Full Assurance | Hebrews 10:19-39 | Once for All

There's a difference between hoping things are okay with God and actually knowing they are. Most of us live somewhere in the middle — intellectually convinced of the gospel, but unsure whether we can really walk into the presence of a holy God with confidence.

That's precisely what Hebrews 10:19–39 addresses. Every argument the author of Hebrews has been building — the priests, the sacrifices, the temple imagery — has been driving toward this: full assurance of faith. Because of what Jesus has done, we don't just have permission to draw near to God. We have confidence to do it.

But that assurance isn't meant to stop with us. This passage moves outward — we're called to stir one another up, to build each other up in faith, and to resist the pull toward the isolation that defines so much of modern life.

And when hardship comes, or the temptation to drift, we hold fast — not because we earn anything by holding on, but because the one who promised is faithful.

Watch the sermon below, and may it leave you with greater confidence in the finished work of Jesus and greater love for the people around you.

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

I have a great interest in useless information. That's just who I am. I like random details about things that others don't seem to care about that much. I kind of always knew this about myself, but a little over 20 years ago my mother confirmed it.

She gave me a call. We were living in South Sioux City, Iowa at the time, and there was this new show on television called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? And I don't remember when it came on, but I was working a lot, and I didn't know much about it other than I'd seen a commercial for it. And she told me that it was basically a new quiz show, and that I should try to get on it.

So I asked her why. And as mothers tend to be, she was brutally honest. Nobody knows more useless information than you do. Like I said, I knew this about myself.

It wasn't much of a shock. I'm confident that that was true. At least at that time, I knew that she probably didn't know anybody with more useless information than me. I used to know and absorb pretty much everything.

I honestly used to remember the batting averages of different baseball players because I would just pour over that information on the back of the baseball cards. just over and over. And back then, the Donruss brand of baseball cards actually had the full names of players on them. They would have their first name, their middle name, and their last name.

And so I knew, is there anything more useless than this, but I knew the middle names of like probably a hundred plus baseball players at one point in my life. Now thankfully, Nearly all of that information has retreated to my subconscious because it doesn't do anything good for anyone. I do remember that Mark Grace's middle name was Eugene, and Ken Griffey Jr.'s real first name is George. Interesting fact, but who cares?

What difference does it make? It doesn't matter for me, it doesn't matter for anyone else. And I'm sure we all have topics of interest that we love to dig into. But so often we stop and we're honest with ourselves and we realize that while we enjoy these details, most people are going to tune us out.

In fact, they might even roll their eyes when we start to talk about it again, right? They don't really matter all that much. Now, as we've been digging into the book of Hebrews the last several weeks, There are times where it seems like the author of Hebrews is putting a lot of details out there for us that don't seem to make too terrible much difference. Especially when we consider that many of the rituals and practices that the author of Hebrews is talking about aren't things that we have ever done or will do.

The sacrificial codes, the priests, all that kind of stuff. But unlike the middle names of baseball players from the late 80s and early 90s, those details do actually matter. They're important. They help us understand what the author of Hebrews is driving home for us.

that all of this helps us to have full assurance of faith. And so that's what we see today as we come to the end of Hebrews 10. Now what we looked at was a big chunk of text, but we're looking at the big picture. So we're gonna break it down so that we can come at it in portions and it's a little bit easier for us to consume today.

So the first point that we're going to see reflects what I've just been saying. The point of all these details, of all this doctrine that we've been looking at, is to give us the full assurance of faith. The details matter. Confidence is often a difficult thing for us to have.

We doubt ourselves all the time. It's no wonder people struggle with whether things are good between them and God. We struggle over insignificant things in our lives. How much more so must we struggle with Am I right with God or not?

That's truly important. And so the author of Hebrews wants us as readers to know that we can actually have confidence, that we can go into the presence of God because of who Jesus is and what he's done. Secondly, we see that this leads us to encourage one another. encourage one another in good works.

The author of Hebrews lets us know that we should be encouraging each other to live and act out our faith. And this means that we gather together and we look for ways to build up one another in faith. And then finally, We hold fast to our confession of Christ. As we've seen, the big point of the book of Hebrews is that the original audience should not abandon their faith in Jesus and return to their Jewish feasts and festivals and rituals.

Instead, they're to cling to Christ, for it is in Him that they can only truly have assurance that they are saved. And the same is true for us. And so as we drop into verse 19 this morning, what we find is a word that I often tell you to watch out for when you're reading the Bible, therefore. It's an important word in a sentence, and it's particularly important in scripture because it lets us know what the consequences are of what we've just read.

When a therefore pops up, the author is letting us know that some kind of truth relative to what has been stated is coming. So what's being said here? Well, we've heard how we can have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. Now remember, the author of Hebrews isn't talking about earthly holy places.

The author of Hebrews isn't saying that Jesus went into the temple. The point has been that the earthly temple and the holy places there was merely a representation of heaven. And unlike the earthly priests, Jesus went in once and for all. That's what we saw last week.

And remember what else we saw last week. Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father. And the author of Hebrews drew out that the Levite priests in the temple were standing. And they were sacrificing.

They were doing their work. Sacrificing animals day after day. It never ended. It went on from sacrifice to sacrifice.

It went on year after year. It went on for generation after generation. It was never going to end. But we read last week that when Jesus went into the holy place of God with his own precious blood in heaven, what did he do?

He sat down. Because his work was done. There was no more sacrifice to offer. And so, what is the result of this truth that we have a new and living way open for us?

Why does it matter that this has been done? Well, the author of Hebrews tells us that we can now draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Now, I'm sure we've all had a moment where we made an awkward entrance of some kind. Maybe a principal when you were younger called for you, and perhaps as an adult, or perhaps as an adult, your boss wanted to have a little visit with you, and you had no idea why.

Well, of course, our minds, being what they are, usually go to a bad place. They don't go to someplace positive, do they? You start racking your brain. You start thinking, going through every little thing you've ever done, that the person who's called upon you is going to want to, maybe you're going to want to know.

You think the worst. You have no idea why the impending meeting is necessary, but it can't be good, right? That's where our minds go. Well, you walk into the room and you're probably the last thing from confident.

You're sweating. You're nervous. Your mind is still trying to figure out what you did. You're nervous.

Your throat is dry. And you might even be a little bit defensive for a reason you don't even know. Well, that is just to step into the presence of an earthly authority figure.

We get that nervous going into a principal, a boss, or somebody who's over us that is an earthly figure. Imagine the premise of what the author of Hebrews is talking about here. Going into the presence of God. You wouldn't be able to bear it.

He's the Holy One. He spoke and all of creation came to be. The issue wouldn't be a dry throat or that your nerves were getting the best of you. You would be stepping into the presence of God.

It wouldn't be that your knees were knocking. You would be unable to walk. But that's the picture that the author of Hebrews paints for us today. He says that We shouldn't be able to go into the presence of God confidently, but because of what Jesus has done, we can.

He says that we can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Full assurance, not, it might be a good situation. No, full assurance. Because we have Jesus.

We know that the sin that has separated us from God has been paid for right there in the presence of God. We have an advocate. We have a mediator who satisfied the wrath of God for our sin. We deserved punishment.

But Jesus went into the holy place for us with his own precious blood in our very own flesh. And to draw out this truth even further, The author of Hebrews goes back to the imagery of the temple. He helps us out. He talks about two activities that took place in the temple.

Two things that the priest did. They sprinkled blood and they did ceremonial washing. Now remember, the author of Hebrews has been downplaying the old covenant practices because he said that they could never purify the conscience of the worshiper. Yet what does he do?

He goes back to these ceremonial things to illustrate his point. The blood was sprinkled in the temple, back in the old coven, on the ark to show that a life had been taken in the place of the ones who were going into the presence of God. The ceremonial washing was to make them clean, to set them apart. Well now what do we have?

We have imagery that the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus with his blood actually is able to do what the rules and the law couldn't. We can have a clear conscience knowing that His blood forgives our sins. And with the washing of His people in the waters of baptism, we know that we are clean. We know that we are set apart.

We are a part of God's covenant family. So, what does it matter? What do we do as a result of all this great news? We are to hold fast to our confession without wavering.

Well, why? because it earns us reward points that we can cash in for admittance to heaven? No. We hold fast because the one who promised this is faithful.

We are to see that this isn't about us, but about the faithfulness of God for us in Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not going to dwell for too long on holding fast because that's really our third point. But, What I want us to come away with from this section is that the salvation that Jesus brings, it absolutely gives us full assurance of faith. And that truth is to affect how we live our lives.

And so with that in mind, we move to our second point. The truths we believe and confess lead us to encourage one another in good works. Now, this is the natural continuation of what we've seen. If this all is true, and it is, then it's going to create a response in us.

Again, notice that this comes as a result of the truths that have been unfolded for us. This isn't what we do to get rewarded. I don't know about you, but the companies that offer rewards programs can see me coming a mile away. I've got it bad.

Offer me something in your app, and I'm probably going to want to download it and sign up. Buy five coffees, get one free. I'm on board. Use your app to pay someplace, and after six months, you get a penny back?

Sign me up! I love that kind of stuff. I am a sucker for it. But this isn't what is being offered here.

This isn't a reward program. It's the opposite. You have been rewarded in Jesus Christ. You've been rewarded with the gift of faith through hearing the Word and the Holy Spirit working in you.

And now we're to see the scope of what that means. We not only share the good news, but we encourage one another to live a life worthy of what has been done for us. So let's take a minute to think about how we can stir one another up in good works. We remind one another of the good news of salvation in Christ.

We let people know that we're praying for them. We encourage them and we build them up just as we have been built up in faith by the Holy Spirit's work in us. And notice what a huge, huge thing this is. It's what we do for one another.

We encourage one another. And to do this, we meet together. It's vital that we have Christian fellowship. It's vital that we come together and hear the word proclaimed and receive the sacraments.

It's a part of who we are. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. We're a community of faith. We're a family.

And we live in a world where we have gotten better and better and better at isolating ourselves, right? We can get in a car and close the doors, and we're excluded from the outside world. Transportation isn't open like when we rode horses or we walked everywhere, right? And many of us aren't in open places when we work.

We don't work with groups of people. In fact, there are a lot of us who are in offices, cubicles, or even vehicles, and we're alone for much of the day. Well, then let's even take this further. Let's get down to the personal level.

In our day, we can put headphones in, and we can isolate ourselves even more. We don't need to create music by communally singing with others or playing an instrument with other people, no. We can have it delivered by professionals straight into our ears. There's nothing communal about it.

It's highly produced, it's professional, it's great, but there's nothing communal about it. And then we take it even further. We don't even have to sit and discuss things like sports, politics, religion, in a communal way anymore. We find someone who agrees with us on a website, a podcast, or a niche TV show, and we isolate ourselves even more.

This is what we expect. This is part of living in the modern world. Isolation. It's no wonder it becomes easy for us to approach faith in the same way.

I'll find what fits my personal niche and isolate myself within it. It's what I like. But that's not what we're called to do here, is it? We're a community of faith.

We're a family. And we are called and commanded here to encourage one another and build one another up. I can't get that in an isolated world of my own creation, can I? And I'm guilty of this.

I'm the first person to walk to the store, I put earbuds in. But we can't get this communal encouraging one another. when we're isolating ourselves from our brothers and sisters. We can't get what we truly need to be built up in our isolation.

Now, I guess I could probably find some kind of cheesy podcast that would tell me how wonderful I am, but that's not the same as us encouraging one another, right? Because we know each other. We love one another. We care for each other like family, no matter what happens.

So may we do the same thing that households do, caring for one another. May we do the same thing in this household of faith. May we build one another up as we gather in this place together. And this is such an important exhortation from the author of Hebrews.

But before we move on to our final point, we have to note something in these two verses. They are to stir one another up all the more as they see the day drawing near." In other words, they're going to need one another as the day of Christ draws nearer and nearer. In the face of persecution and hardships, the community of faith must band together for encouragement. Now this was a command in the first century and still applies today, each day.

The day when Christ returns at the end of history to deliver His kingdom to His Father, it draws nearer and nearer. And so we should not fail to gather together and encourage one another, because each day, the day draws nearer. We need one another. And with the idea of encouraging one another, We move on to our final point.

We're to hold fast to our confession of Christ. Now there's a lot of verses in this last bit, and I plan to go through every last one of them in the original language in great detail, so I hope your dinner doesn't burn. We're looking at the big picture today. We're actually kind of going to buzz through this faster than even I would maybe like to because what we're doing is we're looking at the big picture.

We want to dwell on the overarching idea here. And this is all about holding fast to Jesus Christ. Now, we might find verse 26 here to be a little confusing and it might instill some fear in us. It tells us that if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there isn't a sacrifice for sins, but an expectation of judgment.

Yeah, that should cause us to pause a minute. That should put some fear in us. But we also have to slow down and put that statement in context, not only with what we've been reading recently, but with the entire book of Hebrews. Is the author of Hebrews warning us that if we were to deliberately sin, too many times we would fall out of favor with God?

While we obviously need to move away from volitional sin, the book of Hebrews has been telling us this whole time about the sufficiency and the supremacy of salvation in Jesus. No way would the author put a cap on the amazing grace of God. So what's being driven home to us right here? Well, the deliberate sin that is being referenced here is rejecting the message of salvation through Christ alone.

And his audience was wanting to go back to the Old Covenant. They were wanting to go back to their works. So what it's saying here is that if you think, if you think that the system of works from the Old Covenant is going to do you good? After you've heard about the truth that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of all those things?

Well, then you just don't get it. You are in trouble. And the author of Hebrews here does what he's done so many times. We've seen it over and over.

He goes back to the Old Testament to bring the point home. If you blatantly disregarded the law in the Old Covenant, you received the most severe punishment. Now we've seen in Hebrews so far that what Jesus has done is so much better than the law. And the point here is that if you reject the greater truth of Jesus, there's a greater judgment waiting for you because you have trampled underfoot the Son of God.

In other words, you haven't just thumbed your nose at the commands of God. You have said that the work of God himself is not adequate to save, and so you'd rather have the rules of the law. And in doing so, you profane the blood of the covenant that was shed by God the Son Himself. And the author of Hebrews wants them to know this is serious.

And so he quotes some more Old Testament passages again that talk of the vengeance and judgment of God. But ultimately, while this sounds harsh, this is really a gracious thing that he is doing here by warning them in this way. Because it's a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. The judgment of God is not a tame thing.

It is to be feared. And as the passage closes up, we see that this is why we are called to hold fast to our confession in the Lord Jesus. The original audience of this book is asked to remember when they had heard the good news of Christ's fulfillment of the Old Covenant. back when they first heard it.

They're asked to remember that. And what did they have to do? They had to suffer through hardships, sufferings, afflictions. And as it states here, they were treated poorly.

Even though they were treated this way, they responded in love. Because they understood that they had a greater reward in Christ. People could persecute them and take their possessions. Because they understood that they had a better possession in Jesus, and that that possession would last longer than the moment.

They would have that for eternity. And so the author of Hebrews encourages them, he encourages them to hold fast as they did before, so that they might receive what was promised. That is the salvation that comes by faith. And as this passage ends, I love the exhortation that we read in the final sentence.

We are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. He is doing, the author of Hebrews, is doing exactly what he has been telling his audience to do. He is encouraging the people of God. We aren't going to quit on this.

Instead, we are gonna stay the course. We are going to finish the race. We are gonna hold to the truth that we confess because it's the only hope we have. We can't go to the practices of the old covenant and hope that we'll be saved.

We can't do anything on our own to be able to go into the presence of God. So what do we do? We trust that we can live by faith in Jesus. who gives us his perfect righteousness.

And through him, we will have the full assurance of faith so that we can know, again, full assurance, we can know that we can go into the presence of a holy God. He encourages these people. Again, we are not, we are not those who shrink back. We are those who have faith and preserve our souls.

And so as we close up today, I want us to take away two points of application. And we see that these truths that we have been reading about really matter, and they come down to us, and they truly impact our lives. Now, there are times where I'm not sure what the application is going to be as I get to the end of this, but today it jumped right out at us. In fact, basically it's the main points that we saw today.

The first is that we need to build up one another in faith. I know that this can often be a struggle because we don't know what to say. We're often afraid of maybe being too corny or of coming across as arrogant or a know-it-all. And I can understand those difficulties.

But that doesn't change the truth that we are called to build each other up. We need to be looking for opportunities to do this because you know that you need it. And so your church family, your brothers and sisters in Christ, need it also. As great as you feel when you are encouraged in the faith, your sisters and brothers in Christ have the same experience.

And so as we step out into the world this week, may we consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, that in doing so, we might bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. And secondly, hold fast to the faith. We have seen in the book of Hebrews so far that Jesus saves us to the uttermost. He is the one who satisfies the wrath of God on our behalf.

He fulfills the old covenant law and is the ultimate sacrifice for us. And when we look at the details, we see what an amazing difference all of this makes because it's the only hope we've got. To fall into the hands of God is a fearful thing. And so we desire to fall into His hands of grace, not into His hands of wrath.

Knowing that He has taken hold of us by His grace, may we cling to Him. In the face of adversity, whatever that looks like, may we hold on to Christ. And may we do it in the big things and in the small things, when times are good and when times are bad. He is our only hope.

And so empowered by His Word and the Holy Spirit who indwells us, may you and I hold fast to our faith and may our lives continually bring glory to the Lord Jesus for who He is and for what He has done. Amen.

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