The Full Assurance of Faith

Daniel L. Arter

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Because Christ has handled the sacrifice for sins, we can enter into the presence of God without fear.

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Transcript

Take your Bibles and turn them to .

As you turn there, let me give you a little bit of background information. This letter, which happens to be one of my favorites, is written to Jewish people. We don’t actually know who wrote the letter, because it never actually tells us who the author is, but we have a few educated guess:

Some people think Paul wrote it—it sounds a little like Paul and since Paul wrote the majority of the New Testament letters, it wouldn’t be too hard to assume that he wrote this one two.

However, most modern commentators disagree—and there are a few primary reasons. Stylistically, it isn’t written the same way that Paul writes and a little bit of common sense—Paul typically says his name when he writes letters. If you look at the letter right before Hebrews, we see Philemon and the very first sentence is, “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon.

And there are a number of other reasons why people don’t think Paul wrote it, but those are the two common answers—so the question is, who actually wrote this book?

And again, there are a number of theories, so let me just list a few:

Some think Barnabas wrote this letter—but there really isn’t any reason for this or any reason against this, it is literally just a guess

Some think Priscilla wrote this—if you don’t remember who Priscilla is, both her and her husband were Jewish people who left Rome when Caesar deported all the Jewish people. They lived with Paul for a while because they were also tentmakers like Paul. So she was educated, she was able to write well and it could very well have been her who wrote this letter.

I however, agree with Martin Luther—we both think that this letter was actually written by Apollos. If you remember with me, Apollos also knew Priscilla, in fact in —Apollos goes into the synagogue to teach about the baptism of John and Priscilla and her husband pull him aside to teach him the whole Gospel

After which this man, who was known as being eloquent in his speaking ability—proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The argument is, that because Hebrews has such a sermon-like style to it, that Apollos who was known for his preaching and speaking could have possibly written the letter.

Regardless, the author is unknown, but we do know that the letter of Hebrews is written in a sermon-like style and because its written like that, it is important to know a little bit of the context, because there is a flow of logic through the letter that leads to this point. So, real quick, let me give you a play-by-play of the first bit of Hebrews

So, the author of Hebrews is utilizing this letter to explain who Jesus is, but he isn’t just going to say who Jesus is; he’s actually trying to prove to the Jewish people that Jesus is better than everything.

In , we see that Jesus is better than all the angels

In , we see that Jesus is better than Moses and by extension the Mosaic law

In , we see that Jesus is better than the high priest

And spread in 5-8, we see that Jesus is better than Melchizedek, who was the greatest human high priest, because Jesus is the high priest of a better covenant—the new covenant.

And he’s explaining this to the Jewish people in order to show them that Jesus is worth believing in and that He is worth having faith in because He is so much better than everything they’ve ever hoped in before.

It is in the process of explaining this, that he writes our text, in , let’s read it:

English Standard Version Chapter 10

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Let’s Pray.

So the author is attempting to prove that Jesus is worth having faith in and at the start of this section, he says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus”

And we already have to pause for a minute, because he’s already made a significant statement:

First off, he says that we have confidence to enter the holy places—some translations render this as “the holiest” or the “holy of holies” so it is important for us to figure out what that means.

The Holy of Holies was a place within the temple that was built for God—so if you’re unfamiliar with the temple, let me explain it to you:

The temple was built with multiple sections, on the outermost part of the temple, it was open for all people to enter. You didn’t need to be Jewish, even the gentile could come and worship God here.

And as you continued entering in, you would find a section for the Jewish people, separated by gender, so the women would be in one section and the men in the next. And you would continue to walk through the temple

And the next section would be only for the priests, and finally as you get into the innermost part of the temple, there was the Holy of Holies and this is where the presence of God resided. In other words, this is where God would commune with the people, but because of the holy nature of God, only one person could enter into the holy of holies—The High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement after sacrificing additional offerings for the sins of the people and himself and he would enter this innermost part of the temple to speak with God.

And the warning was, that if the High Priest entered into this place without offering sacrifices for all the sins of the people and himself, he would die because God’s holiness is that serious.

So, the author of Hebrews in Vs. 19, is making this statement that we have confidence or boldness to enter into the holy of holies because of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Remember, that there is a context to this section, and it’s referred to with the word, “Therefore”

Let’s take a look at what he’s talking about then, it’s found in ,

English Standard Version Chapter 10

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

What exactly is the author stating? He’s saying that prior to Jesus, every priest would stand every day to offer sacrifices and it did no good, But Jesus offered himself once as a single sacrifice for sins and then he sat down beside the father waiting for the time when his offering perfects all that are being made like Him.

The idea is that since Jesus is the better sacrifice, we can now have confidence to enter into the Holy of Holies. Vs. 20, “by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.”

And I don’t think we understand how big of a deal this is. So, let me emphasize just how big of a deal this is:

In our current day and age, most people think that mankind is generally good, that while we might be flawed, we aren’t necessarily bad, but what does the Bible say?

says, “God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none that does good, not even one.”

states that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”

tells us that before we come to Jesus Christ, we are in utter darkness.

We aren’t generally good, we aren’t even ok. We are wicked and tells us that until Jesus saves us, we are completely alienated, separated from God and we are his enemies.

And up until Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the only way a person could get close to God was by reverently offering sacrifice after sacrifice for their sins.

But Jesus, because of His mercy and His sacrifice on the cross, opened a new and living why through His flesh.

Now, you might be thinking—wow, this is great, but what exactly does it mean? More specifically, how do I react because of this? And Vs. 22-25 will explain that to us, let’s read it again:

English Standard Version Chapter 10

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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Because Jesus has opened this new and living way into the Holy of Holies, how should we react? He answers this with 3 phrases that all start with the words, “Let us.” (1) He says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. (2) He says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering”, and (3) He says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another. Let’s break these down a little:

Starting in Vs. 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.”

The author of Hebrews tells us that since Jesus has opened up the curtain into the holy of holies, we ought to draw or come near. Because Jesus has opened up what was previously closed for us, we should go in—we should seek and desire to come into the presence of God, in fact, the Bible teaches us that we are all seeking eternal things, we’re all looking for spiritual things and since Jesus has opened up the only way to the only true God, we should actually go in and commune with that God.

We’re told to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith

In other words, we are to do this with an authentic heart, without hypocrisy and we are to do it with a full assurance of faith, which simply means that we are to draw near with complete confidence or certainty

Both of which are produced by true, genuine faith and it is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that enables us to do this.

Vs. 23, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

Because of Jesus opening up this new and living way into the Holy of Holies, we are to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering

In other words, we are to stand firm on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our genuine belief in the Gospel without wavering. Let me ask you, when you’re in a vehicle driving over a bridge, do you stop before driving over that bridge to check and make sure that there’s really a bridge there? Do you stop and tip-toe your way up to it in hopes that you doesn’t fall? Do you turn around an go the other way?

No, you have faith that the people who designed and built the bridge knew what they were doing, how much more faith should we have in Jesus who is the designer and creator of all creation?

We should stand firm on our beliefs because Jesus, the one who promised is faithful—God keeps His promises.

Think with me about Abraham and Sarah, in . God promises Abraham that Abraham will be the father of many nations. Both Abraham and his wife Sarah are old—way past the years of having children and they come up with a sinful plan in order to make sure that Abraham has children and Abraham sleeps with one of their servants.

But that wasn’t actually what God meant, when God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have children, he literally meant that Abraham and Sarah would have children together—and in , their son Isaac is finally born.

Despite Abraham and Sarah committing sin, God still fulfills His promise to Him—why? Because God keeps His promises.

Which means that when we’re told that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, it literally means that if we repent of our sinful nature and seek Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He has promised salvation to us and since He keeps His promises, we can stand firm on our faith.

Here’s the deal though, the author here realizes that this can be difficult—standing firm can be hard, so he has a third “Let us” statement in Vs. 24-25, that will help in this:

He says in Vs. 24-25, “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 drawing near.”

I mentioned that this can help with the standing firm part—that isn’t the whole point, but let me show how this applies: When we are alone, we don’t hang out with each other, we don’t fellowship with other like-minded believers, it is easy for us to fall away from God and our beliefs. Satan will utilize the times when you aren’t with other believers and aren’t being encouraged to tear apart what you believe.

We are to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works

In other words, we are to figure out ways to encourage each other to be loving and to do good things

This means that our Christian faith cannot remain head-knowledge. It requires some amount of action. Now let me be clear, this isn’t saying that good works provide salvation—this is just saying that good works (like in ) show that you truly believe. So, we are to help each other to love and we are to help each other to do good works

We are to not neglect meeting together—this is talking about church and youth group, but it is talking about other scenarios as well. This is definitely talking about not neglecting going to church, but this is also talking about simply spending time with other people that believe in Jesus Christ as well.

Now let me be clear, in this particular situation, this isn’t just hanging out with each other. There is a time and place to just hang out, and it is perfectly acceptable to just hang out, but this is actually telling us that we are to meet together in order to encourage one another

The Bible in , we’re told that we are to do whatever we can to pursue peace and for mutual upbuilding. The idea is that we are to build each other up. In , when Paul talks about spiritual gifts, he tells us that the Spirit gives these gifts in order for the body to grow

If you cut yourself off from the body by not fellowshipping with other like-minded Christians, while you could still possibly grow, the chances are slim. More than likely, you’re going to fall because you don’t have a support system around you to keep encouraging you.

And we are to do this even more as the Day draws near.

What day is this talking about? This is talking about the Day of the Lord

This is the day in which Jesus is returning and He will judge the living and the dead.

And the Bible is telling us that as we continue to get closer to that day, we ought to be encouraging one another, standing firm on our faith, and coming boldly into the presence of God.

So, let’s start wrapping this up with application:

How do we come into the presence of God?

We come into the presence of God in multiple ways

We come into His presence through the reading and studying of His Word

We come into His presence through prayer

We come into His presence by being amongst other believers.

How do we stand firm on our faith?

We first need to know what we believe and if you don’t know for sure what you believe, you should take the time to know it

We seek to learn more about our faith

And we seek to be transformed by the Spirit in order to think like Jesus thinks, which will in turn help us to stand firm on our faith.

How do we encourage one another?

First off, we need to stop tearing each other down

We need to seek to love one another

And we need to seek to encourage each other to do good works.

Let’s Pray.

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