Brother Mike had no way of knowing
except as perhaps God the Spirit gave him direction. My text tonight
is found in Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews the 10th chapter. I so very much loathe the idea
of just filling in time here. and just giving you some instruction
about religion or doctrine. I want and I pray for grace from
God to be of help to your soul, to minister to your soul's needs,
to reprove and correct unbelief and error in your life and in
mine, and to direct you who do not know our Redeemer to life
and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord by God the Holy Spirit. To that end, I want to raise
and answer five questions. That's my subject tonight, five
questions. Now believe me, these are questions
about things that really matter. In Hebrews 10.22, The Apostle
Paul speaks to us about the full assurance of faith. What a word. The full assurance
of faith. Do you know anything about that?
Do I? He has told us in this 10th chapter
that the law, in all of its covenants, ordinances, and ceremonies, in
all of its commandments, in all of its presets, was designed
for just one purpose. Would do God this generation
could learn this. The law was a shadow of good
things to come. It was just the shadow of good
things to come. It set before us an old testament,
an old covenant. And our Lord Jesus came to fulfill
the old by bringing in the new. And he fulfilled the law in all
its details by his obedience to God, not for himself, but
for his elect. And having fulfilled all the
law, Having fulfilled every commandment, every requirement given by God
in His law, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. And this man, this great high
priest, unlike any legal priest, by one sacrifice has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. by his one sacrifice in the room
instead of his people upon Calvary's cursed tree by the sacrifice
of himself Jesus Christ has made He has made perfect every sinner,
sanctified by God Almighty in eternal election, chosen as the
object of His grace before the world was. Made them perfect. So that there's nothing left
to be added by us. Nothing left to be done by us.
He's made perfect them that are sanctified and now he's open
for sinners By making perfect them that are sanctified. He's
open for sinners away into the holiest Sinners can come to God
by Jesus Christ the Lord freely Freely with full assurance of
faith with full assurance of faith. When you hear me talk
about Aaron's priesthood, And they described Aaron's priestly
garments. I'm sure you have heard preachers
say that those, the hymn of the garments, you know, he had a
bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and
a pomegranate, so that while he was in there, in the holy
of holies making sacrifice, as long as they heard the bells
ringing, they knew everything was all right. But if they quit
hearing the bells, that meant Aaron was dead, and they had
to stick a long hook in there and drag him out. There's only
one problem with that. It just wasn't so. Before Abraham
ever went in to that holy of holies with the blood of the
Passover lamb, he took those gorgeous garments off and put
on his white linen priestly garments of sacrifice without any veils,
without any pomegranates. And he went in there with full
assurance of acceptance. How come? He brought what God
required. God said you come in here with
the blood of the Passover lamb Representing the blood of Christ
our Passover sacrifice for us and I'll meet you on the mercy
seat and there I will commune with you there I'll make myself
known to you and Abram went in every year on the highest day
of atonement with the blood of the Paschal lamp, sprinkled the
blood on the mercy seat, knowing full well he's gonna come out
now and put back on those gorgeous priestly garments and speak these
words to the people, the Lord bless thee. The Lord make his
face to shine upon thee. The Lord give thee peace with
full assurance. So it is that sinners like you
and I may come to God Fully aware of our sin. Fully aware of our
personal corruption. Fully aware of our depravity. With full assurance of acceptance
to God if we bring what God requires. Jesus Christ the Lord. Here in
verse 22, trusting the Lord Jesus as our great sin atoning high
priest, the apostle says, let us draw near with a true heart. Oh, God, give me a true heart. Faith in Christ is found in a
true heart. Repentance toward God is found
in a true heart. Holy Spirit conviction is found
in a true heart. Worship arises from a true heart. Prayer arises from a true heart.
Job said, God maketh my heart soft. And if God makes it soft,
he'll make it true. God give me a true heart. A true
heart is a heart sprinkled with the blood of Christ. A heart
to which God, the Holy Spirit, has graciously, effectually applied
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, making the conscience
clear and free before God. The conscience sprinkled from
an evil heart, an evil nature, an evil deed, an evil act, an
evil life, sprinkled and made clean before God. True heart
is one washed with the pure water of God's free saving grace by
God the Holy Spirit. If I have a true heart, a heart
made soft by God, if Christ is my great high priest, if I trust
Christ, this text tells me that I can and should draw near to
God in all his glorious holiness in full assurance of faith. Now let me raise these five questions
and answer them briefly. And I hope God, the Holy Spirit,
will bless them to your soul's good to the end, that you may
draw near to God, everybody here, in the holy place. full assurance
of faith, full assurance of acceptance with God. Number one, what would
it mean to you? What would it mean to you? To
know that your sin, every sin you've ever committed, every
sin of your life, past, present, and future, is forgiven, blotted
out, and remembered by God no more forever. Every sin of your mouth, and
every sin of your hand, and every sin of your heart, every sin
of your mind, past, present, and future, completely forever
forgiven by God. So thoroughly forgiven that God
says, I will remember their sins no more. When you were prepared
to read that, did you pause long enough to stop and think, how
can God not remember my sin? How can God not remember my sin? He says, I will remember their
sins no more. Is that what it said, Darwin?
I will not remember them. But God knows everything. The
only thing God doesn't know is what he is not. God says there are sins I remember
no more, because I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions. flooding them out, cast them
behind his back into the depths of the sea of infinite forgiveness
so that God says he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob and no transgression
in Israel. Forgive, forgive, forgive. For God to forgive sin is not
anything like what we do in forgiving sin. We're commanded to forgive
sin. But God forgives sin by putting
it away. We forgive sin on the basis of
the fact that we've been forgiven. We forgive sin on the basis of
the fact that we know ourselves sinners. We forgive sin on the
basis of the fact that God commands it. We forgive sin on the basis
of the fact that we're taught of God to do so. We forgive because
we want to do so. But we can't ever, ever, ever,
ever do away with it. You can't do away with it. If
you've been deeply wronged by a friend, a companion, or someone
you love, no matter how earnestly you seek to put it out of mind,
it's always there. It's always there. You just can't
get rid of it. Not so with God. He forgives
our sin by blotting them out through the blood of his darling
son. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from
all sin. He says, I will not remember
thy sins. He says, come to me, I will abundantly
pardon. He forgives all thine iniquities. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, but rather
as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. For the dead, Parks, years ago,
made this observation. He said, I'm so glad he didn't
say as far as the north is from the south. Cause I can find the
North Pole and I can find the South Pole. But you're not going
to find an East Pole or a West Pole. You cannot find the distance
from East to West. It can't be defined. So far has
God removed our transgressions from us. As far as the East is
from the West. Never to be met with again. Never to be punished again never
to be corrected again God has put away our sins by the sacrifice
of his son there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus all believe on the Lord Jesus and God has
forgiven you all your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus and
God speaks peace to your soul right where you are, assuring
you he will not charge you with sin. Listen to this, Jeremiah
chapter 50, you can look at it later. In those days and in 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. Now listen to God's reasoning.
For I will pardon them whom I reserve. I'll pardon them. A number of
years ago, Shelby and I were down in North Wilkesboro, North
Carolina. I was preaching for Brother Mike Walker at the Covenant
of Grace Baptist Church down in North Wilkesboro. And I stepped
in the elevator at the motel, the Holiday Inn Express down
to where we were staying, and I saw a fella. I hadn't seen
him in over 30 years. Hadn't seen him in over 30 years.
He was my sixth grade teacher. And he hadn't changed a bit.
I had changed a little. And I looked at him. I said, you're not Bob Spencer,
are you? He said, I sure am. And I stuck my hand out and said,
you won't remember me, my name's Don Fortner. And he stuck his
hand out, he said, oh, I remember you. And he did, he did. He remembered
all the trouble I caused. He remembered all the difficulties
I was involved in. He remembered them. He and I
have become friends since then. But he remembered, though he
was a very gracious man, God Almighty doesn't remember anything
evil about me. Because he plotted it out. Blessed is the man, David said,
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Believe on the Son of God
and I send you home this very moment and tell you God will
never remember your sins against you forever, never. Number two,
what would it mean to you to know that the eternal, holy,
righteous, and just God is totally reconciled to you? to know that there's no wrath,
no fury, no anger in God toward you. Not even a frown. Not even a frown. To know that
you are accepted by God in love and peace, who hath made us accepted
in the beloved. What would you give to go home
tonight and lay your head on your pillow and no longer be
terrified of God. No longer be afraid of the Almighty. No longer dread meeting God. Our Savior said, my peace I give
unto you. My peace I give unto you. Now, please understand this. I've been saying this real often
lately, because it needs to be understood. God never plays,
let's pretend. God never plays, let's pretend. Folks say, well, this is how
God sees things. If that's how God sees things,
Brother Darrell, that's how they really are. Not how you see them,
how God sees them. That's how they really are. When
God says he made his son sin, that means he made his son sin.
Otherwise, when God said he makes you the righteousness of God
in him, it only means he pretends that you are. When he says he
forgives your sin, it only means he pretends to forgive. When
he says he blots out your transgressions, it only means he pretends to
do so. When he says that Christ is our peace, He's only pretending
Christ is our peace. Oh no, no, no, a thousand, a
million times no! Christ is our peace. And the
Savior said, my peace give I unto you. Now there are many, many,
many things that may be said concerning that. While I was
preparing this message today, I stopped and thought about this
a good while. Let me give you just one thing, just one thing.
My peace give I unto you. What is the peace that resided
in the heart of the God-man, Christ Jesus, when he came to
the end of his life on this earth, having fulfilled all righteousness,
when he bowed his head and said, Father, into thy hand I commend
my spirit, and gave up the ghost? What peace was that? That was
the peace of perfect, sinless, holy manhood. That was the peace of knowing
that God has no reason to be angry with me. That's the peace
of knowing that God shall never have a reason to punish me for
anything. That's the peace of knowing that
I am the righteousness of God. My peace give I unto thee. Believe on the Son of God. And
know this, God has reconciled you to himself by the sacrifice
of his darling son, not imputing your trespasses unto you. But having made his son to be
sin for you, he imputed your trespasses unto his son and punished
his son until justice wore out his sword on his son. And now
God is reconciled. and smiles upon you. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. What's he talking about? This
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Y'all know we had just one daughter
and I am very well pleased with her. But if you were to hear
me say, I'm very well pleased in her, you'd think Brother Don
needs some instruction in proper use of English language. That'd
be incorrect. God didn't need instruction in
the proper use of language. When he said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased, this is what he's saying, John
Copeland. You're in Christ. Are you in Christ? Do you believe
on the Son of God? If you do, you're in Christ.
And God is well pleased with you. All the time. All the time. All the time. But brother, doesn't God get
angry with us when we sin? No. Oh no, no, no, a thousand
times no. The thing that David did displeased
the Lord and God put it just that way. The thing that David
did displeased the Lord and God showed it to David, to Bathsheba
and to the world. But David never ceased to please
him for David is accepted in the beloved and our acceptance
with God doesn't vary. We were accepted in the beloved
before the world was. And when we fell in our father
Adam, still accepted in the beloved. When we went forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies, still accepted in the beloved. When we spent
the days of our lives with our fist in God's face, hating God
with every fiber of our being, God didn't change, still accepted
in the beloved. And when he called us by his
grace, accepted in the beloved. and in the multiplied thousands
of foes still accepted in the beloved. Believe on the Son of
God and rejoice to know that you're reconciled to God. Number
three, what would it mean to you to have a new heart, a new spirit,
a new nature, that really does love God. A nature as truly inclined to
God as your flesh is to evil. A new nature which really hates
evil and loves God and the things of God. The word of God, righteousness,
the people of God, and the worship of God. A nature that finds no
greater delight than to be in God's will, in God's presence,
and like God. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's a new creature. Old things
have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. I suppose most of you are old
enough to remember when we had cassette tapes and video cassettes
rather than the discs that we have now. And you could push
the rewind button. And push the rewind button and
then wind all the way back and start all over from the beginning.
How often have you thought, oh, would to God I could push the
rewind button and start all over with a clean slate. with a totally
clean slate. Lord, a clean slate that you
could never mess up. A clean slate you could never
mess up. Believe on the Son of God. And if you believe the Son of
God it's because God has made you a new creature in Christ.
And God declares old things are passed away. What's he talking
about? Not your old nature, it's still
there. That's not it. Old things, all your sins, all
your iniquities, all the corrupt deeds, all the evil is gone. And all things have become new.
And you have before God not only a new heart and a new nature,
a new record before him, a perfection before him. Christ is yours and
his righteousness is yours by the imputation of grace and his
righteousness is yours by the imparting of grace in the new
birth so that Christ is in you and you may partakers of the
divine nature this is what it is to be one with Christ fourth turn to Isaiah chapter
3 Isaiah chapter 3 What would it mean to you to
know that every trial and every failure, every fall and every uplifted,
every joy and every sorrow, every good day and every difficult
day is ordained, ordered, designed, and purposed by God for your
eternal good and his glory. Oh, brother Dodd, that'd make
all the difference in the world. If I could just see the end of
this thing. Oh, if I could just see the end
of this thing. Well, look here in Isaiah chapter
three and verse 10. God says to his prophet, Say
ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him. Say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him. And then he gives the reason.
For they, the righteous, shall eat the fruit of their doings. Who are the righteous? Sinners
justified by God's grace made righteous in Christ Jesus. Sinners
made righteous in the new birth, given a righteous holy nature,
made partakers of the divine nature. Sinners who are made
righteous in the experience of grace, they are the righteous.
And the Lord God says to his prophet, you tell these righteous
folks, it shall be well with them. Now you can read that statement. as broadly as your heart's imagination
will allow you to read it. There are no limitations to the
promise, no conditions to the promise, no qualifications to
the promise. To the righteous, God says, it
shall be well with you. Our hearts ought to respond,
if God said it shall be well with me, then it has been well
with me. It is well with me, and it shall
be well with me. It shall be well with the righteous. That is, right now. Right now. Shortly after God saved me, I
was having some difficulties. And you know, the kind of trials
young folks, young believers have. I wasn't 17 years old.
I was taking pretty good yak. And I turned to a passage of
scripture reading, looking for a word from God, and this is
what fell before my eyes. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. This is God's will. Doesn't matter
whether it makes you laugh or weep, this is God's will. Doesn't
matter whether it's God giving you a son or taking your son,
this is God's will. This is God's will. That means
it's good for me. This is my father's will, not
just what he has allowed, what he has ordered for me. It's well
with the righteous when everything seems to be ill. Jacob said,
oh, all these things are against me. not knowing all these things
were for him. It's well with the righteous
when it's ill with everyone else. There was a widow down in Zarephath,
and it was a time of great famine. Hadn't rained in a long, long
time. Long time. And she was out one day gathering
some sticks to make a fire. take her last little bit of grain
and her last little bit of oil and make a couple of cakes to
feed her son and herself and die. And God sent his prophet
to that widow. And while everybody else continued
to starve, her barrel never lacked meal and her crews never lacked
oil. Say you to the righteous, it
shall be well with him. Temptations come. Oh, yeah, they
come. But God shall with the temptation
make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Trials
come. But when the trials come, it's
well with the righteous. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he is tried, when he is tried, he shall be
proved, proved to himself, proved to himself. When we're weak, God's strength is made perfect
in our weakness. When we sin, nothing's changed
with God. Oh, Brother Don, you can't tell
people that. Let me see if I can say it a little plainer. Darwin proved if you're God's,
if you're God's, if I'm God's, No matter what we've done, nothing
changes. Not with God. Not with God. Oh, no. When's a man most accepted
with God? When his heart's cold and barren
and empty and desolate, hard as steel, or when he's preaching
the gospel and filled with the Spirit of God and leading folks
in the worship of God. Neither of those has got anything
to do with acceptance with God. Our acceptance with God is in
Christ our substitute. Understand that? And that doesn't
vary. That doesn't vary. When we fall,
it's still well with the righteous. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
Micah said, rejoice not against me, O my enemies, when I fall,
I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be light
unto me. So long as we live on this earth,
it shall be well with the righteous. In the hour of death, it shall
be well with the righteous. In the day of judgment, it shall
be well with the righteous. The Lord Jesus will say, come,
you blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world, and eternally it shall
be well with the righteous. We shall see his face. And brother
Allen, when we do, my God shall wipe away all tears from our
eyes. We will have no reason to weep
over anything. It shall be well with the righteous.
Perhaps you're saying to yourself, Pastor, I know this is the promise
written in the Bible, but how can I be sure that it's well
with me? If you're righteous, if you're a believer, if you're
washed in the blood of Christ, born of God, robed in the righteousness
of Christ, you're one with Christ. And that surely as all is well
with him, all is well with his people in him. Children of God,
get hold of the promise and rejoice. It shall be well with the righteous. In Christ, we are well fed. fed with his blood and his obedience. We are well wed, married to the
Son of God. We are well clothed, robed in
his righteousness. We are well provided for, for
the Lord is our portion. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. Number five, what would it mean
to you to know assuredly, to know assuredly that growing old
and dying is the best most wonderful thing
that could possibly happen to you. Now I didn't pause in saying
that because I was wondering what I was going to say. I paused
because I wanted you to hear every word. Growing old and dying
is the best most wonderful thing that could possibly happen to
me and to you who are God's. Nothing could be better. That
assurance Christ gives to every believer. For to me to live is
Christ, but to die is gain. I have a desire to depart and
be with Christ. What could be more blessed? Turn
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Growing old. Boy, they're just
parts of it I hate. There are. Like most of you,
I don't like to acknowledge that I can't do what I used to do.
And I sure don't want you to know it. I'm going to do my best
to cover it up, because I'm a proud, vain man. But you listen carefully. Growing old and dying. is the most wonderful thing that
could happen to God's elect. Oh, how blessed, how blessed
it is to see your children and your children's children prospering
in body and in soul by the blessing of God. and then having served
your generation by the will of God, like Jacob of old, to gather
your feet into your bed peacefully and willingly lay down and go
to sleep in the arms of the Savior. Who could wish for more? Who
could wish for more? 2 Corinthians 4, 17, for our
light affliction had to wait in trouble. Paul didn't go through what I
went through. Read the first 16 verses of this chapter, you'll
find out otherwise. Our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, this is just for a minute, 60 seconds and
it'll be over, worketh for us. Our light affliction during this
brief experience of time worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal way to glory. For we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen, that's what matters. They're eternal. For we know,
we know, we know, we know. that if our earthly house and
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house,
which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. not for that we would be unclothed
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life now he that hath wrought us for
this he that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing that is God who has worked us for death and eternal
glory is God who hath given us the earnest of his spirit. Therefore,
we're always confident, knowing that whilst we're at home in
the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and
not by sight. We're confident, I say, and willing
rather, confident and willing rather, to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that
whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. I have a very dear friend. We've been concerned about him
for some time now. And she and I were talking a
few weeks ago. And she said, I believe Bob's
just given up. And I said to her, that's all
right. That's perfectly all right. Just tired of this. Just tired
of this. That's perfectly all right. That's
perfectly all right. There's something better. Oh,
thank God there's something better. Something better than this present
struggle with myself. Something better than the struggle
with me. Something better than the struggle
of life in this world. And I have a blessed life. I
have a cherry-picked life. You could ask better what I've
got. But oh, my soul, there's something better. It's called
eternity with Christ. We're willing to be absent from
the body and to be present with the Lord at God's time. Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord. What would it mean to you
to go home now knowing that your sins are forgiven, that God's
not angry with you and never will be, that you're completely
reconciled to God? That you have a new nature in
which Christ dwells, and Christ dwells in you. That all is well
with you. That death will be a welcome
blessing. Let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith. Believe God, trust his son, and
all the boon of God's grace and glory is yours in Christ. Some years ago, I read a story. I think it's a true story. A
man and his son in Chicago, very wealthy man, collected art. And the man and his son often
would sit and look at their art. liked the art, collected some
masterpieces. And when the Vietnam War broke
out, the son volunteered for military service. He thought
it would be his duty. And one day, the father got word that
his son had been killed in action. He'd been killed saving the life
of another man. Some time passed, and one day,
the doorbell rang, and there stood a man at his door. And
the fellow had a package under his arm. He said to him, he said,
you don't know me, called the man by name. He said, your son
and I were in Vietnam together. He said, I was the boy your son
died saving. He saved many lives that day.
But before he died, your son often spoke to me about your
love of art. And he started to unwrap the package. And he said,
this isn't much, but it's the best I could do. I thought you'd
like to have it. And he presented this fellow with a portrait he'd
painted of his son. And the man's eyes just welled
up with tears. It's so well-captured, his son,
in his opinion. And he went directly, took it,
hung it over the hearth in the family room. So everybody came
in from there. First thing, he showed them that
portrait of his son. In time, he died. And they had
an auction, the whole estate to be auctioned off. And sitting
right up on the platform was this portrait, this crudely done
portrait of his son. And the auctioneer said, we'll
start with this. Folks kind of grumbled. We're
here for the real art. The auctioneer said, I've been
ordered to start with this. And they started. Tried to get a
bid. Tried to get a bid. Couldn't get it. Finally, a fellow
sitting in the back said, I'll give $10 for it. It was the father
and son, their gardener, who had been with him for a long
time. That's all they could afford. And he tried to get bored. That's it. And so he sold $10,
called him by name. And then he struck his gavel.
He said, the auction's over. And folks were grumbling. Oh,
they were angry. What's happened? We came here
to bid on the art. And the man said, there was one
stipulation to the auction in this man's will, and I couldn't
give it to you till now. The stipulation was this, whoever
takes my son gets everything. That's God's stipulation. Whoever
takes my son gets everything. Oh God give you grace to believe
his son. Amen.