It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The scripture for our sermon
today is found in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into 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 an 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, Let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He
is faithful that promised." I've entitled this sermon, Full Assurance
of Faith. In Hebrews chapter 10, God gives
seven reasons why we should have full assurance of faith. First,
what God promised. Second, that God said He would
do all that He promised. Third, that Christ, our mediator,
the Son of God, did the will of God. Fourth, that Christ,
by what He did, actually obtained all for His people. Fifth, that
God only sees Christ for his people. Sixth, that God tells
us to look only to Christ. And seventh, that God tells us
in so looking we are to come boldly into his presence, depending
only on his blood and righteousness and his intercession. First then,
let us consider what God promised before in Hebrews 10, verse 16,
where it says, The Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. The
Holy Spirit witnesses to us. The Spirit of God knows the mind
of God. He reveals the deep things of
God, His mind, His will. He breathes out God's will in
Scripture. That will is the covenant of
God's grace. This is what the Spirit of God
moved Jeremiah and Ezekiel to write before. Thus, our first
evidence or reason for assurance is the recorded will of God.
God said beforehand what he would do. My assurance begins here. Unless God said it, I have no
basis for assurance. We are exhorted to enter into
the holiest boldly with a true heart in full assurance of faith. The first reason given why we
ought to have full assurance, therefore, is what God said He
would do. It is because God said before
what He would do that He spoke His mind by His Spirit and recorded
it in Scripture long before it came to pass that we have assurance. God has a will. That will is
documented in Scripture. The Spirit of God spoke that
will by the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31. and by the prophet
Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 36. Notice what God said in Ezekiel
36, 36. I, the Lord, have spoken it. I will also do it. Therefore, the second reason
for our assurance before God is that God's covenant is a covenant
in which He would do all that was necessary to fulfill His
promise. Two of those promises in that
covenant are mentioned here in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 16
and 17. First, God would write His laws
on the hearts of His people. And second, He would put away
their sins so that He would remember their sins no more. This covenant
that is mentioned here in Hebrews 10, verses 16-20, and in Hebrews
8, verses 8-12, is therefore the same covenant that the Spirit
of God spoke by the mouth of His prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And it is the same covenant God
spoke in the book of Galatians. In Galatians 3, verse 8, Paul
says, The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all nations be blessed. We know that this is
the same covenant for several reasons. First, the promises
are the same in both. In Galatians, God promises to
justify his people, and he promises to give them his spirit. These
are the very two same promises God gives in Hebrews chapter
10 verse 16 and 17. Justification occurs because
God has removed the sins of His people and the writing of God's
laws on the hearts of His people is the Spirit of God given to
them. The law that God writes on the hearts of His people is
all that He required Christ to do in His covenant of grace and
all that Christ did to fulfill it. The Spirit of God writes
the Gospel on our hearts. We live by the faith of the Son
of God. Galatians 2 verse 20. And we
also know that they are the same covenant because in both places
God makes the promise. And His promise does not depend
in any way on those to whom the promise is made. God does all
the work to fulfill His own promise. These are the first two reasons
that we have assurance before God. Because God promised and
because God does all the work to fulfill that promise. In Galatians,
God promised to justify not only those born Jews, but the heathen,
Also, all those who, like Abraham, look to Christ as everything
in their salvation. Faith in Christ is the law God
writes on the hearts of His people. The law that is written in Exodus
through Deuteronomy is to the law of Moses as the book of Hebrews
is to the new covenant, the gospel. Also, we find in Galatians that
God promised to give his spirit to those whom he justified. In
Galatians 3, verse 13 through 14, God says how he would accomplish
his work to fulfill those two promises, that he would justify
his people and give them his own spirit. He says in verse
13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. Notice here that the promise
God spoke is fulfilled. Christ hath redeemed us. Also
notice that the promise is fulfilled through Jesus Christ. That the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ. Notice also that He fulfilled
the promise when He redeemed His people, when He bore their
curse. Finally, that the promise of the Spirit flows to us as
a result of Christ obtaining our redemption. Now, the other
thing to note in Galatians 3 is that the covenant of promise
that God obligates Himself to fulfill is in contrast to the
Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments and all of the laws given by
God to Moses. How is it in contrast? In the
law, God made a covenant with Israel. He gave the requirements
of the covenant to Moses, who then gave them to Israel. Those
requirements were documented on stone tables and in the book
of the law. Those requirements place conditions
on every individual in Israel. that made their life and blessings
dependent upon personal obedience. If they failed to keep the conditions,
God's curse came upon them. It was a covenant between God
and the people. The people agreed to be bound
by that covenant. The covenant was not merely a
list of rules, but it was the very principle of personal blessings
for personal obedience and personal cursing for personal disobedience. This covenant is called the law
in Galatians and in the book of Hebrews. It is a covenant
of works because God places requirements on man that he must keep. Life
and blessing from God all depend on our own personal obedience.
And because it is a covenant of works, it is a covenant that
we can break. Now, in contrast, the covenant
spoken in Hebrews chapter 10 is a covenant of grace because
it is based on God alone. In the covenant of grace, God
promises and God does all that He promised. As we look for reasons
for assurance in the book of Hebrews, therefore, the first
basis for assurance is that the Spirit of God tells us God's
mind, His will beforehand. And the second reason for assurance
is that God said that He will do all that He promised. No promise
in that covenant depends in any way on those to whom the promises
are made. Now the third thing in Hebrews
that gives us assurance is what Christ actually did. Notice,
in the Old Testament, God gave his will to Moses and the people
were required to do that will. Moses was the mediator of the
covenant between God and Israel. The Mediator gave the covenant
conditions to the people from God and returned their agreement
to God to keep that covenant. But in the New Covenant, Christ
is the Mediator. He does not give the requirements
to the people who are the beneficiaries of the promises, but he himself
is the one who performs all things for them. Psalm 57.2 says, I
will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performs all things
for me. Now, in the covenant of grace,
God acts alone. The Son of God, in the covenant
of grace, performs all of the will of God. 2 Corinthians 1.20
says, All the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen unto
the glory of God by us. Christ is the seed spoken of
in the covenant God made with Abraham, the one to whom all
promises were made. The promises are made to Christ
on the condition that He fulfill the will of God. For Him, it
is the covenant of works. But as mediator in the covenant
of grace, those promises are made to His people in Him. The
promises are sure because they are made to Him and He fulfills
the conditions. On fulfillment of all conditions,
God gives the blessings promised. Now, the conditions of the New
Covenant are summarized as the will of God that Christ came
to do. The Spirit of God prophesied
what the Lord Jesus Christ would say when he came to fulfill that
covenant. Hebrews 10, verse 5 says, When he cometh into the world,
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. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book, it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. It would be correct to say that
the entire reason why our Lord Jesus came into the world was
to do the will of God. And that will was to fulfill
the conditions of the covenant God made with Him for His people
so that the promised blessings might be given to them. God required
the Lord Jesus to make atonement for the sins of the people. God's
justice was never satisfied with all of the sacrifices made under
the Old Testament. Satisfaction to His justice was
never the goal of that Old Covenant. It served a different purpose.
It was given to reveal the universal sinfulness of man, and it was
given to shut men up to their utter helplessness under the
guilt of their own sin and the bondage of their own sinful nature. For approximately 1,500 years,
the law made this one point abundantly clear. All are guilty before
God. Man's best works are nauseatingly
disgusting to God. Isaiah 64, verse 6. Man is utterly
enslaved to sin. He is positively opposed to God. His mind is enmity against God. Romans 8, verse 7. The law makes
this abundantly clear. It finds man guilty. It shows
his very nature to be sin. It locks him up under a covenant
that he cannot fulfill. And it shows that he has fallen
short of the glory of God. He will not glorify God. He is
under the curse of the law. The Law of Moses also provided
a way by which men could approach God. It required a priesthood,
and it required a tabernacle in which sacrifices were offered. It required endless offerings
to be made. Now, all of this foreshadowed
what Christ would one day do. Hebrews chapter 10 says that
the sacrifices never ended because sin was never put away. The law
never perfected one person. And this was the purpose of God
in giving the law, to shut man up to his sin so that when God
finally did fulfill His covenant of promise, There could be no
doubt that it was all God's doing, all in spite of my sin and all
because of His grace alone. Man can take no credit. God must
have all the glory. To do the will of God is why
Jesus came into the world. He must give Himself a ransom
for many. But to do so, He must take on
flesh and blood. Therefore, when coming into the
world, He says, Now, the third reason for our
assurance comes into view. God not only said what he would
do, God not only placed all obligations to fulfill the conditions of
his promise on himself, but the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the one in the Godhead who actually fulfilled all covenant
obligations. He said, I come to do thy will,
O God. Throughout the New Testament,
Jesus repeats this claim over and over again. He says in Luke
2.49, I must be about my Father's business. In John 4.34, my meat
is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.
And in John 5.36, the works which the Father has given me to finish,
the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father
has sent me. And in John 6.38, he says, I
came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And in
John 10, he says, Therefore doth my Father love me, because I
lay down my life, that I might take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. And in John chapter 12, 27, he
says, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. And then, in John 17, verse 4,
he says, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And then finally, in John
19, verse 28-30, it says that Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
he said, I thirst. Now there was said a vessel of
vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put
it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he
bowed his head, and he gave up the ghost. That was him doing
the will of God. Which brings us to our text in
Hebrews chapter 10. As he was coming into the world,
the Lord Jesus said, I come to do thy will, O God. Now, listen
very carefully. Every condition required in God's
covenant of grace is fulfilled in what Jesus did. Every condition
is fulfilled. Matthew 5, 17, Jesus says, I
didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill.
Our assurance rests upon the fact that God willed to do, that
God promised what He would do, He obligated Himself alone to
do it, and now the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, takes
on a human body and soul that He might do the everlasting will
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples in that last supper before he went to the cross,
he said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is
shed for many for the remission of sins. What is it that our
Lord is saying here in Hebrews chapter 10 and in Matthew 26?
He is saying that when He poured out His soul to death, He fulfilled
the everlasting will of God in order that He might save, that
He might justify, sanctify, perfect, and bring His people to God.
These are the promised blessings of the New Testament. Hebrews
13.20 says that the blood Jesus shed by the will of God is the
blood of the everlasting covenant. Hebrews 13.20 And Revelation
14.6 says that God sent a messenger to preach the everlasting gospel
to every kindred, tongue, people, and nation on earth. The Gospel
is telling out the New Testament in Christ's blood. It declares
that God's everlasting will to save his people is by the doing
and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Covenant is not
called new because God established it after the Old Covenant. The
New Covenant is everlasting. But it is called new because
it was not revealed until after the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
it and rose again and sat down on the throne of God in glory.
It is because God only revealed the New Covenant after the Lord
Jesus Christ completed it that all pride is kept back from man. Man could not contribute to something
he did not know about. In fact, because man did not
know about the New Covenant, man only served to carry out
the will of God by his own wickedness in crucifying the Lord of Glory.
Man's contribution was to kill the Son of God, the Prince of
Life, the Lord of Glory. Not until Christ was seated on
His throne did He send His preachers to preach this everlasting gospel. Now, our assurance is based first
on the fact that our great God tells us what He promised before
it was done. And second, He tells us that
He Himself would do all that He promised. He left nothing
for sinful man to do. And third, He tells us that He
would do all that He promised by His Son. Christ fulfilled
the Law and the Prophets. These are the greatest reasons
for assurance. But to go further, the fourth
reason for our assurance is that the Spirit of God now tells us
in Hebrews what Christ actually obtained by the work that He
did. Jesus Christ actually obtained
for his people what God promised. He actually obtained eternal
salvation for all of his people. He not only gave himself a ransom,
but he obtained eternal redemption, Hebrews 9.12. He not only gave
Himself for our sins, but He delivered us from this present
evil world, Galatians 1.4. He actually redeemed His people
from all of their transgressions in order that they might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Listen very carefully to the
proclamation of this everlasting gospel the Spirit of God gives
in Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 9. Then said He, Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth, daily
ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Can you see it? Christ offered
himself to God for the sins of his people. He offered himself
once only. He gave all he had. He held nothing
back. When God gave His Son, when Christ
gave Himself, He gave the wealth of heaven. God acted alone. Man only contributed sin. Christ took away the first covenant. He did away with that principle
by which men come to God on the basis of what they do. The best
that Old Covenant could do was to foreshadow what Christ would
actually accomplish. By His one offering, Jesus Christ
forever made His people holy to God. He sanctified them. And by His one offering, He perfected
them. Nothing can be added to what
He has done to make them one wit, more pleasing, more righteous,
more acceptable to God. Throw down all evil thoughts
of coming to God in any other way. Eternal redemption has been
obtained. He, by himself, purged our sins."
Hebrews 1.3. On that day, our great high priest
made atonement for his people, cleansing them from all their
sins, according to the promise given in Leviticus 16.30, which
says, for on that day, shall the priest make atonement for
you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before
the Lord. Everlasting righteousness is
established in his obedience to the will of God. God himself
tells us what Christ did and what he obtained by what he did.
Therefore, the fourth reason for our utmost assurance is that
all has been obtained by our Savior. Now, There is yet more. There is yet a fifth reason for
full assurance of faith. Not only did God say before what
He would do, not only did He say what He would do all by Himself,
not only did He tell us that He would do all and that He would
finish His will, by His Son, not only does He tell us what
Christ actually obtained, but the fifth reason for our utmost
assurance is that God tells us that we are only to consider
what He Himself considers for His people. We are to reckon
as true all that He sees in Christ for His people. God tells us
that He looks only to Christ, and He tells us that we are only
to look to Christ. Isaiah 45 verse 22 says, This
is what full assurance means. It means that we see what God
sees. We are to see. that the truth of the gospel,
the eternal truth of God, that will that was in His heart from
eternity, which He gave to His Son to fulfill before the world
began, which Christ accomplished, is the whole truth about the
way things are between me and God. Our great God and Father
tells us to look upon Christ and see in Him all that He requires
of sinners, all that we as sinners must have to boldly come to Him. Everything God says that Christ
obtained by His death, He declares to us because He received all
that He required for His people from Christ. Sins are no more
remembered because full remission has been received. Eternal redemption
is obtained because full ransom has been paid. Everlasting righteousness
is established because all has been fulfilled. Romans 10 verse
4. Eternal inheritance is given
because God has received from Christ all He required for His
people. God tells us in Jeremiah chapter
50 verse 20 how He sees His people when He looks on the offering
of His Son. He says, In those days and at
that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. And
in Numbers 23 verse 21, He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob,
neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. 1 Corinthians 1.30
God says, Of him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom? and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, our Lord says, and you are complete in
him. Do you see what God sees? How do we know that God received
all from Christ? Because He exalted Him to His
own throne. What shall be done to the man
whom the king delights to honor? This is what, being found in
fashion as a man, the Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore,
God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Do you see what God
sees? He says, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Look upon Him. See Him exalted, having accomplished
all, and having obtained all for His people, all by Himself. He alone was found worthy to
take the book of God's everlasting will, His covenant, to fulfill
it, to reveal it, and to give the promised blessings and eternal
inheritance that are promised in it. Revelation chapter 5.
Our Lord Jesus did not do what He did for Himself. He acted
to God for His people. He came to serve God and them
by giving Himself for His people. But He did have a reward in view.
His reward is His people. Nothing so delighted our Lord
than to do the will of God because it was in His Father's heart
from eternity. But He did have a reward in mind
and that reward was His people. He gave Himself for us that He
might have His people for Himself. Our great God and Savior is so
selfless in His heart that His greatest crown of rejoicing is
to have His people and to bring them and to present them to Himself
without spot or wrinkle in love. Nothing more greatly endears
our Savior to us than that His greatest joy is to have His people
as His own bride, and that for us He would give Himself for
our sins. Ephesians 5 verse 25 says, Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. The Lord Jesus
Christ himself tells us what he sees because of what he has
done. He says, Thou art all fair, my
love, I see no spot in thee. Song of Solomon, chapter 4, verse
7. Now, we must come to the final
point. It is because our Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled and obtained every blessing from God that
He promised for His people in that everlasting covenant of
grace that He now tells us how to come. When we see and are
persuaded that Christ has obtained all in fulfillment of God's everlasting
promise to His people, on the grounds of Christ only, the Spirit
of God says, having therefore, brethren, boldness, to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which he has 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. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful
that promised." How are we to come? We are to come looking
only to Christ, fully persuaded that all God promised, the Lord
Jesus Christ has already obtained for us by Himself. It is done. We are therefore to come boldly,
looking to Christ alone as God himself sees him as our all and
tells us to come seeing him as our all. His blood, his body
broken, his high priestly appearing in the presence of God for us
is all of our assurance in coming. Assurance of faith is not being
assured I am saved. It is not looking for evidence
in myself for God's work in me. It is looking away to Christ
crucified and coming and living and coming to God and living
on Him alone by faith. A true heart is a heart that
sees that every law of the new covenant, all that God requires
of me, He has laid on His Son, and Christ has fulfilled it all. It is seen that Christ actually
obtained my eternal salvation by Himself, and He is now seated
on the throne of glory. A true heart does not look for
improvements in myself as the basis for assurance. I cannot
remove one sin from my evil heart. I cannot take away the guilt
of one sin. The law proves that. It proves
I am a slave of sin in my nature, that I cannot do one thing of
all that God requires. I am therefore shut up to Christ
alone. Now the everlasting gospel declares
that Christ has obtained everlasting salvation for his people. by
His one offering, He actually perfected forever all those God
gave to Him. God Himself tells me to come
to Him by His blood and righteousness alone. To fail to submit to this
gospel, to fail to trust Christ as my all, is refusal to submit
to God's righteousness. It is to presume to make the
death of Christ worthless. Oh, sinner, it is to imagine
there's something I can add to what Christ did and what God
said He only could do. Dear brother and sister in Christ,
you have but one basis for full assurance before God. It is that
Christ has finished your everlasting salvation by Himself, by His
blood, by His broken body, and that He now stands and appears
in glory for you, presenting Himself to God in all of His
merit. Christ crucified, risen, ascended,
seated, and interceding is the believer's full assurance of
faith. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com.