Full assurance of faith. What a great promise this is. And we'll start at verse 19, please. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled 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 one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. 

Now, when you read the words, full assurance of faith, is that your heart confidence? Do you have that certainty in your heart this morning? I want to begin with a supreme biblical truism this morning. Here it is. It's possible to face life, death, and eternity with full assurance of personal salvation because of the written word that God has given to us. 

John the Apostle ended his gospel by saying, these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have life through his name. If you turn to your Bible, please, I'd like you to look at another statement by the Apostle John in 1 John 5. I'd like you to see this in your own Bible, 1 John 5. This verifies what we're beginning with this morning, that it's possible to face life, death, and eternity with full assurance of faith. 

1 John 5, look at this statement by the Apostle John. He wrote this when he was about 95 years old, 65 years after the resurrection of Jesus. He's the last of the 12 apostles surviving, and this is what he said. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of which God has testified of his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he's not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son. 

And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Now, listen to this statement. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 

What a great promise for every one of us who's here today. We can know for sure that we have eternal life because of the Word of God. This last year, we've had several special people from our church family leave this world and go to heaven. For example, I'm thinking of Harriet and Ralph Swanson. And as we visited with Harriet, when you could still visit at the nursing home, one of the things she would say over and over, even to the very end of her life, she said, the best day of my life is going to be the day when I leave here and I go there. That was her assurance, her full confidence. 

Another person who has just recently left us and gone to heaven is Ruth Ellis, who was our church treasurer. And just about a week or two before she died and went to heaven, we received this note to Marianne and me. She said this, we don't know what we would do without Living Hope Church. It was our miracle when we moved to Winchester 21 years ago. You led us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and have taught us so much. We have peace and joy in our hearts because of all your teaching. Words cannot thank you enough. We live with Christ in us. That was her assurance as she went to have surgery on her heart. And as she lived her last day and took her last breath, her assurance was heaven for sure. 

Now, we're starting today in Hebrews chapter 10 with that precept. You can know for sure in life as you face death and for eternity that you're going to be with Jesus Christ in the Father's house. That's the promise of God's word. 

There's a promising proposition in this 10th chapter of Hebrews. It gives us four invincible maxims concerning our full assurance of faith. And these are the four things we're going to notice as we look through this chapter. In verses 1 to 10, we're going to look at this statement, once and for all. In verses 10 through 18, we're going to look at this statement. This man offered one sacrifice for our sins. The third precept that we'll be talking about is in verses 19 to 25, hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. The fourth precept that we're going to notice in Hebrews 10 this morning is knowing we have a better and an enduring possession in heaven. 

So, we're going to study this chapter and see how it gives us full assurance of faith. Verses 1 to 10, first of all, I'd like for you to turn to Hebrews chapter 10 and look at these verses. Verses 1 to 10. And we'll notice this statement, once for all. Listen carefully now and follow in your Bible. For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never, with these same sacrifices which they continually year by year make those who approach perfect, for then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins every year. For it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. 

Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I've come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. Previously saying, sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them which are offered according to the law. Then he said, Behold, I've come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. Now look at this verse. By that will, we've been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. 

I want for us to take those words this morning and get a grip on those great words. This encouraging paragraph of the Holy Spirit is proof for the faith of every believer who considers himself to be a saved person. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 with me for a moment for a cross reference now to this truth. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I hope as we read this that each one of us will apply it to our own life. Verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 

For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now, a true saved believer holds fast to this simple word from God. Christ died for my sins. He was buried, and he rose again on the third day. That's our assurance, and we hold fast to that. We believe that was a sacrifice that he made once and for all. Jesus said, I say to you, he who hears my words and believes on him has sent me, has eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ. 

I want for us to turn to Matthew to chapter 27 now, and look at that event that we're talking about, the death of God's Son for our Savior. Matthew chapter 27, and please look at verse 24. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it. Now, as we read these verses, I want us just to put ourselves on that hill and watch this event take place. 

Verse 25, all the people answered and said, his blood be on us and our children. Then he released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium, gathered the whole garrison around him, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. When they twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews, we're there now, we're watching this event. 

Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head, and when they had mocked him, they took the robe off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified. Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross, and when they come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink, but when he had tasted it, he would not drink. 

Then they crucified him and divided his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Sitting down, they kept watch over him there. What I want for us to do this morning, friends, on this beautiful Sunday morning, is to sit down with that crowd and watch this event as they crucified and put Jesus Christ to death. And as you sit in that group and you watch Jesus suffer and die, are you convinced that he completed the work for your precious salvation once for all? What we just read about was once for all, so that you and I could have the assurance of salvation. 

Full assurance is not possible if we believe that we must continue to do something to save ourselves. For if we think we have to continue to keep the Ten Commandments, or we have to continue to live by the Sermon on the Mount and have a heart that is as pure as God's heart, we must continue to be as merciful, loving, and forgiving as God is. If we think we have to continue, there's no assurance for salvation. But what we read about in Matthew 27 is a work that Jesus did once for all. And the Bible calls that propitiation. That's not a common word that we use, but it means a final, perfect, satisfying sacrifice that was offered for you and me. 

So, saving faith means to believe in Jesus Christ completed and perfect sacrifice on our behalf once for all. It's completed. It's finished. Let me take you back to an Old Testament example. In Exodus chapter 12, we have the story of the Passover and God sending judgment on the land of Egypt, on the people of Israel. But he told the fathers of the Israelite families, take a lamb, a perfect lamb without blemish, and after four days slaughter that lamb and smear the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and on the lintel of your house. And when God passes through the land in judgment upon the sons, the oldest sons of every family in Egypt and Israel, your son will be safe if you put the blood of the lamb, the innocent lamb, on the doorpost and the lintel of the door. 

And so after the father, the Jewish father, had obediently taken a lamb, observed it for four days to make sure it was a perfect lamb, and then put it to death in obedience to the Word of God, on that night at midnight, when God's death angel came through the land, the father was confident. He had the assurance. He had made the one sacrifice necessary to save the life of his firstborn son. It was finished. And that's what Jesus meant when he cried out from the cross, it is finished. 

I just want to make that clear, dear people, to each one of us today. The sacrifice for my sins, Richard Krenz, was made once for all. If we could list the whole gamut of our lifetime of sins, every one of them was forgiven once for all. Now come back to Hebrews chapter 10 and look at the second major precept of this chapter. It says this man offered one sacrifice for our sins. Watch for that as I begin reading in chapter 10 of Hebrews, and I'll begin again at verse 10. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting for his enemies, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he's perfected forever those who are being sanctified. That's referring to us who believe, but the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us. For after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. 

Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of sins, there's no longer an offering for sin. And I want us to highlight that statement. This man offered one sacrifice for our sins. And dear friends, that's the positive testimony in our mind and heart when we're accused for our sin, when we're shamed for our guilt, when we're troubled by our disobedience to God. It means to agree with this statement of God's faithful word. This man, Jesus God's Son, was offered, he offered one sacrifice for our sins. 

Notice the simplicity of that statement. For our sins. Why did Jesus die? He died for our sins. When we experience a nagging, haunting conviction of guilt, what can we do about our sins? We can believe this statement. This man was sacrificed once and for all for our sins. We can believe that statement. I'd like for you to turn to a promise in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 right now. I'd like you to see this also in your Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9. Look at this great promise. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 

And look at this statement. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You're washed, you're sanctified, you're justified because of the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins. That's the reason that he died. That's the simplicity of the New Testament message. And it also talks about the permanence of our assurance. It says he was perfected forever. And notice those two words. He has perfected us forever. And when we hold these words of the gospel, we'll enjoy the foreverness of our salvation. 

Then we can enjoy the statement of Jesus when he said, all that the Father gives to me shall come to me. And him that comes to me, I will no wise cast him out. I will raise him up at the last day. And especially I want to point out the name of our assurance. The name of our assurance is Jesus. I'd like to read a little article that I've kept and had for many, many years about the name, the permanence, the name of our assurance is Jesus. Listen to this article. 

In the 1800s, Nicholas, the first czar of Russia, occasionally put aside his garb of royalty, attiring himself in the uniform of a lower officer, and he went about the barracks to find out how things were going with the soldiers. On one occasion, the czar, Nicholas, had a favorite young man who was a son of an intimate friend of his to whom he had given a position in a border fortress in charge of the money used for paying the soldiers. This young man fell into bad habits. He took to gambling and by and by was led on by the will of the wisp that lures a gambler to his doom. He gambled away all his own wealth and then had taken the government funds entrusted to him. He'd taken just a few Russian rubles at a time and had no idea the amount abstracted. 

He received a notice that on the following day, an official was coming from the court to examine the records and account the money he had. This young man felt he could never face the exposure of that day. And so the night before, he closed his door, sat there with the books before him on a table, and he opened the safe, took out the pitifully small amount of money, and he counted it carefully. On a slip of paper, he would jot it down the various amounts he had taken over the recent months. He added it up and finally he wrote the figures. A great debt. Who can pay? A great debt. Who can pay? Knowing it was impossible for him to settle this debt, looking at the small amount of money, he thought, what a failure I've been. He made up his mind he would not live to face the disgrace of the next day. He would end his life when the clock struck twelve, leave all the papers so that the agent would understand. 

As he sat there reflecting upon the way he had ruined his life, he was overpowered with drowsiness, and in spite of the situation, he went into a deep sleep. It was on that night that Nicholas, the czar, attired as a lower officer of the guard, entered the gate of the fortress. Giving the proper password, Nicholas moved down the halls. Every light should have been out according to the regulations, but as he came down the main hall, he saw the light shining under a door. He stood at the door listening, and there wasn't a sound. He tried the knob. The door opened. 

He looked inside, and he saw the sleeping officer. He saw the papers on the table. He saw the books, and he wondered what it meant. He tiptoed in and stood behind a man, looking over his shoulder, and he read the paper before him. The whole matter became clear to Nicholas. In a moment, the young man had been stealing systematically for months. The czar's first thought was to put his hand on the shoulder and tell him he was under arrest, but the next moment, his heart was moved with compassion. He remembered his own boyhood. He remembered the father, how broken-hearted he would be if the son's crime was exposed. He looked at the question the boy had written down. A great debt, who can pay? 

Moved by his merciful heart, he reached over, picked up the pen that had fallen from the hand of the sleeping man. He wrote just one word under the desperate line, a great debt, who can pay? Just one word. Put down the pen, tiptoed out, and closed the door. For an hour or so, the man slept. Then, awaking suddenly, he saw it was long past midnight. He sprang to his feet, picked up his gun, put it to his forehead, and was about to pull the trigger when his eyes caught the sight of one word on the sheet of paper. A great debt, who can pay? And here was the name, Nicholas. 

Nicholas has been here. He's seen the crime of which I've been guilty, and he vows that he's going to pay the debt. Dropping the gun, he said, can this really be true? He went to the files and he got out some documents that had the genuine signature of the Tsar. He compared them with one written under the title, under the line, a great debt, who can pay? It was the real signature of the Tsar. He said, the Tsar has been here tonight. He knows all my guilt, and yet he's undertaken to pay my debt. I need not die. 

So instead of taking his life, he rested upon one word that was written on that slip of paper. A great debt, who can pay? Nicholas. So the young boy was not surprised when early the next morning, a messenger came from the royal palace, bringing a sack of gold, which he counted and found to be exactly the amount of the missing money. The guilty soldier was saved by one name. A great debt, who can pay? Nicholas. 

His life was saved. He was spared from the shame and the embarrassment of his crime. I want you to remember this morning, dear friend. The name of our salvation is Jesus. That's the name. And if you love that name, if you hold that name in your mind and heart, your sins are all forgiven forever. 

So we've looked at this statement once and for all. In verse 10 through 18, we notice this statement. This man offered one sacrifice for sins. And then there's a third one I'd like you to notice, beginning in verse 19. It's a statement. Hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Let's read that passage again. 

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 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 promises faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. 

This is our positive testimony this morning. Our hearts have been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ. We've been washed, we've been purified by the sacrificial blood of God's Son shed on the cross that day on the hill of skulls. Please turn right now to a statement about this in 1 John. I'd like for you to read, notice this statement also. 1 John chapter 1, in your Bible, please note this statement. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship of one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful, and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

If we say we have no sin, we've not sinned, we make him a liar, and the word is not in us. My little children, these things I write you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

The Greek word that the New Testament uses for cleansing is a word called rantizo, R-A-N-T-I-Z-O, and it's a passive verb. This is important. It's not something we've done. It's something that's been done to us and for us. We've been cleansed. God did this to us. We've been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, and we're free, and our guilt is gone. We no longer stand before God guilty doomed sinners we've been cleansed and I love what John says in first John 2 12 when he said your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake why did God forgive me he forgave me for the sake of his son Jesus Christ not because I'm worthy but because Jesus is worthy we've been cleansed and that's telling us today that there's only one thing we can do just think of this what's the one thing we can do for this with this kind of a promise only one thing thank you the only thing we can do about this is thank you and what has God provided for our assurance not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as we come together were to be reminded of these things by the Holy Spirit and the last phrase that I wanted us to consider is a free phrase found in verses 26 through 39 knowing we have a better enduring heaven a better enduring possession in heaven and I just want you to think about this the Apostle who wrote this letter said I want you to be sure that you have an enduring possession in heaven I want you to know this for sure he said some people will make a resolute choice to reject this love that's what he said at the end of this chapter some people will make a resolve in their mind and heart to reject what we've been talking about this morning but in contrast we who are believers right now our heart desire is to endure in our relationship with Jesus Christ until we're with him in the Father's house as you examine your heart this morning and I examine my heart with the light of this scripture what's what is in my heart do I have a desire to reject this or do I have a longing to hold fast to cling to this until I'm with the Lord in heaven that's that's the evidence of our personal relationship with God 

I was preaching in my church in in Madison years ago and as I as I came to the end of the message a gentleman who was sitting right down about second or third row dressed in a blue suit dressed properly to come to the church that morning and as we were finishing the message he got up and walked forward I knew who he was he was a retired minister he'd been a minister of a church for 38 years so I stepped down I said Pastor Thompson is there something you want to say he turned around to speak to the congregation he said I've he said I've been a pastor for 38 years but I didn't know about conversion the reason he came to our church and attended our church is his son had become saved isn't his adult son had become saved and when Pastor Thompson retired he he was brought to live near the church and so Sunday after Sunday he'd come to our church and he said I've I've been preaching and baptizing babies for 38 years and yet I don't have the assurance of personal salvation and so I met with him we talked and he did come to the place of conversion to Jesus Christ because his his form of Christianity was you you baptize a person and by the baptism he becomes a member of the body of Christ and then he must continue living a good worthy life to gain eternal salvation he was continuing he didn't believe in the truth once and for all and so I'd meet with him in his home once a week and study the Word of God and one day I remember a statement he made to me he looked at me and he said Krenz he said until I met you I thought there was no hope for me and the thing that he heard me talk about was the finished saving transaction of Jesus and until this time in his life he had never come to Christ in conversion and so he he did come to the Lord in faith and ultimately I had I preached his funeral sermon in my church in Madison there were seven other Lutheran pastors who came to that funeral they said we had just coerced this man but that was not the case he didn't come to assurance of salvation until he believed this truth that God's son saved me by his once-and-for-all sacrifice. 

I'm saying this morning friends that needs to be our assurance we need to take statements like Hebrews chapter 10 19 to 25 hold on to those with our heart and mind I'm saved forever because of what Jesus did on the cross. Please bow in a prayer now. 

Father, we prayed ahead of time and we continue to pray that your word will be very special in the mind and heart of each person who's been here today and we'll have everyone will have the confidence, the assurance of eternal salvation because of what Jesus did that day when he gave his life on the cross once for all, the perfect saving sacrifice. Thank you, Lord. We love you, Father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.