March 7 Sermon: Full Assurance
As we look at Hebrews 10:19-39 consider these questions:
What are the three main points and how do they contribute to our understanding of faith and confidence in God's presence?
Why does Pastor Mark emphasize the importance of encouraging one another in good works within the Christian community, and how does this relate to the broader theme of faith?
What is the significance of the warning against deliberate sinning after receiving knowledge of the truth, and how does this tie into the author's message about holding fast to the confession of Christ?
Transcript:
I have a great interest in useless information. I like random details about things that others don’t seem to care about that much. I kind of always knew this about myself but a little over 20 years ago when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire started airing on TV I was talking on the phone with my mother and she asked me if I had watched the new quiz show. I believe my response was that I had seen the commercials but hadn’t taken the time sit down and view it. She informed me that it was basically a new format for a quiz show and that I should try to get on it. When I asked her why she told me that she didn’t know anyone who knew more useless information than me.
I’m confident that was true because I absorbed everything that was around me. I used to know the batting averages different baseball players because of pouring over stats on the back of baseball cards. Back then the Donruss brand baseball cards had the full names of the players so I knew a significant portion of major league players middle names. Thankfully nearly all of that information has retreated to my subconscious never to be recalled again. I do remember that Mark Grace’s middle name is Eugene and Ken Griffey Jr.’s real first name is George though. But what good does this type of info do me or anyone else for that matter.
I am sure we all have topics of interest that we love to dig into but so often we stop and have to be honest with ourselves that while we enjoy these details most peopel are going to tune us out if we tell them about it and that may or may not involve an eye roll.
As we have been digging into the book of Hebrews the last several weeks there are times where it seems like the author of Hebrews is putting a lot of details out there for us that don’t seem to make much of a difference. Especially when we consider that many of the ritual and practices that he is talking about aren’t things that have ever been or will be part of our religious activity. But unlike the middle names of professional baseball players from the late 80s and early 90s these details matter. They help us to see why we can have a full assurance of faith and that is what the author of Hebrews is driving home to us with what we have read from Hebrews chapter 10 this morning.
What we looked at was a big chunk of text today so lets break it down so that we can come at it in portions we can better consume.
Our first point this morning reflects what I’ve just been saying. The point of the doctrine we’ve been looking at is to give us the full assurance of faith. Confidence is often a difficult thing for us to have. We doubt ourselves all the time. It’s no wonder people struggle with whether things are good between them and God. If we struggle on how to have confidence in small things how are we going to have confidence when we know we are sinners and we will one day stand before a holy God. The author of Hebrews wants the readers of this book to know that they can actually have confidence to go into God’s presence because of who Jesus is and what he has done.
Secondly, we see that this leads us to encourage one another in good works. The author of Hebrews lets us know that we shoudl be encouraging one another to live and act in faith. This means that we gather together and we look for ways to build one another up in faith.
Finally, we hold fast to our confession of Christ. As we have seen the big point of the book of Hebrews is that the original audience should not abandon their faith in Christ to return to their Jewish feasts and rituals. Instead, they are to cling to Christ for it is in him that we can only truly retain this assurance that we have in him.
As we drop into verse 19 this morning what find is a word that I often tell you to watch out for when you are reading the Bible. Therefore is an important word in a sentence and it is particularly important in scripture because it lets us know what the consequences are of what we have just read. When a therefore pops up the author is letting us know that some kind of truth relative to what has been stated is coming. So what is being said here. Well, we have heard how we can have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
Now remember, we aren’t talking about the earthly holy places. The author of Hebrews isn’t saying Jesus went into the temple. The point has been that the earthly temple and the holy place was a representation of heaven and unlike the earthly priests Jesus went in once and for all. And remember what we read last week. Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father. The author of Hebrews drew out that the Levite priests in the temple were standing and sacrificing animals day after day, year after year, and generation after generation. But, Jesus went in with his own precious blood and after he offered the sacrifice of himself he sat down at the Father’s right hand. Why is that significant? Because his work was done. There were no more sacrificess to offer.
And so what is the result of this truth that we have a new and living way opened for us? Why does it matter that this has been done? The author of Hebrews tells us that we can now draw near to God with a true heart in full asssurance of faith.
I’m sure that we’ve all had to make an awkward entrance of some kind. Maybe a principal when you were younger called for you or perhaps as an adult your boss wanted to have a little visit with you and you had no idea why. Of course, our minds usually don’t go to something positive do they? You start racking your brain going through every little thing you’ve ever done or try to figure out what you might have done that would cause the impending meeting to be necessary. When you walk into the room you are probably the last thing from confident. Your throat is dry. You are nervous and maybe even a little defensive for a reason you don’t even know is true yet. That is just to step into the presence of an earthly authority figure.
Imagine, the premise of going into the presence of God. You wouldn’t be able to bear it. He is the holy one. He spoke and all of creation came to be. The issue wouldn’t be a dry throat or your nerves if you were to step into the presence of God. It wouldn’t be that your knees were knocking a little. You would be unable to walk but is that the picture that the author of Hebrews paints for us today? No.
He says that we can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Because we have Jesus we know that the sin that has separated us from God has been paid for. Right there in the presence of God we have an advocate and mediator who satisfied the wrath of God that we deserve in our very own flesh.
And to draw out this truth even further the author of Hebrews goes back to imagery of the temple. Two activities that took place in the temple by the priests were sprinkling blood and ceremonial washing. Now remember, the author of Hebrews has been downplaying the Old Covenant practices because he said they could never purify the conscience of the worshiper. Yet, he goes back to these ceremonial things to illustrate his point. The blood was sprinkled in the temple on the ark to show that a life had been taken in their place. The ceremonial washing was to make them clean and to set them apart. Now we have imagery that the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus with his blood actually is able to do what the rules in the law couldn’t. We can have a clear conscience knowing that his blood forgives our sins. And with the washing of his people in the waters of baptism we know that we are clean and set apart as the people of God.
So, what should we do as a result of all of this great news? We are to hold fast to our confesson without wavering. Why? Because it earns us rewards points that we can cash in for admittance to heaven later? No. We hold fast because the one who promised this is faithful. We are to see that this isn’t about us but about the faithfulness of God for us in Christ. I’m not going to dwell for too long on holding fast here because that is going to be looked at more deeply in our third point. What I want us to come away with from this section is that the salvation that Jesus brings gives us full assurance of faith and that truth affects how we live our lives.
And so with that in mind we move to our second point. The truths we believe and confess leads us to encourage one another on in good works.
This is the natural continuation of what we’ve seen. If this all is true then it is going to create a response in us. Again, notice that this comes as a result of the truths that have been unfolded for us. This isn’t what we do to get rewarded.
I don’t know about you but the companies that offer rewards programs can see me coming a mile away. Offer me something in your app and I’m probably going to want to download the app and sign up. Buy 5 coffees, get one free. Sold. Use this app to pay and we’ll give you a penny back every 6 months. Wonderful sign me up. That isn’t what is being offered here though. This isn’t a reward program. It’s the opposite you have been rewarded with the gift of faith through hearing the word and the Spirit at work in you and now when we see the scope of what that means we not only share that good news but we encourage one another to live a life worthy of what had been done for us.
So, let’s take a minute to think about how we can stir one another up in good works. We remind one another of the good news of salvation in Christ. We let people know that we are praying for them. We encourage them and build them up, just as we have been built up in faith by the Holy Spirit’s work in us and notice what a huge part of this. It is meeting together. it is vital that we have Christian fellowship. It is vital that we come together and hear the word proclaimed and receive the sacraments. It is a part of who we are. There are no lone ranger Christians. We are a community of faith. A family.
We live in a world where we have gotten better and better at isolating ourselves, right? We can get in a car and close the doors and we are excluded from the outside world. Transportation isn’t open like when we rode horses or walked everywhere. Many of us aren’t in open places working with a group of people, in fact, there are lots of us who are in offices, cubicles, or even vehicles and we are alone much of the day. Let’s get down to the personal level. We can put headphones in and isolate ourselves even more. We don’t need to create music by communally singing with others instead we have it delivered straight through our wireless earbuds to our eardrums and it is highly produced and professional. We don’t even have to sit and discuss things like sports, politics, or religion in a communal way anymore. We find someone who agrees with us on a website, podcast, or niche TV show and isolate ourselves. This is what we expect and so no wonder it becomes easy for us to approach faith in the same way. I’ll find what fits my personal niche and isolate myself within it.
That’s not what we are called to do here. We are a community of faith. We are a family. And we are called and commanded here to encourage one another and build one another up. I can’t get that in my isolated world of my own creation, right? I guess I could probably find a podcast filled with affirmations telling me how great I am but it just isn’t the same. Families are able to build each other up becasue they know each other and love one another no matter what happens. May we do the same thing as the household of faith that gathers in this place.
This is an important exhortation from the author of Hebrews but before we move on to our final point we have to note in these two verses. They are to stir one another up all the more as they see the day drawing near.
In other words, they are going to need one another as the day of Christ draws nearer and nearer. In the face of persecution and hardships the community of faith must band together for encouragement. Now, this was a command in the first century and it applies today. Each day, the day when Christ returns at the end of history to deliver his kingdom to his Father draws nearer and so we should not fail to gather together and encourage one another.
And with the idea of encouraging one another we move on to our final point.
We are to hold fast to our confession of Christ.
Now there are a lot of verses that we have to finish up here this morning but I’m not going to dwell on them with too much detail because there is an overarching big idea found in them. This is all about holding fast to Christ.
Now, we might find verse 26 here to be a little confusing and it might instill some fear in us. It tells us that if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there isn’t a sacrifice for sins but an expectation of judgment.
Naturally that should put some fear in us but we have to also slow down and put it all in context. Is the author of Hebrews warning us that if we were to deliberately sin too many times we would fall out of favor with God? While we obviously need to move away from volitional sin the book of Hebrews has been telling us about the sufficiency and supremacy of salvation in Jesus. No way would the author put a cap on the amazing grace of God. So what is being driven home to us in this. The deliberate sin that is being referenced here is rejecting the message of salvation through Christ alone and go back to the Old Covenant works. What it’s saying here is that if you think that system is going to work for you after you’ve heard about the fulfilment of that Old Testament system then you just don’t get it.
And the author of Hebrews does what he’s done so many times. He goes back to the Old Testament to bring the point home. If you blatantly disregarded the law in the Old Covenant you received the most severe punishment. Now we’ve seen in Hebrews so far that what Jesus has done is so much better than the law and the point is here tha tif you reject that greater truth there is a greater judgment waiting for you beause you have trampled underfoot the Son of God. In other words, you haven’t just thumbed your nose at the commands of God. You have said the work of God himself is not adequate to save and so you’d rather have the law. And in doing so you profane the blood of the covenant that was shed by God the Son himself. And the author of Hebrews wants them to know this is serious and so he quotes more Old Testament passages that talk of the vengeance and judgment of God. And this is really a gracious thing he is doing here by warning them in this way. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. The judgment of God is not a tame thing. It is to be feared and as the passage closes up we see that this is why we are called to hold fast to our confession of faith in the Lord Jesus.
And the original audience of this book is asked to remember when they had heard the good news of Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Covenant and they had to suffer through hardships, sufferings, and afflictions. As it states here, they were treated poorly. Even though they were treated this way they took responded in love because they understood that they had a greater reward in Christ. People could persecute them and take their possessions because they understood that they had a better possession in Christ and that would last longer than the moment. They had that for eternity.
And so, the author of Hebrews encourages them to hold fast as they did before so that they might receive what was promised. That is the salvation that comes by faith.
And as this passage ends I love the exhortation that we read in the final line of this passage. We are not those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who have faith and preserver their souls. He is doing precisely what he has been telling his audience to do. He is encouraging the people of God. We aren’t going to quit on this. Instead, we are going to stay the course. We are going to finish the race. We are going to hold back to the truth we confess because it is the only hope we have. We can’t go to the practices of the Old Covenant and hope to be saved. We can’t do anything on our own to go into the presence of God. So what do we do? We trust that we will live by faith in Jesus who gives us his perfect righteousness and through him we have full assurance that we can go into the presence of God.
And so, as we close up today I want us to take away two points of application. We see that these truths that we have been reading about really matter and they come down and truly impact our lives. There are times where I’m not sure what the application is going to be but today it jumps right out at us and they go back to the main points we saw today.
The first is that we need to build up one another in faith. I know that this can often be a struggle because we don’t know what to say. We are often afraid of being too corny or of coming across as arrogant or a know it all. I can understand those difficulties but that doesn’t change the truth that we are called to build each other up. We need to be looking for opportunities to do this because you know that you need it and so your family needs it too. As great as you feel when you are encourgaged in the faith, your sisters and brothers in Christ have the same experience. And so as we step out into the world this week may we consider how to stir up one another to love and good works that, in doing so, we might bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Secondly, hold fast to the faith. What we have seen in the book of Hebrews so far is that Jesus saves us to the uttermost. He is the one who satisfies the wrath of God on our behalf. He fulfills the Old Covenant law and is the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. When we look at the details we see what a difference all of this makes. It is the only hope we’ve got. To fall into the hands of God is a fearful thing and so we desire to fall into his hands of grace not his hands of wrath. Knowing that he has taken hold of him by his grace may we cling to him. In the face adversity may we hold on to Christ.
And may we do it in the big things and in the small things. When times are good and when times are bad. He is our only hope and so empowered by his Word and the Holy Spirit who indwells may we hold fast to our faith and may our lives continually bring glory to the Lord Jesus for who he is and what he has done.
