Confident in His Faithfulness

Confident in His Faithfulness By Rev. Res Spears The great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 for his part in an effort to convince the Allies to pursue a negotiated peace agreement with the Nazi government. Later the Germans would learn that he had helped plan a failed assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler, and Bonhoeffer would be executed at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in April of 1945. But between the time of his arrest in 1943 and the 1944 assassination attempt, he kept up a robust correspondence with friends, family, and his fiancé. On Nov. 23, 1943, he wrote to a friend, Eberhard Bethge with thoughts about the coming season of Advent. "Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent: one waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other-things that are really of no consequence-the door is shut, and can only be opened from the outside." ( Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas. Edited by Jana Riess. Translated by O. C. Dean Jr. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 13) Today, as we celebrate the beginning of this season of Advent, this period of waiting for the Christmas holiday that recalls the long wait of the people of Israel for the fulfillment of God's promise for a Redeemer, I think it is appropriate for us to remember that He fulfilled His promise in His own time, in His own way and in His own power. There had been 400 years of silence between God's words through the prophet Malachi and the God-inspired words of the prophet John the Baptist, the one who said he had come as "a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord!'" Certainly, there were God-fearing people of Israel who cried out to Him during those four centuries. They called out for deliverance from their oppression. They called on Him to reveal Himself to them as He had done through the prophets of the Old Testament. But God had remained silent for all that time; their only words from Him were those that had been recorded in what we know as the Old Testament Scriptures. In the generations after their return from exile in Babylon, the people of Israel had desperately desired that their once-great nation would be restored to them, but this would not come to pass. They remained servants of other kingdoms until, by the time of Jesus Christ, they were simply one small part of the great Roman Empire, subjects to Caesar and given limited freedom only insofar as they demonstrated their ultimate allegiance to Rome. They surely had a way in mind by which the nation of Israel could be restored. In fact, we know that at the time of the birth of Jesus, the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders were on the lookout for the promised Messiah. They hoped he would soon come as the righteous judge who would deliver them from Roman oppression. And they believed, despite their situation, that they had some power to move things along to bring all this to pass. Indeed, we see in at least one point in the life of Jesus that He withdrew Himself from a crowd of people whom He knew wanted to crown Him as King over Israel. And later, as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on what we know as Palm Sunday, the shouts of Hosanna! from the crowds lining the road into the city were the same as those that had been shouted for King David and for King Solomon and for other kings of Israel in the past. Perhaps if they made Him King, Jesus would then fulfill the Old Testament prophecies of the One who would deliver His people from their oppression by the Gentile nations. But in that first Advent, that first period of expectant waiting, the people of Israel were like Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his prison cell. They were waiting and hoping and doing the things of life, but the door they so desperately wished to be opened was shut, and it could only be opened from the outside. It could only be opened by God, working in His time, in His way, and in His power. God opened the door, as the Apostle Paul put it, "when the fullness of His time had come." He opened it in the way that He had revealed in Scripture, sending Jesus Christ, His only Son, as the Way through whom Jews and Gentiles alike could come to the Father. And He opened it in the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing Jesus into the world by His birth to a virgin. God is always faithful. But just as the Jewish people waited and hoped from one side of the door until God - in His timing, in His way, and by His own power - opened the door to the Kingdom of Heaven through His Son, we who follow Jesus in faith now wait for His return to take us home and into the eternal Kingdom. But God is always faithful. And the knowledge of His faithfulness should give us a sure faith; it should give us an unwavering hope. And it should inspire us to thoughtful love. We see those three qualities played out in our focus passage today. Turn with me, please, to Hebrews, Chapter 10. We'll pick up in Verse 19, and while you're turning there, let me give you a snapshot of the argument made by the author of this letter to the converted Jews to whom he wrote. Much of the Book of Hebrews is aimed at reminding the converted Jews that the Jesus they had followed is greater than all that their former religion had offered them. The first couple of chapters tell them that Jesus is greater than the angels, whom Judaism held in regard just below God Himself. Then the writer describes how Jesus is greater than Moses, whom the Jews consider the greatest prophet ever to have lived. And as Jesus is greater than Moses, so is the New Covenant in Christ superior to the Mosaic Covenant under which they had lived before Christ. Under the Mosaic Covenant, every time a person sinned, he or she was required to sacrifice an animal so that the animal's blood could cover their sins. But under the New Covenant in Christ, the sinless Son of God died on a cross, taking on the sins of all mankind, so that those who believe in Him can have eternal life. His sacrifice brought victory over sin. His resurrection brought victory over death. And his ascension into heaven brought the promise of eternal fellowship there with Him and with the Father for all who believe. Then, there is a long section of the book - about five chapters - explaining how the priesthood of Jesus is superior to the Levitical priesthood. Under the Levitical system, only the high priest could come before God in the temple's Holy of Holies and even then, only once a year and after having been ceremonially washed and having made sacrifices for his own sins. But under the New Covenant in Christ, Jesus is our high priest. Because He was without sin, His once-for-all sacrifice was for us and not Himself, and as He sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, He continually mediates with God on our behalf. And now, because of those things, we who follow Jesus in faith can come before God through His Son, and we can do so with boldness. That's what we see as we pick up in Verse 19. Hebrews 10:19 NASB95 19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, Hebrews 10:20 NASB95 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, Let's stop there for a moment. We have access to the Father through the righteousness and the shed blood of His Son. That means we do not have to come before a perfect and holy God hoping that we have been good enough to stand in His presence. In fact, we will all one day stand in God's presence in the absolute recognition that we have NOT been good enough to be there. We COULD not have been good enough to stand before His glory. But if you are saved - if you have followed Jesus in faith that His sacrifice was sufficient to cleanse you of all unrighteousness - then you will stand before God in the righteousness of Christ, His perfect Son, with whom He shares all honor and glory. In the old temple in Jerusalem, a veil separated the main part of the structure from the Holy of Holies, where God's presence resided in the midst of Israel. But now Jesus is the veil. We come to God through Him. And note that phrase, "a new and living way." The Greek word that's translated there as "new" can also mean "recently slaughtered." This reminds us that it was the slaughter of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that provides us access to the Father. But His resurrection means that He is the Living Way, the Living Truth, and the Living Life. Jesus is the superior high priest. Hebrews 10:21 NASB95 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, Hebrews 10:22 NASB95 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:23 NASB95 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; Hebrews 10:24 NASB95 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, Hebrews 10:25 NASB95 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. What we see in these verses is that since we have such a superior high priest in Jesus Christ, there are two things we can also claim and one we should do as His followers. First, we can claim a sure faith. You can see that back in verse 22. A Sure Faith After God had given His people the Law through Moses, Moses built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed young bulls to God as a peace offering. He took half the blood and sprinkled it on the altar to sanctify it, and he read the book of the covenant - the Law - to the people. They responded, "all that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." And then Moses took the blood he had put in the basins, and he sprinkled it on the people to sanctify them. But we who have followed Jesus Christ in faith have been washed in His blood. We have been made holy by His sacrifice. We are not like the priests who had to be ritually washed in water to purify themselves. We have been washed in the Living Water of Jesus Christ. If you have truly given your heart to Christ, then He has replaced your heart of stone with a heart of flesh. He has given you a new heart, and He has put a new Spirit in you. You have become a child of God. And if you have become a child of God, you can have absolute assurance in your faith. If you have followed the Good Shepherd, then take assurance from His words in the Book of John. John 10:27 NASB95 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; John 10:28 NASB95 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. John 10:29 NASB95 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. If you belong to Jesus Christ, then no one can snatch you from His hand. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, then you belong to the Father, and no one can snatch you from His hand. This is what we mean by blessed assurance. This is what I mean by a sure faith. You who have followed Jesus can have a sure faith because of the greatness of Jesus. Your assurance does not come from anything that you do. If it were up to us to assure our faith, then we would all be doomed, because even as Christ's followers we still sin. But Jesus' sacrifice was once, for all. And if you have a sure faith, then you also can claim an unwavering hope. An Unwavering Hope We see that in Verse 23. Now, when we talk about hope in the context of the world, there isn't usually a lot of confidence in it, and it surely isn't an unshakeable thing. If I tell you that Annette and I hope that my broken-down car doesn't need a new engine, you will probably conclude that I'm really worried we're about to spend a bunch of money either on a new engine or a new, used car. If I tell you that I have hope that I will finish the four papers I have due within the next two weeks, you might conclude that I'm confident it will happen, but I can assure you that my confidence is not unshakeable. What makes the difference, then, between that kind of hope and the hope the author of Hebrews writes about in Verse 23? The difference is that this confession of hope in Verse 23 is based on the faithfulness of God. He is the one who has promised that if we believe in His Son - if we agree that Jesus is who He said He is and will do what He said He will do - then we will have eternal life. God specializes in faithfulness. That's a hard thing for us to accept sometimes, because we are so used to unfaithfulness. Friends and family have let us down. Husbands and wives have let us down. Politicians have let us down by failing to do what they've said they would do and by doing what they said they would not do. But God is faithful. God keeps all of His promises. David and the other psalmists wrote quite a lot about God's faithfulness. Here is one example from Psalm 40: Psalm 40:9 NASB95 9 I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O LORD, You know. Psalm 40:10 NASB95 10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation. Psalm 40:11 NASB95 11 You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me. God is faithful, because God is filled with lovingkindness and truth. God is faithful, because God cannot lie. God is faithful, because God cannot deny Himself. Faithfulness is part of His very character. And so if the God whose faithfulness is part of His very character has told us in His Word that he causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called to His purpose, then to the extent that you love Him and are doing the things He has called you to do, you can have an unwavering hope that He will work even the darkest circumstances of your life for good. If the God who cannot lie has promised that the followers of Jesus Christ will be treated as sons and daughters in His kingdom - that they will be co-heirs with Christ - then you can move through whatever this life throws at you in the steadfast hope - the confident knowledge - that better things lie ahead. Confidence in HIS faithfulness gives us an unwavering hope. And if we have received an unwavering hope, then we believers have a sure calling while here on earth, a calling to thoughtful love. We see that calling in Verses 24 and 25. A Thoughtful Love We often talk here about loving one another, and you will recall that Jesus told His disciples to "love one another, even as I have loved you." But sometimes I think most of us figure that kind of love is just something that HAPPENS once we are Christians. What we see here in Verse 24 is that there's some thought that goes into it. "Let us CONSIDER how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." Think about it: As a husband or a wife, could you not tell when your spouse actually put some thought into birthday or anniversary presents? Didn't it make you feel more loved when you could tell they had CONSIDERED how they could best demonstrate their love for you? It's the same thing here. Thoughtful love is true love. But simply thinking about how to love someone isn't enough, is it? Eventually we have to DO something to show it. I have a drawer full of greeting cards that I bought for friends and relatives and never sent. I thought about their birthdays or whatever, and I even went out and bought the cards, but I never followed through and actually DEMONSTRATED the love I had thought about. The writer of Hebrews tells us here that we are to think about how to stimulate one another - how to stir one another up - to love and good deeds. And as we have discussed several times in recent weeks, we see again that this kind of one anothering - this kind of love - cannot happen if we're not active and engaged in the church. At the time when this letter was written, Christians were being persecuted, and it's likely that some failed to be active in the fellowship in order to avoid the persecution. But in falling away, they missed the encouragement that comes from gathering with others who share the same sure faith and the same unwavering love. During this time of Advent, I want to encourage you to commit yourselves to thoughtful love. Hold fast to the unwavering hope you have by virtue of God's perfect faithfulness. And be blessed in the assurance of your faith. If you do these things, even as you weep, you will be able to sing with the weeping prophet Jeremiah: Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB95 22 The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:20 AM December 1, 2019.