Full Assurance of Faith

The pastor discusses the topic of assurance in Christianity. He criticizes the idea that assurance can only be achieved through personal struggle and works. He emphasizes that salvation is solely through the finished work of Jesus Christ and that His sacrifice is sufficient for all sins. The pastor also mentions that the Holy Spirit bears witness to believers, reminding them of God's all-sufficient grace. He concludes by emphasizing that forgiveness has been obtained through Christ's sacrifice, and there is no longer a need for any offering for sin. The blood of Jesus is the authority for believers to enter the holy places. The following message is brought to you by the people of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. For more information, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org. And now, here's Pastor Jason Booth with the message. We're reading now, verse 19 through verse 25, the Word of the Living God. 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, and since we have a great High Priest over the house of God, 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, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to 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. The Word of the Living God, and may His name be forever praised. Amen. Amen. We have full assurance. What is assurance? Sadly, it's a fleeting thing in so many circles. Even circles that come very close to preaching the true gospel will stumble on assurance. They will stumble at this point. They will preach that Christ's work is finished. They will preach that Christ alone is righteousness. And then they will stumble all over themselves when they get to assurance. They'll say things that sound extra spiritual like this, Assurance is wrought in Christian struggle. Assurance is only possible as you persevere in the faith. As you trudge forward, as you march through this world, and you fight and you scrap and you pray and you fast, and eventually, some of us will attain a level of assurance. What a hellish notion that He who can save us to the uttermost, can't also give us assurance to the uttermost. He can save you! He can make you new! If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. And yet, this same Lord of glory, preached in so many a Reformed and Calvinist pulpit, is then also lied about. When that same preacher who just so eloquently quoted and cited the blessed doctrines of grace, and how it is that you're incapable of saving yourself, will then look at you and say, you're also incapable of having any assurance apart from some esoteric spiritual experience that will occur after salvation through many dangers, toils and snares. You've got to really fight for your assurance. You work with God for your sanctification and your assurance. Oh, the works find their way right back in, don't they? I want you to know something, that salvation is begun in Christ. It is carried out in Christ. It is completed in Christ. And the only way this blessed book can call on believers to have full assurance as we draw near to Him, is because Jesus Christ has assured our victory. Jesus Christ is our assurance. You want to know why it is that when you wake up in the morning, you know you're saved? It's not because you feel a certain way. It's not because you've done enough. It's not because you've prayed hard enough the night before. It's not because you've kept your thoughts pure somehow, some way. It's not because you've kept every motivation and inclination of your old dead sinner heart clean and pretty. But rather it's because Jesus Christ has gone your way by full measure, by full holiness and righteousness, satisfying God's righteous requirements. And those satisfactory requirements that He satisfied, all of those are still satisfied today. They'll be satisfied tomorrow. They'll be satisfied a week from now. Why? Because Jesus said it Himself when He died on Calvary's tree, it is finished! It is finished. It is finished. And what does this work that He has done, what does it cause? What does it motivate us to think about? Well, it better motivate you to think about this. It isn't about us. It isn't about you. It's all about Him. Even in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, we see that Christ's sacrifice was the ultimate sacrifice. There is no Jesus plus you equals salvation and assurance. It's Jesus plus nothing equals everything. For listen to what the writer of Hebrews says about the sacrifices that came before Jesus versus the sacrifice that Jesus Himself made. We begin in verse 11 of chapter 10. The Word of the Lord. And every priest stands daily at His service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. And so all of the sacrifices in the temple system given to God before Jesus had to be repeated all of the time. Why? Because they could not do what Jesus' sacrifice can do. Verse 12, But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. What did Christ do? He offered the one time single sacrifice for sin. And how do we know that it was efficacious? How do we know that the sacrifice of Christ is all we need? Here's how. Three words. He sat down. Today, the Lord Jesus is no longer being sacrificed for sin. Unlike the heresy of the Catholic mass where they believe that they're yanking Jesus right off His throne each and every time the priest goes through the rituals of their mass. They believe they're sacrificing Christ anew every time they have a mass service. The Word of the Lord says nonsense. The daily sacrifices that could not take away sins occurred before Jesus Christ. They were the types in shadows promising something better to come. But Jesus is the fulfillment. He is not a type or a shadow of the church services that were to come. We don't sacrifice Jesus when we come into this place. I come here to remind you that His sacrifice is still sufficient. You'll notice there are no crosses with dead zombie bodies hanging on the wall behind me. You'll notice that we don't have a lot of ornate statuettes of a bunch of dead people in this little meeting hall. There's a reason for that. We don't come to kill Jesus anew in some sort of mass. That's not the reason we gather. We come to remind you that He is risen and that His sacrifice is still sufficient. He need not die more than once for sin because as the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, His sacrifice was altogether lovely in the presence of God. He satisfied God's wrath. He's the propitiation for our sins. Hallelujah. Verse 15 of chapter 10, and the Holy Spirit also bears witness. Remember, Jesus died. Jesus rose again. Jesus told us the Comforter was coming. The Comforter came and the Bible says this of the Holy Spirit. And verse 15, and the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, declares the Lord, I will put My laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, and I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. The accuser of the brethren loves to remind us of our sin. But God's Word reminds us of an all-sufficient Savior. Our flesh and our conscience will remind us of our frailties and our imperfections, but God's Word declares to us that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. God's Word declares to us that he who began a good work in you shall be faithful to perform it until the day of the Lord Jesus. God's Word tells me that there is nothing good in my flesh, but that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. God's Word declares that He is the Good Shepherd and that He will lose none of the sheep. I know I'm a sinner! Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. I understand this. I confess this openly. But I also know that He is the Good Shepherd who will lose none of His sheep. He is the fisherman whose nets will not break. He is the light who when shined into the darkest of spots, will illuminate the cavernous darkness. And there is no one who's outside of the reach of my God's grace. There is no sinner who is too far gone that he can't reach his hand down and rescue. There is no dark place in hell where a man can hide from the presence of Almighty God. He is all-sufficient. He is altogether lovely. And if you know Christ in the full pardon of your sins, then you have everything you'll ever need for eternal life and heavenly bliss with the Father. Verse 18 of chapter 10. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. How is it, preacher, that we can have full assurance of faith? And I tell you, you can have full assurance because the sin offering given on your behalf is sufficient and is still sufficient and will always be sufficient. We've been forgiven. There's no offering needed for sin. And that's why in verse 19, the writer of Hebrews says, therefore, this is a transition statement. He says, alright, Jesus has forgiven sin for all those who call on His name. All those given to Him by the Father. All those who are drawn, regenerated, and who confess their faith in Christ. This gift of faith given to them by the Father. Everything is about what God has done. Remember, this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. All of this is God's work through us, in us, and the work that Christ did for His people on the cross. The Gospel is this one big package all centered around the work of God and not of the works of man. But we've come to believe it. And if you've come to believe this blessed Gospel, the Bible says, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, so what is our authority to enter? The blood. The blood is our authority to enter. Not your works. Not your righteousness. Not your holiness. Not anything about you. It's simply we plead the blood of Jesus. That's what we do. Now, I know there's a lot of abuse of that phrase in this world. People will say, I plead the blood of Jesus on this lotto ticket that I would win. Or, I've seen it and I've heard it all. I've seen it and I've heard it all. I'm telling you that our plea before God is the sacrifice of Christ. It's the blood of Jesus. The blood, the Bible says, cleanses us from what? From all unrighteousness. And so that's the boldness we have to enter. The confidence we have to enter into God's presence is the blood of Jesus. This is why we pray in Jesus' name. Do you know those aren't just magic words we include at the end of our prayers? We pray in Jesus' name as a testimony to what authentic prayer sounds like. We pray in Jesus' name because it is the only name given among men whereby ye must be saved. We pray in Jesus' name because we've been taught to pray in that way. We give thanks to Jesus because He is our access to God. And so when you hear people shirk the name of Jesus in a time of public prayer, it always gives me pause. I think to myself, why would they have not said the lovely name? Why would they have not gladly proclaimed the name given among men whereby ye must be saved? And the answer is always, inevitably, they didn't want to offend someone. They were trying to be politically expedient. But beloved, don't be ashamed of the name of Jesus. If you have opportunity to speak about Jesus, then I urge you to speak about Jesus. If you have the opportunity to praise His name publicly, then I urge you to take advantage, share the truth, and may God be pleased in the proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ. Why? Because it is the name that gives us confidence to enter into the holy place. His blood made it more than just possible. His blood made it inevitable that His people would come in confidence. Hallelujah forevermore. Verse 20, By the new and living way that He opened to us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh. Do you realize that as the curtain of the temple was ripped from top to bottom, the curtain itself signified the broken body of Jesus Christ? And how it is that the only way we could go through to the holy place of God was through the broken body of Jesus Christ. That's what the text just teaches us right in this very passage. We know from the Scriptures of old that He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Beloved, as His body was rent, the curtain was rent of the holy place in the temple. And now we can boldly enter in through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah forevermore. Verse 21, And since we have a great high priest or great priest over the house of God, 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 priestly duties of Christ have been performed, and they have been perfectly performed. He is the great priest, the Bible declares. And He is over the house of God. We have no need of an earthly priest to sprinkle us, to anoint us, to do any of the things that the priests would do in the Old Testament, for Christ has anointed us with the oil of gladness. Christ has sprinkled the blood on the doorposts of our heart. We have been forever made pleasing to God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our great priest. And the Bible says that we can now draw near with a true heart in full assurance. Hebrews 4 and 16. Let's go there just for a second. Hebrews 4 and 16. And let's pick up in verse 14. Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Verse 16. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Why are we confident? And you better hear me on this. Where does our confidence lie? So many in this world, and so many in the so-called church world, would tell you that your confidence, that your assurance in Christ is something that you've got to find within, right? They say look within to see if you're right with God. See if you're growing in holiness as if you had any personal holiness to begin with. And yet, where does the Scripture say that our confidence to approach the throne of grace should come from? The Scripture says, check your priest. Check your sacrifice. Now, if you were building a deck, or you were building a home, let us say, let's make it more substantial. You're building a giant home. And you decided that you were going to save a bunch of money by going with the cheapest, most chintzy foundation you could possibly imagine. You were told as you were building this house on the side of the river that you needed to build a house that was suspended on poles. And you were told you needed to use 12 by 12 treated poles. And these poles needed to be placed every two feet along the perimeter of your foundation. And they needed to be secured in six feet of concrete. And you decided, well, I could probably use two by twos. And I don't need to make them two feet apart. I can go ahead and space them six feet apart. And I don't need to put them in six feet of concrete. I'm just going to put them in seven inches of gravel. Oh, they wanted me to use a certain size nail, but I decided to use thumbtacks. Do you see how silly this starts to sound? Now, you begin to walk on this floor and this floor is creaking and swerving and moving side to side and part of it is starting to buckle. You immediately begin to think, not, are my footsteps too hard? Am I dancing on the floor too much? No, no, no. Immediately, your mind naturally goes to the source of the problem, which is, what kind of shape is my foundation in? What have I to stand on? And as you begin to think about it, you begin to realize that your foundation's shaky, that shortcuts were taken, that you don't have what you thought you had. Old jittery shanty of a place that falls down into a crumbled mess onto the shore of the old river you thought you were building your dream house on. And what happened? You trusted in shortcuts and a phony, faulty foundation. Well, I want you to understand that as you begin to do what so many a popular preacher tells you to do, oh, I know what I'll do to see if I'm right with God. I'll look and see if I've done enough. I'll look within my heart to see if I've prayed enough. If I'm, quote, prayed up. If I've, quote, got the victory. And all these other hillbilly heresies that you hear preached about in Appalachia, for instance, our neck of the woods. Oh, you've got to pray through, they say. Whatever that means. You know what? Instead of worrying about all the things you think you've done for God, you might want to look and see what your Christ has done for you. And if your Christ is a Christ of your own imagination, then you may have well built that dream house out of balsa wood and thumbtacks. For that foundation is not proper. Why? Because it's a foundation laid by man. And the Bible says, for no other foundation can man lay than that which is in Christ Jesus. So where does our confidence come from? You think you can go before God because you've done enough? Your confidence comes from your vain assumption that you are holy enough in yourself because you've prayed enough, you've given enough offering, you've attended enough church services, or whatever your list of do-goods happen to be? No! Your confidence better come from the fact that you know who your High Priest is. And your confidence better come from the fact that you know that you know that you know that the sacrifice that your High Priest offered was satisfactory to the holy God of heaven and earth. And let me tell you, if you know Jesus in the full pardon of your sins, then you have a High Priest who is higher than the heavens and you have a sacrifice that satisfies God's wrath forever and ever and ever and always. Amen. My, my, my. My, my. Let us draw near. I can draw near with a true heart and full assurance because my High Priest was the ultimate High Priest. That His sacrifice satisfied God's wrath. And I approach boldly in Christ. Not in me, but only you, O Lord. And the Bible says that we've been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Ezekiel talks about this. This is a phrase meaning that we have encountered the truth. For it's the truth that sets us free. Have you noticed that when you learn something true, it sort of relieves anxiety? I can give you a great example of this. If you've ever had to learn even basic mathematical formulas, the minute you figure one out, math is a true thing. I love math for this reason. Even though many a theologian and a historian don't really take to the sciences as well, at the end of the day, truth is lovely wherever it's found. And 2 plus 2 equals 4. 2x equals 8. Well, x equals anyone? 4. And as a child, there's a great relief that sweeps over your soul in the 6th or 7th grade as you begin to parse out the truth of these formulas and you begin to understand these things. The teacher asks a question and when you know the answer, there is a peace that sweeps over you. And you might even have confidence in that moment to raise your hand to give the answer. Don't you see? Multiply that times infinity and that's the confidence we have in Christ. All beloved, we know the problem, but we have the solution. And it's because of Christ's finished work that we can approach the throne of grace. We can have confidence to approach the throne of grace. And the Bible declares this. So we hold fast our confession just like Hebrews the 4th chapter taught us. Hebrews the 10th chapter reiterates this. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without, the Bible says, without wavering. Now how can the Bible command us to do something without wavering if the Bible isn't also going to afford us unwavering assurance? How could God command us to be unwavering and then in the same breath say, but the assurance you need to be unwavering is only found in multiple spiritual disciplines over many years and you may not attain it. The Puritans thought that assurance was a fleeting thing only reserved for the super spiritual. Now not all of them. You can't say all of anybody did anything. But as a general rule, the Puritans were awful on Christian assurance. They were so afraid of sounding presumptuous. Let me tell you, it's not presumptuous to extol and exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope. It is not presumptuous or arrogant to say that Christ is the all in all. It's not presumptuous or arrogant or foolhardy to say that Jesus Christ is the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God who died to save His people from their sins. If anything, it's presumptuous to think that you can offer God anything that would dare offer you a booster shot in the economy of God. All Jesus did His part, but I'm going to do my little bit as well. It's not a sinful, wretched thought that you have anything to offer God apart from Jesus. He alone is worthy. And let us, the Bible says, hold fast our confession without wavering for He who promised is faithful. Who's faithful? He's faithful. Does it say I'm faithful? No. Does it say you'll be faithful? No, it doesn't. Will you want to be faithful? Of course you will. You belong to Him. Every child wants to be pleasing to their folks, but every child doesn't always act pleasing toward their folks. Every child deep down wants approval, but it's Monday and it's 7 in the morning and I didn't sleep last night and here's my mom trying to wake me up. Now she's taking her own life in her hands, right? Isn't that what we all think? Our love for God will always be imperfect, beloved. Our attitudes will not always be in line with God's Word. We are children. He is the Father. We are stubborn sheep. He is the Shepherd. So who has done the great work of redemption? He has. And why is it that we can draw near and hold fast without wavering? The Bible says, for He who promised is faithful. That faithfulness is come and go. It's hit and miss and so is it yours. Oh, I know we clean up pretty good for church, don't we? I think it was Greg who said this a few weeks ago. If someone were to put just the last week of our lives on the screens behind us up here and show the whole congregation everything we thought, everything we imagined, it'd be a pretty pathetic show, wouldn't it? But He who promised is faithful. Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world. Notice I didn't say I'm great. I said Christ in me is great. What is Christ in me? Who is Christ in me? The hope of glory. All right. Verse 24. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. So notice good works make an appearance here, don't they? But not as the righteousness. Not as the grounds for our hope. Not as the grounds for why it is that you and I can walk into the presence of God. Oh, I love the Lord. Well, I'm glad you love Him. Is it a perfect love? Well, no. Well, that's not going to do it. I serve the Lord. Well, I'm glad you serve the Lord. Do you serve the Lord perfectly in all ways, shapes and forms? No. Well, that's not going to do it. Well, I don't know how I can approach the throne of grace. Well, I do. It's Jesus Christ. And boy, we cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us. And what does He do? He gives us beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for sorrow, peace for our despair. What do you offer the Lord but the ashes? And what does He give you? A tabernacle of God come to dwell with man. We give the Lord our fears and our anxieties. And what does He give us? Perfect love that casts out fear and peace that passes understanding. Oh, we give the Lord our sorrows and He gives us joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And the half has not yet been told. Hallelujah. And how is it that we are to respond to God's gifts? We approach the throne of grace through Christ. We worship God and the beauty of holiness through Christ. We sing the songs of Zion through Christ. We pray in the name of Christ. We read and we uphold and we declare this blessed Scripture in and by and through the name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then what are we to do with all of this reality that Christ is all in all? We're to stir one another up to good works. Beloved Jesus has done all the work. Smile a little bit and tell your neighbor about Jesus. Beloved Jesus has done all the work. He's gone your way. He's gone my way. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And it's not by our works that we approach the throne of grace, but we approach the throne of grace and in gladness stir one another to good works. So how do we stir one another to love and good works? We keep pointing everyone back to the truth that Jesus is our all in all. Yes, bring food for our food pantry and keep bringing it because people are still taking it and they'll always take it and the poor will be with us always and I'm thankful that we can help in some small way. So let's continue to give food to the poor. Let's continue to support our missionary efforts in Africa and also our worldwide missionary efforts when it comes to the Internet and how it is that we reach out to all sorts of people all over the world through there. 10,000 people a week are in contact with our church through the Internet right now. Thank God. And what are we to do? Are we to get the big head? Are we supposed to go and pretend like we're something big? No, we're going to keep telling the world that we are sinners saved by grace, that it's all about Jesus and it'll always be about Jesus and God shut our mouths if we ever preach anything, but the finished work of God in the sovereign grace of Jesus Christ. And so I stir you to good works because Jesus has done the work. I stir you to love him because he has loved you first. And I remind you that you have VIP access to the throne of grace and you can with confidence draw near because Jesus Christ has gone your way. Do you know him this morning? Do you know him this evening, wherever you might be? Do you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he came, that he lived and died a sinless perfect death and that whosoever shall call on his name shall be saved? Do you believe that he is the righteousness? If you do, flesh and blood hasn't revealed that to you, but only the Spirit of God and the preaching of this good news. If you call on his name, you'll not be, you will not be put ashamed. You won't be put away. You won't be put into shame. You will, the Bible is very clear, you will be saved. Let us draw near. And why? Because we have a high priest who has gone our way. You have full assurance of faith. Assurance is of the essence of saving faith. If you know Jesus, you believe that he can save you, then why can't you believe him for the assurance that you need? Of course you can. He is your all in all. And frankly, if he's all you've got, he's more than you'll ever need. I grow weary about people who would dare say that Jesus is some sort of starting point for this Christian life. He is the Christian life. We endeavor to please him, yes we do. But our righteousness is Jesus Christ. Our debt was paid by Jesus' death, as the song says. Our weary load was borne by him. And he alone can give us rest. Do you know I can't rest unless I'm assured that everything's going to be all right. You can't have salvation apart from assurance, beloved. You've got to know this. You've got to know this. Assurance is part of salvation. How else can the Lord say to us, peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Believe in God, believe also in me. Hallelujah forevermore. And with that, we'll close with our final song this morning. The Lord be praised forever. Amen. Amen. You have just heard a message from Pastor Jason Booth of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. To learn more about the good news of Jesus, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org.