Last week, I posed the question that I think we face from time to time, “Am I really doing what God wants me to do?” It’s hard to reconcile that question when we’re not seeing any results, so then we start asking: “Am I wasting my time? Should I be focusing on something else?”
Today, I’m going to look at some similar questions we may face. “Am I really saved? Am I really a Christian? Does God still love me? Have I blown it?”
These things go through our heads because we know, intuitively, we’re not perfect and we don’t measure up to God’s standards. I think that’s why many people don’t come to church–because they feel unworthy. But that’s precisely why we should come to church.
Here’s a Facebook meme I’m sure you’ve all seen: “I’m not a Christian because I’m strong and have it all together. I’m a Christian because I’m weak and admit I need a savior.”
Here’s another one: “I never understood why going to church made you a hypocrite. Nobody goes to church because they are perfect. If you’ve got it all together, you don’t need to go. You can go jogging with all the other perfect people on Sunday mornings. Every time you go to church, you are confessing again to yourself, your family, and the people you pass on the way there that you don’t have it all together. And that you need their support, need their direction, you need some accountability, you need some help.”
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today. What does God say when we think we have gone too far? When we doubt that He still loves us? When we–even as seasoned Christians–think we have gone beyond His grace? When we think He no longer wants anything to do with us?
Today we’ll continue from there and look at verses 19-25.
As you’re turning there, I have a book at home filled with scriptures that are listed based on different topics, and this is what it says in the introduction:
“Scripture speaks confidently. God loves you deeply, and he will meet all your needs. At times you have emotional needs, and God’s Word brings calm. At times you need guidance, and his Word gives counsel. At times God works directly through circumstances or Christian brothers and sisters. Whatever the situation, God will give us comfort, counsel and peace.”
Scripture: Here’s something that I hope gives you all three of those things: comfort, counsel, and peace.
Hebrews 10:19-25
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
As you see at the beginning of these verses and what we talked about on Easter, God made a way for us to come to him. This scripture invites us to draw near to him. This is not about us getting it right first, then drawing near to him. It invites us to draw near in order to get right with him, just like the quotes from those memes I shared. This isn’t just about salvation or our first coming to Christ. It’s a promise and an invitation for our whole walk. We sit in church not once and say, “Hey, I’ve got it all together now. I don’t need this anymore. Thanks, doc. I can go jogging on Sunday mornings instead. You’ve cured me.”
No, we sit in church week after week, drawing from God because we are in need to continually be refreshed and renewed and draw from His love and His grace. And by our own experience and the testimony of others, we know that He is faithful to supply us with that love and that grace.
Verse 22 again says: “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Like I’ve said before, it’s our hearts that God looks at, not our perfection. Yes, as we discussed last week, our deeds will be rewarded, and we will be honored by God in Heaven. But nowhere does it say anything about being rewarded because we were perfect. Nowhere does it say that God will love us when we get it all together and become perfect. Nowhere does it say that perfection is even attainable. What I talked about last week was that God rewards our diligence and our obedience, not our perfection.
Jesus died because perfection is not attainable. That’s the gospel. That’s the good news.
When we miss the mark, which is the true definition of sin–missing the mark–we are not out of God’s grace, his mercy, or his love. We are not kicked out of his family. We are still on this journey, step by step. It might be one step forward and two steps backward, but we are still on this journey. And He is on this journey with us. We might slip, we might fall, but God picks us back up again, brushes the dirt off of us, and starts us back on our journey.
John Newton said: “I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
Just a few short verses before what we had just read out of Hebrews 10, we read on Easter Sunday: “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Do you hear how that is phrased? It’s phrased kind of odd, isn’t it? But it’s true. “He has made perfect” past tense; “forever” past, present and future tense; “those who are being made holy” present tense. And we know that in eternity, the present is always present. So, isn’t that interesting? God has made perfect–past tense–referring to the work on the cross and our salvation which is sealed forever, yet our holiness or our sanctification is ongoing.
That goes along with what Paul said to the church in Philippi, “He who began (past tense) a good work in you will carry it on (present tense) to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (future tense)” (Philippians 1:6). In other words, this is a continual work of God, by our choosing not by our ability. We are helpless to save ourselves. Good works are not good enough. God said to Isaiah that he looks at our good works as filthy rags. So salvation and righteousness are God’s handiwork. It’s his plan. We are on this journey of increased righteousness step by step, for the rest of our lives. And we all go along at our own pace.
I was always one to be a little slower than others when it came to physical work. I even eat slower than many people, I’ve noticed and have been told. And my slowness has been my downfall.
I remember when Caleb was born, I had a short-lived job at Corning Incorporated, where I stocked pantries with coffee, water, and soda for office workers. And one thing that I was insecure about was how long it took me to do the job. And there was this tremendous weight that lifted off my shoulders when they said it was okay for me to work at my own pace. So long as the job gets done well. I think that’s how it is with our spiritual journey and God. Others might be elsewhere on the path, but God looks not at how fast we are advancing, nor is He comparing us to others. But He is looking at how well we are advancing considering our personal spiritual makeup. No two people are exactly the same mentally and physically. And no two people are the same spiritually, either. All the junk that’s inside us is the same yet different from one another. Just like my own physical makeup that, for whatever reason, makes me a little bit slower and not the best or brightest when it comes to physical labor. That’s okay.
God is pleased with you. You’re not expected to be perfect; you’re expected to be His. You are expected to draw close to Him. You are expected to be here, sitting in these pews or even at another church. This isn’t the only church in town. You are expected to be growing, to be seeking Him, to be developing your relationship with Him. Not in a strict legalistic way, but hopefully, in a natural progression that I hope to encourage you in today.
And that leads me to my next point. Drawing closer to Him. While our salvation and growth are dependent upon him, we must draw close to him in order to receive it.
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
I’m going to go backward with what I just read now. Did you hear that last part? “For he who promised is faithful.” We can rely on God to fulfill his promises. He is faithful. If God is not faithful, then he’s no better than us. If you’ve studied ancient literature or taken a Humanities class in college, you’ll remember that the ancient Roman and Greek gods were no better, and maybe worse than humans were. Our God is different.
Numbers 23:29 says: God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
John 1:8-20 says: “8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
Dr. Harry Ironside taught that salvation was like Noah inviting an unbeliever to board the ark. But some believe that salvation is like Noah putting a peg on the outside of the ark and saying, “If you just hang on through the storm, you’ll be saved.” God holds onto the Christian—not the other way around.
We just read from 1 John, but In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
And going back to our verse in Hebrews, at the beginning of verse 23 (like I said, I’m reading this backward), the writer says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.”
This sermon is about just that. Not hanging onto the peg of Noah’s ark but hanging on to the hope that we profess. That once we’re in Noah’s ark, we’ll remain safe. That’s hard to do when we have doubts about God’s love for us; when we think we’ve drifted too far; when we think God has had enough; when we think we have not been the Christian we should be; and we think, okay, throw me overboard like Jonah.
No. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.”
What if we sink? Like Peter, who sunk into the sea of Galilee, Jesus is there to lift us back up again. Our lack of faith may have caused us to sink, but he’s right there to pick us back up again.
Believing in God’s unending love and Christ’s continual work in us is not something believers do to keep themselves saved, but it is evidence that one is saved.
Satan cannot take away our salvation, but he can make us believe that our salvation is lost and therefore convince us to turn away from Christ and his redemptive work. How?
- Satan can convince us we might as well keep on sinning because we’ve gone too far for God to take us back.
- Satan can convince us we’re unworthy of church, so we might as well not go anymore.
- Satan can convince us we might as well hide away from ‘real Christians’ because they’ll never accept a sinner like me.
- Satan can convince us we might as well hide away from God because we’ll never be accepted by Him, either.
And that might be one of the reasons why, as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, why it is impossible for some––some, not all–– “who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance.” But if there’s anything we know about Satan, it’s that he is the Father of Lies. Jesus said there is no truth in him and that his native language is lies.
If we keep going backward with our verses and move from verse 23 to 22, we read, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Again, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Our hearts can be sprinkled and our guilty consciences can be cleansed. Not just once. Continually. Ongoing. How? By coming to God with a sincere heart. There’s that idea again–God looks at the heart.
One of my commentaries states that: To have a “clear conscience” does not mean that we have never sinned or do not commit acts of sin. Rather, it means that the underlying direction and motive of life is to obey and please God, so that acts of sin are habitually recognized as such and faced before God.
In other words, like I just read from 1 John, if we think we do not sin, then we are only fooling ourselves and lying to those around us. The point is not to pretend we don’t sin but what we do with those sins. Do we ignore them? Do we just keep asking for forgiveness over and over and cheapen God’s grace by saying, “Well, I can sin. God will forgive me. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” You’ve heard that before. That’s how we treat God sometimes. That’s taking God for granted. That’s called ‘cheap grace.’ Do we do that, or do we find ways to tackle those sins?
Do we find accountability partners who will keep us in check? Do we get filters on our computers? Do we think before we speak and shut our mouths before something unwholesome or something we might regret for the rest of our lives comes out? Do we change what we spiritually feed ourselves? Do we change what we physically feed ourselves? That’s something I have to keep in check.
Pretty soon, both Rose and I will look like we’re six months pregnant.
Moving on, let’s now switch gears and move forward to verses 24 and 25:
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Again, sitting in our pews, knowing that we are not worthy of God yet showing up to receive from Him anyway, is one reason why we’re here. But if we’re all here for that reason, then why not encourage each other? We all know we need it.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that pastors are the only ones who should pray for the congregation. Nowhere does it say pastors are the only ones who should visit the sick. Nowhere does it say that pastors are the only ones who should encourage the church.
Right here, the writer uses the words “us” and “we.”
We all need encouragement. We all go through similar things. Our prayer list is full of people going through similar things: doctor visits, tests, and scary stuff.
And I must admit, I have to pat myself on the back because I have a pretty good congregation that does just that. I think it’s wonderful to see all the comments on our Facebook group encouraging each other. You actually kind of put me to shame. But I would rather have a congregation that does just that.
Let’s continue to pray, encourage, support, and strengthen those around you sitting in the pews next to you who know they haven’t got it all together and need Christ, just like you.
But our strength and encouragement should also reach beyond the four walls of this church. How can you reach out to other Christians that you know as well? How can you strengthen your friends, family, and neighbors?
I’ll let you pray about that and let The Lord answer it for you.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Nowshad Arefin on Unsplash
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