The Responsibility of “Let Us”
Lord’s Day Afternoon
March 30, 2008
Mike Klikas
Hebrews 10:4-25
When you hear the words, let us, who do you think of? When you hear the word “us,” the first thing that comes to mind is that this word is a word that indicates more than one person. When the Lord says let us reason together, he is not talking to Himself. It should be obvious that He is talking to sinners. In the book of Hebrews chapter 10, we see three instances of the words let us. This afternoon we are going to examine those words and see how those words apply to us. We are also going to see how those words should be applied to us as a church.
Hebrews 10:4-25, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 ¶ Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19 ¶ Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21 And having an high priest over the house of God; 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
We have to break these verses down in order to understand the three verses we are going to look at, verses 22 through 24.
We are here today celebrating the Lords supper. Why do we celebrate this? Celebrating the Lords supper is something, while we are told to do this, is something that we desire to celebrate. It is a time of Holy Communion and cleansing of sin from our church. What cleansed of our sin? Come on Mike, that’s an academic question? Yes it is, but how many times do we fail in the academics of life.
Look at verses 4 through 10.
Hebrews 10:4-10, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 ¶ Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away our sins, verse four says. Half hearted, I guess I’m a sinner prayers, do not take away sins. When you trust more in the prayers that you said than you do in the God who has given you prayer you are offering up nothing more than bulls and goats. True prayer is worship. When we come to God through out these half-hearted prayers of false repentance then we are still guilty of sin because nothing has changed in our heart. What are the bulls and goats in your life that you think are pleasing to God?
Let’s continue on.
In verse five, who is this talking about? The Lord Jesus Christ is who this verse is talking about. What is He saying here? It would have done no good for the Lord Jesus Christ to offer sacrifices in the temple because the only thing that is going to take away sin is the perfect God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice again what the bible says in verse five.
Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
A body was prepared for God the Son.
1 Corinthians 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
This body that was prepared was one that was prepared for the sacrifice of sins, our sins so that we might be justified through His sacrifice. Why was this body prepared for the sacrifice of sins? Our answer is found in verse six.
Hebrews 10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
We know that the priests would offer sacrifices for just about everything. We don’t have the time to cover the book of Leviticus but if we did, we would see the many different types of sacrifices the priests made for the people. But what does this verse tell us about those sacrifices? God had no pleasure in them because they never took away sin. Every day, every month, every year the priests had to offer sacrifices for the people and their sins. It is only through the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice that our sins our taken away. I know that you might be saying I know this already. Then let me ask you why you are still trying to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings today? Instead of wholly trusting in God, you re trying to bargain with God by saying things like, Lord if you get me out of this I promise I will never do this or that again. When you sin, you try to feel better about yourself by doing a good deed instead of repenting, a turning away from your sin, a bargaining with God if you will. Or maybe your burnt offering and sacrifice is prayer that was prayed, you know, the sinners prayer, and I have already said, you trusted in the prayer more then in the God of prayer. Praying a prayer to be saved and trusting in that prayer will do you about as much good as a burnt offer or sacrifice.
There is good news though, as we will see in the next few verses.
Hebrews 10:7-10, “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
God the Son tells us that the Bible is all about Him and how He established a New Covenant with us by sacrificing once for all his life for our ransom. Burnt offerings and sacrifices could not do what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us and that is He saved us and sanctified us once for all. This tells us then that there is nothing that we could do to obtain salvation and to be sanctified in and off our selves. These next two verses are exciting and this is really going to help us spring board to where we want to be.
Hebrews 10:11-12, “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God”.
How often did the priests stand there ministering and offering for the people? They stood there oftentimes, or several times a day offering the same sacrifice, and notice what the end of this verse says, which can never take away sins. In every church that preaches that gospel, there are lost members and lost children who have prayed a prayed that may have caused an emotional response at that time. No amount of emotion will save you. You can pray the sinner’s prayer daily and still be lost. It isn’t until you repent completely with no strings attached and wholly give your life to Christ that you will truly be saved. Now in contrast to the daily offerings, how long do our sins stay forgiven when the Lord saves us? Our sins are forgiven forever and there are no more sacrifices that are required for the remission of sins. If this doesn’t thrill your soul then I don’t what will. To know that I am eternally forgiven for my sins because of the great sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made for me is beyond comprehension. I don’t to fully comprehend this. That doesn’t matter because I don’t need to comprehend it all, all I do need to do is to live for my Lord and give Him my all in everything I do. Now what are some of those things I should be doing? You should be asking yourself the very same questions.
There are two responses to this question. My first response needs to be directed at God and then my second response which is just an extension of my first response is towards those around me.
What then, should be our response towards God as a result of Him eternally forgiving our sins? Love, worship, holiness, thankfulness are but a few responses we should have for our Lord because of His great salvation. Look at verses 13 – 20. Now you might think that these next verses don’t talk about loving, worshipping, living a holy life and being thankful.
Hebrews 10:13-20, “From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19 ¶ Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”.
These verses show us what the Lord Jesus has done for us and what he can do for you if you are not saved. He will make His enemies His footstool. This will benefit us because some of the attacks we incur are a direct result of His enemies. But what’s even more exciting is the fact that we, because of what the Lord did on the cross, are being sanctified daily. The most exiting part to all of this though is found in verses fifteen through seventeen.
Hebrews 10:15-17, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
God is incapable of forgetting and therefore chooses to remember our sins no more. If this doesn’t excite you and move you to serve and worship God, then I have to wonder if you are truly saved. Now we have seen up to this point what God has done for us, but what are our responsibilities towards the Lord and towards each other as a result of this great salvation we have.
Hebrews 10:21-24, “And having an high priest over the house of God; 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works”.
Who is this high priest? The Lord Jesus is our high priest. Because of the fact that He is our high priest we have three “let us” responsibilities. We will also see how Hebrews 10:25 fits in to this. We use Hebrews 10:25 to say when the doors to the church are open for services we need to be there, but there is much more to this verse in light of what we know now and what we are going to find out in just a few minutes.
The first “let us” makes reference to verses sixteen and seventeen. The Lord has put His law into our hearts and minds and has chosen to no longer remember our sins. As a result of that we should be able to draw near to God with a true heart, one that is not full of lies and deceit as it was in our old nature. We can also draw near to God with full assurance. So many people have no hope when they worship God because He is in some far off obscure place to them. Yet we know that God is near to us. How much nearer can God get then to live inside your heart as a result of your conversion. We have full assurance that we are able to draw as near to God as we can because He will not reject His own. How near have you drawn to the Lord this year? Do you have full assurance or are you like those whose hope is anything but hope.
Not only can we draw near, but in essence we are commanded to draw near. Our hearts were sprinkled from an evil conscience because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done we should want to draw near to Him without someone telling us this is what we need to do. Life is hard and the only way to endure it is to stay close to God. When we think about where we came from and where we are now, we can’t help but draw close to God.
Now before we move on to our next point, I want you to see how the Holy Spirit wrote these particular verses in a precise order. As a result of the Lord conquering death and giving us a new life in Himself, we should draw close to Him. If we are drawing close to him then the next “let us” mentioned is following the order that God has designed. Notice verse twenty three.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
It is hard to hold your profession of faith if you are not daily walking with God. If you stray from the Lord then your hold on your profession of faith will be weak at best. If you are truly saved then you will not be able to stray long. Those who are the redeemed of God will hold their profession of faith. How will they hold this profession of faith that they have? They will hold it fast, meaning this; no matter what happens to them in their life they are not going to let go of their faith. You can take everything else away from them but they will never let go of the faith that God has entrusted them with. Notice what else this verse says. The Bible tells us that those who hold fast the profession of their faith will do so without wavering. They will not be strong one minute and defeated the next. Will there be times when we become discouraged? Any Christian who does not experience discouragement at one time or another is either dead or they are not a Christian. But even in discouragement we are still holding fast the profession of our faith.
This means when everything goes wrong and all the fiery darts are coming at you all at once, you stand your ground and hold fast to the profession of your faith. Why, why do we hold fast to the profession of your faith even when chaos seems to be ruling the day? Because God is faithful. God is faithful, God is trust worthy and God has promised to work in us and through until we either meet Him in glory by way of the grave, or we meet him in the air. Regardless of which way we go, God is faithful. Because of His faithfulness, we should hold fast our profession of faith until our last breath is breathed. Men will fail you, governments will fail you, the company you work for will fail you, and even your own family may fail you. But God who is faithful will never fail. If that doesn’t comfort you and drive you to love and serve God, then nothing will.
Now I mentioned that the Holy Spirit preserved these verses in a very specific order. We have seen that what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us we should cause us to draw near to Him. We have also seen that we should hold fast to our profession of faith. The next “let us” cannot be achieved unless the first two are evident in a person’s life.
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Notice that this “let us” is different in that it something that we should be doing for and to each other, whereas in verses twenty two and twenty three our responsibility was to God. I am not saying that we aren’t responsible to God for the responsibility in this verse, but rather that we are to interact with each other in order to please God. The words “let us consider” have to do with to considering attentively or fixing one's eyes or mind upon one another. In other words, we aren’t coming to church for ourselves and for what we can get. We are to focus on doing two things that will please God. What are those things that will please God? We are to provoke one another to love and good works.
Now I said earlier that we cannot do this unless we are living out verses twenty two and twenty three. Why is that? Who can know what love is, much less how to provoke or stir up love in someone if they do not know the love of Christ? The questions that needs to be asked is what does it mean to provoke unto love and how do we do this? First of all, to provoke unto love means that you are going to stir up the love up Christ in someone by using the love of Christ that is in you. This is not a phony love that says I’m glad your here when you really not. This is not a love that based on emotions because love is more than an emotion, it’s an action word. So if we provoke each other unto love, we are actually provoking, inciting, stirring up an action that is set in motion to do something out of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again the Holy Spirit specifically ordered the way this verse was written because if we provoke each other to love then it’s only natural that good works will follow. What are these good works? They are things that are done for the Lord and to each other that others may not know about yet are done out of our love for the Lord. Before we move on, I want to ask who you have provoked to love and good works. If you haven’t then we have to back track and ask if you are continually on a daily basis drawing near to God with a true heart, and are you holding fast the profession of your faith? Do not think that others here will fill the gap that you are leaving if you are not obeying the word of God? If you are struggling in an area of your life then these verses are that much more important. When we struggle we have a tendency to focus on ourselves and what we are going through.
When you stop thinking about your self and start putting others ahead of your self by provoking them to love and good works, the blessings that come make the struggles that we face seem insignificant. Think about when you are struggling and someone comes up to you and says that they have been burdened to pray for you and just wanted to let you know that have been praying for you. What does that do for you? It is like a shot in the arm that helps you keep going through all the difficult times. If you know what that does for you then don’t you think that you should be doing to and for other people in this church that need to be provoked unto love and good works also? I have talked about provoking unto to love, but what are these good works that we are supposed to provoke each other to do? They are works that are done with a pure heart for the purpose of pleasing God and encouraging each other. It could be something as simple as making a meal for someone or taking them home after church for an extended time of fellowship. You can be creative in how you want provoke someone unto love so that they in turn provoke someone else unto love, which is a good work. Now we are getting ready to wrap to this up but not before we look at verse twenty five.
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
We use this verse to say you need to be here when the doors are open, yet as we have seen there is more to this verse then just church attendance. You should come because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you, in you, and through you. You should also come because you cannot fulfill all the responsibilities of these “let us” if you’re not here. How can you provoke anyone to love and good works if you’re absent from church? I can use the phone, email or snail mail, but it’s not the same as actually seeing someone in person. When you regularly miss church because of “more important things” what you are saying is that the sacrifice that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ to save you and sanctify you does not mean all that much to you. How can you say that you are coming to the Lord Jesus Christ with a pure heart and holding fast the profession of your faith if you are not here?
No one who is not saved aside from maybe your family is going to love you and care about you like those whom you serve with at Tabernacle. Even then, if your family is lost they certainly aren’t going to be concerned about your spiritual well being. I don’t know about you but there are some days I don’t want to be loving when I get to church, yet because someone has obeyed the scriptures and provoked me through hand shakes and hugs, kind words and special music, preaching and praying, I have repented of my selfishness and then worked to provoke others to love. But more than that, by confessing that sin I was able to then come before the Lord with a pure heart and adjust my grip on my profession of faith. If I had listened to my flesh I wouldn’t have come to church and I would have been in a worse off state because of it.
But there are those who do who forsake the assembly and the Bible says it’s their manner or custom. Why do people forsake the assembling of saints together in the house of God? We do not know specifically why the writer of Hebrews says this. It could have been from persecution. Who here is being persecuted for coming to church? You don’t know what my family puts me through when I always come to church. No I don’t because you’re not here to ask the pastor or the deacons how to handle a family member like that. I’m tired from work. Who isn’t? I have to help out, fill in the blank. So you would rather provoke someone to love who isn’t a member of your local congregation and maybe not even a believer instead of one of your fellow church members. I don’t like who is teaching, I only want to listen to the pastor. So you follow a man instead of God. I could come up with many more excuses because I have heard so many through the years. What it comes down to is your heart and what is influencing it.
It’s easy to tell those who are coming before the Lord with a pure heart and those who are holding fast to the profession of their faith because of what they are doing to and for others here at church. It’s also easy to tell those who aren’t because the “let us” commands that we have been given aren’t as important to them as other things are. You know the things to pertain to the manner of some. So let me ask you as we close where do you fit in? Are you one of those “let us” Christians who is coming to God with a pure heart and holding fast to their profession of fast, thus provoking others to love, or do you fit into the manner of some category?