In Full Assurance of Faith

From the Pastor:  Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.

 

“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 profession of our faith without wavering;” (Heb. 10:22-23) 

Dr. Hoyt Chastain use to say: “Now boys, remember faith is our title deed to all the things of God.”  Apostle Paul put it this way: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  (Heb. 11:1)  The word “substance” means full assurance; thus, faith is the full assurance of the things we hope for, and the evidence (proof) of the things we do not presently see.    

In the text passage the double edged sword of the Word of God is cutting both ways.  Faith gives to the true heart an assurance that God will bring to pass all that He has promised; then it cuts the other way by saying that the true heart has faith in that faith which comes as a gift from the Father.  It is as Paul wrote: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Rom. 8:16)  “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Rom1:17) 

If the blood of Jesus paid the sin debt and ransomed us from the bondage and penalty of sin, then we stand guiltless before God.  How can we be guilty when Jesus took our guilt upon Himself and nailed it to the cross?  A heart full of the assurance of faith is peacefully confident that Jesus did exactly as it is written of Him in the Holy Writ.  Satan (the accuser of the brethren), mankind, and our own misguided thoughts will use deceitful trickery in an attempt to chain us up under guilt.  God forgives through the blood of the grace of Christ, but a mind yielding to a fraudulent guilty conscience inflicts itself with thoughts of the impossibilities of forgiveness.  

Doubts arise out of a wavering faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.  Faith without works is dead.  A faith that will not work to purge itself of a guilty conscience is indeed guilty.