Turn with me in your Bible to
Isaiah chapter 32, please. Isaiah chapter 32. I want to look at a couple verses
here, beginning in verse 17, mainly verse 17. Isaiah 32, 17. My subject this morning is Christ,
it's always Christ, but the topic is assurance. It's defined as certainty of
mind, assurance. The act or action of assuring
someone of something. It can mean a pledge, or a guarantee,
assurance. When it comes to the matter of
salvation, my question to you this morning is, do you have
blessed assurance or do you have lack of assurance? You know,
I am amazed at how many professing believers live without assurance
of salvation. I'm amazed And what astounds
me even more is that I often find that same struggle within
myself. And what astonishes me even more
than that is this, is the assurance of the believer is not rooted
in emotion or effort on our part, it's the very promise and guarantee
of God himself. To doubt our assurance is to
question the faithfulness of the one who cannot lie. Why do we? Well, let us from the scriptures
explore this needful subject of blessed assurance. And I first want to ask you,
is assurance of salvation possible for one who constantly battles
with the old man, the old nature within? Is it possible? Well, oftentimes it seems hopeless,
but this blessed assurance, friends, is not only possible, it's encouraged
and expected. The Bible's clear on the matter.
God promises, God pledges, and God guarantees it. So if we have
a lack of assurance, it's not God's fault and it's not God's
problem. It's our fault and our problem.
The beloved John said so. He said, these things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5, 13. The Apostle
Paul said so also. He said, the Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are. We are the children of God, Romans
8, 16. We are. The writer of Hebrews confirmed
it. He said, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith, Hebrews 10, 22. So assurance is not only possible,
but it's expected. Why? Because it's God's work. Our salvation is based on the
unchanging Word of God, not our shifting and fickle emotions. And they are shifting and fickle,
our emotions are. The Holy Spirit actually affirms
and confirms our adoption as God's children. That's blessed
assurance. A lack of assurance always, always,
always points to self-trust, self-confidence, not faith and
trust in Christ, but looking to ourselves for that which God
requires. You're not going to find it there.
If you look within yourself, you're
going to doubt. If you look to Christ, you can know. Looking
within is looking to something that's flawed. It's looking to
something that is incredibly unstable. Jeremiah 17 verse 9
says, The heart is deceitful above all things. We looked at
that in the first hour. How deceitful? More than anything. And it's desperately wicked.
How wicked? Desperately. Who can know it? God knows it. We don't. We don't
know it. So how can you and I have blessed
assurance? I want you to have some assurance
this morning that Christ is your only hope of redemption. We walk
by faith, not by sight. Get your eyes off yourself. Quit
looking within and look by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. We
look to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, Hebrews
12. When we look within, what do
we find? Weakness, sin, uncertainty, and we question Have you ever
questioned, am I good enough? Have you ever questioned that?
Have you ever thought to yourself, am I good enough? Have you ever
thought to yourself, have I done enough? Sure you have. If you struggle with assurance,
examine where your eyes are fixed. Are they looking inwardly to
your own performance? Well, let me just tell you something. You can't trust yourself. But you can trust Christ. Start walking by faith, not by
sight. You know, it's kind of like looking
in a broken mirror. You know, I don't know if you
guys remember the old carnivals where they had those rooms of
mirrors and you'd go in and it would distort you because they
were curved and all that. Well, it's like Our faith is like looking
in a broken mirror when we look to ourself. The cracks in that
mirror distort the image, making it impossible to see ourselves
clearly. It's like trusting in an unreliable
compass, a compass that's broke. It doesn't point north. And if
you use it as your guide, you're gonna wind up lost. In a raging
storm, sailors don't look at the tossing waves for safety.
Where do they look? To the lighthouse. Christ is our lighthouse that
guides us safely to shore when we fix our eyes upon Him. The
Lord Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Sounds good so far. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand, even better. My Father
which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand." Good news. The child of
God is persuaded. How are we persuaded? By the power of God. that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." That pretty much covers
it all. Romans 8, 38 and 39. It is of
the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Why are we not
consumed? Because of the Lord's mercy. Because His compassions fail
not. Our compassions fail. Our love
is fickle. Our love is conditional. Not
His. His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. And
what does the believer say? Great is thy faithfulness. Not
my faithfulness. Thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. Our
compassions for Him fail, but His compassions for us never
do. They're new every morning. Great
is His faithfulness. Paul said in Philippians 1, 6
that we can be confident, assured. That's what the word means. Blessed
assurance of this very thing, that He which has begun a good
work in you, will do what? Perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. What God started, He'll finish.
He's not going to start a work and not finish it. It was our
great and sovereign God that said, Fear not, for I am with
you. Be not dismayed, for I am your
God. I will strengthen you. I will
help you. I'll uphold you. I'll uphold
you with the right hand of my righteousness." Oh, that's a
blessed assurance. This is the testimony that God
has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
That's what John said. Whosoever hath the Son hath life. Did you hear me? Whosoever has
the Son, Jesus Christ, has life. Not Christ plus something. Not
Christ and add a little of my own works in. No. He that has
Christ has life. He that has not the Son of God
has not life. Pretty cut and dry. If you have the Son, you've got
life. Not maybe, not might. All our assurance is Christ. And it's blessed assurance. Now
you're in Isaiah chapter 32. Look at verse 17. This is a wonderful verse of
Scripture. Look at it carefully. And the work of righteousness
shall be peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. Read it again. And the work of
righteousness shall be peace. Do you want peace? You've got
to have perfect righteousness to get it. And the effect of
righteousness is what? Quietness. Assurance. Forever. So the first thing we
see that's the key to having blessed assurance is knowing
the source of righteousness. Where does our righteousness
come from? You know that. You've been taught that. It's
been preached from this pulpit for 50 plus years. The perfect righteousness is
the righteousness of Christ. He's the source of our righteousness.
His righteousness and its effects are God's righteousness and not
ours. Well, what about our righteousness?
Filthy rags. Christ is the source of this
righteousness. It's not about what we can accomplish,
but what God accomplished for us through the righteousness
of Christ. The people of Israel were familiar
with unrest, insecurity, and fear. Why? They were a rebellious
people. They would not bow to Christ.
The Lord told them time and time again, you shall serve no other
gods other than Me. And what did they do? They just
served idols at every turn. They'd fall into bondage to these
idol worshippers, and God would send them a judge, and the judge
would deliver them, and then the judge would die, and then
they'd fall right back into it again. Time and time and time
again. That's what the book of Judges
is all about. But in our text, God reveals
a promise of the inner condition of those who are under the reign
of a righteous king. That king is Christ. Christ is
who this is talking about. Look up there at verse 1. It
just says, Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness. That
can only be speaking of Christ. He's the only one that has righteousness.
No earthly king has any righteousness but self-righteousness. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness. Yet many still lack assurance. Assurance comes Not by us doing
more. That's what people think. Because that's what men teach
them. Assurance comes by trusting Christ
more. The question is not, are we righteous
enough? The question is, is Christ righteous
enough? Yes. That matter was settled on the
cross. The empty tomb confirmed it.
The Spirit testifies of it. Christ is the source of our righteousness
and the source of our assurance, blessed assurance it is. Secondly,
we see that the work of righteousness is peace. Now listen, peace is
not just the absence of conflict or turmoil. It's much more than
that. Peace is the presence of rest
and reconciliation. The presence, the rest, and the
reconciliation of God. How am I going to be reconciled
to God? Only one way. Through the righteousness of
Christ. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. That's not all it's saying. It
says through our Lord Jesus Christ. It always, always, always comes
back to Him. There's no faith apart from Christ.
There's no peace apart from Christ. We're declared righteous by our
faith in Christ. It's not something we work for.
I'm so glad of that. It's by the gift of grace and
faith alone. For you're saved by grace through
faith. That's not of yourself. What is it? It's a gift of God. Not by works lest any man should
boast. Faith is not the cause of Christ's
righteousness. His voluntary willingness to
die in our place was. Faith is the means by which we
receive it. And we have peace with God. It's
not a feeling of peace. It's a reality of peace. To be
able to even think in my heart and in my mind that everything
between me and God, me, a sinner, and God, a thrice holy God, everything's
all right. Everything's good. God is angry
with the wicked every day. What does that tell us? That
tells me that I'm not wicked anymore. Outwardly, yes. Inwardly, yes. But in Christ, no. righteous
in Christ Himself. You believe that? Oh, God help
you to believe it. God help you to believe it. Before
God justified us, we were at war with God. We had no peace. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled Brought back into fellowship with God, we
shall, we shall, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5.10. Thirdly, we see the effects of
this righteousness. Two things he mentions. Quietness. This speaks of an undisturbed
spirit. Not frantic. Not anxious. Not fretful, not striving, but
a quiet, calm, peaceful confidence. Assurance, a settled confidence
that we are accepted by God and kept by God. If God saved me and then just
leave me to myself, what hope and assurance would I have in
that? None. But I am saved and kept. How? By the power of God. Kept by
the power of God. What a beautiful word that is,
kept. That's not arrogance. It's rooted
in God's Word alone, not by works of righteousness that we have
done. But according to His mercy, He
saved us. Isaiah says that this quiet confidence
is forever. That makes it even better. It's not temporary. It's permanent. It's forever. God doesn't give
and take back His righteousness. There's no assurance there. And
that's why there's no comfort in salvation by works, because
if you and I have to do something to be saved, then you and I can
do something or not do something to be lost. Right? But if salvation is completely
and 100% on Christ's doing and Christ's righteousness, then
it can't be taken from me. Can't be. God doesn't give and take it
back. Our peace, rest, and assurance is meant to endure. It's meant
to be forever. Peace, quietness, assurance is
not within us. We won't find it there. So stop
looking at it. It's in Christ and what he accomplished. You know, there's a stubborn,
stubborn will in every man and woman that insists on having
a hand in their own salvation. Pride resists grace. Man's fallen
nature refuses to be helpless. Why, we pick ourselves up by
our own bootstraps. Man's nature refuses to be helpless. Man wants credit, man wants control,
man wants contribution, even though salvation belongs to and
is of the Lord. Isn't that what the Bible teaches?
Salvation is of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. It's His righteousness. It has
to be of Him. You think about someone drowning
and he's panicking and flailing and desperate and a lifeguard
dives in to say, well, I've seen this happen. But as the lifeguard
gets close to the man, the woman that's drowning, the man insists
on helping the lifeguard help him. And he tries to swim and
he kicks his feet and a lot of times he'll kick the lifeguard.
And instead of trusting the one who's trained to save him, he
resists and he makes things worse. He puts them both in danger.
And the lifeguard knows. This is one of the first things
that a lifeguard is trained to know. I wasn't a lifeguard, but
I looked it up. And one of the first things a
lifeguard is trained to know is until that man stops trying
to save himself, that man can't be saved. That's a picture of us, the sinner.
Christ came to save, but man insists on helping. He wants
to add his own words. He wants to add his own righteousness. He wants to add his own efforts. He won't rest in Christ alone.
You will not come to me that you might have life. The Lord
Jesus said, come to me, you that are weary and heavy laden, and
I'll give you what? Rest. Salvation only comes when we
stop struggling. Salvation only comes when we
trust the only one who can truly save us. Blessed assurance isn't
a reward for spiritual works. It's the result and the fruit
of a finished salvation. Christ's perfect righteousness
is our blanket of divine security. I'll never forget back in 1990,
when Brother Montgomery had his surgery to remove the tumor from
his pituitary gland, he went into the hospital. He preached
a message, I think right after he got out, about that bed that's
long enough and that blanket that's big enough to stretch
out on, and that blanket that's big enough to wrap up in. That's
Christ! That's Christ. In Christ, our soul can rest. We can stretch out. We can wrap
up in Him, in His righteousness. Even if the storm continues.
You know, when the disciples were in that boat, where was
the Lord? And the storm came up. You remember
where the Lord was? He was in the stern, asleep. That wasn't neglect. What was
it? It was divine composure. He wasn't
caught off guard. He's laying there in perfect
peace. He rules even the wind and the
sea. He's the one that sent the waves.
He's the one that sent the storm. He's not worried about them.
He's the Lord of the sea. He's the Lord of the wind. Blessed
assurance is not found in calmer waters. Blessed assurance is
found in a closer Christ. The disciples weren't saved because
the Lord calmed the waters. They were saved because of who
was with them. And this is where our assurance
comes from. And it's blessed because of who
Christ is. Blessed assurance. It's blessed
assurance. Assurance comes not from the
absence of trouble. Assurance comes from the presence
of Christ. Our text tells us in the work
of righteousness shall be what? Peace. And the effect of righteousness
is what? Quietness and assurance. For a week or two. Now look at verse 18. And my
people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings
and in quiet, resting places. God promises peace to His people. Peace, stability, security, blessed
assurance is promised to the sheep of God by the Great Shepherd. That's why He's a Great Shepherd.
Not one of His sheep have been lost. Not one. Now he's left the 99 to go find
one that was lost, but he found them and he brought them back
into the fold. And listen, that is why we're
here this morning. That's why we continue to preach
the gospel. Because he has other sheep that
are not yet of his fold. And he said, them I must bring. Blessed assurance. This assurance
comes from being under the shepherd's care. This assurance, as we saw
in verse 17, is the result of righteousness, not ours, but
Christ's. And the work of righteousness
shall be peace. Isn't that what it says? Isn't
that what your Bible says? If you've got a King James Version,
it does. And here in verse 18, we see
the effects of that righteousness. What are the effects? Peaceable
living. Peaceable habitation. Secure
homes. Insure dwellings. Quiet places
of rest. And this is something that we
earned. This is the result of God's mercy and grace. For the
believer, this points to the assurance, the confidence, and
the peace that's found in Christ alone. I hope, I hope that we
are learning that all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
are found where? In Christ. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. That's why we who labor and heavy
laden come to Him, because He'll give us rest. Do you believe
that? Then why don't you come? That's why we take His yoke upon
us and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly and hard, and
we shall find rest for our souls. Matthew 11, 28 and 29. Under
God's righteous rule and providential care, His people will enjoy lasting
peace, lasting security, lasting rest, and blessed assurance. Doesn't come by human power,
but by divine righteousness. I've often heard that the rule
for gospel preaching is to tell your listeners what you're going
to tell them, and then tell them, and then tell them what you told
them. So I told you what I was going to tell you in the beginning.
I was going to show you from the scriptures, blessed assurance,
and then I told you. Now I'm going to tell you what
I told you. And when you and I start looking within ourselves,
instead of looking to Christ, we're not gonna have any assurance
at all in salvation. I told you that, didn't I? I'm
telling you again. Paul warned us when he told us,
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, that is in this body,
dwells some good thing, a few good things. No good thing. For if our heart condemn us,
God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved,
if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence, assurance,
there's that word again, toward God. That's where our assurance
is. What God did for us in Christ,
not what we do for God. Ever since 2020, COVID and all,
you know, it seems like almost every church live streams now.
And out of curiosity, I've watched some local churches from time
to time, and about all I ever hear from them is, hey, this
is what we're doing for God. It doesn't matter what you're
doing for God. You can't do anything for God. He owns the cattle on
a thousand hills. What do you add to God? What
does any sinner add to God? Nothing. The gospel is about
what God does for sinners. That's where our assurance is
found. That's the key to a blessed assurance. Our assurance, confidence
towards God. Our assurance is in God, not
in us. That's why we look to Christ
alone. Alone means having no help. or
participation from others, including ourselves. How can we help God? First of all, when we have no
strength. We're without strength. We can't help ourselves. I'm going to pull myself up by
my bootstraps. You don't have any boots. You
don't have anything. He says, My grace is sufficient
for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. We
have no might to offer. We yield to His might. How can
we help God when we have no righteousness? We can't. All our righteousness
is filthy rags. We don't glorify God by helping
Him. We glorify God by trusting Him. How can we help God when we have
no wisdom? We can't. We admit it. We ask for it. If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Any wisdom we have came to me.
God doesn't need our counsel. He delights in showing us mercy. How can we help God when we have
no resources to offer? You know, I often think about
this. A young boy's small little lunch in Christ's hands was enough to feed thousands
upon thousands. What little we have when yielded
to Christ becomes more than enough in Him. How can we help God when we ourselves
are ignorant and have no idea what we're doing? Answer, we trust Him. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on your own understanding. Listen, we don't need a plan. We need faith. We don't need
a blueprint. We need obedience. We don't serve
God to supply His needs. We serve God to glorify His sufficiency. We have nothing. God has everything. Who's gonna help who? We have
no strength, we have no righteousness, we have no wisdom, we have no
resources. All we have is need. Christ is the one thing needful.
And God supplies all our need, singular, that's Christ. According
to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God's not helped by our
strength, our smarts, our goodness, and listen, not our wallets. Not our wallets. He's glorified in our surrender
and in our faith and in our obedience. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power of God might be of
God and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4 The gospel is
our treasure. It's the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This treasure
is found in earthen vessels. This refers to our frail, weak,
and mortal human bodies. These bodies are compared to
clay pots, common, breakable, and unimpressive. Nothing impressive. And here we see the contrast
of the preciousness of the gospel with the weakness of those who
carry it. God will not, God does not, and
God cannot depend upon human strength. That's why Christ died
for the ungodly. While they were without strength,
that's it. That's why God commended His love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did so that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. God intentionally
entrusts His powerful gospel to weak vessels so that it's
absolutely clear that He does the saving. We did the sinning,
He does the saving, and all the sustaining power comes from Him
and not from others. That's meant to encourage us.
Our weakness doesn't disqualify us, it does just the opposite.
It qualifies us. Our weakness does. and it teaches
us humility and our best efforts fall short. He's the source of
all our strength. He's the only reason that we're
safe. He's the only hope of blessed assurance and the success of
our salvation along with the assurance of it doesn't rest
on our strength. I told you that. I'm telling
you again. It rests on Christ's sufficiency.
His grace is sufficient. So may Christ shine through our
cracks. I think about Gideon's clay jars
in our study of Judges. You remember that? Only when
the jars were broken, only when those jars were broken did the
light shine out and the enemy fled. So it is with us. Our brokenness often becomes
the way God's light is most clearly seen. God doesn't use gold vessels.
God doesn't use iron containers. He chooses the weak things. He uses crack jars. That's what I am. I'm a crack
jar. So are you. Weak vessels. No one mistakes
the source of the power. It displays God's power and only
God being able to do for us what we cannot do. We may feel unworthy. You know why? Because we are.
We may think ourselves to be ordinary. We are. We may sense
that we're weak. We're right. But that's the very
kind of vessel that God uses. The treasure is not in the strength
of the pot, but in the power of what's inside. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Feelings come, feelings go, feelings
are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God,
not else is worth believing. Feelings shift, works falter,
are resolved, often break. But Christ never changes, same
yesterday and today forever. His righteousness is perfect.
His blood still speaks and washes clean. And His promises never
fail. That is our blessed assurance. Is that your story? Blessed assurance. Christ is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine. Heir of salvation. Purchase of
God. God purchased my salvation, born
of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story. Is that
your story? Is that your song? Well, may
God be pleased to enable you to sing it from your heart. Can
you sing it from your heart? May God enable us to do so.