If you have your Bibles, turn with me
please to Colossians chapter 2, verse 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 2. Paul speaking to the church at
Colossae says that their hearts might be comforted being knit
together in love and into all riches of the full assurance
of knowledge to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of
the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll turn over to Hebrews
chapter 6. Verse 11 says, ìWe desire that
every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end.î Then Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22, ìLet us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. The Bible
teaches assurance. It does. It teaches assurance.
David on his deathbed said, Although my house be not so with God,
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things,
and sure And this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he
make it not to grow. The Bible teaches that some people
are sure. They have assurance. The Bible
teaches that assurance is a fact and is a result of one thing. Believing God. That's it. There ain't no more. I can stop
here and sit down. That's what I'm going to say for the rest
of this time. Nothing more, nothing else, and nothing less than believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not believing and looking elsewhere. Not believing and casting your
eyes horizontally. Not believing and doing stuff.
Believing is where assurance comes from. That's the only place
it comes from. There are those who equate even
the mention of the concept as a proof of a presumptuous spirit. And people say, well, I have
assurance. I say, well, you're being presumptuous. No, you're
not. Some spend their life in deliberate
doubt and worry because they believe that it sounds more humble
to say that they are seeking God than to say that they have
been found of God. Todd Niebuhr told me one time
of a man who was beaten down. Of course, he beat himself down.
It was a self-beating. He told Todd, I've been searching
for the Lord for 40 years and not found Him. And Todd said,
what do you say to somebody like that? I said, well, if he'd have
told me, I'd have to have him stop looking. If he ain't found
Him in 40 years, he ain't going to find Him. He ain't to be found. Others believe in assurance,
but they think it has little to do with believing Christ.
Such look to visible evidence of personal righteousness and
merit, and thereby feel assured because they can find something
in their life that is evidence that they are a child of God.
Pity that fool. Some look to visible evidence.
Now, you can usually spot these folks by their sour-puss demeanor.
They appear as they are. They are miserable folk who struggle
all their life with doubts and fears that they have not done
enough, and the fact is that they never have and never will
and never could do enough. The fact is that enough is not
even in the equation when it concerns us. Such people rarely
even mention assurance except in a downcast and poor-mouth
way, referring to it as a thing that they never truly had, though
they wish they had. Some hold that they have it because
they're operating under the self-delusion that they've done and do produce
sufficient notable moral deeds in their life to be assured.
There's some folks like that. These are called Pharisees. Their view is horizontal and
not vertical. And they're generally very hard
to occupy the same space with on any level, unless you live
down to their standards. Some people's assurance is a
kind of warped, fatal resignation about things, a kind of a que
sera sera attitude, what will be will be, a sort of blind faith
of those who've made predestination to be some ersatz deity, and
predestination is not God. God predestinates. Believers
generally confess that they have assurance, but here's the rub,
they can give no visible reason for having it. Personally speaking, I've found
some things to be true in my own sad experience and limited
existence. I find that when I'm not looking
for assurance, that I have it. And when I'm looking for it,
I can never find it. I have assurance when I look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I'm not looking for assurance. And when I look for it, I find
it's nowhere to be found. Is that your case? The only way
to have assurance, then, is to never look for it. The only way
to be sure never to have it is to look for it. Assurance, when
mentioned in Scripture, is never said to be a thing a believer
is to seek after. If you are sad because you don't
have assurance, stop looking for it. You'll never find it. Nowhere in this blessed book,
this book that is our rule of faith and practice, is anyone
ever told, commanded, or admonished, or even suggested to seek assurance. Anywhere in this book. However,
when the subject is spoken of by men, most seem to say that
they want it, and they are seeking to have it. Preacher, I don't
have assurance. I've been asked many times by
sincere believers, how do I get assurance? There is a reason
why one should not seek assurance. Assurance is not a thing. It's
not a spiritual entity or position. It's not a palpable commodity
that sits on the shelf of some supermarket of religion. Assurance
is a byproduct of something else. It's a byproduct of something
else. In our text that we read in Colossians, the two texts
in Hebrews, which speak of full assurance. David had that on
his bed, and he said, I'm sure. Full assurance. Now, the Bible
doesn't speak of much assurance and assurance, but it speaks
three times of full, full assurance. Undoubtedly, that's got to be
the best kind to have, wouldn't you think? I'd like me some of
that. Full assurance, however, is of
something, of understanding, of faith, of hope. That little piquant preposition
is poignantly pregnant with powerful language. Of means derived or
coming from or something causing it. Full assurance is derived
from something, comes from something, is caused by something. And it's
not caused by assurance. It's caused by something else.
Assurance, then, is not the thing sought for, but rather the result
of something that is possessed, from which that assurance is
then derived. That fact is that for the believer,
assurance is not even a matter of consideration. It's not. It's not a goal, or an aim, or
a wish, or even a passing thought. Whenever that which causes assurance
is possessed, it's there. It's there. Quietly resting,
never calling attention to itself, and imbued with the incredible
ability to disappear when sought after. The next time someone
asks you, do you have assurance, just tell them, I don't really
think about it. Because if you're thinking about
it, you don't have it. According to Scripture, the three
things from which full assurance is derived are faith, hope, and
understanding. Full assurance is found where
faith is. Full assurance is found where hope is. Full assurance
is found where understanding is. Faith, hope, and understanding
are found where God sovereignly is pleased to put them. Now, we look at these three things
in the order in which we read them. First, turn to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
2 says that their hearts might be comforted being knit together
in love and to all riches of full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of the Lord Jesus Christ. This full assurance of understanding
also has a goal. It's so that you will acknowledge
Christ. So it couldn't be about knowledge of anything else. if
it has to do with assurance. The by-product of understanding,
this understanding spoken of here, is full assurance. Full assurance. This understanding
is spiritual understanding, born of and wrought by the revelation
of God. God must give you this understanding. He must give it to you. Or you
don't have it. You can't study to get it. You
can't go to seminary to get it. You can't spend time praying
through to get it. You can't get it unless God gives
it to you by His free and sovereign gifts of grace. This understanding is spiritual.
Only those who have been born of the Spirit have understanding. And listen, all who have been
born of the Spirit have understanding. All of them do. Every last one
of them. 1 Corinthians 2, 9-11 talks about,
ìI have not seen nor heard what God has prepared for them that
love him.î And people say, ìOh, heís talking about heaven.î Heís
not talking about heaven, heís talking about the gospel. Paul,
not changing horses in the middle of the stream, just a few verses
before that, about five or six before that, he said, I determined
to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
We preach Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And
he said, I have not seen nor heard what God has prepared.
Who's he talking about? Those who haven't seen and heard.
He goes on to say that no man can understand these things by
nature because all we can understand is each other. The Spirit of
man understands man. I understand you, you understand
me, because we're both just a prey, rats in the gutter. That's what
we are. And so we understand that about ourselves. But the
Spirit of God understands the things of God. And we, who are
believers, whom God has chosen for the foundation of the world,
who are saved by the blood and merit of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have the Spirit of God. Therefore, we understand the
things of God. Now, what it says there is that
this was given to us so we would understand what God has freely
given to us. That's what we understand. That's
what you understand by faith. Faith ain't going to move mountains.
That's metaphorical language. I remember people used to say,
if you had a faith of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain. I couldn't move a mountain. People think that. That's metaphorical
language. And what he was really saying
to the disciples was, you ain't got much faith. Isn't that right?
That's what he was really saying. You know, it made them feel terrible.
But it's true. It's true. What God has given to us. What
has God given to us? He's given us Jesus Christ. He
spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all. How shall
He not with Him freely give us all things? Everything is in
that one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over 1 John chapter
2. Someday somebody is going to
hear you talk about Christ and they're going to call you a know-it-all.
You're just a know-it-all. Look at 1 John chapter 2 and
verse 20. But we have an unction from the
Holy One. Or you have an option from the only one, you know all
things. You bunch of know-it-alls, that's all you are, you know
everything. You know everything. You know the purpose of everything.
You know where everything comes from, where everything's going.
You can look at anything on the face of this earth, anything,
whether it rise and wriggles in the dust or walks upright,
you can look at anything and you can say, I know what that's
there for. And you can mean it and know
it to be true, because you know all things. You know what that's
there for. I know what Brother Harding's there for. Not just
to make sure that ball don't fall down in case it starts leaning
this way. He's there for God's glory. So are you. So what if I don't
glorify Him in Christ? You'll glorify Him in wrath.
In judgment. In justice. You can glorify God. That's what you're made for.
One way or another. And you know that. You know that
to be true. Look over at 1 John 5, verse
20. I love this passage. One of my
favorite verses in all of Scripture. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding. You mean when
He came, He gave us an understanding? Exactly. That's what He did.
And what do we understand? Do we understand how bizarre
it is? What do we understand? We understand that we may know
Him. That is true. That's what we understand. And
that we are in Him. That is true. We understand that. When Christ comes to you, you're
not going to have to study and work out some kind of system
of works whereby you can look at what you've done and see how
far you've progressed, so you can say you're a child of God.
When Christ comes to you by His Spirit, through His Word, through
the preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is
what you're going to understand. I'm in Christ. That I can be,
that I might be, that I should be, I'm there. Already there. The Gospel is good news. Possible
good news. It ain't probable good news.
It's not. It's good news, and the only
good news for a dead, doomed, dying sinner. The only good news
for such and one is this. I am in Christ. Not I can be if I do something.
Not I can be if I believe. Because you won't believe until
God gives you understanding, and when He gives you understanding
of what you believe, I'm in Christ. You will not believe that you
can be saved, or you might be saved. You will believe, I've
been saved. It's the good news, the gospel
of your salvation. That's what it says in Scripture. This is not an understanding
derived from the efforts of the human mind, or understanding
derived from natural wit. Its origins are divine. And it's sovereignly disposed.
It is derived from God. When He sires you into His family,
when He births you into His kingdom, you have understanding. You have
understanding. And when you understand Him,
you have full assurance of understanding. You understand. You understand. That a perfect sacrifice has
been made. That salvation has been finished. That the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ has answered all the laws of man,
and you are no longer, in God's eyes, a sinner. You are perfect
and righteous and holy. And every believer understands
that. You say, well, that's beyond understanding. No, it ain't.
It might be hard to believe. But it's not beyond understanding
because God has given us understanding. Second use, Hebrews chapter 6.
With this understanding comes full assurance. And it's for
the acknowledgment of God. The acknowledgment of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 6, verse 11, it says, We desire
that every one of you show the same diligence. That has to do
with loving Christ and taking care of the household, faith,
and ministering to the gospel. Same diligence, to the full assurance
of hope to the end. Hope. Hope. The saddest word
you'll ever hear in any situation is when people say there's no
hope. I've sat beside many a hospital bed, many a sick bed, and heard
doctors and families say there's just no hope. And that's a sad
thing. But that's not the case of any believer. You always have
hope. And when you have hope, you have full assurance. Full
assurance. When the Bible speaks of hope,
it's not referring to anything like a wish or a desire, or something
might be, or that you want something that you don't think you have,
or you're not sure you'll ever attain. That's not a wish. There's
a song that Harry Nelson put out, and one of the lines was,
Dreams are nothing more than wishes, and a wish is just a
dream you wish to come through. That's not hope. Hope is a reasonable,
full expectation and a confidence that all things that God has
promised, He will perform. He will perform. And it's grounded
in the gospel. And it's sure and well-grounded
expectation of eternal glory. Paul said, I've finished my course.
There's a crown waiting for me. God is going to give it to me
Himself. What kind of language is that? What food say? The same
kind of food said, I'm free from your blood because I've told
it all to you. Same kind of person. This assurance is born of hope.
It is an assurance of salvation. Paul said in Romans chapter 8,
we are saved by hope. But a hope that is seen is not
a hope. For if a man can see it, why
does he yet hope for it? It's founded on the truth of
the promises of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews
chapter 6 and verse 18 and 19, it says, "...but that by two
immutable Unchangeable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, that's a comfort
and a peace, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope
set before us. And that hope is Jesus Christ.
The veil is His flesh. He is the forerunner that's went
in before us. Hope is testified to our hearts
by the spirit of adoption. We have the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, I am a father. And the Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we're the children of God. And such assurance
of hope is the testimony of every believer. That's what they testify. They testify we have hope. We
have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that hope gives us peace
and rest and assurance and a quiet spirit. And we're okay. How are
you doing? I'm fine. How are you? I have
full assurance. Show me it. I can't. I can tell
you about my hope. Third mention
is the full assurance of faith over in Hebrews chapter 10 and
verse 22. 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." Full
assurance of faith. The Scripture that declares that
faith is in God, in Christ, is toward Christ. Faith is the gift
of God. By grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. Since the Bible says that all
men have not faith, then this gift must be given to whomever
God wants to give it to. Whom He is pleased to give it
to. Over in Titus, verse 1. of chapter 1 of the book of Titus,
it says, Paul, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according
to the faith of God's elect, the faith of God's elect, and
the acknowledgment of the truth, which is after godliness. The
faith of God's elect. You see, faith is a gift of God,
and it only comes one way. It's born through the preaching
of the gospel. I know some people gripe and moan about that. Somebody
sent me an article the other day. I forget what he called
us. I believe he called folks who
believe that the only way you can be saved is to hear the gospel.
It's the only way faith is going to come. I believe he called
them gospel regenerationists. Now, he thought that was a bad
thing. I think that's a good thing.
Don't you? I believe that's a really good
thing. Salvation comes. Faith comes through the gospel.
That's why he stands up here on every Sunday, Wednesday, and
he stands every Sunday, Wednesday, and Moose goes down to the islands.
Brother Harding preaches up in Pikeville of all places. Don't
pull out when you hear a loud noise. That's a coal truck coming
down the mountain. That kind of place. I preach in Cherokee
North. That's why I'm there, for one
thing. The only thing that will help
you in any time in your life, the only thing ever, that will
both convict you and comfort you, that will strengthen you
and weaken you. The only thing is the clear,
redundant, repetition, line upon line, line upon line, precept
upon precept, precept upon precept, declaration of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to hear about your
substitute. If you don't hear about your
substitute, you're going to start looking at yourself. And that's
the way it's always going to be. That's why we just say, I've
heard Donnie preach for 30 years, but I know what he's going to
preach the next time he stands. I can tell you what he's going to preach.
I can tell you what Bruce is going to preach. I know what
they're going to preach. Do I see from the future? No.
Yeah, I do. I know what he's going to preach. He's going to
preach gospel. Why? It's the only thing that helps. I can
tell you all kinds of things you ought not to do. I could. Tell you you ought not to be
ugly, but you want nothing. I could tell you that. They all
stopped looking horizontally and started looking vertically.
I think I can tell you that. The only thing that's going to help you. And
you know this to be true. I can see it. I can see the recognition
of the truth in your eyes right now. When are you happy? When
are you at peace? About three or four hours a week.
Really? No, seriously. When you're confronted
with that glorious gospel of peace, It makes you happy. Happiest I am is when I'm with
God's people listening to somebody tell me the truth. I mean, and
then, it ain't ten minutes after that's over with, I get sad again.
And I start looking at myself, and I stop looking vertically
and start looking horizontally. I'm so full of unbelief, it's
just amazing that I believe it all, but I didn't have anything
to do with it. God gave me the faith. Faith. It comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. In Romans 10, it says, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, that's
the truth. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. It says that too. It says, How then shall they
call on him whom they have not believed? You mean believing
comes before calling? Okay. How shall they believe
on him whom they've not heard? You can't believe unless you
hear. You just can't. Well, you know, he ain't loaded
on the sky. And a little bluebird ain't going to land on your shoulder
and tell you you're saved. It ain't going to happen. You ain't going
to get some great upheaval and get all weird and start running
up and down and speaking in tongues. That ain't going to happen. Those
are lies. Lies. Now, there are other ways
of thinking, lies. The only way a person believes
is if he hears. It ain't going to happen any
other way. And not only that, and I ain't
pumping up my own office here, you ain't going to hear without
a preacher. You ain't going to hear without
a preacher. down in Florida to come to see
me. These fellows, they ask a lot of questions. Sometimes preachers
do. I usually ask them a couple of
questions when they ask me a question. If they ask me a question, you
know, what do you think about this? I usually say, well, let me ask
you this first. I said, now, are you asking me
what I think so you can tell me what you think? Because I'm not really interested
in what you think. And I would appreciate it, since
you've asked me to give my opinion, if you really want me to give
my opinion, that you would do me the same courtesy of don't
give me yours unless I ask for it. That usually ends the conversation
right there. But anyway, this fella came up
to me, he was a preacher down in Florida, made beautiful guitars,
$13,000, $14,000 guitar, electric blues guitar. He was a talented,
gifted man, showed me one of them in the back of his car.
And he said to me, and how many of you heard this question? Does
a man have to hear the gospel to be saved? And I said, why do you ask? Because I knew what he was saying. I was never in a gospel church,
and somehow I come into grace. You don't come into grace, grace
comes into you. That's the way that works. And he said, well, you know,
I'd never heard the gospel. I was reading my Bible, and the
Lord showed me. Now, I'm not saying that ain't possible. I'm
not stupid. God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts. But
I'm telling you this. No preacher has neither right nor warrant
to say that that takes place from the pulpit. Because right
here it says, you've got to have a preacher. You've got to have
a preacher. So he kept on telling me his
experience. I said, OK, you're a preacher, right? You got a
pastor? You got a church? Got a little group of people?
I said, all right. Next Sunday, I said, go up there, get in the
pulpit and say, y'all are going home. Read your Bibles. Go home, read your Bibles, and
we'll see how it works out. I wouldn't do that. Why not? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And not only that. How shall
they preach except they be sinned? Because you see, they not all
obeyed the doctrine. So faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Faith comes through hearing.
And you know, faith is the only evidence that you're a child
of God. It's the only evidence. Faith
is the evidence of things hoped for. There's some things not
seen. It's the only faith. Isn't that strange? The only
evidence that you're a child of God you can't prove? Prove to me you have faith. What
do you start doing? You start looking down here. That's what you do, though, isn't
it? You've got to come up with an answer. Will I pray? Will
I go to church? I'll do something, because that's
what the nature is. That's our carnal nature still
reacting within us. The flesh is always going to be flesh. Faith cannot be proven. This book cannot be proven. Even if National Geographic says
it can't. Or some archaeologist says, look,
I found something that proves the Bible. You're an idiot. The Bible is true. It's God's
Word. How do I know that? God gave me faith to believe
it. The veracity or the verity of it belongs to Him. He's the
one that gave me the faith. I didn't believe it before He
gave it to me. I didn't believe the Bible. But
I believe it now. How do I know it? I know it.
I know this is true. How? Because I believe it. That's
just dumb. Yeah, I know, but that's how it is. Faith is the only evidence. Assurance
is not the evidence for salvation. The moment that you think you
might be is the moment you wonder if you
are saved at all. With faith comes full assurance,
and that faith is in Jesus Christ, it's not faith in faith. One
may trust while doubting that he trusts. Faith itself is something
different from the idea of presenting evidence that we do believe.
One may doubt his faith while at the same time never doubting
the object of faith. Faith's object is Christ, and
faith is always sure that Christ has accomplished salvation. Full
assurance is not the essence of faith or the evidence of faith. It's the result of faith. One
does not believe because he is sure. He is sure because he believes. That's what Simon Peter said.
The Lord says, Y'all fellas going to leave me too. These others
have left. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure. Christ, the Son of the Living
God. When I, by faith, see Christ in His glory and His accomplished,
finished work, you couldn't shake me at all. You can't shake me.
Right now, you can't shake me. I am so sure. I have assurance. Why? Because I see Christ. I see Christ. I'm not sure of me. I'm sure
of him. Can this assurance be shaken? Oh yeah, it can. It will be every
time we look to see if we have it. It will be shaken if we are
concerned with it. It will be shaken if we make
it a matter of consideration. It will be shaken if we take
our eyes off Christ. The faith that produces it cannot be shaken
because we didn't produce it. And we can't increase it. We
can't diminish it. I hear folks talking about losing
their faith. That can't happen. You can lose it if you've never
had it. We can lose assurance, and we will the moment we stop
looking to Christ. Haven't you saw? Assurance is
shaken when our unbelief looks at ourselves. Belief, faith,
always looks to Christ and always results in full assurance while
looking at Him. You may say, well, preacher,
sometimes I don't have assurance. Stop looking for it. Just listen
to me. Stop looking for it. What can we do when we find ourselves
in doubt? Oh, there's the rub. You found
yourself in doubt. That's where you'll find yourself.
It's always there in doubt, isn't it? How come you're looking at
yourself? Quit that. Quit looking at yourself. Doubt is where your self lives.
Your self is a denizen of doubtful dunghill. We must find a place
where there is no doubt. Where doubt cannot be found.
Where in the world is such a place? The Lord said, only believe.
But I think the emphasis should be put on the only believe. Don't do nothing else. Only believe. Sometimes my heart tells me I'm
lost. When my heart condemns me, there
is one greater than my heart. My God. My God. Full assurance of faith, hope,
and understanding.