Since we come first to hear the word of God read, let us again stand if you are able. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25. These are the words of God. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, 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, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another. And so much the more, as you see the day, approaching. Amen. Thus ends this reading of God's inspired and inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient word. We rejoice that in his worship he blesses to us both the reading and especially the preaching of it. Please be seated. For some 204 years now, the congregation of the Hopewell ARP in Cullioca, Tennessee has been entering the Holy of Holies. has been entering glory. In fact, if we were to flip a couple of pages forward, we would find a reference to many hundreds, and maybe even by now, more than a thousand members of this church, with whom we get to continue worshiping. as we join the souls of the just made perfect. You see, in the book of Hebrews, as we heard in chapter two, in this morning's session, God was glorified as bringing many sons to glory, that this has been the plan of all things, that he would glorify himself in his only begotten son, by bringing many adopted children to glory. And it was because we are the children whom he would bring to glory in his son, that his son had to partake of flesh and blood. That even now, we don't have priests at Hopewell Church. We have a royal priesthood. who gather week by week, but we really just have the one great High Priest. There is a flesh and blood man sitting on the throne of glory even now, at the right hand of the Majesty that is on high. And he is the one who has not only consecrated our worship, but he is the one who leads it from there. It is of him that chapter two speaks when it says that he will declare God's name to us as his brethren. It is of him that chapter two speaks when it says that he will sing his father's praise in the midst of the assembly. It is of him that chapter two speaks when he says, I will put my trust in him. As the Lord Jesus always lives to intercede for us and leads even our prayers and by his presence on the throne of glory has made it for us also now into a throne of grace where there is not merely seeking and requesting but obtaining and finding grace and mercy. It is the Lord Jesus in whom we worship and through whom we worship. But he is bringing many sons to glory in an even greater way than that. For there are those souls of the just who have been made perfect and they will remain souls of the just made perfect perpetually. For when he has gathered to himself all for whom he died, all of his children, all of these many sons, then he will return and we will be resurrected so that body and soul conformed to that son whom God had predestined us to be conformed to. That's what the predestination is about. not merely who will come to faith. Faith is necessary. It joins us to Christ. Through it, we're counted righteous. Through it, we're united to him so that we may be seated with him already in heavenly places so that we may worship week by week in the Holy of Holies. But we're predestined not merely to believe. but to be conformed to the image of his son, for Jesus at the last to be the firstborn among many brethren, where you and I who believe in him will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our father. He is bringing many sons to glory. And here is the great foundation of all of our unity in the church. That which we have just been reveling in, that the Lord of glory was crucified so that sinners might be redeemed and adopted as the children of God. This is what I couldn't see, ear couldn't hear, the heart of men couldn't devise. And when you tell the Greeks about it, it sounds like folly. And when you tell the Jews about it, oh, it's a stumbling block. You mean Yahweh, Jehovah, he of whom we say, hear, oh Israel, your God is one? That he would become a man? That he would participate in flesh and blood? That he would die? and that you would suffer and die in order to rise again and pass through the heavens, making that new and living way for you, the flesh of Jesus Christ on the throne of glory, the way that you enter. Oh, that is folly and shame to Greeks and to Jews, but it is the great unifier. of all believers in Jesus Christ. It is the great unifier of the generations of this congregation, which have a weekly reunion appointment in glory, and to which we hope many generations yet, if the Lord tarries, will join the perfected side. And so we consider These seven verses briefly desiring that we would be united with the church throughout the ages, that we would be united with the ARP throughout the ages, that we would be united across the ARP even now, that we would be united in the Cumberland Valley Presbytery of the ARP. and that we would therefore be united by entering glory boldly, that we would be united by holding fast the confession of our hope, and that we would be united by considering one another to provoke love and good works. First, then, enter glory boldly. For there are two things that Christ has done and now does that give us boldness, that give us to draw near with a true heart and in full assurance of faith. And that is that Christ who cleansed us is the one who brings us. Now we have mentioned already in the introduction two ways that he brings us first in the weekly assembling of ourselves together. You see this in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the matter of some. Now, in order to come through Christ to glory, even in this life, in order to assemble before God with a clean conscience, we must be counted holy. We must be counted righteous. And so we're counted righteous in what we call our justification. God's declaration that for no other reason, only for who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, those whom he has brought to faith in Christ are right with him. And therefore, you have a right to be in glory by faith. but even then in what we would call your positional sanctification, that you have been set apart to God as holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may come with a clean conscience. You may come with your hearts sprinkled from your evil conscience as testified to you with your body being washed by pure water. You may come knowing that the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which are shown forth to you, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ shown forth to you by that bread that we break, that is a fellowship with his body, and that cup that we bless that is a fellowship with his blood, that you have a right to be in heaven by union with Christ, Now you have not yet been completely sanctified. This too is a bringing of many sons to glory and God will, the Spirit will give us in another chapter and a half time in the beginning part of chapter 12, why our Father who loves us and who has accepted us. Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. He says earlier in the book, and then in. In chapter 12, quoting from Proverbs chapter 3, where in Proverbs chapter 3, it's not just the children whom he accepts, but the children in whom he delights. And it is in his pleasure in us, as his adopted children, that he continues sanctifying us, even chastening us, even scourging us when he has to. And many of you have gone through things that are painful. Many of you recently in your ecclesiastical life have gone through things that are painful, and perhaps with respect to your health, perhaps in your family, perhaps just an affliction of your soul that you can't shake and you can't trace to the bottom of it in your mind and your heart, but you can trace to the source of it in the providence of your father who has given it to you to believe in Jesus and are joined to Jesus because he delights in you. And therefore he is determined that he will produce in you that peaceful fruit of righteousness And he commands you to pursue not just peace with all men, the blessed peace, the perfect peace that we may have together in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to pursue peace with all men, not all men will have that peace, but it is a call to evangelism when he says that, isn't it? And he tells you not just to pursue peace with all men, but also that holiness that will be necessary for you to see the Lord. And so we are called to enter glory boldly, clinging to the Christ who has cleansed us, who has justified us, in whom we are declared holy, and by whom we are actually going to be made perfectly holy. So this is the first part of our unity, that we should enter glory boldly because Christ who cleansed us brings us. The second part is that we should be holding fast the confession of our hope. Verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful God, who has given us promises, all of which in Christ have their yes and their amen. God is faithful. And so you and I are to say the same things together. That's what the word confess means. And in God's happy providence to us, that's what the Greek word also means. And so we can see it right there in the English. that we would agree with God and that we would agree with one another. You see the confession of our hope, the truth that God has told us is primarily supremely a truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. Search the scriptures because we think that in them we have eternal life and praise God it is true because those scriptures speak of him. It is Christ who is at the center, who is the substance, so that when we confess the truths of the Bible, we are clinging together to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, God the Word, who is always by His Spirit, carried along every Old Testament prophet who wrote, and also who in his flesh now is our anointed prophet in these last days. He has spoken to us by his son and they are in his office as the mediator, his apostles and his prophets and his evangelists by whom he has given us what we call the New Testament. And so it is the Lord Jesus who has proclaimed himself to us in the Bible. And when we confess biblical doctrine, we are united together. This is what is necessary to make that transition from your visible church membership to invisible church membership. The visible church, those throughout the world and their children who profess Christ, but the invisible church, all the elect, throughout the ages. And we're picking up here from earlier in the book, chapter 3, verse 6, Christ as a son over his own house. And he's talking about the visible church there. Moses at first, a servant in the house, and then Jesus later, a son over the house. But then, whose house we are. And now he's talking about the invisible church, the elect, those who are vitally and savingly joined to the Lord Jesus. If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the whole firm to the end, and then Again, in verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. This is in part why when Corinth was suffering division and there was the report from Chloe's household and Paul must have been so grieved to hear about the factions into which that congregation had fractured and he had come to them And we heard the reading at length announcing the things to us that are the mind of Christ, the mind of God, given by the Spirit about what God has done for us. And he precedes that. In chapter 1, before we get to the Aikid, with you brethren, in verse 10, just hearing verse 8, picking up He has just mentioned Christ and he says, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so there is a looking forward to the day in which we will be perfectly united, in which we'll be perfectly holy. And Paul also talking to Timothy about God being able to keep for him what he has committed unto that day, even as as Paul is instructing Timothy in how to forge the unity that Ephesus at that time had lost. He says, God is faithful. We're back in 1 Corinthians 1 now, verse 9. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. There ought to be a desire among believers that we would speak the same things, that we would think the same things, that we would judge the same things. because the desire is not that we would get together and hash out what we can compromise on and come up with a unity document. We already have the unity document, the word of God to the law and to the testimony. If they don't speak according to that, it's because they have no dawn. They have not even the beginning of light. And it is this then duty to be confessional, first and foremost, to be confessional by holding to the Scriptures, because by holding to the Scriptures, we are holding to Christ. And this is how he brings us all the way to glory. But one of the means, one of the mechanisms by which he is given to do this is especially by the ministry of elders, especially by the ministry of shepherd's teachers, which is what you are, whether you are a minister or an elder or in a church court. And the blue blood ARPs will forgive me for saying this. It's perfectly appropriate even though we are a three office denominations in the court. It's okay to say teaching elder and ruling elder because you're all shepherd teachers who are ordained to the eldership. And you are part of God's plan for bringing his people to a unity in doctrine, like Ephesians 4 talks about, so that they won't be tossed to and fro. But they'll all speak the same truth and the same love as Christ grows us up from no longer being children who are tossed about. He says it's childish to be tossed about. but grow up, mature into Jesus, speaking the truth of his word. And how does, how do the congregations, how do the flocks come to speak the truth to one another? It's because they have these shepherd teachers. that the Lord Jesus has given as ascension gifts, celebrating his own ascension, giving the shepherd teachers to the church. And now by the time 2 Timothy comes, well, 1 and 2 Timothy come about, there's been difficulty in Ephesus. And in the portion that our elder read for us earlier in the public worship, the apostle was telling his elder protege, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, chapter one and verse eight. And then, nevertheless, I am not ashamed, chapter one and verse 12. And then he says something very interesting. Hold fast the pattern. And the word means the model, the scheme. There is a particular structure of sound words. And we actually don't know what it is. It's possible that a couple of times in the rest of this letter and then one from, I believe, it's chapter 5 of the earlier letter, chapter 3, Sorry, at the end of chapter three of the earlier letter, it's possible that there's some quotation of these patterns of sound words. But this is what we would call a systematic theology or a confession, more likely perhaps even a catechism. We don't have it in the Bible. There is this obligation on behalf of, on the part of Christ's elders to produce and hold together to patterns of sound words, to take that which God has taught in his word and pass it from one generation of elders to another. This is what he says. He says, hold fast the pattern of sound words, chapter one and verse 13. And then he says in chapter 2 and verse 2, these things that you heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men. So it's a third generation now, Paul and Timothy and these faithful men who will be able to teach others also. And so a fourth generation. And this isn't Paul speaking off the top of his head, coming up with a pragmatic way for the church to continue clinging to Christ for generations, entering glory week by week, desiring that God would finally bring these many children to glory by completing his work in them. This is God by His Spirit, Christ by His Spirit, carrying the Apostle along, writing what we should do. Perhaps this resolves for you why men who believe about the Bible, what Westminster Confession Chapter 1 says, why they would produce a confession and catechisms when they are so entirely committed to the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice? Well, it's because the Bible expects us to be confessional. It's because the Bible expects us to be catechetical. It's because holding fast our confession together, holding fast to Christ together, is so important that he teaches us to use systematic theology or confessions of faith or quite likely something like a catechism. And so we are to enter glory boldly. We are to hold fast to the confession of our hope, confessing Christ together. And we're to do so, and this is, you know, there's been fellowship all along. I repented too late. Some of you got later printings, and it was fixed. Others of you have tried to be divided up, fellowship, or faith-faith fellowship. Ignore that. But we have a third or a further form of fellowship, something that should be how our congregations function. That the life of your church should flow out of the public worship. There are not worship times and fellowship times. in the Church of Jesus Christ. The greatest fellowship time we ever have is in the public worship on the Lord's Day. And it provokes a fellowship that continues into the rest of the week, even when we are physically apart. Because we, and I know the new King James here says, exhorting not exhorting, sorry, stirring up love and good works in verse 24. But it's stronger than that. We could say stirring up. There's an English use of a phrase that sort of means the same things, but meaning he's stirring something up. The word means provoking, instigating. that by our worshiping together, by our entering boldly together, by our holding fast to the Lord Jesus Christ together, by our desire to have the peaceful fruit of righteousness and the holiness without which we will not see the Lord together, we are provoking, instigating love in one another, provoking, instigating good works in one another. so that after we have had in that Sabbath keeping that remains and refusing to forsake the assembling of ourselves together and kept this wonderful Lord's Day, this day trip to heaven together, we then live the rest of the week as a satellite camp and an insurgency of glory. Because we have provoked one another to the love that is produced by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have provoked one another to the good works. We have visited with the new humanity of the new creation. the Lord Jesus and the last Adam and the growing assembly of the new humanity in him and now members of that new humanity who are still not yet souls of the just made perfect, they are bodies and souls of the just still imperfect. And yet our visit to glory is a means by which we go. And husbands are loving their wives and giving themselves up for them and bathing them with the word as instruments under Christ for their wife's sanctification. And wives are submitting to their husbands as unto the Lord. And children are obeying their parents in the Lord. And fathers are giving their children discipline, but not just any discipline, the discipline of the Lord, and instruction, but not just any instruction, but the instruction of the Lord. And servants are serving their masters, even hard ones, for the sake of the Lord. And masters have regard for their servants for the sake of the Lord. And the spiritual war is being won Not because the culture is being transformed, although we love our neighbors and we desire for that to happen, but because God's children have been transformed. And they are walking in love, and they are children of light. And yes, they are in an age in the world of darkness. And yes, the days are evil. But they are spending time in this world, redeeming time in this world, as children who belong to the next. We don't actually have to have a ton of quote-unquote fellowship events. We love to see one another face-to-face. God has given us the ability to travel. We have many modern conveniences that free us up. We want to have as much other interaction during the week, but we actually don't need it because of the greatness of our unity in Him and even in what we have provoked one another to do. And so here is the biblical faith that we have confessed and held to for hundreds of years, and the biblical fellowship that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Enter glory boldly. Hold fast the confession of our hope. and consider, look to, have a regard for one another, to provoke, to instigate love and good works. Because Christ, who fits us for glory, is employing us in his work in one another's lives. And so, dear congregation, especially you fathers and brothers, cling to Christ and teach others to do the same. Hold fast to the pattern of sound words. Provoke one another to love and good deeds. For indeed, Christ has cleansed us. And Christ is bringing us to glory. And Christ is faithful. and Christ will fit us for glory. Amen, let's pray. O Lord, we thank you for how the greatness of your glory in your Son and in the gospel of your Son dwarfs us in a humility that is not embarrassing but invigorating. Grant by your spirit that that about which we have heard you would produce in each of our congregations. Bless, I pray, the ministry of my brother elders and pastors in this room and grant that Christ would be so glorified in each of their churches as well. Come, O God, rend the heavens, come down by your Spirit, bring an age of revival of the vital life and work of the Lord Jesus in this church. For we ask him in his name. Amen.