February 11, 2024        NOTES NOT EDITED
God’s Holy Huddle
Hebrews 10:19-26

SIS—Experiencing community is essential to living an effective and successful Christian life.

Many people don’t like football.  Many churchgoers don’t like football illustrations.  I don’t fall into either of those categories.  I can appreciate that “football illustrations” don’t connect with everybody. I would never say anything derogatory about a football team because I don’t want to offend anybody.  For example if I asked the question:  “What do you call 47 men sitting around watching the playoffs?”  Many of you would answer:  “The Dallas Cowboys.”  Now, that’s just mean, so I’d never say something like that 😊

Football illustrations are not always helpful because many people don’t care about things like, “salary caps,” or “when is a reception really a reception?”  I get it. So, I hope my football illustration does not offend too many.  It really will help us all understand church a little better.  Hang on, it should be over in a few minutes.

One of the most important parts of the game of football is the “huddle.”  In football the huddle is defined as, “A brief gathering of a team's players behind the line of scrimmage to receive instructions for the next play.”  The quarterback will call the next play and become the hero of the game. Often, a coach will send in the play.

The huddle is where a team receives the instruction for the next play toward the end of winning the game.  The huddle is where the quarterback gathers his gridiron gladiators to plan the next strike against their opponents. Church is a “holy huddle.”  At church we gather with the other players and God calls the play, so to speak, for the next week in the game of life.  Unlike some coaches or QB’s, God never calls a bad play.  Also in the huddle, teammates encourage one another.  Perhaps the last play didn’t go so well and somebody made a huge mistake.  They need love, guidance and support.  Other times, a player will do something remarkable, and the entire team will celebrate.  Church as a “Holy Huddle” is essential to the effectiveness of a believer’s efforts as a follower of Christ.

Football is not the only place that utilizes “huddles” as means to more effective execution of a game plan.  Nearly every industry uses “huddles” in one form or another, from the field of medicine to engineering and everywhere in between.  Successful businesses of any kind—and every kind—realize that “huddles” provide many benefits.

In God’s “Holy Huddle, the Church,” God’s people experience community which is a key ingredient to godly living.  People who do not join in God’s Holy Huddle on a regular basis will never amount to much in the Kingdom of God.  It is indeed theoretically possible for a person to neglect God’s Church and still go to heaven.  It is absolutely true that someone who neglects God’s Church will never experience any “heaven on earth.”  Let’s read a passage that talks about God’s Holy Huddle, the Church:  HEBREWS 10:19-26:

Here are 4 reasons why attending church is so important:

1.  It is SANCTIFYING (vv19-22)

²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.  

Verse 22 reflects some very technical language in regard to the aspect of salvation we call, “sanctification.”  The Writer has in mind both the ritual of Yom Kippur (esp. Lev. 16:4; 14), and also perhaps the idea of Jewish Baptism.  Sanctification refers to what takes place from the time we are “born-again” (regeneration, justification) to the moment we enter into the Lord’s Presence (glorification).  These represent the three stages of salvation:  regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.  These verses deal primarily with our sanctification. Sanctification involves both the “heart” and the “body,” or both our thoughts and our actions. Sanctification is mentioned just a few verses above in verse 10:

 By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. 

The HCSB gives this definition of sanctification:  The work of the Holy Spirit that separates believers in Jesus from the world; at the time of saving faith in Jesus.  The believer participates with the Spirit in a process of transformation that continues until glorification. The goal of sanctification is progressive conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. 

Now, let us not be confused as to what makes us fit for heaven.  Sanctification is as much a work of grace as being born-again.  All true believers move through all three stages of the salvation experience, though many do not achieve much in regard to sanctification.  Sadly, many Christians die as “infants in the faith” never reaching any significant level of maturity.  This indeed sad.  As we think about “sanctification” in regard to church participation, it is abundantly and painfully clear that many Christians never amount to much in regard to service in or through the church.

We should not confuse church participation with salvation.  They are not the same, but distinct aspects of salvation.  Our text makes it clear that whatever we have to say about “church,” and “loving our church,” it is distinct from entering into a saving relationship with God through Christ.  Look at verses 19-21:

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,  ²⁰ by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ), ²¹ and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 

When we get to the command in verse 25, “do not stay away from worship meetings,” this command is predicated on the fact that we are talking about people who have been saved already—not people wishing to gain salvation through “religious acts” such as attending church.  The word, “since,” (HCSB, twice) demonstrates a causal order of “regeneration first, then sanctification.” 

The great error committed by myriads of “church-goers” is to get the order of salvation wrong—that is, to put “sanctification” before “regeneration.”  This is the essence of the error known as “salvation by works.”  This is NOT what I am teaching.  It is not what the text, nor any text in the Bible teaches.  As many preachers have stated, “Going to church (even loving church) will not make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage will make you an automobile.”

Go back to verse 22:  “let us draw near with a true heart in in full assurance (literally, “having assurance) of faith in our hearts sprinkled clean (already) from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water (a reference to water baptism as dramatic depiction of salvation and a first act of sanctification; see 1Pet. 3:21). 

Sanctification is not matter of “church attendance,” but sanctification is intricately and inseparably related to participation in a (as in local) community of faith. One cannot “draw near,” until one has already been draw into the community of God by grace. Write this down:  church can happen without sanctification, but sanctification will not happen without church.  You may neglect church (theoretically at least) and still make it into heaven, but you will not experience any significant level of sanctification between being born-again and being buried.

2.  STABILIZING (V23)

²³ Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He who promised is faithful. 

The English poet, John Keats, once wrote:  “There is nothing stable in the world; uproar's your only music.” He wrote that in a letter to his brothers in 1818.  It describes our present situation over 200 years later just as well.  The world is not a stable place.  Many families lack stability, even in these obscenely wealthy (by world standards) United States.  Fortunes that are made on Monday could be wiped out by Friday.  Health once taken for granted for half a century can be taken away in half a minute.  The symphony of life easily becomes a cacophony of noise as the instability of life creates a constant uproar.  Keats was on to something.  People long for stability, but the world offers none.

The Community of faith offers stability.   Notice the three different ways our text references personal stability as it relates to the Church as a community.  One, it speaks of “our hope.”  Don’t miss that pronoun—it is essential to understanding how we find stability in life.  It is not, “my” hope but “our” hope.  One cannot do church by oneself anymore than one can be a soldier without an army.  Within the community of faith we have others to remind us of the “hope that lies within us” as the Book of Peter states (3:15).  Hope is a stabilizing factor.  Hope is like an anchor that keeps a ship from drifting in rough seas.  Hope is like a finish line that keeps a runner focused on the matters at hand.  In fact, the word translated, “hold fast” is often used as a nautical term meaning to “steer a ship toward land.”  Ships are not made to float aimlessly on seas but sail toward enchanting ports.  Hope stabilizes our lives by giving us purpose and focus, and the Church is a Community of Hope.  Two, notice the reference to “without wavering.”  Going back to the “sailing metaphor,” life is seldom always “calm seas.”  Often the seas of life become turbulent and treacherous and could easily knock us of course.  In the Community of our Church Family, we have others to help us trim our sails and and stay on course.  Three, as a Community of Hope we are also a community of “promise.”  Our text reminds us, “the One who promised is faithful”.  That is, God will keep His promises.  Church is a Community of Promise.  This gives us stability because we do not have to surrender to our present situation because we are not Children of the Present, but Children of the Promise.  Verse 23 describes the foundation for stability in three different ways.  The Community of Faith is a “stable community.”

3.  STIMULATING (V24)

(NIV84) And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

The language in this verse is very vivid translated as: spur on, provoke, stimulate, stir up. One translation you don’t see is perhaps just as important. It literally means, “to irritate.”

Normally, “irritating” people is not considered a positive or good thing. But, think of one of them most beautiful and precious gems in the world, the pearl. It is created by a tiny speck of sand irritating the lining of the oyster’s stomach. To deal with the irritation, the oyster secretes layer upon layer of an encapsulating material that we know as, a pearl. 

I’m sure you have heard someone talk about “the daily grind.”  This, like irritation is not usually a positive picture. The term probably originated with the Anglo-Saxons after the fall of the Roman Empire.  It is likely that the term existed much earlier.  Today, the phrase refers to the myriad of menial tasks that must be completed every day, day after day just to stay alive with your “head above water” to use another idiom.  These tasks are as boring and tedious as they are necessary.  The term originated from the reality of grinding ones own grain to make flour for bread—daily bread.  One could not just go to the supermarket and buy flour.  With no flour, there’s no bread.  Without bread, there would be no meal.  Bread was a staple food in the Roman world.

Life can be a “daily grind.”  It can grind out of us our enthusiasm and motivation in life.  We all suffer from this at one time or another.  When the daily grind mills us into flour, we have lost our zest for life. We become a commodity of life.  Life loses its adventure.  Life “grinds us down.” We need a “pick me up” from time to time.  Church picks us back up. We need something to stimulate us to get back in the game.  The Community of the church does that.

Notice our verse uses the plural pronoun, “us.”  It is not, “I.”  In fact, in the 8 verses we read this morning I count 9 times that a plural pronoun is used instead of the singular.  If you read through the writings of Paul, you will find that this is very common.  Church is really not “my” Church, but “our” Church.  Of course, most correctly it is “HIS Church,” but that’s a whole other sermon.

As a community, the church is a sanctifying influence in our lives.  As a community, the church is a stabilizing influence in our lives.  As a community, the church is a stimulating influence in our lives. 

The long and short of the matter is this:  we are better people when we are involved in a local community of faith.  Our community of faith is essential for us to live successful lives as followers of Jesus Christ.  No person can fulfill his or her Christian destiny without living in community with other believers.  A community is ESSENTIAL for any Christian to live a successful life of faith.

Now, realizing the sanctifying, stabilizing, and stimulating nature of life in a Community of Faith—a local church—we should not be surprised that Paul takes time to give us a very serious warning:

 4.  Living in a Community of Faith is SERIOUS! (vss 25-31)

 (NIV84) 25 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. 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

 That’s some SERIOUS language!  What does this clearly say about habitually and needlessly missing church?  DO NOT DO IT!  Keep in mind as we established a few minutes ago, the Word is speaking to people who profess to be “born-again believers.”  Paul has used the plural pronouns, “us” and “we” many times. 

 So, does this mean that a Christian can lose his or her salvation if they don’t LOVE being in church?  The short answer: NO ABSOLUTELY NOT.  Jesus was clear about the security of the believer.  The Bible tells us,

 (John 10).  ²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life,  and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch  them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father,  who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

 This passage teaches, what many others support, that once we have been “born-again” by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we can never be lost—never!  No one, including ourselves, can “snatch us from the Father.”

 Yet, our text here in Hebrews clearly states that if a person “deliberately sins” (including all that Paul has taught up to this point in nine chapters, and especially what he says in regard to attending worship), then that person can expect, (NIV84) 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

 There are three options for understanding this passage: #1: Believers Who Lose Their Salvation #2: Believers Who Lose Rewards #3: Non-Believers Never Truly Saved.

 When faced with an ambiguous, difficult, or unclear passage you start your answer with clear, unambiguous verses.

You start with what you “Know” and work from there.

As we already learned, Jesus was very clear and unambiguous in teaching that “once sheep were held in His Hand, they could never be lost again.” As we saw from our study last week with 1Peter 1:3-5, the Bible teaches, “once saved, always saved.” So, option #1 cannot be true.

 Option #2 teaches that this passage deals with True Believers Who Because of Terrible Sin Lose Eternal Rewards. A great theologian I very much respect by the name of Norman Geisler holds this position. He gives 9 or 10 reasons why this passage is referring to believers. But, I do not think the text of Hebrews or the scope of Bible teaching supports this view.

 Here's a simple summary of how the text describes this VERY, VERY, SERIOUS sin.

1. It profanes the work of the Son of God (29a)
2. It insults the work of the Spirit of God (29b)
3. It inflames the wrath of God, the Father (30-31)

This clear implication that this grievous sin is associated with the entire Godhead suggests it is of the most blasphemous level one could imagine.

The word, “deliberate” is in an emphatic position in the Greek sentence.  It implies a callous disregard for the truth that a person has received.  It is the most outright of rebellious activity.  The words, “raging fire (fury)” is equally emphatic in its meaning.  It refers to the high point on a scale, the ultimate degree of something.  The wording and structure of this sentence does not lend itself to suggesting that these “apostates” were ever truly saved.  The were “in” the community of faith but not “of” the community of faith, just like Christians are “in” the world but not “of” the world.

I think the serious nature of this warning must lead us to conclude that a person who does not “love Christ and His Bride, the Church” is not a part of the community of the saved and their ultimate end will be “eternal hell.”

This leaves us with Option #3: this refers to Non-believers Who Are Deeply Exposed to the Truth, but Reject It. Verse 26, as we have seen, uses a very strong word placed in an emphatic position: deliberately (wilfully). This not sin committed out of spiritual ignorance. The knowledge received is a “full and complete knowledge” (epiginōskō). It is also not sin committed because of moral or spiritual weakness. This is not the backsliding of a “carnal” Christian. It is not a DEFECT in the person’s spiritual journey, but outright DEFIANCE.

But, what about the description in Verse 29 that speaks of the “blood of the covenant that sanctifies him?” Here the idea of sanctification is not referencing grace at work internally but the association of the person with others in whom grace IS AT WORK INTERNALLY. In other word, the sanctification is a matter of association not appropriation (you may need to look up the word appropriation to get the full meaning of that statement).

Notice what we read in 1Corinthians 7:14 where Paul also uses the word, “sanctification.”

(NIV84) 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

In both Hebrews 10 and ICorinthians 7:14, the word “sanctification” is used outside its typical understanding of on-going grace transforming a person who has been saved.

Finally, Verses 30-31 invoke the strongest language of condemnation and judgement we find in the New Testament. God never treats His Spirit-filled children with “vengeance.” This is a quote from Deuteronomy 32:35-42. God is speaking of His “enemies,” not His children. Specifically, God is speaking of the Israelites that rejected Him even after 40 years of constant care in the Wilderness. This is not language of “chastisement” (Heb. 12:6), but harshest judgment.

There is only one conclusion we can make as we think about a person who “forsakes the assembly of the Church.”  Well, maybe two conclusions. One, such a person who rejects the Bride of Christ, the church, commits a VERY, VERY, VERY SERIOUS ERRO. And, two, it is likely a person who “wilfully and deliberately” sins and stays away from the Community of Faith, is probably not a believer.

Some great person once said as I recall,

“Sin will keep a person from Church,
but Church will keep a person from sin.”

Regular, enthusiastic participation in God’s Holy Huddle is a sure way to have a winning strategy in the game of life.

God’s community, the Church, is sanctifying, stabilizing, stimulating, and a serious issue in regard to living one’s life as a disciple of Christ.

Church is God’s “Holy Huddle.”  It is a time for His followers in a local church to come together to worship Him and to receive instructions for the “next play” in the game of life.  Though not so much the case in the modern game of football, the “huddle” was a key part of the strategy in winning a game.  God’s Holy Huddle WAS and IS an essential ingredient for any disciple that wants to live an effective, and successful Christian life.