Back into the book of Hebrews
once again. And last week we began a series,
a mini-series you might call it. You'll recall in verses 22,
23, and 24, but it actually begins in verse 21 of Hebrews chapter
10. And having a high priest over
the house of God, in other words, because we have a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near, it says in verse 22,
with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast, this is the
second time we see these words, let us, let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful
that promised. And then it says these words,
and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the
more as you see the day approaching. Now last week, we kind of spent
our time on let us draw near. And we talked about some of the
things there. I'm going to go over that just a brief I've titled
it, A Heart Full of Assurance. A True Heart Full of Assurance. And it says, Let us draw near
with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Drawing near, because we have such a great high priest seated
in heaven, because his blood has been forever accepted His
blood has been forever accepted. We can draw near. His blood has
been ever accepted as upon the mercy seat. The blood that was
sprinkled on the mercy seat because He lived to make intercession
for us. We have every reason to come
to God by Him. To God by this way is welcome
in the holiest. All who come to God in this way
are welcome in the holiest. So let us therefore draw near
to God. We also looked at a true heart.
With a true heart, we come to God with our hearts, not with
mere bodily religious exercises, but with a heart that comes willing.
And you'll recall last week, we talked about that. Being willing,
we come to God. We're willing to leave the world
behind. Why are we here today? Because
we're willing to come and hear about God's word. Yes, we are
drawn by God. And we would never come if it
were not for the drawing power of God. But He makes us willing
in the day of His love, in the day of His power. So we come
with a true heart, a willing heart. Not with just bodily religious
exercise, but in true godliness, with a heart and a new heart,
one that is right with God, and is single, sincere, and is hearty
in its desires, and upright in its ends. Everything in the worship
and service of our God must arise from and be done with a true
heart. It says in God's Word we must
worship Him in truth and in spirit. We come with full assurance.
We can come near unto Him with full assurance if we believe
God, if we have faith in and towards the Triune God, if we
trust the Lord Jesus and Him alone for the whole of our acceptance. That's important. Folks, God's
people, we have no confidence in this flesh, and that includes
what goes on in this mind. That includes what goes on in
our feelings. We have no confidence in this
flesh. Our only confidence, and the only place any confidence
can be put in, is in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And if that's
where our confidence is, there's assurance that God has put it
there. Do you ask that question? Am
I saved? Am I truly saved, Lord? Is it
I? Am I the one who will betray
you? Listen, God's people who put their confidence in Christ
because of Him don't have to worry. If God leaves me to myself,
I'll go and run away as fast as I can. But as long as I'm
His, He will keep me. I am His and He is mine. Blessed
assurance. What a foretaste of glory divine
that we have an assurance God will keep His Word. What He says
is true, and that includes salvation and how it's done and who it's
done through. It's done through His Son. Is
that where your faith is? Is it in Him? Then we have assurance. We can come to Him being fully
assured of our acceptance by the blood of His Son. We don't
have any assurance in our own blood or in our own actions,
but we have great assurance in Him Because He shed His blood
for people, we know that that people shall be saved, don't
we? We cannot draw near to God in any other way. God is seen
by faith, known by faith, honored by faith, and worshiped by faith
in Christ Jesus, His Son. We read these words, blessed
assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchased
of God, born of His Spirit, and washed in His blood. We come
to the Lord with a clear conscience. We can come nearer to Him with
a conscience that is clear. Is it clear because of what we
see in this flesh? No, it's clear because of what
we see in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Did He not wash His people
clean? Did He not purge His people from
their sins? He says He did. We have having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Our consciences
are by nature evil, blind, perverse, corrupt, and they pronounce us
guilty before God. Once the blood of Christ is sprinkled
upon our conscience by the Spirit of God, it is thereby purged
of dead works, cleansed from all sin, granted and blessed
peace of full pardon and forgiveness upon the ground of justice satisfied. It is this that gives the believing
sinner boldness to draw near to God. We have a cleansed life. Oh, that's a tough one to see,
isn't it? How can you say my life is cleansed, John? It says
in God's Word, and our bodies were washed with pure water.
This is not talking about the water of baptism. No, it's talking
about this. It's talking about the Holy Spirit. Often in Scriptures, the Holy
Spirit is compared to water. I want you to hold your place
there in Hebrews 10 and turn over to John chapter 7 for a
moment. John chapter 7. When the Holy
Spirit comes and washes us, what does He wash us with? Remember,
the Holy Spirit never speaks of Himself. He speaks of Christ. He reveals Christ to the new
heart. He reveals our God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 37 of John chapter
7. So we're talking about being
washed in pure water. Is there anything pure in this
world? No, but our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit of God is
as pure as pure can be. So this is what it's talking
about here. We're talking about the Spirit. I mentioned a moment
ago, the Holy Spirit is often compared to water in Scripture.
And here in John chapter 7, verse 37, we read these words. And
in the last days, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood
and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he, this is what
I want you to see here in verse 39, this spake he of the Spirit. When God the Holy Spirit comes
to us, when we're dead and trespassers in sin, and shows us that Christ
died for us, when he shows us who laid down their life, when
He reveals unto us the Son of God and the precious blood that
He Look what it says here. So we
see here that it's talking about being washed with pure water, with
the Holy Spirit. The body as well as the soul needs washing and
renewing. Grace in the heart cleanses the
life and sanctifies the whole man. The illusion, John Gill
tells us, is to accustom of the Jews who obliged to wash their
bodies and make them clean when they prayed and when they worshiped
and when they offered sacrifices to God. They had to go out and
wash themselves before they could do that. So then we read in Hebrews
10.23, back in our text, if you would, The second of our point
that we want to look at here, and that is, let us hold fast. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. For He is faithful, that promise. Now we know that it's talking
about the Lord Jesus there, where in the parentheses where it says,
for He is faithful, that promise. Yes, we are kept in grace. and
kept in faith by the power of God's grace. The blood of Christ
and the seal of the Spirit, but He did not hold us by His grace,
we could not and would not hold Him. I'm sorry, I left out a
word there. If He had not hold us by His
grace, we could not hold on to Him, but true faith holds Him
and holds Him fast. He will not let us go and we
will not let him go. Let us ever hold fast the doctrine
of our profession. What is that doctrine? What is
the teaching of our profession? What do you and I profess when
we go out into the world? We profess that Jesus Christ
is Lord of all things, do we not? Are you ashamed to tell
those that ask you about who your God is that He's sovereign? No, I'm not talking about how
the world calls Him sovereign. Yeah, He rules over this and
He rules over that. I'm talking about sovereign over
even me. Everything about me, God is sovereign
over all of it. We don't stand up before people
and say, I decided when, I walked the aisle, I did this, because
we know we didn't, don't we? God has shown us that we would
have never come to Him if it had not been for His love, if
it had not been for His grace. And we hear those words in His
Word, and we say, Amen. That was me. Well, folks, that's
our profession. We're not ashamed to profess
God as sovereign before all that will come our way. We have plenty of family around
us who believe other things, don't they? I have a sister. I love her dearly. I wish she
knew the Lord as well as she thinks she does. But I don't
think she does. And I have discussions with her
all the time. And she can come up with some things out of Scripture
better than I can. She's read through the Bible
five times. And she's not ashamed to tell you that. I have to stand
fast. in my profession. Yeah, I know,
Ann, you found something there in the Bible to prove what you're
saying, but that's not what it says in other places in the Bible.
It says very clearly in the Bible, Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. She doesn't believe that. It
says very clearly throughout scriptures that the atonement
Christ made for his people is sufficient, that God accepted
it. I have to stand fast. She doesn't believe that. Maybe
she'll listen to this Bible study online, and then she'll hear. Maybe. Let us ever hold fast
to the doctrine of our profession. Our God is sovereign over all
things, including my will. The gospel of God's grace and
the glory in Christ are crucified, are risen, are exalted substitute,
the object of our profession. Here is our encouragement to
do so. He says, He is faithful that
promised. Our Savior is faithful, the one
that promised. God is faithful. Turn over to
Lamentations chapter 3. In Lamentations chapter 3, we
read a few verses here, beginning at verse 21. This I recall to
my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. because his compassions fail
not. We're talking about what we just
read there a moment ago. He is faithful that promised. This is our encouragement, not
something that I'm doing, not something that I've changed in
my life, but what my God has promised us. You notice the whole
start of this today's study has been based on this. It's what
God has done. And His promise to us is here. The writer here is Jeremiah,
I believe, and he's writing, it is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him. to the soul that seeketh Him,
it is good that a man should be both hope and quietly wait
for the salvation of the Lord. John Gill wrote this, he said,
The promise of eternal life was in God's heart, made in the covenant
and put into Christ's hands before the world began, and is declared
in the gospel. Now God, who is faithful to all
His promises, nor can He fail or deceive He is all-wise and
foreknowing of everything that comes to pass. He never changes
his mind nor forgets his word, and he is able to perform all
and is the God of truth and cannot lie. Nor has he ever failed in
any one of his promises, nor will he suffer his faithfulness
to fail. And this is a strong argument
to hold fast our profession of faith too. Our faithful God has
promised us eternal life and salvation in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and He promises it to all who seek Him. Truly,
His faithfulness is great. His compassions never fail. His
mercy, His love, and His grace are immutable. His gifts and
callings are without repentance. He will bring us safely home
to heaven at last. Close with me if you would over
in 1 Peter 1. We read these words beginning
in verse 2, elect the called. Do you know what the word church
means? The called out, those who are
called out. God's church, those who are called
out of darkness. elect the call according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father through, in other words, those
who were chosen in God the Father before the world began, through
the holy, being made holy or sanctified, setting apart of
the Spirit, there's that perfect water, that pure water that we
were just speaking about a moment ago, unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus. Grace unto you, and peace be
multiplied. To you, to you who were chosen
by God the Father before the world began, to you who were
sanctified through the Spirit by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Verse 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again. unto a lively hope."
Oh, what a living hope we have in our Savior by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Do you realize that's the confirmation
that God accepted what His Son did for you and I? He didn't
leave Him in hell. The confirmation that that blood,
that perfect righteous blood that Christ shed upon that cross
is ours. And God accepted it as ours because
God raised his son from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible,
verse four, and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you who, verse five, who are kept by the power
of God through faith, undue salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. What assurance. What assurance. We can come and draw near with
a true heart and full of assurance and faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast. We can hold fast to that profession
of our faith without wavering. Why? Why? For He is faithful
that promised. Next week we'll go into a little
deeper into let us consider one another, shall we?