Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to read verse 22. Hebrews
10, 22. 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. Now a
few weeks ago we saw in Colossians 2 that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the full assurance of understanding. And then we saw from Hebrews
6 that the Lord Jesus is the full assurance of hope. Now today
our subject is the full assurance of faith. And we'll see here
in this passage in Hebrews 9 and 10, we're going to see here that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the full assurance of faith. Christ
is the full assurance of faith. Who's the object of our faith? Faith doesn't look to our faith.
Faith looks to Christ. Faith doesn't look to ourselves. Faith looks to Christ. Faith
doesn't look to our works. Faith looks to Christ. The object
of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the assurance
of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text says to every
believer, let us draw near. That is, let us draw near to
God. Draw near to holy God in his holy presence, in his holy
hill, in his holy heaven. God is holy. And to draw near
to God, you have to be Holy, righteous, perfect, with no blemish,
no sin, no record of sin, have to be as God is. Has to be perfect to be accepted
of God. And we know that's not our case
by nature. And yet God says to us, draw
near. He says, draw near. Christ is our full assurance
that we can draw near. Now our text mainly is going
to be verses 19 through 22. And I'm going to point out some
key words here to you. And these words are going to
tell us he's referencing the tabernacle, the old covenant
tabernacle. And the tabernacle was a picture. You know this. God drew a picture
for his people to show us how it is that he would give us full
assurance of faith that we have access into his presence. That's
what all the old tabernacle and all its offerings were and the
priesthood was God's picture to show us how we can approach
God. Now back up in verse 19, Hebrews
10, 19, he says, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into
the holiest. When God cast Adam out of the
garden, because Adam sinned. He broke the law of God. And
so when God cast Adam out of the garden, it signified God
casting all of us out of his holy presence and shutting up
the entrance to heaven. We couldn't come to God because
he shut us out. And he shut up the way to him. Then when God told Moses to build
a tabernacle in the wilderness, God began to show in a picture
in that tabernacle in the wilderness how God would give his people
access, entry, back into his presence. That's what he was
showing. But while that first tabernacle
stood, it signified by all those offerings that went on year after
year after year, it signified that the way into that holiest
place, God's presence, was not made manifest yet while as yet
that first tabernacle was standing. Now turn over to Hebrews 9-2. We're going to be back and forth
between Hebrews 9-2 and Hebrews 10. I'm not trying to skip around
to leave anything out. I'm just trying to connect these
things together to show you how they fit together according to
our text Hebrews 10-19. Now back in Hebrews 9-2, look
here. There was a tabernacle made.
The first, that is the first tabernacle or the first room
in that whole tabernacle wherein was the candlestick and the table
and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. That's the holy
place. That's what it was called. And
after the second veil, there was a veil. That's important.
There was a veil that just hung in this room and it made the
second room. And to get into that second room,
you had to pass through this veil, this heavy veil, about
six inches thick. You had to pick it up and go
under it to get into that room. He had to go through the veil.
And that place, that room, it says in verse 3, was called the
holiest of all. That pictured God's presence.
That pictured where God abides, where God dwells in glory, in
His presence. Alright? Hebrews 9, verse 6. Hebrews 9, verse 6. Now, when
these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the
first tabernacle. That's as far as the common priest
could go. They could go into that first
room, that first sanctuary, that holy place. But now look, and
they accomplished the service of God there. That's important. We serve God as believers. We've
been made priests unto God and we serve God as believers. They
could only go into that first tabernacle and serve God. That first tabernacle is a picture
of where we are right here right now. It's a picture of God's
church, His people gathered together in this world, in this earth,
and that's as far as they could go. Alright, but look at this,
but unto the second, that's the holiest of holies, verse 7, went
the high priest, this was the high priest, alone, by himself,
once every year. He had to go in there repeatedly.
What was he doing in that holiest of holies? He went in there with
blood. It says not without blood. which
he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The
Holy Ghost, this signifying, here's what God is teaching us
by that. He says that the way, the way,
that the way into the holiest of all, into God's presence,
was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing. That tabernacle, he says in verse
9, was a figure, a picture for the time then present in which
were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that
did the service perfect. They couldn't make him perfect
as pertaining to the conscience, the inward man. It could not
touch that which stood only in meats and drinks and different
kinds of washings And carnal ordinances, they were just fleshly
ceremonial ordinances, imposed on them until the time of Reformation. This is what Paul refers to in
the other scriptures as the elements of the world or the rudiments
of the world. These were just carnal ordinances.
That's all they were. All right, now back to Hebrews
10, 19. He says, but now for the believer, we have boldness
to enter into the holiest. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest. He's not speaking of that little
room in that tabernacle that was called the holiest of holies.
He's talking about God's presence, the very presence of God. What's
our confidence? What's our assurance we can enter
into God's presence? Look at verse 19. By the blood
of Jesus. That priest went in with blood.
Now he says, by the blood of Jesus. Look, by a new and a living
way, which he hath opened for us through the veil. But he's not talking about that
veil. That is to say his flesh. That's the veil he's talking
about, through his flesh. And he says, in having Christ
as a high priest. Christ is our high priest. not
over that tabernacle, but over the house of God, the church
of God, the house of God. That earthly tabernacle, the
high priest went along once every year. Now he says, and he went
through the veil, and he went into the holiest of all, and
he went with a lamb, and he was to make atonement for himself
and for the sins of the people. And he had to do it every year,
over and over and over. Because what he did couldn't
make anybody perfect. It couldn't purge the conscience.
It couldn't give them access, true access. It was just a ceremony. That's all it was, to picture
for us. But now every believer's got
boldness and assurance to enter into the true list of all, into
God's presence, by the blood of Jesus. By a new way. It's not that old covenant way.
It's a new covenant way, the everlasting covenant of grace,
the new covenant way. It's not the old covenant of
works, it's the new covenant of grace. That's the new way
we can enter. It's not a dead sacrifice, but
it's through Christ, our living sacrifice, who's alive and risen. And it says, and it's not through
that veil, not through that veil of fabric. Remember when Christ
said it's finished, the veil in the temple went, it split
right in two. How did that happen? God did
it. God did it. He was showing us,
and that veil was about this thick, and He was showing us
the work is finished. That old covenant work is finished.
It's fulfilled. It's done. Christ has accomplished
it. The ark was not in there, in that holy place. The mercy
seat was not in that holy place. There was nothing in that holy
place. It was empty. God said, That's all finished
and done. It's worthless. It doesn't contribute
to anything. I have fulfilled my picture.
Here's the very image, Christ himself. And that veil through
which we enter now is his body, which he offered for his people.
And when we have Christ now as our high priest at the right
hand of God to be an advocate for his people, to intercede
for his people, so we can enter. You see how the assurance of
faith is Christ himself. All right, back to Hebrews 9.11.
Let's see the scriptures tell us everything I just told you.
Hebrews 9.11, but Christ being come a high priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building, out of that
old tabernacle building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood, by his body. He entered in one time
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for his people,
eternal redemption from the curse of the law. That means God will
not pour out judgment on His people for whom Christ died,
whoever it was Christ died for. You don't want to argue over
who Christ died for. Whoever He died for, Christ obtained
eternal redemption for them. That means God will not punish
them at all. He will not cast them into hell
at all. So if some men say He died for
all men, that means everybody is going to be saved. Everybody
is walking around today praising and glorifying the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Do you see that? I don't see
that. Christ didn't die for everybody. But everybody he died for, they're
going to be brought to glory and praise the Lord Jesus Christ
because God won't pour judgment on them again. Alright, watch
this now. Verse 24. Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands. Hebrews 9.24, Christ has
not entered the holy places made with hands. Those were just figures
of the true holy place. But He's entered into heaven
itself. There's the true holy place. Now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Again, whoever He's appearing
in the presence of God for, He's interceding for them so that
God won't charge them with sin. He will not charge them with
sin. at all because Christ is appearing in the presence of
God for them. Verse 25, nor yet that he should offer himself
often like that old high priest entered into the holy place every
year with the blood of others. He's not doing that. For then
he must have suffered since the foundation of the world. Christ
would have to come again and again and again and keep doing
it if he was like that old priest. But he's not like an earthly
priest. He's eternal God. So what he did had eternal efficacy. It was eternal, lasting, so that
he didn't have to do it over and over and over again. That's
why he's God. God made it eternal. Man was
the one who could lay down his life and do this in human flesh
for his people. The God-man made all his work
eternal for his people. All right, look here. But now
once, verse 26, now once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You see that word
end of the world? A lot of the times whenever the
scriptures speak of the world, it's talking about the old covenant
economy. It's talking about that old Mosaic
kingdom, that old Mosaic covenant. It's talking about that old Mosaic
people. It's saying that was the world. That was God, what
God viewed as the world, because that was the only people he dealt
with in this whole earth was that people. But that world ended. It came to an end and in the
end of that world, and then also the scripture says in these last
days, God has spoken to us by his son. The last days started
when Christ came. Men are talking about end times
and the last days. The last days began when Christ
came. All that remains to be done is
for Christ to call out His people. And in the space of time, these
last days since zero to 2014, it's been just a dot on the time. It's been the last day. Now look
here. He appeared. Why did He appear? To put away
sin. To put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Now if He put away everybody's
sin, nobody's got any sin left because He accomplished it. But
He did put away sin and He did it for those He represented.
He put away our sin. It's gone. Now look at this.
And as it's appointed unto men once to die and then to be judged,
So Christ was once offered and bore the sins of many. He was
once offered and He bore the judgment of His people. So their
judgment settled. It settled. When Christ comes
back, He's not coming to judge His people. He's coming back
to take His people to glory. Judgment settled for His people.
You worried about standing before God and confessing all your sins
and everybody there knowing everything about you that could be known?
Well, that's not going to happen to God's people. That's not gonna
happen to those who trust Christ because our judgments been settled
Christ bore it on the cross for his people now look So it says
and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time
Without sin that means he won't have any on him and his people
won't have any on them either He's gonna appear not to judges,
but to take us to salvation to glory now back over Hebrews 10
look at verse 11 Every priest standeth daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sin. When Christ returned, people
went right back to using that law, that picture that God gave
to show Christ and went right back to it. And almost every
vain religion you have in the world today is just an offshoot. People took a little bit of God's
religion and went off and made their own religion with it. They
took a little bit of this and got offended at God's preachers
and went off and made their own religion. And just about everything
has blood involved, just about everything has a sacrifice involved,
just about everything has some sort of holy place involved.
It all came from God's religion, true religion. But look at this. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. You know why you sit down at
the end of a long, hard day? You sit down because you finished
the work done. That's why he sat down. All his
work was finished. While that high priest went into
that tabernacle, he never once sat down while he was in the
holy place. Christ entered into the holy
place and he sat down. from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath passed
in, perfected forever them that are sanctified." Everyone that
was set apart and given to him by God, that's what sanctified
means. Everyone that shall be sanctified by the Holy Spirit
brought to faith in him, that's what sanctified means. Every
one of them, he perfected them forever. He sanctified them with
His own blood on the cross. All right now, our full assurance
of faith is that Christ is our High Priest and Christ is our
Lamb. Our full assurance of faith is that Christ bore the sins
of His people and He put them away. Our full assurance of faith
is that Christ Jesus the Lord obtained eternal redemption for
His people. Our full assurance of faith is
that Christ died our death and settled our judgment. That's
our assurance. Our full assurance of faith is
that Christ perfected forever them that are sanctified. Our
full assurance of faith is that Christ entered to the right hand
of God and sat down and He appears right there now in God's presence
for His people. His appearance is our intercession.
His appearance is our advocacy with the Father. God's pleased
with Him. Our full assurance of faith is
He's going to come a second time, not to judge us, but to take
us to glory with Him because our sin's been settled. That
issue's over. It's settled. All right, back
to Hebrews 1019. Back to Hebrews 1019. Having
therefore boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say 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. All right,
now what about this true heart? What's this washing he's talking
about here? Well, the Spirit sprinkles our
heart from an evil conscience and the Spirit washes our bodies
with pure water, that is, with the blood of Christ. Inwardly
and outwardly we're washed with the blood of Christ. with the
blood of Christ. Now, and he does it by bearing
witness. The Holy Spirit does this by
simply bearing witness in the new heart that he's made as the
gospels being preached. That's how he does it. He bears
witness. He makes you all of a sudden
start hearing this word. He makes you all of a sudden
start believing this word. He makes you all of a sudden start
rejoicing in this word. That's what he does. Now look,
God drew a picture of this too. in the Old Covenant. He gave
laws that made it so that the children of Israel couldn't do
anything without becoming defiled and unclean. They could touch
death everywhere they went. If a fly landed in the water
and they drank it, they were unclean. If they walked over
a grave and they didn't know it was there, they were unclean.
If they touched a bone, they were unclean. If somebody died
in a room with them, they were unclean. They couldn't move without
becoming defiled and unclean. That's why this law was so strict.
And the reason God gave it was to show us that His people are
defiled and unclean by what Adam did, by our birth from Adam,
by our choice, by our practice, by our nature, by everything
we do, we're defiled and unclean. Now, ceremonially, and for those
priests to come into that first tabernacle, ceremonially what
had to happen was Those people are for people just to come and
make an offering. They had to be sprinkled. He would take the
blood of bulls and goats and of a red heifer, and he would
burn it and take the ashes, and they'd put it in this blood together,
and they'd sprinkle it all up together, and he'd sprinkle it
on the people. And ceremonially, just as a ceremony,
just as a picture, this purified their flesh and purified signified
their conscience being purified so that they could come to God
and make an offering. But they had to do it over and
over and over and over because they kept being defiled. All
right, back to Hebrews 9.13. Look what it said. It pictured
Christ and the Holy Spirit's work in the heart with His blood. Look at this. If the blood of
bulls and of goats, verse 13, Hebrews 9.13, If the blood of
bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? You see, it pictured Christ in
his blood. Now, there was another picture he gave. You remember
when Moses gave the law? Moses came down from the mountain
and he had the law of God written in tablets of stone. The law
came by Moses. He came down and he spoke all
the precepts to the people. It was like he stood up, like
I'm doing now, and he preached. But what he preached was law.
He just preached law. He just read off the precepts
to the people. That's all he read. And when he did that, by
doing that, God made a covenant with the people that they were
now obligated to fulfill that law. And when he did that, Moses
took blood and he sprinkled that blood on the people, on the tabernacle,
on everything around there so that it was purged with the blood. All of that pictured what I'm
talking about right here, the Holy Spirit doing this. I don't
stand up and preach law. I stand up and preach the precepts
of God, the precepts of grace, the gospel. That's what I preach.
And as I preach this, the Holy Spirit sprinkles that blood in
the hearts of His people. And when He does that, God makes
a new covenant, an everlasting covenant, a covenant of grace
in the hearts of His people. And He says, there's nothing
for you to do. The work's finished. I don't
remember your sins anymore. And so there's no more offering
for sin. That's the new covenant of grace.
Just like Moses made it through preaching the precepts of the
law, God makes this new covenant through preaching the precepts
of His grace, this good news of His grace, this law of His
grace of everything He's accomplished. Okay? Let me show that to you.
Look here at Hebrews 9 verse 21. Moreover, I'm sorry. Verse 19, He took the blood of
calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled
both the books. I'm sorry, go back to verse 19.
When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to
the law. He took the blood of calves and of goats with water
and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and the
people saying this blood of the testament which God hath enjoined
to you. That meant now you're under the
covenant of works. That was what God testified in
their hearts. You're now obligated to do these
works. All right. Turn over to Hebrews
9.21. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood
the tabernacle, all the vessels of the ministry. That pictured
his people. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood.
And without shedding of blood is no remission. Purged and remission
means the sins put away. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
that, with the blood of bulls and goats. But heavenly things,
speaking of his people, with better sacrifices than these.
All right, go to Hebrews 10.1. Now he picks up with this, talking
about it again. The law had a shadow of good
things to come, not the very image of the things, so it could
never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. See, that
tells us he's talking about the perfection of this blood being
sprinkled on you. He says, For then would they
not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins. If this was an internal work,
they wouldn't have had a conscience of sin. They would have had no
more condemnation, no fear of guilt, no worry that God was
going to condemn them anymore. That's what believers have. Now
look at verse 3. But in those sacrifices, there's
a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore,
when Christ came into the world, law came by Moses, grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. Now let's learn about that. He
came into the world and He said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. You've had no satisfaction to
your justice. It hasn't been satisfied your
justice, Father. Then said I, Christ Jesus, lo,
I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me. Everything that old covenant showed was written
of me. I come to do thy will, O God. Now look, above, when
he said sacrifice and offering and burnt sacrifice and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither had pleasure therein, which are
offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. Here's what he meant by that.
Christ takes away the first. Christ takes away that first
old covenant of works that Moses enjoined to the people when he
sprinkled that blood of bulls and goats on them and said, now
you're under this testament that God's enjoined to you. He had
to put away that first covenant by fulfilling that first covenant,
fulfilling everything that it pictured, fulfilling that law
in it, declaring God just and fulfilling righteousness for
his people. He had to fulfill it by putting their sins away,
by perfecting them forever. He had to fulfill it by pleasing
God and satisfying God. That's what we just saw earlier
that he did, that he accomplished. All right, verse 9. So he's taken
away that first, that he may establish the second. That's
this new everlasting covenant of grace, that he may establish
it, that God might come to his people and say, Here's my law
that I'm writing on your heart. This is my gospel. Christ has
done it all. All these things I've been telling
you, that's the law He writes on our hearts when He comes,
this gospel. And then He declares to you now,
because this is done. Here's my promise to you. Here's
the covenant I've enjoined to you. I won't remember your sin
anymore. So stop these works. There's
no more offering for sin. That's freedom. That's liberty.
That's when now you're the subject of Christ, you're under His rule,
and you're out from under that yoke of bondage, that yoke of
the law. Now you're constrained by the love of Christ. Now look
here, verse 10. Now that said it was all done
by Christ fulfilling the will of God. Now look, verse 10. By
the witch will, by Christ fulfilling God's will, we're sanctified,
made holy and perfect through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. For all is added by the translators,
but what it means is once for all time, not as opposed to every
year. Look at verse 14. For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. See,
it's done. Once for all time. Now, remember that sprinkling
of the blood of the red heifer? Remember that? Moses came forth
and they're defiled, so they got to be sprinkled in order
to be made perfect, to be purged, to be cleaned. Well, that couldn't
be done by pulling a goat. All right, but when Moses stood
up and he, that's what it pictured though, ceremony. So when Moses
stood up and he went to preaching and he said, all right, here's
God's law. And he preached it. He preached
the precepts of the 10 commandments and all the 600 something laws
of God. And they said, we'll do it. We'll
do it. We'll keep it. And he sprinkled
them with blood, picturing being made perfect, being purged. And
then God said, now, This covenant is joined to you. You got to
do it. It's on you. It's on your shoulder.
You got to do it. I don't want to be under that, do you? I think
they prove we don't want to be under that. We will perish. We
will perish. Verse 15. Well, here's what it
pictured. It pictured God's... Let me give
you... It pictured what I'm doing right
here. God's preacher preaches the gospel. We don't preach the
law. No, no. We preach the law just
in regard of showing you here what I've been showing you, that
the law will kill you. It's administration of death.
You're guilty by it. That's what we preach concerning
the law. But we preach the precepts of God's grace, showing you all
these things, how Christ has accomplished this work. And as
we're doing this, this is what happens. Verse 15. The Holy Ghost
also is a witness to us. That is, in addition to me preaching
it to you, in addition to you saying it in the Word of God,
in addition to God's Word saying it, the Holy Ghost also comes
into the heart and bears witness. This is that sprinkling of the
blood of Christ on your conscience. Now look at this. for after that
he had said before, this was earlier in Hebrews and it was
from the Old Testament, he said, this is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days saith the Lord. That is after
Christ has finished this old covenant work, put it away and
that picture is done away with, God said, I'm going to make a
new covenant with my people. Now watch, I'll put my laws into
their hearts and in their minds while I write them. Is he talking
about the Ten Commandments? No, you've got the Ten Commandments
written on your conscience when you're born. You know what's
right and wrong. A child, I've told you that story
about Will, when he was one or two years old, and he broke a
mirror. I just said, don't break that mirror, Will, and he broke
it. And you know what the first thing he did was? He ran and
hid under the bed. I saw his little old feet sticking
out from under the bed. I went around calling for him,
and there he was hiding under the bed. I didn't have to teach
him he'd done wrong. He had the law of God written
on his heart. And you do too. Read Romans 2. You'll find out. But now listen to this. He writes
the law of grace on our hearts. The law of faith, the law of
righteousness, the law of love. He writes the grace of God on
our hearts. The gospel, that's what he writes
on our hearts. Just like Moses preached the
precepts and God sprinkled them, he was writing that law on stone. But here, we preach the gospel
and he writes the gospel of God's grace on our hearts. Look, and
this is what he bears witness of. He says to you, their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. This is the testament
he enjoins to us. Their sins and iniquities, I
remember no more. Past, present, and future. God
says, I will not remember your sins and your iniquities anymore. Now, where remission of these
is, that is, where they're put away, where God won't remember
them anymore. There's no more offering for
sin. Why do you have to work to try to put away your sin if
God says, I've put it away and I don't remember it anymore?
Work's done. Work's done. Work's finished.
Work's finished. We don't have now any more conscience
of sins. Believer, are you worried that
God's going to condemn you? They're not a believer that's
worried about that. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in the Spirit. Our conscience has been purged.
I'm aware that I'm a sinner. I don't like my sin and I don't
want to continue in it because I want to honor Christ. But brethren,
God tells me He don't remember my sin anymore and I believe
Him. And He says there's no more offering for sin and I believe
Him. So I'm not worried that God's going to lock me out of
heaven and I'm not worried God's going to throw me into hell.
because Christ is my way into heaven and Christ has slammed
the door shut on hell for me. Now that's true of every believer.
We don't have a conscience of our sin. We don't have to keep
working. So when you see men who just keep working and working
and working and all they're plagued and worried and thinking they
got to keep doing to justify themselves and make themselves
more holy and men stand up and they're preaching the precepts
of the law, that's a pretty good indication that's all old covenant.
They're still offering the same sacrifices that can't ever take
away sin. You know what God's people are
doing? We're done with that phony mess. We're done with that pretend. We're done with that trying to
act like we're holy. We are. I'm not trying to act
like I'm fulfilling the law. I've already fulfilled it by
Christ doing it. I'm not trying to act like God
receives. I've accepted God. God's accepted
me. And I've sat down at God's right
hand, and that won't change, brethren. So then he says, verse
19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. by a new and a living way which
he hath opened for us through the veil, through his flesh.
And having Christ our high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled by the blood of Christ from that old evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water so that we've
been purged from those dead works to now we can actually serve
the living God. Get the picture now. When that
old covenant sinner was washed and sprinkled with all that blood
of an old bull and a goat, ashes of that red heifer, he could
then enter into the tabernacle. And now he could go in there
and he could serve God. And the way he served God was
he brought bullocks and burnt offerings and trespass offerings
and sin offerings and all those things. He brought all those
things and that's how he served God. Now that we're washed and
our conscience is purged, and we're made to see what Christ
has done, that the work's finished, and God don't remember our sin
anymore. Now, we can enter, not that earthly tabernacle, we enter
into God's house, into His church, into His holy hill where He sits
in His holy presence, and we offer up, not burnt offerings
and sacrifices of bulls and goats, we offer up the calves of our
lips, giving praise to God for what He's done for us, because
He's done it all. That's our service to God. And
we love one another. How do you love your brethren?
Whatever it takes in you personally to make no distraction from this
gospel and them praising God for His works, whatever it takes
for you to do, do it. That's how you serve your brethren.
Whatever it is, lay down your life. If they're weak and they
don't understand, bear those infirmities, lay down your life
for them because Christ didn't please himself. He laid down
his life for us. So just lay down your life for
them and bear those weak infirmities that they have and just keep
letting them hear this word because that's how he's going to increase
their faith. Whatever it is that you're doing that's sinful, that's
going to distract, just stop doing it. Whatever it is that
you think is righteous, everybody look at me now. Look how holy
I am. Stop that. We're not here to look at you.
We're here to look at Christ. Anything that would distract
your brethren from Him, stop it. That's what He said. That's
serving your brethren. And if you love God, you'll do
that. If you don't, if it's just a pretend and a show, you say,
I don't give a damn about my brother. I don't give a damn
about God. I'm going to do this and please
myself and gratify my flesh. And I don't care if they're distracted
away from Christ or not. That's a haughty, arrogant, phony,
fake, self-righteous spirit. That's what that is. But here's
what he says to us. We have full assurance, full
assurance to enter his house. and to enter His presence. Listen
to this. If we trust the Lord Jesus Christ
alone for the whole of our acceptance with God, we may come to Him
being fully assured of our acceptance by the blood, righteousness,
and mediation of Christ. We've got every reason to come
to God by Christ. Christ has opened the way, Christ
is the way, and every sinner who comes to God this way is
welcome in the holiest. But this is the only way. This
is the only way. God's seen by faith. He's known
by faith. He's worshipped by faith. So
he says, let us therefore draw near in the full assurance of
faith. And he says one more thing. Look
down at verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. That simply means draw near in
the full assurance of faith and don't look back. Don't look back
to the law. Don't look back to you. Don't
look to your sin. Don't look to your righteousness.
Don't look to anything else. Don't waver. Don't look away
from Him. Look straight at Him. That's
it. And come to Him in the full assurance of faith. I'm saying
this to everybody here. If you hadn't come to Him, come
to Him in the full assurance of faith. And don't waver. Don't look back. Hold fast to
this profession. And look at this. He is faithful,
that promised. You see, when you hold a child's
hand, that child holds your hand, and he's gripping your hand.
He says, you hold fast, this profession of faith, and don't
waver. And your holding on and holding fast is about like a
little baby holding a grown man's hand. That's what it's about
like. But what keeps that little baby from falling away? when
that father's faithful as he's promised to keep holding the
hand of that child. And that's what he said. Now,
you draw near with your little baby hand holding on to God's
little finger. And don't waver. Don't look anywhere
else. And the way you can guarantee that God's not going to let you
is he's faithful to keep on holding on to you because he's promised
he would. You see who our assurance is?
It's not in us. It's him. It's him. It's him. I pray he'll give you that. Amen. Thank you, Father, for your word.
I pray now you bless it. Give us true entrance and full
assurance of faith in Christ alone. Forgive us our doubting
and our wavering. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.