fever that produces chills and the body shakes. And we have a medical term today, Doc will tell you, the medical term today for a patient who has a severe case of the shakes is called a paroxysm. And that's, we get that English, we bring that English word over from this Greek term right here, and it means to shake. And some of you are saying, hot dog, now you're talking my language. Let me get into that church and provoke people. Wait a minute. Before you revel in that spiritual gift, make sure you carefully understand what He says. What are you to shake people up to? Love and good deeds. Love, there's internal. Good deeds, there's the external. Love, there's the circulatory system of the church. And good deeds, they're the feet to our faith as we serve the Lord. We're here to consider one another, how to stir one another up to love and good deeds. And then the last verse here, verse 25, notice there's a negative and a positive way you go about doing that. Quickly, not neglecting your assembling of yourselves together is a habit of some. Hey, have you ever noticed how hard it is to stir people up to love and good deeds in church when you're not there? It's pretty difficult to do. Oh, by the way, I meant to tell you, I am never going to another Dallas Cowboys football game. No, I'm never going again. I'll tell you why. Every time I go, I have to park so far away and walk, and so I'm never going to another game. I'll give you another reason. Every time I go to a Dallas Cowboys football game, they ask me for money. And I'm never going back. I'll give you another reason. Every time I go to those games, the seats are uncomfortable. And so I'm just never going back. I'll give you another reason. When I go to those games, nobody talks to me. And so I'm never going back. I'll give you another reason. When I go to those games, the band plays songs I don't know. And so I'm never going back. I'll tell you another reason. I'm never going back because the referee makes calls I don't agree with. And my final reason for why I'm never going to another Dallas Cowboys football game is those games last too long. And so, I'm never going back. I'm through. Huh? Have you ever, in all of your born-put-togethers, ever heard more ludicrous, ridiculous, asinine excuses that God's people give for being unfaithful to their local church? Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some. When I was a student at Southwestern on Sunday morning in the men's dorm over here, lots of guys who were studying in the School of Theology slept in and didn't go to church. This is a problem in the evangelical world when Donald Miller writes books and puts on his blog in 2014 that the great Christian leaders in the evangelical world that he knows, they don't go to church because church is sort of outdated. Maybe the reason we've got so many problems in the evangelical world today is too many student pastors are carrying their people through blue like jazz, their students through blue like jazz on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights instead of the word of God. Maybe that's part of our problem. Gosh, how did I get off on that? Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as is a habit of some. But here's the positive. Oh, we need encouragement, don't we? Oh, how we need encouragement. Everywhere you go, you get discouragement. You don't want to come to church and get that. You want to come to church and be encouraged. So we are to get encouragement when we come to church. Be an encourager, whatever else you do. Encouraging one another, that's how you go about fulfilling this third command of stirring people up to love and good deeds. Pick three people next Sunday at your church and encourage them. And just start doing that every Sunday. Encourage people. I know some people are born in the objective case and the kickative mood, and they're always negative and griping. I understand that. I had a man in my church, first church, 16 years, sat about the fourth row in the aisle. And every Sunday for 16 years, he'd fold his arms during the song service. Dr. Day never sang a note, griped about everything. We'd have Wednesday night business meeting. Well, I think I'd bring a motion. We need to buy 10 pencils. No, I don't think we need 10. I think we can get by with four. I was a negative, critical, griping person in all the earth. There are always people like that in churches. Look, you think your professor is a problem. You've got it made here at Southwestern. Why don't you get in a local church and you deal with some of the people there, okay? Now, there are a lot of good folk there, too, but you've got to deal with some of these negative, critical, griping, complaining people. These are people that when they die, God's going to have to install a suggestion box in heaven for them. I mean, these are people that are so negative and complaining and griping that if they drown, you better look for them upstream. They're against everything. Encouraging one another. Do you ever feel in church sometimes you wanna, as the pastor, you just wanna lean over to some old griping, complaining person out there, lean over the pulpit and say, brother, would you mind standing up today and leading us in a word of criticism? Gripe, complain. No, don't do that. How do you stir people up to love and good deeds? How do you do it? Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. That's the negative. Here's the positive, encouraging one another. And here's how it closes. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. What day is that, David? Oh, it's the day of the Lord in the Old Testament. It's the day of the return of Christ. You see, now is the time to put these things into practice because one day the heavens will divide and the Lord will come again. And it's time to do for Jesus whatever you're going to do for Him now. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not you, who? All the more, do these things as you see the day drawing near. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Take it now and apply it to our hearts that we may serve you, that we may draw near, hold fast, and stir one another up to love and good deeds. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.