Teaching - What is Needed 2
The Full Assurance of Faith
"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 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 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."
Hebrews 10:19-25 in the English Standard Version
[This is the 30th lesson of this series]
This lesson is a continuation of the previous message where we discussed the first three verses of this excerpt above from the Book of Hebrews.
We shall then move to verse 22 where we were told that we are able to draw close to God with a true heart, in faith, with our hearts clean, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Yes, there is too much packed into one verse.
New Heart
At the moment of spiritual rebirth, we receive a spiritual gift, a new heart. God takes our old heart, a heart of stone and trade it in for a heart of flesh, a heart that beats in tune with His heart. It is a heart with compassion and empathy, the same heart as Christ.
With this heart, we can renew our mind daily. With a clear conscience we can come boldly to the throne room of God, with Christ's body, His sacrifice, His blood giving us the access.
With Jesus as our High Priest, we can pray boldly and ask forgiveness directly to God, Our Father and know we have an audience with Him and we are heard. God is faithful to forgive us. 70 times seven times is a whole lot of times we can be forgiven but hopefully in only a handful of times we will realize that God will not tolerate willful disobedience, our new heart, new spirit and renewed mind will tell us this anyway. We cannot mock God. We shouldn't.
Gift of Faith
Our faith assures us we are forgiven, but it is not a license to keep on willfully sinning and breaking God's heart. Our new heart will get wounded as well in the process. Our new heart rejoices in the things of God and breaks for the things that breaks God's heart.
Pure Water - Holy Spirit
We have been washed with the pure living water, the Holy Spirit. This is the same Spirit who counsels us when we read Scriptures, the same Spirit who gives us the hunger to know more about God, the same Spirit who tells us to go to the left or to the right, to choose one option over another, to be quick to listen, slow to speak, quick to understand, slow to prejudge, quick to help out, and slow to be uncaring.
We have everything we need to live the life God intended us to live. But yet of course, the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak. This is why we crucify the flesh daily, so as not to rule over us as we go through each moment of our day, a new day that the Lord graciously gives us.
We shall continue this lesson on the next message.
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