I invite you to turn in the scriptures to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, verses five to twenty five is where we'll be reading from. If you have one of the Bibles from the back of the church, it's on page twelve, eighty two. If you're visiting with us, we've had an opportunity to go through the book of Hebrews for quite some time, and now we come to the 10th chapter. I think you'll see there's a tremendous tie-in, actually, with the public profession of faith that we will hear together this afternoon. So it's a blessing to be able to read and consider God's holy word together, beginning at the 5th verse of the 10th chapter. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired. What a body have you prepared for me in burnt offerings and offerings? You've taken no pleasure. But then I said, behold, I've come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for these are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days declares the Lord. I'll put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there's no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So far, the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, this afternoon, we have the privilege of witnessing the public profession of faith of six members of our congregation. It's a joy and a delight for us to witness this together as a whole, as a body of Christ. And it's a blessing to have so many visitors also here to witness this public declaration. Jamie and Caitlin, Hannah, Sarah, Esther and Peter, you've all testified of the work of God in you. And you're today making a public profession that God in his grace has been renewing and transforming you. Not because of something you accomplished and certainly not because you took the bulls by the horn to sort of make something happen in your life. Instead, what you testify to here today is the hope that you have because of what God has done for you, right? And as a congregation and as an extended body of Christ from various churches and places, we rejoice together, don't we? As we see the fruit of faith flourishing and taking root in your hearts. But we should also be keen to ask ourselves, then, a most important question. How is it that this happens? How does faith grow in the heart of believers? And what is this faith in? We confess that Christ is the object of faith, the one in whom we trust as sinners in need of the grace of God to remove our sins and to make us holy. Only Christ can do that. And only by believing in him will anyone here receive the benefits of new life and forgiveness of sins. That's what you're testifying to this afternoon as you publicly address the world to say, I believe these things to be true and testify that I belong to Christ. So how does this happen? How do you come to this point, how does this become real in the hearts and lives of God's people? Our text this afternoon in the 10th chapter of Hebrews is giving us a clear answer to that question. The confession of our hope, this testimony of faith arises from the Spirit's testimony to us. So that's the first point of this afternoon, that the confession of our hope arises from the Spirit's testimony to us. The first 14 verses of Hebrews 10 had been taken up with a demonstration of the supremacy of the Old Covenant in contrast or of the New Covenant in contrast with the Old Covenant that was inaugurated and established at Sinai under Moses. That covenant, as we learned, it required ritual sacrifices every year. And that covenant was only ever a shadow of the new covenant reality that now exists. Something new is here upon us and we participate in this. Moses and that first covenant made at Sinai was an introduction to a new era in which the people were being instructed that the way to the holy place, that most important place where God said, I will dwell there among you. That way into the holy place was blocked to them under Moses, unless they brought sacrificial animals and they brought them to the priest and they went through all the rituals that were required. Something had to pay the way. The Old Covenant was instructing them then that the many sins that they committed required a payment in blood. In order to remove guilt, but Chapter 10, verse four says it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. A payment was required, but even the sacrifices that they brought were reminders of their sin, not removal of their sin. But then enter one who could take away sin and to the one who came into the world, saying sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but I have come to do your will as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. It's a whole new way of approach to God that's made manifest. That's what the author of the Hebrews is bringing us to this point to see. Look, it's open. It's free access to the father. And one of the effects of studying Hebrews is that we have seen more and more the layers of who Christ is and why we must fall before him as Lord of Lords and a savior and his friend. Now, the spirit is called on in verse 15 to testify, to bear witness to us. Your profession of faith, it comes from the work of the spirit. That's testimony of the spirit in your heart that these things are true and that you can place your total confidence in this. Isn't that amazing that the driving force behind these young members who will confess the hope they have, the driving force behind it is the spirit of the living God. That's amazing. We get to test it. We get to witness this, to see it. And the spirit of the living God bears witness to you and I, after saying in Jeremiah 31, this is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, when I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. And then he adds, I'll remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Talk about ingredients for confidence. Everything you need is explained and given to us there. That we would know how does faith begin to emerge in us? It's reflecting through the spirit, testifying to these things, giving them before us and planting them in our hearts so that we would have hope, so that we would have confidence. Earlier in our study of Hebrews, we worked through the citation of Jeremiah 31 and in chapter eight, the apostle picks up Jeremiah 31 for the first time. And and there he's using it to announce that a new covenant was replacing the old covenant that was made at Sinai. And that this was a covenant that was going to be defined by God's unconditional actions and that it wasn't going to be a conditional covenant like the one that was made at Sinai. This was not about the people's actions. This was totally going to be what God was going to do. He said, I will write these things. I will cause these things to come to pass in your heart. And here in verse 15, the Hebrews are again reminded of this as the spirit testifies to us that the Lord will make the covenant and make sure that everything That covenant relationship between him and us requires is true of us through Christ's obedience. What's more, he adds, I'll remember their. And then look at verse 18, matter of fact, just plain clear where there is forgiveness of sins and lawless deeds, there's no longer any offering for sin. It's done. You need hope. In the context of this covenant that is laid out before us here, but we have to ask who's doing the work, who's acting and it's clearly the spirit. who's testifying about what the Spirit or what the Son has done by the divine good pleasure of the Father. That's your triune God acting to save you, causing these things to become a reality in your hearts and lives. That's why we can't live the gospel or be the gospel to other people. That's a confusion of what the gospel really is. The gospel is the fulfillment of the spirit's testimony in Jeremiah 31. The gospel is God making a covenant with you unilaterally, putting his law on your heart, writing it on your mind and remembering your sins no more because Christ has come and he did the will of his father, all of it completely and perfectly. That's the gospel. The gospel is what we will hear confessed again on the testimony of these six individuals who stand to speak of what God has done in them to cause them to believe these things in a personal, intimate way. Ever-growing in humility that arises from an understanding of what it means to be saved by grace. Ever-growing in the delight that flows from an understanding that Christ has satisfied the demands of justice in your place. Never growing in the confession of our hope, which is placed solely on Christ. We can't be the gospel to other people, but we can tell people about it. We can tell them what God has done and we can love our neighbors as we're called to with a new power and a heart, a desire in our hearts to do so. So now not only does our confession of hope arise from the Spirit's testimony to us, our first point, But we also see in the following verses that it gives us confidence to enter the holy places. This has been a theme throughout the book of Hebrews, and because it's one of the chief ways that the Old Testament Israelites were being taught about their need for a savior. If you were a Jew living in Israel before Christ came, this was one of the things you were being instructed in. They saw every day a veil, a curtain that kept them from drawing near to God. Every day, those who live near the tabernacle or the temple, if they lived near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, they would look, they would see a structure with walls, with barriers, with a veil that they knew was in there that was majestic, that only the high priest could pass through once a year and not without blood. There's a barrier. And they see and they knew it was for their protection, they understood that much, they knew that those who tried to go before God in their own strength, they were struck down. They had no life left in them, even the one who who pried up, opened the cupboard or the opening to the ark was struck down. And it was for their good, but it was also a sign that there was this distance, a separation from God that was required because they were sinners and God is pure. When we lived in Southern California, they are the rich tended to live in these gated communities. And as I would drive past these places, it was quite clear that I wouldn't be permitted entry into those places. I had no invitation. There was no reason for me to enter into that gated community, that sanctuary with its perfectly manicured lawns and crime-free living. Well, take that idea and then turn it around to see that the presence of God, not just rich people living in fancy homes, no, the presence of God was revealed in an earthly place, in the tabernacle and temple, and that was no longer a place the Israelites could enter into freely. We know how it first began, don't we? Genesis 3, 23, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to God, the way to the tree of life. Later, when God uniquely reveals himself to the Israelites through Moses, God said to him in Exodus 25, he said, from within the tabernacle, I will meet with you And from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony I will speak with you about all that I will give you And now fast forward to the time of the christian church, what do we have we have a garden temple in eden? No, we're still waiting for the heavenly Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. Oh, this is our access. This is the way in which we come before God. Christ said, I am the way to the Father. No one comes to the Father except through me. We only begin to grasp what this is in this life. If you have your Bibles open, I want you to turn to the words of the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 36, one of the Old Testament prophets Verse 24 to 28, it's on page 918 in the Bible at the back. Most commentators agree that this passage, Ezekiel 36, together with Jeremiah 31, has a central role in the argument that the author of the Hebrews is presenting of what God in Christ has done and how he fulfills prophecy. Look at Ezekiel 36, verse 24. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you. And I will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people. And I will be your God. And you can go on reading that what the Spirit does when He makes people alive. This is what is being described in verse 21 of our text. This washing, this cleansing, this work of the Spirit to give us a heart of flesh, something living, something powered by the Holy Spirit. For who can stand before God, is the question. Who can be in the presence of God, the one to whom He does that? For what's he done? He sprinkles hearts clean from evil. Paul testifies that our hearts, apart from Christ, cry out to us, revealing to us that we are not clean. Calling out to us, you are not clean, is what the law continues to teach us. But when Christ cleanses us, when we are washed By your great high priest, over the house of God, Christ your Lord, then there's nothing that separates us from the love of God in Christ. You see the same expression of the removal of any and all barriers as found in Paul's letter to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3. No more veil, he says, no more barriers. You have confidence to enter the holy places, leading to the confession of our hope that this is true as we draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. To our brothers and sisters who make profession of faith this afternoon, it's a delightful time to see you giving expression to this conviction of your heart in full assurance of faith. That's why we rejoice with you. That's why we encourage our children and all who are learning the doctrines of the faith to publicly profess this in the presence of God and the Holy Spirit. Your High Priest, the one who satisfied the crushing demand of God's law on fallen sinners. His gift of a justifying righteousness and a life-giving sanctification is received by faith and by an empty hand. We give nothing. We only receive. We rest in God's goodness. The confidence that you can draw near, confident that the profession you make or you have made or the profession that you're considering making That's freeing. That's liberating. You can't give people hope in any other way. And so now we've seen then that the confession of our hope arises first from the Spirit's testimony to us, and it gives us confidence, secondly, to enter the holy places, to be before God. But now our last point this afternoon is that this confession of hope spurs us on in service of one another. As we look there at the final verses in our text, verses 23 to 25. And we step into this transition in the book of Hebrews from the great indicatives, great telling forth of what God in Christ has done, turn from those great declarations of Christ's glory and power. Now we move on to a series of imperatives. Instructions, a series of applications and ways in which this doctrine creates a changed life and a changed community. The church needs to hear this. You and I need to be reminded of these things so that we would walk before God in obedience, that we would desire the things that He has laid out before us. And our confession of hope always knowing and learning what God and Christ have done since the creation of the world, and also being encouraged to walk in conformity with the things God has revealed in His Word. On full assurance of faith, we receive the Apostles' charge in verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful. This applies to all Christians, those who have made a public profession of faith, and those who will. and the Lord's providence come to a day when they also are prepared and able to testify of the things that God has done. Hold fast the confession of our hope. And why is this word of encouragement required? Why do we need to be reminded of these things here in verse 23? Well, it's because discouragement and doubt lurk around every corner. It's the experience of life. It's easy to paper over things and drift into despondency and dark times. Not even so much out of sinful motives, but simply out of the experience of living life in a fallen world and struggling with all that comes our way. It's hard. My conscience accuses me of having never kept any of God's laws and breaking all of them. is we confess in the catechism. Am I really a Christian? And for the Hebrews, that danger was that some were turning back to those sacrifices, going back to the temple. They wanted it just as an extra. They're wavering. They're uncertain. So they said, well, we may as well double our bets. Let's go to the temple. Let's use another tool for verification. Well, if I make a sacrifice at the temple, then I know. And the church community is, well, don't go back. Don't go back. The confession of our hope without wavering. the confession that He came to offer one sacrifice for all time as our great High Priest. That confession, hold on to it, the Apostle is saying. Why, how, how do you do this? We have the Spirit's testimony, and then this, He who promised His faith. He who testified in the Old Testament, He who testified while He walked on earth, He who took your sins and bore them on His shoulders, and bore them on the cross in our place, He who promised that and did that is faithful. Hold fast to your confession. Jamie, Caitlin, Hannah, Sarah, Esther and Peter, hold fast the confession of your hope that you have made and will publicly affirm today for he who promised is faithful. Paul echoes the same truth in Second Thessalonians saying the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. And the same thing is being said today by us about you at the confession of our hope. All of the things that we confess together about the risen Lord Jesus Christ, savior of his people and king of all creation, that confession serves us on in service to one another, holding fast to our confession and loving one another. of devotion and delight in God. For love of God, because of what He's done for us, fills out in all sorts of different horizontal ways. We're never confined to me my Bible and my God I mean the monks tried to do that for centuries and the church was ravaged by it The removal of those who were so-called holy ones was in direct contrast with churches called to fear in Hebrews chapter 10 he says as you've been loved and received love from God and from other Christians to so you can stir up one another and All too often, we provoke. That's another way to translate that word that you see right to stir up. We provoke one another, but not in a good way. Here things stir up, provoke one another in a most blessed way towards love and towards good deeds. We prod, don't we, when we provoke others, we prod, we push, we nag, we complain, we stick our fingers in people's eyes if they don't do what we think is right and proper and conforms to our social cultural codes. Turn that upside down, beloved. There's no place for that here. The Lord and his word says, stir up one another to love and good works. That's not coercion that's modeled. You don't tell someone to do that so much as modeling it for them, showing others what love and good works are by the very doing of them. And then verse 25 goes on. You have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Christ. You have the confession of hope. Now, please really don't neglect to meet together. For the solitary Christian is an oxymoron. That's one of the biggest problems I have with the book of Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. It's a great allegory. It's a beautiful story that pictures many of the issues that afflict a Christian on his or her journey through life. But but in the story of John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress, It's a man who never rests in the company of others. Every time he gets this traveling companion, somebody comes along with him, the companion then leads him astray and he has to pry himself away from that person's clutches in order to continue his journey. That's sadly a true picture of what happens in the Christian life as the ungodly or hypocritical lead others astray. That's true. But Hebrews 10, verse 25 is still reminding us we're in this journey together. There's six of you here publicly confessing faith in Christ. testifying to the work that God has been doing in you for some time. But you also do it together, do it as six, but also before the congregation and with many other fellow travelers beside and behind you and more on the way. More hearts being worked on by God to the spirit now making you desirous to also profess your faith and give an account of the hope that lies within. and not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another as fellow travelers and all the more as you see the day approaching. It's a perfect pairing, isn't it? The past work of Christ and the future hope of his appearing again. Look back, see Christ, look forward, see the day drawing near. He who promises faithfulness, all wrapped up right in here. He who promises to save his people from their sins. to give them new hearts, to sprinkle your heart clean from an evil conscience, wash your bodies with pure water. He is faithfully accomplishing these things. And the response of your hopeful hearts is to be one of compassion and care for others, regular communion with the saints, meeting together, encouraging one another all the more as we see the day drawing near. In the next Lord's Day, we are going to continue in Hebrews 10. And we pick up their warning passages that immediately follow our text this afternoon. At the height here, it just comes to sort of the height of the apostles, powerful description of the joy that every believer has of the triad of faith, hope and love. We've we've got these things that define every Christian of meeting together, of spurring one another on. And as Hebrews powers up to this climactic declaration to all Christians everywhere to hold fast the confession of our hope. At the very height of it all, the word of God also warns with intensity and power those who would refuse or reject these things in favor of a life of self-service and self-satisfaction. Watch out the hypocritical heart that turns from the cross of Christ to rely instead on your own actions to seek a way of self-saving is a dangerous and an awful thing. You look at the next few verses. There's a powerful warning there. that you will face the judgment for sins without Christ's blood washing and covering you and refusing to repent and believe as grounds for further condemnation apart from Christ. Hear the word of God calling you to believe in Christ alone as a source of your life and hope and confidence in this life and in the life to come. Trust in him and confess his name with your heart and in the company of others with delight in his obedience. His righteousness, his goodness and love, not just weighing the things that you have done to see if they'll be enough to save you. They won't. Only his blood can make you whole. Only his righteousness can give you a place before God. He is the new and living way to the father. And so drawn near any who still waver, drawn near. with a true heart in full assurance of faith and believe that Christ alone can and will make you clean of sin and wash you with pure water. For he who promised to save his people from their sins and give them new life is faithful. And we, with uplifted hearts of faith, receive from his hand of goodness, life and freedom for today, all the more as you see the day drawing near. That's your confession of hope. That's your confession of faith. Praise the Lord, for he is good, merciful to those who confess his name. Amen.