Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
19. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Over the past few weeks, we have
had opportunity to think about some of the central doctrines
of our faith. And I thought that perhaps we
might benefit by rounding off this little series of foundational
truths, these pillars of our faith, with some reference to
what makes these truths more than just doctrines, more than
just interesting exercises in head knowledge. but a source
of practical daily help, peace, comfort, and encouragement for
our souls. So today I want to leave a few
thoughts with you concerning what the scriptures have to say
about our personal assurance or what the writer to the Hebrews
here calls the full assurance of faith. The passage that we
read together begins by pointing out that as believers, we can
have boldness to approach God. And I just want to pause on that
opening thought for a moment, because actually this is quite
an extraordinary statement. That here the writer to the Hebrews,
it may well have been the Apostle Paul personally, if we're allowed
to have personal thoughts in these matters, I think it most
probably was Paul that wrote the Hebrews, the epistle to the
Hebrews, but be that as it may, The fact that he could say that
we can have boldness to approach God is extraordinary. Sinners are enabled to approach
God with boldness by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I find so much about this world,
about the creation, about our solar system, about the universe,
as science struggles to explain and describe and point out the
massiveness, the immensity, the glory of the creation in which
we live. I find it overwhelming, I find
it awe-inspiring. And then I think to myself, and
God sits above it all in his creative power, in majesty and
dominion. He created it all with just the
voice of, the word of his voice, and he rules it, and he sustains
it and upholds it. and he is holy and perfect and
true and just and I am sinful and I am a worm and I am the
littlest part of his creation and yet the writer to the Hebrews
tells me that I can enter with boldness into the presence of
God. Isn't that something that we
should consider and pause over and think about. We believe, based on the doctrines
that we've been thinking about over the past few weeks, we believe
what God has done for us in Christ. We believe that we are justified,
that we are cleansed, that we need not be afraid before God. We believe on the basis of the
doctrines that we have learned that we need not be ashamed or
humiliated because of our sin, that we can come into the presence
of God with boldness because we know the gospel and we believe
it to be true. We believe what God has done
to make us righteous and acceptable in his sight and that belief,
that knowledge, that understanding, that faith has an effect in our
lives and in our thinking. It changes the way that we approach
God. Because of what we believe, we
act in an altered way. We act differently than we might
otherwise act if we had not that knowledge. We come to Christ through the
sacrifice and the blood that has been shed. Again, the writer
to the Hebrews said, by a new and living way that both enables
us to approach God by Christ and teaches us the grounds on
which our coming glorifies and pleases the Father. Here is something that we have
learned as far as our Christian faith is concerned. We have learned
what Paul tells us in Romans chapter 5 verse 8. God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us. Much more then, being now justified
that is made righteous by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only
so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. So we understand the doctrine,
we have received the truth, we have heard the gospel of the
great things that God has done, and we understand that God's
love is commended to us in these things which have been accomplished,
and therefore it has an emotional effect in our understanding,
in our minds, in our hearts, in our lives, to such a degree
that we rejoice in the presence of God. And this is what the
writer to the Hebrews is telling us about the boldness that we
have, the attitude that we have as we enter into the presence
of God. Brothers and sisters, I want
us, knowing that we are reconciled, to experience peace with God
and to have joy in the Lord and to experience the blessedness
of approaching him with confidence and approaching him boldly. The
writer to the Hebrews speaks of the full assurance of faith,
the full assurance of faith. Now I imagine few of us feel
that we have full assurance of faith because we are aware of
our sin, we're aware of our doubts, we're aware of the questions
which rise in our hearts, we're aware that we contend daily with
the the rise of the old man and the battle that goes on in our
soul. But perhaps it's because we largely
misunderstand what that phrase, the full assurance of faith,
actually means. So let us think about one or
two matters concerning this full assurance of faith. Let us think
of it together. We read in scriptures of personal
faith. But our personal faith or our
subjective experience of faith is not where we ought to look
for our joy and confidence with God. As with the Lord's own disciples,
and remember, they had seen the Lord performing amazing miracles. They had seen the dead come to
life. They had seen the sick healed. They had seen thousands fed by
the Lord from just a few scraps and morsels of food. They had
heard the Lord's ministry, the very words of God conveyed to
man through the lips of the God-man Jesus Christ. And yet the Lord
said to them, O ye of little faith. As with the disciples,
we are prone to be people of little faith because our flesh,
because this world, because the temptations of the world, because
the devil are all ranged against allowing our faith to settle
and grow and prosper. Our personal faith is always
being assaulted and distressed in this world. It is rather the objective truth
of what God has done for us in Christ that fuels our joy and
energises our boldness and our confidence and our approach to
God. It is that objective truth of
the gospel and what God has said in scripture, God who cannot
lie. This is why knowing our doctrine
is so important. Sometimes people say, well, we're
not too interested in doctrine. We just need to have experience.
We just need to feel the love. You can't feel the love because
the old man still wrestles with us. We cannot feel it as we should
if we don't know that God commendeth his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. The essence of the knowledge
of the experience of God's love is in the doctrine of Christ's
atonement. Knowing our doctrine is important. Knowing the gospel, the doctrines
of God's grace in Christ are given to inform our understanding. and to undergird our faith to be a source of comfort and
joy to us. Paul calls this the faith of
God or the gospel of God. It is a reference to our positional
standing in Christ, independent of how we feel at a particular moment in time,
on a particular day, or having gone through a particular set
of circumstances, because our feelings vary, they ebb and flow,
they change constantly, depending on a whole variety of things
in our lives. but the objective truth of the
gospel remains constant, as dependable as God himself, as faithful as
our God. It is while we are struggling
under trials, overcome by doubt, ashamed because of our falls
and our failures and the damage that we do to our testimony and
full of remorse for our sin, that we need to be reminded we
still have independent, objective grounds for joy in the Lord and
boldness to come back again and again and again for a fresh grant
of forgiveness and a renewed and a restored experience of
love and grace. Our feelings will never tell
us that. It is the gospel, it is the truth
of God, the objective gospel of God that tells us that we
have peace with God and encourages us to come to him boldly. Now I'm going to go out on a
limb here and I am going to assume that there isn't one person listening
at the moment who isn't nursing a pain or carrying a trouble
or harbouring an anxiety of one kind or another. We all are. It is the nature of our lives
and it is the nature of our flesh. Some of you may even be juggling
two or three different problems at this one time. These troubles,
these troubles that we have, Scripture calls them trials because
they are trying what kind of people we are and what kind of
faith we have. They are trials that are sent
from God. These troubles, they're not unconnected
with our Christian life, but are sent by God to exercise and
refine our views of the Lord and our reliance upon Him. The Lord's people are never punished
because we have been bad. but we are chastened in love. We are prodded and nudged and
sometimes even shaken to rouse us from our sleep, to gain our
attention, to get us back on the road when we have lost sight
of the Saviour or when we've fallen asleep in byway meadow. So here are three things that
we should all know and remember so that our assurance can be
full, even while we are tried, tested, and troubled by the experiences
of this life. First, our standing in Christ
is fixed, firm, and unalterable. Our stand, no matter how we feel,
no matter what we've done, no matter how good the day has been
or how bad the day has been, no matter whether we have fallen,
whether we have shamed ourselves, whether we have done despite
to the testimony of our brothers and sisters in the church, our
standing in Christ, As one of the blood-bought people is fixed,
firm, and unalterable, the blood of Christ has cleansed us completely
and perfectly. And the Lord sees no iniquity
in Jacob or perverseness in Israel. There is therefore, says the
Apostle Paul, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. I am so glad for the now in that
little verse. The apostle, I think I've said
this before, the apostle could have written, there is therefore
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And we would
have read that and we would never have thought any more about it.
But he didn't write that. He wrote, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And I'm
glad for them now. It is a fresh promise every day,
every time it is needed. All who hear and believe the
gospel of God are justified by God. And the Lord God has made
us holy in his sight. Once we tried the old way. We tried to be justified by our
own works. We had every reason then to doubt
and fret that it was not enough. Legitimately so because it never
was. But the writer to the Hebrews
tells us of a new and living way to approach God. We are justified
by the blood and righteousness of Christ. We are justified by
his resurrection. We are justified by his faith
so that our confidence is utterly disconnected with our own works
and our own feelings and wholly founded upon Christ's work. And that work is finished. It
was finished on the cross. It was accepted by God and it
is sufficient. for God to be well pleased with
us as he is well pleased with him. God is well pleased so we
have nothing to fear, no ground for doubt. Our acceptance is
as sure as Christ is risen from the dead. It's not just a new way. It's
a new and living way and the significance of the fact that
it is a living way means that it is a personal engagement and
a relationship day by day. It is a new and living way because
we are united to the living Christ. We are joined together with him. We are his body and he is our
head. He is our great High Priest,
whoever lives to make intercession for us. Now think on that. Do you sin? Yes, frequently,
regularly, but Christ intercedes for us with his own blood. As soon as we have sinned, that
sin is gone. It is washed away in the blood
of Christ. The guilt never even reaches
us because Christ has already carried it away. It has already
been imputed to him and God sees no sin in his people. This is
our assurance, not how we feel, God knows we feel sick at our
sin, but it is not how we feel, but what Christ has done, what
the grace of God has accomplished, and what the doctrine of God
has revealed, has revealed to us in the gospel. Full assurance
is knowing He is able also to save them to the uttermost. Now that is not to the uttermost
person because the elect are a fixed number. That little phrase
there means to the uttermost degree. He is able to save them
to the uttermost degree that come unto God by Him. We come by a new and living way
and to the uttermost degree of the events and circumstances
and challenges and problems and sins and iniquities and transgressions
and faults and failures in our life, He is able to save us. that come to God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to maketh intercession for them. So that's our first
point. Our standing is fixed and it
is unalterable. Here's the second thing that
ought to encourage our assurance. Believers have full assurance
of faith because our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience
and our bodies are washed with pure water. That's what the writer
to the Hebrews tells us in our verses. What does that mean? Well, this is another beautiful
picture of what God has done in us by Christ's atonement. This isn't just God facing, it
is also man facing. Christ's atonement faces God
as far as that reconciliation and atonement is concerned. But there is also a gift of the
application of Christ's blood to our hearts, minds and conscience. And that is the work of God,
the Holy Spirit, towards the people for whom Christ died.
So here we have a reference to what the Spirit has done in us. We still live in a body of flesh. And Paul tells us that in the
flesh dwelleth no good thing. Now maybe you are a little bit
like Paul and you can say, to will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good, I find not. So we go about every day in the
body of this death. We get sick. We are tempted. We sin. We fall. We fail. We grow old. We stumble. We forget the Lord. We give every
indication that we are just like other men and women. No change.
No conversion. No transformation. And the devil
is quick to tell us that we're just like everyone else. With
no reason to think that we are anything special. except we are special. We are God's elect. We are his
covenant people. We are loved of God everlastingly. We are chosen by God in the eternal
covenant of grace. We are set apart in the decrees
of God. We are justified. We are redeemed. We are called and soon we shall
be glorified with Christ in heaven. Or as we said before, having
tasted grace, we shall soon experience glory. And until we do, our heart
and conscience is sprinkled with the blood of Christ and our bodies
are washed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded
day by day through hearing the gospel, through reflecting upon
the objective truth of the gospel, and then being led by the Spirit
to new views and new tastes and new senses of Christ. Because we are sprinkled and
cleansed, we hunger and thirst after righteousness. We seek
the Lord while he may be found. We listen eagerly for his presence
at the door, just like the Shulamite to her lover in Song of Solomon. We long to hear him knocking
at our heart's door. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. That's ours. That's the church
listening for Christ. Because we are sprinkled, we
persevere, we endure, we overcome. Our heart may be slow and dull
and easily tempted, but it belongs to Christ. And he cherishes our
affections. He will keep our heart fixed
on Him. Our flesh may be weak, but it
too, our very flesh, belongs to Christ, and He has use for
it. He will not let us go. He will
hold us fast. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. The psalmist says, my heart is
fixed. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I shall not be afraid of evil
tidings. My heart is fixed, trusting in
the Lord. What a beautiful personal testimony
of the psalmist's assurance that is. My heart is fixed. I won't be afraid of these evil
tidings. because they are just the shadow
of the weakness of the flesh before the fullness of glory
breaks upon us. And here's the third and final
point that I want to leave with you. The writer to the Hebrews
says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful that promised. And this is a precious encouragement,
I believe. Let us hold fast. I've just said that Christ is
holding us fast, but let us hold fast. What is that? Let us hold
tight. Let us hold tight. what the Lord
has taught us. Hold fast the doctrine that we've
received and profess to be true. Hold fast the gospel. Hold it fast in this world as
the only truth that we can be sure of. Our feelings give us no boldness
to go into God's presence with joy. Our resolute determination
to live well and honour God in all we do and say, it will only
mock our failures. The devil will happily sow seeds
of doubt in our minds. But our confidence is not in
ourselves. Our assurance is not in our faith. Our joy and confidence, our full
assurance is in the faithfulness of God. For he is faithful that
promised. Brothers and sisters, get your
head around this if you can. Even when we don't believe, he
remains faithful. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy
chapter 2 verse 13, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. We don't profess a church confession
or a historical creed or a statement of faith. They have a limited
usefulness. But we profess Christ and what
we have seen and heard in the gospel of God concerning his
goodwill and pleasure to save all who come unto him believing. I won't ever ask you to sign
a church confession or to raise your hand or to recite a declaration
of faith or to renew a church covenant every year in order
to confirm your profession of faith. That kind of nonsense
is what you do when you're playing at churches. We hold fast the profession of
our faith because we believe that despite ourselves, despite
our doubts, our fears, our faults, our failures, despite our unbelief,
God is faithful and God who cannot lie has promised salvation in
the covenant of grace for all for whom Christ died. Our full
assurance is simply this, no matter how I feel about myself
and my weak faith, I know that God is faithful to his promises. This is my full assurance, because
God is God. I am secure and I can go boldly
into his presence by a new and living way opened up by Christ
through his blood and intercession. Let me say this in my final paragraph
and then I'm done. Many of the Lord's little ones
struggle with personal assurance. And they wonder, they wonder
because of their doubts and their feelings, because of their sin
and temptations, whether they are truly Christ's or not. But why should we turn inward
and look to our own strength of faith as a measure of assurance? when we have been taught in the
gospel that everything else to do with our salvation is of the
Lord. The question is not, do I trust
enough? Or am I convinced enough? Or
do I believe enough? The question is not, am I good
enough? The question is, is the covenant
of grace fixed in all things and sure. Let me expand that. Is Christ risen from the dead?
Is his blood precious and effectual to save? Does his intercession
avail with God? Is God faithful to his promises? If you can answer yes to those
questions, then you can forget about how you feel at any particular
moment. You have full assurance in Christ
and you are safe and secure in him and your joy is unspeakably
glorious. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.