[0:00] Short time to the chapter we had, Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10 verses 19 down to verse 25. Just a few thoughts for us tonight.
[0:18] Hebrews 10 verses 19 down to verse 25, quite simply reminding ourselves of our assurance. Verse 24, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places, the blood of Jesus.
[0:31] And so on down to verse 25. We're going to call that a sermon. Just think of tonight as we're going through these verses as friends together. Just a few notes on each verse and we'll see how we go.
[0:46] There is some structure though to these verses, quite a clear structure. If you'll note verses 19 down to verse 21, we see what we could call the basis of our assurance.
[1:01] And verse 22 then down to verse 25 and really on going after that, we see the results of our assurance. So the basis of our assurance, what it's based on, and then the results of our assurance.
[1:14] So there's three areas, verses 19 down roughly to verse 21, that we see are the basis of our assurance.
[1:25] First of all, from verse 19 itself, we see it's based on the blood. Therefore, brothers, and again, as we said in our Galatians study, you see the wee two there, if you have the pulpit Bible, as brothers and sisters, again, this is no modern invention.
[1:42] This is right and biblical. And it's something even the authorised version of KJV translators deal with in their translation notes to their Bible.
[1:53] They discuss whether to say brothers or brothers and sisters way back then. So it's right, it's fine. Brothers means brothers and sisters. It's a Greek word. You would use it to mean both things.
[2:04] It's just translated as brothers here. Therefore, brothers and sisters, speaking to the whole church. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
[2:18] This is the first basis of our assurance. Speaking of that testimony to young Christians and young folk as a youth fellowship of sorts in lochs after the communion service.
[2:33] We had a good chat. Very informal chat, sharing testimony. And we had a chance to discuss afterwards. And these young people, many of whom were believers, it was lack of assurance that they struggled with.
[2:48] How can I know I'm really a Christian? And I was thinking back to 15, 16, 17 years ago for me when I was that age, I guess.
[3:00] I'm thinking older Christians. When I get up to become an older Christian, I won't struggle with assurance anymore. That's a young Christian's problem. Older Christians, more experienced Christians have no worries of assurance. I remember as a young Christian myself, sharing that and asking questions to the poor Boddokhs and Kayaks and Gravar.
[3:16] And them saying quite gently, don't think for a second you'll graduate past that worry. Chances are you will worry about your assurance and lack of assurance quite possibly until you leave this world.
[3:32] And nothing's changed. We see again and again the writer to the Hebrews and the New Testament writers as a whole are there to reassure God's people what it is and who it is they are.
[3:50] That they're bought with a precious price. Bought with the blood. Therefore, brothers, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. This is the first basis of our assurance that we have had our entrance to glory.
[4:08] Our entrance is a word to the holy places. Our entrance to God's presence. It's been bought for us. The entry fee, which we can never pay, quite simply has been paid.
[4:20] Now we know that. We've heard this countless times, but isn't that the whole point of lack of assurance? It's forgetting the simple things you know. It's forgetting the simple things that you have been told and preached at and reminded of again and again.
[4:38] Yet we forget it so quickly. And here we're reminded again as these poor struggling Christians who are being so tempted to go back to the old way of things.
[4:48] They were missing the smells and the bells and the robes and the diamonds and the jewels and the gold of the temple. They were missing it all so much. They're saying, well, God was so obvious there.
[4:59] We could see him in the incense smoke. We could see the priests in their robes. And now we're cowering in our homes being persecuted. Is it worth it? Have we given up what was true?
[5:11] And now we're in this new world where our friends who were once our best friends now hate us. We're now nowhere near the temple.
[5:23] The Romans are after us. Our friends and family hate us. They're saying, is it worth it? And the writer of the Hebrews says, it is worth it. Be assured you have access.
[5:35] It's not through the smells and the bells. It's not through the robes. It's not through the words. It's not through the atmosphere. But because of the blood of Jesus, you have your entrance fully purchased for you.
[5:51] Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. It's an entrance that's been purchased for us.
[6:02] But also note, it's an entrance that is fully guaranteed. We are to enter God's presence. Brothers and sisters, we are to pray to God.
[6:14] We are to spend time in the word of God. We are to know we're in God's presence right now, private and public. We are to know and approach our God with confidence.
[6:26] I know it feels like we shouldn't. We think, well, I have no reason to be confident before God. I'm so small. I'm so weak. And so on and so on. But God's word tells us we approach God how?
[6:39] In our power, no. We approach God through the finished work of our saviour, through his blood. And because it's through his blood, we approach our holy God. We do so with confidence.
[6:52] The price has been paid. We saw this last Lord's Day evening. I won't quiz you. That Greek word was, it is finished. The price is paid.
[7:06] And no matter how we might be feeling or thinking, we have to be confident as we approach God. That he is with us. That he does hear us.
[7:17] And at times, no doubt about it, at times we feel far away. Whether that's because of our own sin. Whether it's because of the Lord's time of testing. Whether it's to do with perhaps something completely unrelated to that.
[7:29] There are times, and we know this ourselves, brothers and sisters. There are times when we feel far away from the Lord. As far as we know, we're not in sin. And perhaps we're not being tested. There are times when our own, perhaps, minds are not doing well.
[7:43] And often if you're perhaps not doing well mentally, you also feel far away spiritually. Physically, if you're not doing well. If you're down in your body at times, you can feel far away. It's not about how we feel.
[7:57] The Christian gospel truth is not about feelings. Feelings are important. We love the Lord. We care for the Lord. We feel his love. But it's not based on feelings, is it? It's based on truth.
[8:09] Feelings change. Truth does not. And the truth is, we have had our entrance fee, as it were, paid for us. We have full access to God.
[8:22] Why? Through the blood of Jesus. And we approach with confidence. An entrance that has been purchased. An entrance that is guaranteed. That's our first base of our assurance.
[8:35] The blood of our Saviour. The next verse, verse 20, we see that second pillar of our assurance.
[8:46] I read both verses together. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.
[9:02] The blood is our first base of assurance. Then we have here, as it were, the ripped curtain as our second basis of assurance. We come to a Saviour this evening, who has shown us in his body, and through his death, it was demonstrated to us that we are his and that he is ours.
[9:25] You see here the significance of the ripped curtain. Of course, our mind, I'm sure, when you first read this, your mind goes straight to the curtain in the temple. That curtain, that huge curtain.
[9:37] Again, I think we underestimate, I should say, the size. We've perhaps think curtain. We have a big curtain like you might have in a house. We've covered this before, but the size of this curtain, the fabrics that thick, it's not a weak curtain you're ripping.
[9:55] The fabric that thick is being torn completely. And as that fabric, that dividing wall between the holiest place and the rest of the temple, and with that, the rest of the world, as that is torn in two, when does that happen, of course?
[10:17] It happens as our Saviour, in his flesh, as being, if not literally, then spiritually, and mentally, and really physically being torn in two also.
[10:33] We have a Saviour who doesn't just tell us that we have access. He doesn't just tell us we can have confidence. He shows us what it cost him to give us access. We're not just told, your sins are forgiven, be saved, you're okay, brothers and sisters, you can come in.
[10:49] And we're shown, we're shown, first of all, with the physical temple, as God tears down, quite literally, that dividing wall. And it's interesting here, of course, just to note, that's why it's being mentioned here, to these Christians who were so in that world.
[11:07] Hebrew Christians. Hebrew believers. Many of them, probably at a long lineage, could trace their family back decades. Some of them, probably at family, and even themselves, who had served in the temple, but chances are.
[11:22] And they'll have known, clear and well, about the curtain splitting down the middle. And the writer reminds them, that curtain split was torn, as a symbol, as a physical symbol, of what took place in the experience of your Saviour.
[11:42] The new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.
[11:53] Brothers and sisters, this evening we come, not basing our assurance on our finished works. We know that. And we believe that. I hope we do.
[12:04] But more than that, we don't come to God, basing our assurance on our ongoing works either. We can all say, I believe I'm saved by faith, not by works.
[12:18] We believe that. We hold to that. We confess that. That is what marks us out, apart from our Catholic friends. Our Roman Catholic friends, I should say. Amongst our many other reasons.
[12:29] But faith is, our salvation is not by works. It's not by accruing enough good deeds to tip the balance towards us. We know that. What we do perhaps fall short as believers, day by day, if not week by week, is we somehow think that the Lord is marking our ongoing process, our ongoing progress.
[12:54] Now, we want to please the Lord. And we strive to please the Lord. And we touched on this, if you remember, in our preparatory service on the first day, we touched on this fact.
[13:05] We strive to be obedient children. But our obedience does not get us into glory. Our obedience does not win us the love of our Saviour. We are told, He has purchased the place for us by His blood.
[13:19] He has opened up this new and living way. And He has done the work. And what He has opened for us, we cannot close to us.
[13:31] What do I mean? Well, He's opened the way for us. He's prepared the way for us. He's told us, this is for you. I have purchased this for you. This access is all yours. My dear brothers, my dear sisters, then your sin and my sin and your waywardness and my waywardness and your bad example of being a Christian and my bad example of being a Christian, it does not bar us from access to God.
[13:56] Now, it does at times, of course, create a distance. The Lord is not mocked. He loves us. He keeps us. But for a time, if we're an act of sin, we are distanced from Him and how we feel.
[14:12] As any good father, He cares, He disciplines. We know that ourselves. But eternally, He loses, not a single one of His own.
[14:25] Why? Because we've been bought with a precious price. Verse 19. We have the blood of our Saviour guarantees us access. We then see the ripped temple curtain representing and showing us the ripped body of our Saviour on the cross who became, was made sin for us so that we might, what?
[14:48] Become the righteousness, the perfection, the holiness of God. And the final evidence we have here of final basis of our assurance in verse 21.
[15:04] And since we have a great priest over the house of God, we've covered this at length before so I won't go into it too much just now. But brothers and sisters, a reminder for us.
[15:15] We have a Saviour who is the great priest, who is the great high priest as we read before elsewhere in Hebrews. He is the great high priest. Quite simply, we have a Saviour.
[15:30] You have a Saviour that knows you. You have a Saviour that knows you. As a great high priest, as a fully divine high priest, he knows you.
[15:45] He knows your people. He knows your story. In a literal sense, he knows every single skin cell, every single atom that makes you you.
[15:59] Physically, mentally, all that you are, all that you do, he knows you. Way back when, before you cared for him, way back when, when you still hated him, he knew you.
[16:11] Back before that, before creation, before any of this sparked into light by the word of his power, he knew you. And right now, he knows you.
[16:25] And in the future, he'll go with you forever. There's more than that. He knows us. He knows you. But also, as our high priest, he knows what it's like to be like you.
[16:43] He knows what it's like to be like you. The high priest had to be one of the brothers.
[16:54] He had to be a normal man. Set aside for a holy work, yes, but he was a normal man. Our great high priest was not normal. For a great high priest was, we know, fully man.
[17:09] Brothers and sisters, when you come doubting our students, when you come wondering, does he still care for you? Does he still love you? You come to a saviour who doesn't just know you, but who knows what it's like to be you.
[17:24] Who was tempted in every way like we are. And we know he didn't sin. We don't skip past that. But let's not skip the first bit either. He knows what it is to be tempted.
[17:37] Who faced the agony in every conceivable way what it is to be human. He faced the torments of humanity. He knows what it is to be like us. Who felt grief and pain and hunger, who had physical and mental anguish, he faced it all.
[17:55] He knows your story. and he cares for your story. That's the three bases of our assurance. The blood, the ripped curtain and the high priest.
[18:09] And briefly, the three results of our assurance. Verses 22 downwards. The three results. What does it look like for us then to be fully assured of our saviour's love for us?
[18:23] First of all, verse 22. The first result of assurance is a heart that is full and a heart that is clean. Verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[18:45] Brothers and sisters, we have hearts that have been washed. That is the truth. an APC on Sunday evening.
[18:55] I was worried I might have been kicked out at one point because I told them as brothers and sisters and I made clear, brothers and sisters, do you know you are perfect? I can see them thinking, oh, Tolstas finally got to Pordon, he's gone off.
[19:11] I was reminding them that in the truest theological, truest sense, brothers and sisters, we are perfect. perfect. Now, I know you know what I mean by this.
[19:25] There's no worry here. I know we are not perfect in one sense. We certainly not. This past day, this past hour, I'm sure we've proved to ourselves we're not perfect. But we have hearts, if we know the Lord and love the Lord, we have hearts that have been washed clean.
[19:43] We are covered in the righteousness of our Saviour. we are in him and he is around us. When the Father looks on us, he sees him and we are loved as our Saviour is loved, as we're reassured and told in that great prayer of our Saviour.
[20:00] But we are loved in the same way, to the same extent as the Father loves the Son, so he loves us. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have hearts that have been washed.
[20:13] And despite the many reasons you and I could think of why we shouldn't, why we can't, why we mustn't come to the throne of grace, the Lord gives us no reason, no excuse.
[20:27] He says, you are washed, you are made clean in the blood of your Saviour. Therefore, you must come. And you must have what? Well, hearts full of assurance.
[20:41] Let us draw near then with a true heart and full assurance of faith. We can be fully assured, whether you feel it or not, whether you think it or not, believe it nonetheless.
[20:57] Brothers and sisters, your heart and my heart is not true all the time. In fact, it's perhaps rarely true. Your heart and my heart is really right all the time.
[21:08] In fact, it's rarely right. How we think and how we feel is not correct. God's word is correct. And God's word says, have full assurance of your faith.
[21:20] We have a heart full and clean. The second result of assurance in our Saviour is verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
[21:36] We have a solid and faithful confession of faith. We know that he is true. We know that he is true. We believe that. Therefore, we can hold fast to what is true.
[21:50] There are many reasons to disbelieve everything we've said tonight. You might go home, even just now perhaps, in your heart, to thinking, I hear it. I believe it.
[22:03] But I don't feel it. I certainly don't feel it. Fine. Good. Don't worry about feeling it. But worry about believing it.
[22:16] Let us hold fast. Hold fast onto the truth without wavering. Why? Because he who promised is faithful. He will not fail us.
[22:27] He does not lie. Everything he says and does is true and eternally true. And he has told us that we are his and he is ours. He has told us we've been washed clean.
[22:39] Let's hold fast to the truth. If we say we love him and believe him, let's actually believe him then. When he tells us what is true, let's hold that to be true for us.
[22:50] Whatever the world might say, whatever the enemy might say, whatever our own hearts might say, that side. He is true. He is correct. And the testimony he shows us, the confession of faith we have in him, that is true.
[23:07] He promises not to lose or let go or forget a single one of his own. Therefore, we can have full assurance that he is ours and we are his. And very briefly, verse 24, we see that the third result of having assurance, a life of love and a life of fellowship, we can summarise perhaps, a life of love and a life of fellowship.
[23:31] Verse 24, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day throwing near.
[23:46] Because we believe that he is ours and we are his, that should encourage us then to encourage one another. It's that thing we keep saying. Theology leading to doxology.
[23:59] What we learn about God should and must have an impact on how we live our lives. What we learn about God must and should lead us to praising him and to serving him.
[24:12] And if we are reassured as to our place before our saviour, that then should spill out and should show itself in joy and in peace as we just minister and share and come alongside brothers and sisters.
[24:25] Look at the wording, it's so beautiful. Let us consider how to stir up. In other words, let's be active in thinking day by day. How do I, how do I encourage my brothers and sisters?
[24:39] What can I do today? What can I do this week? How can I pray for them? How can I show practical spiritual love towards them? How can I stir them up to love?
[24:51] How can I show Christ-like love to them, to the wider church, based on the fact that I know I am loved and kept? I have full assurance that he is mine and I am his.
[25:03] That gives me the peace and the hope to share that Christian love to my other brothers and sisters. It also encourages us to meet together. Meet together.
[25:18] Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some. Now often that verse is used perhaps too harshly and friends, brothers and sisters, we know there are caveats.
[25:31] There are life situations going on and there are some reasons and I know in Tulsa and so far I am very thankful. Folks are very careful not jumping to conclusions.
[25:42] We don't know what's going on behind closed doors in people's houses and people's lives. There are times plenty of valid scriptural reasons why folks may not be attending. But all that aside, that's your situation, you know yourself.
[25:56] Between you and the Lord what that means for you. The caveat aside, we are to meet together as often as we can. Why? Because we need all the help we can get.
[26:09] So we need one another. Again, there is no such thing as a Christian living and serving on their own. We keep saying it but I'll say it again. All the promises. All the promises of this section tonight.
[26:22] Note, they're all in the plural. It's addressed to the plural brothers and sisters. It's addressed to the wider plural church. It's not to one single Christian.
[26:33] Every promise including these promises of assurance it's to the wider gathered church. Brothers and sisters, we need one another. We need one another desperately. At times, perhaps for various reasons it's not easy to gather.
[26:48] And to our shame perhaps at times, I don't know this, I haven't heard anything since I came here, but just being honest and being reasonable.
[26:59] But I'm sure tensions, we all are human. At times, we're family, it's not easy at times to get along with our family members I am sure. Brothers and sisters, we need to meet together.
[27:12] we need to have joy together, fellowship together, not just formally but informally. And have that sense we're all in it together, being held together. And we're all heading towards the same destination.
[27:24] But until we get there, we all have the same goal, don't we, of seeing Christ glorified and magnified across our village, across this area. The same goal of seeing one another be built up in the faith.
[27:36] Let us consider then how to stir up one another to love and good works. We can have, quite simply, full assurance this evening.
[27:49] I'm not saying you can feel it this evening, but I pray you will. But you can have full assurance this evening. If you know the Lord, if you love the Lord, then you are His.
[28:02] He will not let you go. He will not forget about you. You've been purchased with His precious blood as evidence through the torn curtain, through the torn flesh of our Saviour, who is our great High Priest.
[28:19] And because of that, you have a clean heart, you have a solid confession, and together we want to share the love of our Saviour to one another. I ask the Lord to bless these few thoughts on His Word to us.
[28:35] Such a word of love.