The Full Assurance of Faith
Notes
Transcript
Please turn to Hebrews 10
Setting this passage up
Hebrews is much like Colossians
The writer of Hebrews is concerned that his listeners know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is supreme
He is better than any one who has come before
He’s better than the angels
He’s better than Moses
He’s a better high priest
His sacrifice was better than any other sacrifice made before
He guaranteed a better covenant
And if this is true, then how is it that we should respond? How should we live?
If Jesus is better than anyone who has come before and if His sacrifice is better than any that was made before
Then what does that mean for us?
How does that change things for us?
Well, as we come into chapter 10,
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
This passage is just loaded
I don’t know how you feel after reading it, but I have mixed emotions
Amazement and wonder at the thought of being able to enter into the Holiest of places by the blood of Jesus Christ
And a bit of dread at the thought that it is possible for me to throw that privilege away
There are 3 distinct sections to this passage
To begin with,The author draws some conclusions from some what he has written previous to this passage
And he makes sure that we are all on the same page
“Since this is the case”
In other words, he establishes some truth statements.
“Let’s make sure we all understand this”
In the next section, the author instructs us on what difference this truth should make in our lives
IN other words, if this is the case, what does it mean for us?
How should we live?
and in the 3rd section, the author really doesn’t pull any punches as he says to us:
In light of what is true
And in light of what this truth should mean in our lives
Here is what will happen to us if we don’t live in the light of this truth
Therefore
Therefore, brothers (and sisters), family of God, Since we have confidence to enter the holy places
Here’s the first conclusion that he draws: We have confidence to enter into the holiest of places
the holy of holies
How do we enter confidently into the holies of places?
by the blood of Jesus
this is described as the new and living way
And even if you are only a little bit familiar with the OT, you know what an incredible statement this is
There used to be a curtain separating the holy place from the Holiest of Holy Places.
It was a physical curtain made of cloth, strong and impenetrable
The High Priests used to enter through that curtain once a year, fearing for their lives, a rope tied to their ankle, just in case something was wrong and they were slain by the holiness of God
I imagine that they entered fairly unconfidently. I certainly think that I would have!
But that curtain was just a picture, or a symbol of something much greater
That is, the flesh of Jesus Christ
And at His death on the cross, His flesh was torn
And at the same time, the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom
And the way was opened up into the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
And the writer of Hebrews says, “Since we have confidence” to enter in to the holiest of places through Jesus Christ
He talks like this is a given
Believers in Jesus Christ, should have confidence to enter into the holiest of places
The question is, do you? Do you enter with confidence into the presence of God
Since we have a great High Priest-vs 21
Since we have a great High Priest over the house of God
Here is another given
How can we be confident to enter into the presence of God as Believers?
How do we know that God will continue to accept us
And that it’s not just a one-time thing
Because we have a GREAT High Priest.
And it is He who does the entering because He is perfect in every way
Jesus is perfect in every way
And we clothe ourselves with Him
In the OT, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priests used to wear special clothes and prepare themselves with utmost care before they could enter the Holies of Places
This is why we are given this picture in the NT of “putting on Christ”
Not only is He our identity, this is how we enter into the presence of God—being clothed with Christ
We enter in Christ and He in us
This is the only way that we can enter into the presence of God—because He is our Perfect High Priest
Since both of these things are reality
Then we are exhorted to do 3 things
Let us draw near- vs. 22
Let us hold fast- vs. 23
Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works-24
Remember, these 3 things are based on the fact that the first two are true. 1. We have confidence to enter into the Holiest of places and 2. We have a great high priest
These are both things that God has done
We have confidence, or we can have confidence to enter into the Holy of Holies because HE has made a way
He is our Great High Priest because HE is the only One who is truly perfect
We had nothing to do with these two things
But these two things are realities which must be translated into action on our part
How should we respond?
Let us draw near
Because of what God has done, here is the encouragement, or the strong exhortation for us: DRAW NEAR TO HIM!
If you haven’t already, start making your way toward Him
This isn’t the only place where we are encouraged to do this:
In the 4th chapter of James, he says this as well: Draw near to God. And what will be the result? He will draw near to you!
I need to have a heart that is seeking God, pressing in to God, hungry for Him, thirsty for Him
The question for us this morning is, does this describe you? are you drawing near to God?
Do you have a heart that is seeking Him, desiring to know Him, to be close to Him?
Then draw near to Him!
How?
with a true heart
A heart that is sincere
Or a heart that is dependable
The Greek word used here in this phrase “true heart” is often used to describe the faithfulness of God in the NT
This true heart is a heart that copies the heart of God
in full assurance of faith
You might have had the experience of really wanting to get to know someone, but weren’t really sure if that person wanted to get to know you
Maybe you are a guy asking that cute girl out. You’ve been admiring her for a while, but you don’t know if she really is interested in you
That was me in high school—turned out she wasn’t :)
But you approach her with palms sweating, heart pounding, because you don’t have full assurance that she is going to accept you
Well, let me tell you, your relationship with God through Jesus Christ is not like that
You don’t need to come into His presence with palms sweating and heart pounding
Afraid that He might not find you acceptable
NO! Rather, you come with full assurance of faith
Not just a little bit of faith, but with complete confidence!
Not cocky. Not flippantly
But with faith
That faith that says
“I trust completely the work that Jesus has done
I trust completely in His righteousness
I trust completely that He has made me worthy
How strong is your faith this morning?
Do you have full assurance this morning?
Do you have full assurance in the One in whom you have placed your faith
That everything that He did was enough
Or are you trying to draw near to Him by performing and striving, and trying to leave something tangible and visible that you can point to and say, “Hey, God, look what I’ve done for you!”
Come to Him with a full assurance that what Jesus has done is indeed enough
We also draw near to him with...
Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
Our bodies washed with pure water
In those last two statements, the writer is
Is not trying to tell his readers to take a bath or shower
“cleanliness is next to godliness”
Rather, he is tapping into the Jewishness of his readers and bringing up pictures of the High Priest preparing himself to enter the Holy of Holies
He would wash himself with water
He would put on a clean white robe
There was the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat and the alter
these were all things that the high priest did for himself to prepare himself to draw close to God
But the emphasis here in Hebrews is that now, Jesus has done all of this for us.
Again, we don’t try to do these things for ourselves. Jesus does it for us
These are the things that the death of Jesus did for us
Folks, look at what Jesus has done for us. Draw near to Him this morning
cultivate a heart that longs for Him, l
A heart that hungers and thirsts for Him
Let us hold fast vs. 23
To What?
To the confession of our hope. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
Our new birth and hope are two things that come hand in hand
Peter says that He has caused us to be born again into a living hope
Jesus is the one whom we confess, and in Him we have this living hope
And we are exhorted to hold fast to this confession
We confess Him as LORD and Savior, and in Him we have hope
Are you drawing near to Him this morning, and are you holding fast to Him?
How?
Without wavering, that’s how!
Be steadfast in holding fast to Him
You know, sometimes life is overwhelming and we may find ourselves wavering
Sometimes we get thrown so many other messages and we have so much coming at us, that our faith begins to waver
Kind of like Peter who walked to Jesus on the water and then got distracted by the wind and the waves and his faith wavered and he sank into the waves
But let’s not waver. Let’s not be knocked about by the winds of change and doubt
Like we talked about last Sunday, let’s not be the kind of people that find ourselves upset and worried about all that is going on in our lives and in our world
Rather, let’s hold fast without wavering. Leading lives that are calm and full of assurance
And we can draw near, we can hold fast without wavering, why?
Because He who promised is faithful
You know, the writer of Hebrews had already made this point in chapter 6 that it is impossible for God to lie
It is impossible for God to mislead His people and try to trick us into something. It’s impossible
When He made a promise to Abraham, there was no one greater to witness His oath, so He swore by Himself, saying “I will bless you and multiply you”
And then He says in verse 18 that it is impossible for God to lie
So you can draw near to Him without wavering because God can be trusted fully. And you can take that to the bank!
So draw near, let us hold fast, and then also because of what Jesus has done,
Let us consider
What?
How to stir one another up to love and good works
I love this picture, and I love the wording of this...”Stir one another up”
You know, there is a lot that we get stirred up about these days
Especially in this election season, we get “stirred up” by a lot of things..all the hot button issues
Oh, and we discuss these things and our blood boils and we feel our blood pressure going up
You know, what would it be like if we had the same response to the idea of love and good works
If that is what we talked about with each other after church and at DJ”S.
If we talked about, how can we love each other better? How can we serve Jesus and each other better? How can we serve our community better? And be the hands and feet of Jesus
And we got stirred up about it
Because we are seeing here a picture of a passionate action
This is more than just a mental agreeing, “well, sure we could probably do better at loving at each other. Well, sure, we could proabably do better at good works”
No, there is passion involved here! There is excitement involved. When you are stirred up about something, you are all in!
And in our passion and excitement, we just went out there and did it?
And we think, Oh, we will never be able to do this perfectly,
No, but we should at least consider it, shouldn’t we?
since as Believers, we can enter into the very presence of God, the Holy of Holies, and we have a perfect High Priest,
Should we not at least “consider” how we can do this?
I think we should
And we can stir each other up
by not neglecting meeting together as some are in the habit of doing
I know that I have said this before, but one of the biggest problems in our society is isolation—apparently not a new problem…this writer was compelled to encourage his readers to keep meeting together
But I think it’s worse now than it has ever been
There are people who go to church regularly, but they do it just because it’s expected.
Other than that, they sort of keep to themselves during the week, or they hang out with their friends, or they are at work
Which these things are not problems in and of themselves
But when you are coming to church just because it’s expected
You probably aren’t going to do what it says to do here—stir each other up to love and good works
The point is not for you and I to get our brownie points with God by putting a checkmark in the right box
The point is the Community, or the Family of God and that we are invested in the lives of our brothers and sisters
Now, notice, he doesn’t say, “Don’t neglect going to church regularly”
What he does say is, “don’t neglect meeting together”
So, while our church services are an important part of this
I would tend to believe that there are other ways of fulfilling this exhortation
Our Sunday evening gatherings
Our service projects
Going out to coffee or having a meal with someone
Find ways of meeting together with other Believers and doing it intentionally so that you can stir them up to love and good works
And we do this all the more so “As we see the day approaching”
This means, I believe, that we live with our eyes on eternity
Knowing that we don’t have forever. Our time is limited
And as the clock ticks down, let us stay faithful and on mission for God!
Warning: For vs 26
Now the writer includes a warning
Up until this point, he has been laying a foundation
He’s been laying out the case for a new way of life
And then he says why he is so passionate about reminding us of these things
He says, “Look, the point is that because of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, it warrants a response from us! His sacrifice, His work in us, should result in a changed heart and a changed life from us!”
Because, if we go on sinning after receiving the truth, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin
I know that this verse has been somewhat controversial for some folks
They get lost in the discussion, “Well, can you or can’t you lose your salvation”
I’m not going to address that this morning
But what I believe this writer is trying to say is that, “You can’t expect to go on sinning and then say that Jesus sacrifice was enough and sufficient for you”
You can’t go on sinning and then say that Jesus sacrifice has done what it was supposed to do
In the previous verses, he has talked about what Jesus work is supposed to do in our hearts and lives
If Jesus has made this sacrifice, and if you have received it in faith, then it should result in a heart that is pursuing holiness
And if that isn’t happening, and we find ourselves still in the midst of practicing sin,
We aren’t drawing near to Him
We aren’t holding fast to Him
and we aren’t pursuing holiness, then there simply is just no other way that your sins can be atoned for
In fact, you are in danger of just the opposite.
That is, the judgement of God!
And He gives the example of the law of Moses…those who broke that law died without mercy
And he says, how much worse could it be for those who
trample underfoot the Son of God
who profane the blood of the covenant
Who have outraged (or insulted) the Spirit of grace
This word, “profane”, means to treat as something common and every day
It’s when the blood of the covenant loses its power in our lives and it’s just an every day thing
And remember, he is speaking about believers here
He says, this is the blood of the covenant by which he (that is, this person) was sanctififed.
This is such a serious and convicting warning for us, isn’t it?
This is such a danger for us as Believer, people who have grown up hearing the stories and taking part in church
Yeah, Jesus died for me, I know that. Jesus loves me, yep heard that all my life, but it doesn’t really mean anything to me
And in that frame of mind, our lives can become so common and we can go right on sinning
This writer says, “I hate to think what God must think about people in this condition”
Because he knows that God says in Deuteronomy 32:35 “35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip;
And he knows that God said in Deuteronomy 32:36 “36 For the Lord will vindicate his people
And he adds his own commentary to these verses “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”
And then in the final verses, he kind of circles back and reminds them of how they have indeed lived faithfully
by enduring hardships and persecution
by showing compassion on those in prison
And he encourages them again to not throw away their confidence because God expects and desires faithfulness
Don’t throw away your confidence
Persevere! Endure!
We aren’t the kind of people who shrink back
We are the kind of people who have faith!
So, I know that this has been a lot this morning
But as we come into our time of communion, I wonder where you and I find ourselves this morning
Are you entering the Holy of Holies with full confidence?
Do you walk daily with Jesus Christ, your great High Priest?
Do you “put Him on”, clothe yourself with Him?
Do you have a heart that is drawing near to to Him? Is He your one primary focus, the ONe that you long for?
Are you communing with Him?
Walking daily with Him?
Are you holding fast to Him? Or are you in a place where you find your faith wavering?
If so, this is a time when Jesus invites you to come to Him for rest
1 Corinthians 11:23–24
...the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””
1 Corinthians 11:25–26 “25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
13 Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.[a] 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas,[b] son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”
9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
10 Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet,[c] to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
In this translation, Jesus says to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me”
You know, many times when we read this account, we focus on His words, “Just as I have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet”
That’s why at communion time we wash each other’s feet.
We remind ourselves to serve each other the way that Jesus served us
But Jesus words to Peter are significant: Unless I wash you, you don’t belong to me
There’s so much in these words
But Jesus is concerned about our cleanliness
Do you want to be in fellowship with Him?
Do you want to worship in the presence of God?
Do you want to be known as belonging to Him?
Then you have to be clean?
In Psalm 24, the Psalmist asks the question, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who will come into His holy place?
Then he answers his own question
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart
Those who aren’t proud and who are careful with their words
Those are the ones who can come into the presence of God
And I think Jesus would say, those are the kind of people who belong to me.
But, as He said to Peter, I think Jesus would also say to us, “I need to wash you.” You don’t need to wash yourself.
So, as we wash each other’s feet, remember that Jesus also has done what is necessary to cleanse you and make you presentable before God