ABUNDANT GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH
  • Home
  • Welcome
    • Gallery
  • Statement of Faith
    • Message Blog
  • Directions
  • Contact Us

June 01st, 2014

6/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Hebrews 10:19-25
Under the Old Covenant – in the temple worship the priests offer at the altar the animal sacrifice repeatedly and endlessly.
The blood of bulls and goats did not take away the sin and only served to remind them of their sinful condition.
They understood one thing clearly that the presence of sin in them causes lack of confidence in their relationship to a holy and righteous God. 
But they could not have confidence to stand in the presence of holy God.
I. CONFIDENCE
The writer of Hebrews encourages every believer to have the confidence to enter into God’s presence because of the atoning sacrifice of Lord Jesus on the Calvary cross.
Now we have confidence to come into HIS presence because we are redeemed people.
To understand the new and living way we must focus on Most Holy Place – Holy of Holies in the temple at Jerusalem– separated by a 4inch thick curtain.
Only the High Priest could enter there that too once in a year with blood which he offered for his sins as well as for the people.
When Lord Jesus gave up HIS life the curtain was torn from top to bottom opening the way to God’s divine presence.
The dreaded room of Holy of Holies is not restricted anymore but opened for all people of the world.
Through Christ we have a living way opened for us to walk into the presence of God.
Holy God’s presence is available to everyone individually as well as in corporate worship.
Lord Jesus connected us to the presence of God without the curtain that separated.

II. DRAW NEAR
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 
1) We have to go before the Lord with a sincere heart
2) Our faith in Lord Jesus Christ grants us the full assurance of faith to draw close
3) Our salvation experience transforms our hearts and the shed blood of the Lord purges all the stain of sin.
We draw closer to God with hearts sprinkled clean from a guilty (evil) conscience 
4) Through immersion baptism we declare to the world our inward conversion.
III. HOLD FAST
Verse 23 encourages us to hold fast what we believe in our hearts.
We have not yet faced persecution in America but we are already seeing the signs of it.
So we should be ready for all situations in our future life’s journey with confidence as the ONE who promised that ‘hope’ is always faithful.
IV. CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER
Christian walk is not a solo walk.
We need each other to challenge, to encourage, motivating and to support.
An important purpose of our church fellowship is to "stir up love and good works"
The author noticed that some members of the church were not going to church.
He says it was a dangerous sign in a Christian to stay away from church fellowship.
Lord Jesus tore down the veil that separated God’s divine presence once for all.
We have now access to the holy presence of God in a split second.
But some are still have all sorts of veils that separated us from God.
We know what they are and we have to deal with them to gain access to the intimate, immediate presence of God.
No one can do it alone – we need the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God to approach HIM with a repenting heart.
Hang on to the hope we have because He who has promised is faithful.
We are given a mandate to encourage each other in the present day world as the Day of the Lord is very near.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Pastor John Sesham
    Abundant Grace Community Church, Hayward.

    Archives

    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.