Let's take our Bibles now and turn to the book of Hebrews and continue our study of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Today, we're in Hebrews chapter 10. I'd like you to turn to verses 19 through 25. And if you don't have a Bible, we've got some hard-backed Bibles. Just reach up under a chair and pull it out and turn to page 11-91, 11-91. Hebrews 10, 19 through 25. We've been at this study of Hebrews for some time. We began back in December, if you're new to us. We started back in the Christmas season looking at this book. We called the series Jesus the Crux. The word Crux means essence or main thing, and Jesus is the main thing of the book of Hebrews just as he is the main thing of all of life. And we're growing in our knowledge of what that means here in this book. Hebrews 10, 19 through 25. Listen to God's word. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanses from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised his faithful and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. This is God's word. Fill in the blank. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Very good. All that glitters is not gold. A rolling stone. He who hesitates is lost. Y'all are kind of weak. Cleanliness. There you go. There you go. Good. Don't judge a book. Nice. The indicative always precedes. Oh, good. You actually, many of you got that. That's great. The indicative always precedes the imperative. I threw that one in because that's really what we're talking about today. And some of you are thinking, well, a rolling stone gathers no moss. I understand that, but the indicative always precedes the imperative. What is that about? Let me tell you, that is one of the keys to living the Christian life. If you'll grab hold of this, it'll really change your life. The indicative always precedes the imperative. Okay, let me explain what I mean. I'm talking about in the scriptures. That is in the Bible. God always tells us what's true about us before he tells us what he expects us to do. That is, he tells us what to believe before he tells us how to behave. Another way of putting that, he tells us who we are. And then he tells us how we're supposed to live. The indicative is, what I mean by that is, that's what's true of you. It's what's true of Jesus. It is those verities, those basic foundational truths. And then he follows that up, based on the truth, he tells us what we're supposed to do. He tells us how we're supposed to live. And you see this pattern throughout the New Testament. For example, in Paul's letters, many of Paul's letters begin with the first part of the letter, the indicative. Here's what you need to believe. Here's what's true about Christ, about you. And then the second part of many of his letters, he tells us, here's what you're supposed to do with that truth. For example, the book of Ephesians, chapters one through three are the indicative. He starts off and says, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And he begins to tell us what those blessings are. We've been chosen. We've been adopted. We've been given the Holy Spirit. We've been made new and alive in Christ. We've been placed in one body. Ephesians four through six are the imperative. Therefore, live a life worthy of your calling. So the indicative, the indicative always precedes the imperative. And the same is true here in the book of Hebrews. We've seen in this series that the author has spent nine and a half chapters of his letter telling us who Jesus is, what he came to do, what he has done for us, and who we are in him, we who believe in Christ. And he sums all of that indicative up in the first three verses of the text that I read, verses 19 through 21. Look at those. Verse 19, he says, therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God. Do you see what he's doing in those three verses? The author is summing up everything he has said to this point. And he's saying, that's the indicative. And if I could summarize it in my own words, I'd say two things. We have access and we have an advocate. That's the indicative. Verse 19, we have confidence to enter the most holy place. That's access. Verse 21, we have a great priest over the house of God. That is an advocate, our advocate Jesus Christ. So you get the indicatives all the way through those first nine and a half chapters and they are summarized in verse 19, 20 and 21. Now, now we're ready for the imperatives. And the rest of the book of Hebrews, that's pretty much what you're going to get. But before we get to the imperatives, I cannot resist saying it. Don't you ever get the order reversed? Don't put the imperative before the indicative. See, the Bible's message is not, do this and then God will love you. Do this and God will then accept you. No, the Bible's message is, God loves you in Christ. Therefore, do this. You don't obey the commandments in order to get God to accept you. And unfortunately, that's the common idea out there. You obey, then God will say, you're a good person, I will accept you. No, God accepts you through faith in Jesus Christ and then you go out in the security of that relationship. And in the unconditional grace of that relationship and you obey the commandments. The indicative and then the imperative is so important. If you ever forget that, if you ever get those two things backwards and put the imperative first, as though you do this and then God will love you, you have just trashed Christianity. You've just thrown Jesus under the bus and you've created a religion of works. And that was the problem with the Hebrew Christians. They were in danger of exchanging the gospel for a false religion of works. So, let's talk now about the imperatives. That's really where we're going. In verses 22 through 25, and then we're going to do the Lord's Supper. I want to show you this morning in those verses of our text, the two imperatives. The two imperatives are draw near to God and draw near to each other. Pretty simple plan, draw near to God, draw near to other people. So, let's begin with the first imperative, draw near to God. Look at verse 22, it says, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Now, that's so easy to read, but I want you to understand that that was a stunning message to the people who received this letter. And it ought to be stunning to you and to me as well. It was so radical for these first century Jewish Christians to be told that you could actually draw near to God. You could actually get close to God because they've been raised in a religion that taught that it's dangerous to get near God. These folks were raised in a religion that said you cannot draw near to God. The only person in your community of faith who can draw near to God is the high priest and he can only do that once a year on the day of atonement. But ordinary believers, keep your distance and see these people were raised on the Old Testament scriptures that we call the Old Testament. They knew the stories better than you and I do. They remembered the story about the time when God said to Moses on Mount Sinai, don't you dare let those people come near this mountain and let them not touch it if they touch this mountain, they will die. Keep your distance. They remembered one story from the Old Testament. Maybe you remember it too, about a guy named Aza. Aza, one time the Ark of the Covenant was being taken on a cart and it started to fall down onto the ground. And poor Aza did what maybe you and I would have done. Whoa, put his hand out as if to catch the ark so that it wouldn't fall and because he touched the Ark of the Covenant symbol of the presence of God, God killed him right there on the spot. See the overwhelming message that the Old Testament, the Old Covenant kept telling these Jews was, don't you dare come too close, God's dangerous. But now says the author of Hebrews, a new day has dawned. Jesus has come and died and paid the final sacrifice for sin. He has instituted a new covenant. He has broken down the wall separating you and God. He has ripped the curtain that separated the holy of holies from the ordinary believer. And now you've got access. You can draw near him. Now don't misunderstand, it's not that God is any less holy. It's not that God is less fearsome than he was back in the Old Testament. He's the same God, he's always been. But what's new is that Jesus has come to bridge the chasm between us and God. He lived the life that you and I were supposed to live. He died the death that we deserve to die. And now through faith in him, you and God can be friends, not enemies. Folks, that's absolutely radical. Draw nearer. That is, pray to him. Depend on him. Walk with him. Talk with him. Trust in him. Enjoy him. All of those things are wrapped up in that little phrase draw near to God and it's so stunning. Because any thinking person who really considers that you're in the holy presence of God, any thinking person when confronted with the presence of God would want to get as far away from God as possible. Why? Why? Because he knows us. He knows the truth about who we really are. And so any normal human being who is in the presence of someone who sees through the facade and sees through the pretense, down into the heart, down into the thoughts and knows who we really are, any normal human being, when confronted with that truth would want to run the other way, wouldn't they? I went to a urologist a few weeks ago. For one thing, I wonder why it is that anybody wants to become a urologist. But anyway, that's beside the point. I went to a urologist. Went in the office. They said, here's the examination room. And the woman said, okay, take everything off and put this on. Little flimsy hospital gown. And it went, like, I said in there in this gown on this cold table for like 25 minutes. I was agonizingly long wondering, what's he going to do to me? What's he going to poke? What's going to be the result of all this? And I know I'm getting TMI here. But I thought, as I really did think this, as I thought, as I said there, I thought, you know, this is what an unregenerate human being ought to feel in the presence of God. Absolute exposure. No where to hide. No where to go. Completely naked and known by the omniscient God that he is. Lincoln Park wrote a song a few years ago, a really light called, Easier to Run. You ever heard this song? Some of the lyrics. If I could change, I would. Take back the pain I would. Retrace every wrong move that I made. I would. If I could stand up and take the blame, I would. If I could take all the shame to the grave, I would. It's easier to run. Replacing this pain with something numb is so much easier to go than face all this pain here all alone. You know, that is really how Adam must have felt after he sent. Genesis 3, 10. You remember that verse that says, I heard you in the garden, God. And I was afraid. So I hid. Absolute exposure. Adam, not even wearing a hospital gown. Absolutely known by God. See, God sees through our facades. He sees through our happy faces. He sees through our religiosity. He sees through our good deeds. And looks down into the heart and sees the faults and mistakes and flaws. So why aren't we agreeing with Lincoln Park and saying, well, it's easier to run and hide. I'm going to run as far away as I can from God. We don't do it because we believe the gospel. The gospel shows up in the midst of our exposure and says, God took your sins and put them on Jesus. And then he punished Jesus instead of us. Isn't that a brilliant but simple story? God took your sins, put them on his son and killed his son instead of you and loved you. Jesus took our curse upon himself on the cross. Remember what we learned last week? We learned that if you simply put your trust in Jesus and turn away from your sins, you're not wearing a hospital gown any longer. You're wearing the very robe of the righteousness of Christ. And when he sees you, he says you're gorgeous. So fear no more. This is the first imperative. Draw near God. Go to him, stay near him all the time. Even when you blow it, go near God, approach him, seek intimacy with him, know him more and more and more. As you grow older, draw near to God. That's the first imperative because you've got access because he's your advocate. Draw near God. Now let's go to the second imperative. A lot of us would rather just leave it right there and say, okay, I'll have a great relationship with God. But the text says no. There's a second imperative associated with this freedom that we have in Christ. And that is to draw near to other people, particularly your brothers and sisters in Christ. That is our second imperative. Oh, well, that's another matter entirely. Someone may say I have no problem drawing near God. He likes me. I like him. But that guy over there? Yeah, right. That's so called friend. After what she did to me, no way, no way drawn near her. Guess what? The Bible doesn't give you an option to love God and not love other people. First John 2, 4, verse 20 says, if anyone says I love God but hates his brother, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen. So do you see there's an intimate connection between drawing near to God and drawing near to our brothers and sisters in Christ. The gospel calls you not only to move toward him but to also seek after more and more intimacy toward others in the body of Christ. And I would add particularly those who worship with you in the same church. In verses 24 and 25, the writer says that we should do three things if we're going to draw near to our fellow Christians. Three things. And they're very simple. I put them in a way for hopefully you can remember it. Speak up, show up and cheer up. Okay? Speak up, show up, cheer up. Let's look at each of those things. First the author says to speak up. If you're going to draw near your brothers and sisters, speak up. Look at verse 24. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Focus on that phrase. Spur one another on. It's a fascinating little phrase. It's the Greek word paroxysmos. Have you ever heard of the English word paroxysm paroxysm? It's not a word we use very often. Paroxysm is a sudden violent outburst. Maybe a sudden increase of intensity. A paroxysm is that. And that's what it's talking about here. We get the word to goad or spur one another on from that word paroxysm. Here's another way to look at it. Have you ever heard of a whip? Not this kind. But a whip like in Congress. Are you aware that in both houses of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives, there is both a majority whip and a minority whip? You've heard of that, right? Well, a whip is a party enforcer. A whip is somebody who has been appointed to go around and make sure that members of the party vote according to the party line. And they are the ones who make sure that if an important vote is coming up, that members of that party are going to be there to show up to cast their vote. And so they go around and they goad others in their party to be there when they are supposed to be there. Another way of talking about goad is annoy or irritate. And so the Bible is saying that you, if you're part of a body of Christ, are meant to be a gracious irritant to others in the church. Now I know we've all got people in our minds who are kind of irritating and annoying. I'm not talking about negatively being annoying. I'm talking about positively or graciously being annoying to others in the church. We haven't talked about this for a long time, have we? You don't hear this message, but that's exactly what Hebrews is saying. Let's consider how we may spur or sharpen one another up or push one another on. What does this look like? All right, you're in a life group, let's say, or you're in the youth ministry or in a D group or a Bible study. What does it mean for you? It means that you are to be constantly thinking about how can I urge my brothers and sisters here to a new level of excellence in the Christian journey? How can I hold my brothers and sisters accountable to the standards that we have set for one another? See, you're supposed to call one another out to a higher level of belief and of behavior if you're a Christian. You're supposed to notice when somebody is wandering away from the pack. In fact, let me go back to that word whip. Do you know where we get the word whip when we're speaking of the minority whip or the majority whip? It's actually a hunting term whipping in. Originally it was meant to refer to if you're in a group of hunters, you go out and get the wandering hounds and make sure they get back on the path. And so what does it mean for us? It means that when we notice that someone is wandering away from the path, wandering away from the pack, we go out after them. We pursue them. We bring them back. We seek to win them back to faithful pursuit of Jesus as part of our responsibility. You can't just blow it off. You can't just check out and ignore it when you see your brother or sister wandering from the path. You're supposed to notice it and do something about it when someone you know in the body of Christ is dabbling with sin. Is drifting from Jesus. He needs you. She needs you to go to them into love and good deeds. That's what it's all about. So speak up when you see it happening. Speak lovingly. Be a gracious annoyance to that person who is thinking about leaving the right path. Of course, we, I mean, a whole nother sermon. Of course, know how easily you can also fall. So it's got to be done with humility. It's got to be done with grace. But go to be a go to be a spur at UPC. Secondly, a second thing that it means to draw near to other people, not only speak up, but show up. Just basically show up. That's important. Verse 25 says, let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Do you realize what a gift it is to this church that you are here today? The fact that you show up. The fact that you go your life group meeting. You go to that D group. You go. You're attending. You're faithful to your membership vows. You realize that is a positive thing. It's a gift. Show up because we're living in a day when people don't show up. When people church hop and church shop looking for better music, better youth group, better children's program, better worship, better preaching, etc. And they're there as long as their needs are met. And then if their needs aren't met, they're on to the next church. Even church attendance is not highly valued. People sometimes say, I'll see you Sunday morning, unless my kid has a ball game. Unless I've got yard work to do, unless I'm tired, unless I think of something else I prefer to do. See, I'm not talking about the people who obviously are going to be gone from time to time, from worship on Sunday morning. You're going to be traveling. You're on business or what have you. But the text is talking about people who, as it says there in verse 25, are in the habit of missing the worship services of their local church. Do you know that a study says that 25% at least of church members are absent on any given Sunday. So a quarter of us are not here this morning. I'm talking about those who habitually miss some people even right here in our church on our membership role come to church only once or twice a month. What is that saying to your kids about the value of God's worship of his church? What's it saying to the children of our church and the families of our church that you so lightly consider the importance of this time together? And more importantly, what's it doing to your soul? I know I'm speaking to people who are here, but you get the point. Let's not give up the meeting together that is so very important. Show up. And thirdly, cheer up. Cheer up. That is cheer up one another. It says in verse 25, let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching that word encourage means to come alongside someone and cheer them or comfort them, exhort them. Encourage be there for them shoulder the burden with them and it's in the present tense. It's it's encouraging be always encouraging that is when you come to church on Sunday morning or when you go to your life group or whatever you are involved in you're supposed to be thinking actively. Okay, I'm looking around looking for someone to encourage. I'm active. I'm wondering who is it that I see who needs a listening ear? I wonder if I'm going to bump into someone so who's going through a hard time and I need to encourage him or her or is there somebody here that I can say, hey, let's go out to lunch after church with each other about. That's what it means to always be cheering up other people. The main point is we need one another, right? I mean, if we try to go alone, we'll die. We'll dry up, we'll wilt. So the imperatives are not only drawn near to God, but let's draw near to each other too. Have you ever seen the movie March of the Penguins? I think it's one of the best movies demonstrating the importance of community that there are. Take a few moments right now and watch this clip about community from March of the Penguins. By May, the light will nearly have disappeared from the sky and the temperature continues to drop. And for those who began their March too late, or have fallen behind because of weakness or hunger, hope of survival is now removed. The lone penguin has no chance against the winter's cold. He will simply fade away, absorbed by the great whiteness all around him. As winter descends, the tribe's only defense against the freezing cold is the group itself. It is almost as if they create another organism altogether. The huddled animals form a single moving mass, one designed for the sole purpose of sustaining warmth. What is first storm is upon them. Within a few weeks, days begin to pass with virtually no light at all. Moons come and go when the sun to be endless night. And finally, one day in early June, we remember why they came here. See what I mean? We need each other. We need genuine community. What a stark contrast between the one lone penguin who perished and the group that hung together that experienced true community. That's what we need to, where we are real with one another, where we depend on one another. And where we warm one another up so that we offer our community a place and a people where there is real love where life is happening and where life is multiplying. The Lord's table this morning is an invitation to both of these imperatives that we've talked about today. Here around this table, we draw near to God. This is the body of Christ symbolized by the bread and the blood of Jesus symbolized by the cup, the wine and the grape juice. And as we come together to eat the bread and drink the cup, we are communing with God. Jesus is spiritually but really here today. And so commune with him, consume him by faith as you eat the bread and drink the cup. But let it never be forgotten that this is a communal meal that we're doing this together. So as you pass the bread to your neighbor, have a sense that you're interconnected and we're woven together into a fabric called UPC, where we need one another, we cannot, we dare not try to live in isolation from one another. I would invite you today to come to this table if you are a Christian trusting in Jesus for your salvation. Perfect, never. But one who knows you need grace, yes, come to the table. If you're not a Christian, graciously just allow the elements to pass by, don't feel embarrassed, but we would hope that you'll seriously consider can you live a life apart from God? You need Jesus. So you might pray that God will work in your heart to bring you to Himself. And if you are a Christian who is living out of fellowship with God right now, you are out of the path and have no desire to come back. If that is true of you, we would ask you to pass the elements on by. Again, it would not be honest for you to eat and drink these elements if you know that you're just living disobediently and you are not in a mind frame to repent. But perhaps even now my saying that might be a way to go do you back onto the path to spur you back to Jesus. And if that's true, then please eat the bread and please drink the cup because these are means of grace that we all need. So will you bow with me unless pray and ask God to prepare us for the Lord's supper? Lord Jesus, thank you that you've given us access into the Holy of Holies because you laid your life down and died in our place. And thank you now that you live in heaven, you are at the right hand of the Father, being our advocate, being our priest. And so Lord Jesus, on the basis of these two wonderful indicatives, we commit ourselves to these two imperatives. We come now to draw near to you and we come to this table to draw near to each other. Lord, it's very likely that some of us have been hiding hiding from you and or hiding from our brothers and sisters in Christ. We come up with all kinds of creative ways to hide. We might hide behind a smile. We might hide behind busyness or behind over commitment. And we don't have time for you or for other people. Lord, whatever the case, if we've been hiding, we now come out of hiding and we draw near you and we draw near one another. We pray Holy Spirit that you will bless these elements and allow them to be means of grace, signs and seals of the covenant of love that you've made with us. May we hear you calling us into deeper intimacy with you and with our fellow Christians today. And we respond to that call. We listen and we come in Jesus' name. Amen.