Hebrews

1 of the things we've been learning this week, as we've been reading book 2 of the book of Psalms, is the importance of reading the little bit at the beginning of the song, and so that's where I'm gonna start Psalm 55.

For the director of music with stringed instruments, a maskil of David. Listen to my prayer, oh god. Do not ignore my plea. Hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught because of what my enemy is saying.

Because of the threats of the wicked for they bring down suffering on me and assail me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. Fear and trembling have beset me horror has overwhelmed me. I said, oh, that I had the wings of a dove.

I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee far away and stay in the desert. I would hurry to my place of shelter far from the tempest and storm. Lord confuse the wicked, confound their words for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they prowl about on its walls, malice and abuse are within it.

Distructive forces are at work in the city, threats and lies never leave its streets. If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were rising against me, I could hide, but it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the House of God as we walked among the worshipers. Let death take my enemies by surprise. Let them go down alive to the realm of the dead.

For evil finds lodging among them. As for me, I call to god and the Lord saves me. Every morning and noon, I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change.

He will hear them and humble them because they have no fear of god. My companion attacks his friends. He violates his covenant. His talk is as smooth as butter. Yet war is in his heart.

His words are more soothing than oil. Yet they are drawn swords. Cast your cares on the lord and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be shaken, but you god will bring down the wicked into the pit of decay. The blood thirsty and deceitful will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you. The second reading is Hebrews chapter 10 beginning at verse 1. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never buy the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year. Make perfect those who draw near to worship.

Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

With burnt offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, my god. First, he said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them.

Though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, here I am. I have come to do your will. He set aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time 1 sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of god. And since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool for by 1 sacrifice. He has made perfect for ever, those who are being made holy.

The holy spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says, this is the covenant I will make with them after that time says the lord. I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds. Then he adds. They're sins and lawless acts.

I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. 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 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 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. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur 1 another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging 1 another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. Thank you, Anne. My name's Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the pastors of the church. It's lovely to see you if you're visiting or you're online visiting great to see you. We're going through this book on Hebrews. Now we had a really fantastic week because We had media fast, bible feast, but also, lots of fellowship. So 1 of the great things that I think about that week is that we're in each other's homes, and it's really good.

You get to know people in in all kinds of ways. And it's lovely eating with people. You never know what you're gonna get, but it's lovely with eating people. So I wanna talk about salads. Now, you're looking at a bloke and you think that bloke knows a lot about salad.

It's only larger people that eat salads, seems to me, so they must make you fat. But anyway, let's have a think about salads, strange way of starting a sermon. I get it. Bear with me. A salad is a pretty simple thing, isn't it?

It's actually very simple. All you need is good and fresh ingredients. You don't really need to do anything, perhaps wash it, perhaps put it in a bowl. It's a very simple thing of salad. It's not complicated.

But there was a time in British cuisine, if you can call it that in the way British people used to cook. And I remember this where we made salad not only really complicated to make, but disgusting. There's a recipe, and you can go and look it up online called perfection salad. It's anything but. Basically, you take the ingredients of a salad.

You throw some olives in, sometimes some cottage cheese, you chop it all up very finely, and then you boil some water and put gelatine in it, often a flavored jelly, like orange or lime or lemon, and you stuff the, mashed up salad into the warm water, and then it, goes cold, and you have a jelly salad. Why? Now the strange thing is that we are pretty good at making simple, and clear ingredients, complicated, and rather horrible. And we can do that with the Christian message. Listen to this what I read a few weeks ago.

The radical simplicity of the gospel, that's the simpleness of the Christian faith, continues to trouble people. Christians have always been tempted to turn back to religion, ritual mysticism. This is even so today, perhaps especially today, and particularly in the area of prayer. Among evangelicals, that's those of us that say that we want to follow the Bible, We have seen in recent years a growing interest in complimentive, complimentive prayer, mystical prayer, warfare prayer, and so it goes on. People hunger for something more, something deeper, something higher than the stark simplicity of the Christian message.

So they looked into Celtic spirituality, ignatian spirituality, the wisdom of the desert fathers, creation spirituality, and so it goes on. While we have much to learn from the Christians of the past that have gone before us, the pursuit of such things sometimes reveals a desire for something in addition to the gospel, the Christian message. The message of the writer to Hebrews is that Jesus is better. They're so helpful because there's so much out there about all kinds of add ons and additives It's like taking a simple salad and putting it in a jelly. What a weird thing to do?

In Hebrews chapter 10, 19 to 15, they're the words we're really looking at. We have a very, very simple recipe for the salad of god. There's no added ingredients, nothing is wanted, nothing is needed, and shouldn't be. It's not complicated. It's simple.

Did you notice the lettuces of god? First 21, let us draw near to god. First 23, let us hold and swervingly to the hope we profess. Verse 24, and let us consider how we might spur 1 another on from god. It's unadulterated lettuce.

It's simple. It's clear. So with that in mind, let's get into it. Here's the first lettuce. Let us draw near to god.

Let me read those verses again, and I'm gonna read them again a couple of times. 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 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 and with full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water. Notice the therefore.

Really important word in the Bible. Therefore. Therefore, he the writer's saying, because of all that I've said in all of that stuff before this verse, Therefore, because Jesus is the Messiah. Therefore, because of who Jesus is, that he is better, and we've seen all this than any prophet. You don't need a prophet.

Jesus is better than greater than any prophets. Jesus is better and greater than any angel or any spiritual being. Jesus is better and greater than Moses, the lawgiver, or any lawgiver. Jesus is better and greater than Joshua, the 1 that brought the people of god into the the shadow that was called the promised land and into the shadow that was called the, the Sabbath rest. Jesus brings us into real heavenly land and real sabbath rest.

Jesus is the hundred percent god. We've seen this, and the hundred percent man. And because of that, he can bring man people to god. Therefore. He's learned obedience where we failed.

He learned to be the obedient son where we are disa disobedient sons. Therefore, because of what Jesus has done, He's a better, and he's a greater priest. He's from the eternal superior order of priesthood, Melchizedek. Remember all that stuff? If not, go back and listen to it.

He brings a better covenant the new covenant. He brings a better sanctuary or he brings us into a better sanctuary into heaven itself, not some building or man made tabernacle. He brings a better sacrifice. He doesn't just bring sacrifices that mankind brings of bulls and goats. He brings his own blood.

Everything is done. For us, by Jesus, verse 19, their 4 brothers and sisters, Since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus. He's our high priest. We have confidence because of the blood of Jesus. We saw the same thing because this writer really wants us to get this back in chapter 4 and verse 16, if you have a bar, you can see it.

He says, let us, there's another lettuce. Let us, then approach god's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. See those verses? Chapter 4 verse 16. Chapter 10 verse 19, they have the word confidence in.

We're not walking on thin ice here. It's not like always better be really careful how you walk because you might fall through. We can have confidence. This is solid ground. 1 scholar, says that the word, confidence there means bold frankness.

In fact, the Greeks use that word because this was originally re written in Greek. The Greeks use that word confidence to talk about freedom of speech. In other words, we can say what we like without the idea of being arrested and thrown in prison. So it's an outspokenness. It's a frankness.

It's a freedom of speech. You see what the writer is saying? Because of Jesus. Because of all the things I've said, therefore, we have confident not confidence in ourselves. That's arrogance.

We're not to be arrogant. We have confidence we're on the solid ground of Jesus, the blood of Jesus. It was lovely, praying together around the tables. And, Steven, I don't know where he is, but he came around our house, and he has a different he's from a different, tradition to me because I normally pray and then say in the name of Jesus. What I loved about his praying was he started in the name of Jesus.

I thought I was just that's the right way round, really, because I only come I come confidently in the name of Jesus. Now here's my requests. It's love lovely so we can come confidently because of Jesus. We can draw near only because he secured us free speech to god the father. We can talk freely.

Don't have to be complicated. It's not a load of formal words. We don't have to learn some kind of really formal way of praying. It's simple. It's unadulterated.

It's a let us draw near to him. Now I know what happens. I know exactly what happens at this point. The devil uses our own unbelief to accuse us. Right at this point, isn't it?

Where we start talking to ourselves, and it's it's all very well. You're saying we should come confidently, but how can I come confidently? You don't know what I've been thinking, or I'm now thinking even or battling with? I'm too sinful. I failed again.

I stupidly made promises to god that I'd never do this thing again, and I found myself immediately doing the thing again. Well, don't make those promises because that that that's relying on you to do it. I'm 1. I'll never I'll never do that. You know?

Don't make those promises. But I promised to god, and I failed again, and again, listen to the words. Verse 19. Therefore brothers and sisters since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, a new and living way open 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, and with full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled, to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Do you hear those wonderful, wonderful, refreshing, gospel, good news, Christian words sprinkled.

Cleansed, washed. Lovely ain't it? Sprinkled, cleansed, washed. Whether you feel like it or not, if you're trusting in Christ, your conscience, that once condemned you cannot condemn you any more, it's silenced by the blood of Jesus. It's sprinkled, cleansed, washed.

The stain that once banned you from god has been removed. Let us approach god's throne of grace with confidence so we may receive mercy. You see that? If we've sinned, which we will do, we confidently go to him for mercy. Why?

Because the sinners already paid for, even before you did it. In Jesus. So confidently, we come for mercy. Really important, and we find grace to help us in our time of need. So I'm I wanna encourage us brothers and sisters.

Come confidently, simply, confidently draw near to god. Now, look, this is not a suggestion, actually. It it's not a polite invitation. It's actually a command, isn't it? Let us draw near to god confidently.

Prairie is not the trembling request of a criminal at at the dungeon's door. It's not an uncertain cry of an orphan left out in the cold. Will I be let in? Prairie is the bold approach, confident free speech, of a redeemed child, who is reconciled to god as father through the living work of the Holy Spirit through the Living work of the Savior Jesus. No complicated language.

There's no need to hold back your thoughts in fear that you're gonna be judged or misunderstand. You know, sometimes you don't talk to someone because you know you're gonna be misunderstood or you write an email. It's always misunderstood. There's always people that misunderstand something, isn't it? Cause I didn't say it quite clearly.

When we're told the Holy Spirit, you know, intercedes with mo he knows what we're praying with moans and groats. He's the 1 who he'll interpret it. Don't worry. God's god doesn't need the translator thing other than the Holy Spirit. We simply come as a father to a child.

We called our father. Jesus says. That's how you pray. It's simple. When we looked at that prayer some years ago, whenever it was, we saw the simplicity in that prayer.

It wasn't complicated. We weren't adding jelly to it. There's no need for penance whipping yourself better wash beef there's no special postures. There's no special person I have to come through anymore. It's Jesus.

I don't have to fast to give weight to my prayers. You might fast, but that doesn't give any weight to my prayers. I come because of Jesus. Now the only thing that is requested is a sincere heart. Did you notice that verse 22?

Let us draw near to god with a sincere heart. And with full assurance that faith brings. So coming confidently to god as father doesn't mean to say you come casually or unconcerned or brazen about your sin. I remember being in a church once, where, they had a whole list of prayers all written out. I think you I think you were with me, Phil Cooper, we were in that.

Do you remember that meeting? They had a whole list written out And, they were people, a a bit they've been asked, you know, what's your prayer? Write it down, and we'll pray for you. And the bloke stood up and said, oh, there's too many here. God, these are yours.

You do what you like with them. Oh, that's that's that's brazen. That's that's disgraceful. That's not coming with a sincere heart. He he's not a it's not a trans bank transaction.

You put your number in and the money comes out. Hear god do with that and then they're answered. No. It's relational, obviously. So we come with a sincere heart.

And many times, we sin. We've sinned so many times. And we think, well, how can I come? Well, come sincerely for forgiveness? Confidently come for mercy.

We're being told. We do grieve the Holy Spirit. We're told in the Bible. We can dishonor the father, by the way we act. We can live unworthy of the good news of Jesus Christ.

We can let each other down. But when we do, we can come confidently for mercy with a sincere heart. We're coming to god. We're coming to a throne. But we can come confidently with sincerity.

Remember back in Hebrew's chapter 4, very, very amazing little passage. We're told what the word of god does. And the word of god exposes our hearts, but who does it expose our hearts to? Exposes our hearts to ourselves. God already knows what's in the heart.

So there's something about the word of god. And when we come to to, you know, meetings like this, you know, the word of god exposes us and it and it hurts, doesn't it? Because something we see something about ourselves that sometimes can be quite shocking. Now it doesn't shock god because he knows it already. Listen to the what the words are.

It's it's Hebrew chapter 4 verses 12 and 13. But listen carefully. The word of god is alive and active, sharper than a double edged sword. It penetrates even dividing the soul and spirit, joints, and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from god's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before his eyes, but before the eyes of him, to whom we must give an account, nothing in all creation is hidden from god's sight. That's what the word of god does. Now why? To make us run away?

That's the wonderful cleansing work of the Holy Spirit. This is the sanctifying work of god's word in our hearts. The point of the word is to expose just how rotten we are inside. And when it exposes us, we should then run to the 1 that can heal us and cleanse us and change us. That's the point of the word of god.

It's like you go and get an x-ray or a CT scan or whatever it is. You go and get that scan. If it shows up that you've got all kinds of diseases in your body, what do you do? You run to the doctor. Imagine if you was you had an x-ray and it showed up all kinds of bone problems and all kinds of problems, and you never went to the doctor.

And the doctor rings up and says, well, why didn't you come to us because you've got some serious issues? And you said, I wanna I've I was I was embarrassed. I didn't know what to do, and I I I didn't think you would like it. And he'd say, that's my job. When sinners exposed, you go to the friend of sinners.

It's not do you see? When you've got a disease, you go for surgery. That's what the word of god does. And the beautiful thing is When the word exposes our sin, there right there is an opportunity of great praise because Jesus you've already died for this muck, and I've only just noticed it by your word. But you knew it?

And you died for it. You see praise comes when we do the proper thing. There's that wonderful sentence that we that I was trying to show you last last time when we were in Hebrewers a couple of weeks ago. Verse 14 of chapter 10. It really explains the Christian.

It says, for by 1 sacrifice, that's Jesus Christ, of course, he was made perfect. That's us. We're made perfect forever He sorry. He made perfect rather. Sorry.

That's Jesus. He made perfect forever. Those who are being made holy. So we're made right with god, but the spirit by the word is exposing our sins so we run to him, and that's part of sanctification. It's a beautiful thing.

So don't dishonor the blood of Christ by believing it's insufficient to bring you near to god. Because you've sinned, don't dishonor the surgeon by not coming to him when he's exposed the disease. Come, draw near confidently. That's his job. That's what he's for.

Now I I wanna just keep banging on at this point and give you an illustration after illustration because I I think we really go wrong here. So in a loving family, you know what a you know, I know there are bad families, but in a loving family, When a child does something wrong, they're often disciplined and sent out of the the family meal, go go and sit on this the naughty step or go to your bedroom. They're excluded, aren't they? They're excluded from the family meal, but they never chucked out the family. You know, when when Jerusalem and Carl did naughty things, which was, like, almost all the time, I didn't say get out that door, get out that house.

I never wanna see you again. Yeah. I felt like that. Because I'm a human. But, no, it's go up to your bedroom.

You're excluded. But as soon as you're sorry, there's reconciliation. And all our sins are already paid for, so no 1 needs to die again. And sorry and repentance now works because of the blood of Christ. You only have to say sorry.

Let me give you another illustration. I'm told that if you've got a ship, like, a big battleship or something, on the high seas, and it and it breaks down, so the engine goes wrong. Another big battleship will come along come alongside, and they will tie anchor to anchor. This is what I'm told. Anchor to anchor.

They're huge metal chains. The anchors never break. Even when 1 ship that's pulling it is right up, on the crest of the waves, and the others write down in the swell, and there's this strain going on. Anchor to anchor never breaks. But there's another line between ship and ship, and that's the communication line.

And it's thin. And that communication line often in the swell and the the wave often breaks, but the anchor never breaks. All they need to do is to send another communication. That's the Christian life. We're saved by Christ, and yet we can always throw the communication line back by confessing our sin.

So we come sincerely. This week, we saw trying to just rub this in in Psalm 51. There's David. He had committed some some major crimes and some awful sins, if you know the story, but he comes to god, not lightly, but sincerely with a broken heart about what he'd done when he was exposed by the word of god. The prophet came to him, exposed him, and then he comes and writes Psalm 51.

But he prays in that psalm, restore the joy of my salvation, not restore my salvation. He's all saved that the anchor line is there. He just needs the communication line. It needs to come with a sincere, repentant heart, brothers, and sisters Jesus said, didn't he? Here's another 1.

When he was washing the feet of of Peter, and Peter said, well, wash me all over. And he said, I've already washed you all. I only need to wash your feet. See, we just come with dirty feet, and he'll he'll he'll cleansed by what he's already done. So brothers and sisters confidently, will you come near because of him?

When you're weary, draw near, when you're tempted, draw near, when you're suffering, draw near. When you're guilty, come for mercy, before the throne of god. It's not a throne of terror, it's a throne of grace. It's a place of mercy, a place of pardon, a place of family reconciliation. This very hour, it says.

Now 1 last thing after this first bit of the salad. 1 last thing, and this is my longest this is the biggest lettuce. 1 last thing. Did you notice it's let us, not let you? Very, very important in the Christian life.

We do this together. It's essential we need each other. It's let us come. Okay. So that's the first bit of the salad.

Let us draw near. Here's the second bit of a salad, and it's more lettuce. Look, first 23, let us let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. For he, who promised is faithful. Now the word unswerving, it just means that it's great word, really.

It just means keep to the road. Keep on track. Keep straight. Don't go 1 side or the other. And a and a church that prays is gonna unswerve.

A praying church will be an unswerving church. So don't let anything take you. He's saying, as a church down the wrong road, don't come off a side road, don't let anyone sort of whatever storms you're going through personally or as a church, you know, if the if the snow is falling and you're driving along and, the windscreen wipers on, and you can't quite see right in front of you only a little bit, then keep Jesus in that little bit and keep driving straight. Don't come off. Don't take a side road.

Don't go anywhere else. Now this is what the Hebrew Christians that he's writing to were trying to do. They were tired. They were persecuted. They were going through storms, and they were wanting to drift back to religion.

They were wanting to drift back to something that they could sort of touch and see and and swerve off course. Be careful not to do that. So verse 23, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. For he who promised is faithful. It's a game looking at him through the windscreen as we drive.

And we do this together. Hey, look, look, look, look. Stop looking out the side window you idiot. You're gonna crash. Don't go down there straight on.

Yeah? You know what it's like when you're driving men with a with a wife? You know? She keep ducks straight? Well, I I I like that, right?

No? You know, straight on, unswerving, keep going. That's straight. Are you short? Yep?

It's the wonderful thing, isn't it? When you get married, you get, you get, a, a sort of satnav for free. Sit next to you and tell you what to do. It's amazing. I didn't realize that until I was married.

But, you know, straight on, and that's good. This is it. We are to do this together. Oh, wait, don't, no, no, don't go down that line. Don't swerve off.

He's faithful. He promised to remember your sins no more. He promised his mercy. He promises grace. He promises never to leave you or forsake you.

He promises that all the bad stuff will turn to good. You wait. He promises to give you wisdom to live by. He promises to guide you. He's the good shepherd.

He promises to sanctify you and send the Holy Spirit to make you more like Jesus. That's what he's doing. He promises to give you eternal life. He will never let you go. Hold on to that high priest.

Do you remember those words that some have really liked? The high priest who is not unable, in other words, he is able, he's not unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have 1 who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin. What an amazing sentence? Hold on, in other words, to the faithful 1 who unlike Adam, has gone all the way through the temptation yet without sin. Hold on to the 1 who is faithful to god's promises, god's word.

That's the covenant. That's who you wanna follow. In many of the Psalms that we read this week, we saw Jesus, the son of god, I think, showing us his perfect obedience to god the father, particularly in the area of prayer. When things are go are going wrong. And many of those psalms, it it it I think explain.

Well, they did to me. I I I absolutely loved doing these psalms because they explained to me that verse Well, a number of things about Hebrews, 1 that he had to be made a human and a bay. I think we saw that in the Psalms, but also that we have a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. But we have 1 who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin. And and we saw in those psalms, real human, real deep human struggles.

That the Psalm writers were were going through and how they brought those struggles to god in faith. And Jesus is the faithful man that really does that. So take Psalm 55, which we had read out. Let's just have a little bit of work on this for a moment. Psalm 55, which which I have to say, did blow me away.

In Psalm 55, we do see David. We'll have the verses up in a minute. You don't have to put them up quite yet. We see David going backwards and forwards with his great problems of struggling with with enemies, with people. Yeah.

And it's brilliant because what he does is it's so real. He brings his experience and then sort of gets the word of god and the promises of god and the word of god and sort of deals with it. But it's not just sort of dull and dusted, and that certainly goes skipping off. He's coming back again, and he's backwards and forwards with his issue. Now isn't that real?

You know, sometimes we're we're we're just a bit we're a bit silly. We think I come to go with a problem. That's it. It should be done no more. No.

No. That's not human. Sometimes we even sort of talk a lot about a quiet time, which I'm not against or I don't know why it has to be quiet, but we talk about, you know, a time with god, and then, you know, we sort of sort it all out there. That's not how I live. Is it you?

I deal with a problem. Let's say an anger problem. I bring it to god. I was angry about so and I'm sorry. And then I feel, yeah, I I look at the promises of god that, you know, I shouldn't be and and all of that.

And and then I'm walking along. And suddenly, the thing comes again. I have to battle with that again. And then I sort of deal with it. I argue with it.

I see what god is saying. And it's all well. And then suddenly I meet someone and I want to stop them. And it's like, what's that? What is going on?

That that doesn't quite happen with me like that, actually. I just have that's a feel a bit bad now. But but you know, you understand the problems come back. They surge like a wave. And we have to keep and that's what David is doing.

He draws near to god. He brings his problem. Then the problem comes. He draws near to god. He brings that same problem, and the problem comes.

Now David's struggles in Psalm 55 are a picture of what Jesus went through. In the garden of gethsemane, in his trials, and in on on the crucifixion. There are at least that. In Matthews's Gospel, you see Jesus just like David. Matthew's gospel in gethsemane, Jesus goes off to pray.

He comes back, and his disciples are asleep. He wakes them up. He goes back to pray. He comes back to his disciples, and they're asleep to wake them up. He goes off to pray.

He comes back to his disciples and wakes them up. You see this man, towing and frowing physically with praying and bringing the issue, and and then sort of carrying on and then coming back and bringing the issue. So Jesus here is showing us these real human emotions. He's the real flesh and blood savior. He's struggling with real human struggles.

Because he is the true representative man. He's the faithful man. And what does the faithful man do with the struggles? He brings his struggles yet again to god. And in Psalm 55, we see something of his emotion in the Garden of gethsemane before the cross, where the enemies that are gonna crucify him are led by his, 1 of his best mates, who's already sold him for some money, Judith.

And Judith is gonna come and betray him. And identify him at night with a kiss. And if you wanna know what the kiss is, you need to listen to a sermon a few weeks ago in the evening that I preached on the kiss. It's a passionate lover's kiss. Judus uses a lover's kiss.

It's not a peck on the cheek. It's a lover's kiss. To identify Jesus so that wow. Now the Psalm Psalm 55 takes us into the prayer and the emotion of Jesus. Look at verses 2 to 4 12 to 14 of Psalm, 55.

Look at it. Look. This is Jesus. It's David, but it's now Jesus. If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure that.

If a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of god. As we walk about among the wo worshipers. You feel his emotion? He brings the struggle to god.

But then he's back again. He's doing and throwing, and he's back again in verse 20. And it's the same subject. Look at it in verse 20. My companion attacks my friends.

He violates his covenant. This is like a marriage break up. This is an unfaithful man. His talk is smooth as butter. Yet war is in his heart.

His words are more soothing than oil. Yet they are drawn swords. So what does Jesus do? Cast your cares on the lord, and he will sustain you. You'll never let the righteous be shaken.

Do you see that? He's preaching to himself. Judith. You kiss me like a lover. Smooth.

But a sandpaper kiss, the kiss of a traitor. You break me. You break my heart. My friend, go and do what you need to do. I cast my care onto the lord.

See, there's the sun, obeying faithfully in the midst of betrayal where we have failed. He's the faithful 1. Don't swerve from him. No one's loved you more than that. Don't swerve from him.

See, this helps us to know what to do with our difficulties. We come through Jesus who's experienced this. He understands. He sympathizes. He's the high priest.

We don't come to some priest that's got no clue what our even name is. We come to someone who's absolutely been there in the garden with the betrayal. Come unswervingly. Let us. Not go somewhere else.

Let us as a church hold on to the faithful 1, to that doctrine, to who Jesus is, that faith, that faithful 1. Listen, I'm not gonna go into big detail, but, you know, this last week or so, you know, a very famous so called church, American church, big, famous so called church that has a lot of influences because it writes lots of songs, has just been exposed for its utter immorality. But even worse than that, it's making up of prophecies. They had looked at social media of people so that they could stand up and say there's someone in this room, like the spiritualists, there's someone in this room, that lives in Garrison Lane, I think he's married to a person called Anne, I wanna say I have a prophecy. And I'm sitting there thinking, I haven't seen all that.

Well, they've looked on social media. And they've just been exposed for false prophecies. Yeah. What a total disgrace that is, by the way. Now, listen, why do people even go to that nonsense?

Because it feels sort of now and new and I don't have that the preachers don't have to do the hard work of understanding the Bible and bringing the word of God that brings comfort. What they've brought is a lie that brings no comfort and those dear Christians that are amongst that congregation because they must be have been made by their leaders to swerve away from Jesus so that you put your trust in some false prophet. Don't do that, brothers and sisters. Keep us to the apostle's doctrine. Keep us to the the the profession.

Keep us as men who stand up to preach to you as people themselves that are drawing near to god and not swaying and swerving off Jesus. If you come and say you talk about Jesus too much, I'm happy of Jesus of the Bible. Anyway, third 1, gotta hurry. Tom's panicking. We got communion after this.

There's a third lettuce. Can't get too much lettuce. Can you? There's a third lettuce. I'll be quick.

Let us spur 1 another on. More lettuce. First 24, let us consider how we may spur 1 another on to love and good works. Good deeds. Not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging 1 another, all the more as we'd see the day approaching.

Let me go through quickly. See? It's let us consider So there's a considering going on. That's mindful. That's what that means.

And the reason we do that, because if we draw near to god, we are about god's people. It's never Jesus isn't my private priest. He's not my individual Jesus. Look at verse 21. And since we have a great priest over the house of god, yeah, we do this together, and and that's how spiritual growth is.

So we're we're we're to help each other out in this. But it's let let us spur 1 another on, and that's quite that's quite a strong word. It means insight. It means provoke. It means it actually means jab and stab.

Now we do that with love because it's about spurring on to love and good deeds. But there is a bit of a prodding going on. That's why we need the word of god and preachers that are gonna say, Hey, Hey, what's going on here? Keep your eyes on Jesus. Woop, you know, just jab you.

No. You're looking in the wrong way. Like that. Don't swerve down there. It's grabbing the steering wheel and saying, no.

No. I'm gonna like this. Sorry. I just had a thought, but I I won't say it. So There's this incitement to do against the enemy together.

Let us not give up meeting together. How am I ever gonna help you if I if I don't meet you? And then it's as the day approaches. The only other place where that word meeting together or assembly, that is used in the new testament is when Paul in 2 thessalonians is talking about the second coming of Jesus. So we meet together, and part of us meeting together is declaring to the world that Jesus is gonna come.

And to love and good works, we'll do it we'll let us spur 1 another. Come on. Look at Jesus. Don't go down there. In the name of Jesus, let's love 1 another.

Let's bring our sins to Jesus. So let me finish. God's salad. It's pretty simple, isn't it? It's just let us.

Let us draw near. Let us hold fast. Don't swerve. Let us consider others and meet together. It's simple.

It's clear. Let's be committed to that. Let's ask the law to help us with that. Is this 1 last thing that I want you to notice? Did you notice in those 3 verses, the 3 big things that the new testament bangs on all the time about at what make a Christian?

Faith, in verse 22, hope in verse 23, and love in verse 24, faith, hope, love. That's the simple Christian life. Faith. Let me just say this, and I'd love to open this up. Maybe, at, band of brothers, I will a little bit more.

Faith is coming with nothing in your hand. There's a lot of false ideas about faith within the Christian church, and from that church that's just failed. Faith is made of works. If you have enough faith, you can do this. That immediately says it's about me.

But faith is to come with nothing in your hands. Simply to the cross I I cling. That's what faith is. Do you know what big strong faith looks like. We were talking about this because we're doing pilgrims progress, with the kids on summer camp.

If your kids if you got kids that age, send them their authentic, it's gonna be brilliant. But how would Bunion put this? The Bloker wrote pilgrims progress? What is strong faith? In our mind, it's a blooming great bloke with massive muscles, he's well tuned, you know, and he's marching up and he thought, no, no.

The picture of strong faith is a piddling little sort of, you know, young person that hasn't got any energy, stick arms and stick legs. They can hardly do anything. The only thing they've got is big hands to bring nothing in. Yeah? That's faith.

Faith is coming to god and saying, I come to you because of him. Big faith is small about us, big about him. Little faith is all about me, and not much about him. This this charismatic church had got it completely and utterly and absolutely wrong. Faith is saying I have nothing, but I can come confidently because of him.

Hope is coming to Jesus, the faithful 1. He's faithful on my behalf. I don't swerve from that, and love is looking out for 1 another. Faith, hope, and love. Let us, therefore, brothers and sisters, draw near, do not swerve, let us consider 1 another and meet together.

There's the salad of god. It's not hard, is it? Not complicated. Let's pray. Lord, Jesus, we thank you that we have been not just encouraged, but commanded in your word to draw near to you with sincere heart on the basis of what Christ has done and to come with full confidence that you will be our friend and our helper and you will carry all of our burdens.

We pray that, going forth from today, you would help us always be quick to do that to turn and to draw near to the savior who's ever ready to welcome us and bless us. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Oh, man.