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This is day three together of our look through Hebrew chapter 10. We're going to
look at verses 19 to 23 today. These are verses that talk about the new you.

We've talked about the new you being about a new name, a new covenant, and today
we're going to look at a new way that has been provided through Jesus Christ.
Got some good news. The new you includes a new way.

That's given us a new road to travel on, a new path to take. It doesn't take all
the bumps and curves out of life, absolutely not, but this new way will fill
your life with direction, with purpose. It is the way to hope, the way to faith,
the way to love, the way to eternity.

Hebrews 10, 19 to 25 is at the end of a long section on the sufficiency of Jesus
Christ as our high priest. Sometime in your own study you might want to compare
these verses to chapter four, verses 14 to 16, which started this section, and
you'll see that they're bookends. They say a lot of the same things, the
bookends of what it means that Jesus is our high priest.

Obviously, God wants us to understand all that it means that Jesus is our
priest, and one of the deepest things that it means is God's opened up this new
way into his presence. Jesus is our priest, and that means that we can live in
God's presence. As he ends this talk about what it means for Jesus to be our
priest, he gives us some encouragement, and that encouragement starts with a
kind of a road map for followers of this new way.

It tells us what kind of way this is, it tells us what's required of those who
travel in this way, and then the last couple of days of this week we're going to
see that it also tells us how you and I can encourage others in this way. First,
what kind of a way is this, this new way that Jesus has provided? Verses 19 and
20 say this, "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter
the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened up for
us through the curtain that is his body.

" So this new way, opened up through the curtain, enter the most holy place,
this new way is a way into the presence of God. It's a new way through the
curtain. Remember, the high priest entered the holy place, we've said this
several times through this section, once a year, the holy of holies, once a year
for the purpose of asking forgiveness, making sacrifice for forgiveness for the
sins of the people.

So this new way can be summed up in one word, Jesus. It's through his sacrifice
that you and I can enter the holy of holies, that we can experience the presence
of God. Now notice it tells us here the curtain is his body.

The curtain is his body, it's his sacrifice, it's the fact that he gave his life
for us. The curtain, before Jesus gave his life, the curtain in the tabernacle
and then the temple was a barrier. It expressed the barrier between us and God
because of our sin.

So that's the real barrier. The barrier is our sin. Well, Jesus became our sin.

He has become, in essence, the curtain. So instead of the barrier being there
between us and God now, Jesus is there between us and God. And if I'll choose
his new way, I'm automatically, by God's grace, powerfully by God's grace,
ushered into his presence.

Not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus already did. Jesus has
replaced the barrier with a way, a way to enter in. It's one of the most awesome
truths in the New Testament.

It's a new way and it's also called here a living way. It's not through the
blood of dead lambs, it's through the blood of a living Christ. It's a living
way because he who lives is the way.

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. " You might know that
early Christian followers were often called followers of the way. There was a
different way about them.

There was a different vibrancy about their life, a different direction about
their life. It's the way of righteousness. It's the way of God.

It's the way of peace. This is more than a way of life. This is the way to life,
to the only kind of life that's going to last for eternity.

And in one sense, this way that we're talking about, the way through the
curtain, it's a doorway but it's also a bridge. Verse 21 says, "Since we have a
great priest over the house of God. " The word priest, you might remember from
our study, has the idea of a bridge builder.

Priests build bridges between man and God. Jesus built the bridge. Jesus made
the way.

Jesus bridged the gap, our sin, between man and God. He's our priest. He's our
bridge builder.

He's our way. He's the one who introduces us into relationship with God. So what
do you want to do about that?

How do we walk in this way? Well, let me give you a couple of ideas today and
then we'll continue in this tomorrow. How do we walk in this way?

First he says, "You draw near. " Since he opened the way into God's presence,
you need to draw near to God's presence. Verses 21 and 22, "And since we have a
great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart
and with full assurance of faith that faith brings.

Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having
our bodies washed with pure water. " You might think, "Draw near to him. I'm not
worthy to draw near to him.

" Remember, it's a new way. And you and I, we travel with a new heart. We have
now a heart of sincerity.

God's given you that heart through His Spirit. Life, because of this new heart,
life can be different. We've been told again and again and again that God has
written a new heart for us by His Spirit.

That's how you can live in this new way. You have this new heart. You also have
this new assurance.

You travel in full assurance of faith. Things can let you down. People can let
you down, but God will never let you down.

Assurance in Him, because He will never let you down. And you have this new
conscience. You have a cleansed conscience, which we talked about last week.

Here's the writer of Hebrews again and again, bringing the same themes back to
us. That's why we walk in this new way. For years and years, I've done a survey
of new people going to church, and I've asked What's the number one reason that
you first came to church?

In the survey and the questions that I ask them, the number one answer always
is, "I want to be close to God. " Whether it's because of a sin that they're
struggling with or a tragedy that's happened in their life or just a sense of
the fact that God is real, they've come to church because they want to be close
to God. Well, the desire that we have to be close to God, it's God's desire for
us.

The reason you have that desire is because God desires that for you. He wants to
be close to you. So these verses we just looked at, "A sincere heart, full
assurance," these are about the inner heart of someone who's coming near to God.

There's a frustration I see in many people, "I can't get close to God. The more
I come to church, I do the right things. I serve him more and more.

" Well, he wants you to come to church. He wants you to serve him more and more.
Coming close to God starts with the inside, not the outside.

It starts with a sincere heart. It starts with full assurance. It starts with
being cleansed from a guilty conscience.

That's where it starts. You start there and out of that, you live the life he
has for you to live. So first, let us draw near because Jesus opened the way.

And then second, because Jesus opened the way, let us hold fast. Verse 23, "Let
us hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, for he who promised is
faithful. " This new way that you're on, if you think of it as a highway, don't
take any off-ramps.

Stay on the way. No matter how attractive the off-ramp might appear, don't take
the off-ramp. There's no need to get off of this road.

It's the one that takes you where you want to be. And you might think, "I'm not
strong enough to live this kind of life. " Well, he can supply all the power
you're ever going to need.

You don't have to take an off-ramp. You might think it's just too hard. The
truth is life is hard, but it certainly doesn't get any easier without Christ.

I see people thinking, "Life is so hard. Maybe if I take an off-ramp, it won't
be hard anymore. " But all that gets you is a sense of separation, a sense of
being not close to Jesus anymore, and you're still going through the same
difficulties of life.

I'd rather go through the difficulties with Jesus than without Him, wouldn't
you? You will find more rest while you're on this road than taking an off-ramp
from this road. You think, "I'm facing trouble.

" Well, He'll take you through the trouble, and He'll grow you as He takes you
through that trouble. So that's why you hold unswervingly. He says, "Hold
unswervingly to the hope that we profess.

" That word "profess" has the idea of a confession. It's homologeo. It means to
speak the same, speak the same as God.

God says, "I have hope. I speak the same as God. There is hope in this world
because of what Jesus has done.

" So hold fast to that hope. Because where you put your hope, it sets the
direction of your day. Where you put your hope, it's going to set the direction
of your life.

So this new way, it's opened up for us by the death of Jesus, His body given on
the cross. And as I walk in this way, here's the places to start. Draw near and
hold fast.

Let's pray that God give us the strength through His Spirit to do that today.
Father, that's what we ask. We know this is Your desire, so we know that this is
a prayer that can be answered because we're praying in Your will.

We pray that today You'd give us boldness to draw near to You, to recognize that
we can live life in the presence of an Almighty God. Help us not to minimize who
You are, that You are Almighty. But Lord, help us also not to shrink back in
fear from the relationship You want to have with us.

We draw near to You. And we want to hold fast to You, hold fast to our hope. I
pray particularly right now for someone whose hope seems to be hanging just by a
thread.

I pray that they realize that that thread, that thread, what we have in You, is
more than enough. And that's more than a thread. It's the fact that You love us.

It's the fact that You've given Your life for us, that You have an eternity for
us. So help us to see, Lord, that although our emotions might say to us there is
no hope, the truth is there is hope. There is the hope of eternity that we can
hang on to.

There's the hope of Your love that we can hang on to. So in that hope, we pray
that we would hold fast to You. And we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to talk about the power that you have to
make a difference in somebody else's life of faith.